The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-07-21
Housecledning Takes Place
In Virginia Politics
BY BRADFORD V. CARTER
LPA Columnist

One of the most extraordinary
political campaigns in the history
of Virginia comes to climax Aug.
2, when four candidates for the
governors chair fight it out in the
Democratic Party primary.
While organized labor has con-
fined itself to a drive to get out
the vote-a difficult task with the
states poll tax and registration
Observation-Disclosures and liber-
ais in this and other Dixie states
will be watching the results care
fully.
Major fight is between the cand-
idate of the machine oiled and
steered by Sen. Harry F. Byrd,
and Col. Francis Pickens Miller.
The other two candidates may
serve to obscure the final results,
but are not major contenders.
Miller comes from a distinguish
ed Virginia family, was on Gen.
Eisenhower's staff during World
War ii, and has long fought the
machine in the state. He is an eff
fective speaker, an energetic cam
paigner, and has already scared
the pants off the Byrd machine.
John Battle, Byrd's candidate, is
insisting that Miller is labor's man;
Byrd last week asserted that his
boy "is the only candidate who has
made clear and unequivocal state
ment that he favors Virginia's
right -to-work laws and the laws
preventing strikes in public utili-
ties enacted by the General Assem-
bly, of Virginia" Miller says Byrd
is trying to pit class against
class" and to inflame the large
rural vote against working men
and women who belong to unions.
It's the issues on which Miller
is campaigning that may serve as
the key to breaking the Dixiegop
hold on the Democratic party in
the south, and may give the de-
cent public-spirited elements in
these states new hope.
First and foremost, Miller says
he aims to "set Virginia free from
a corrupt machine that despised
the people, that wants to see as
few people as possible vote" In
few succinct words, his campaign
speeches explain why he's fighting
totalitarianism-and he uses that
jawbreaker word without apology
both at home and abroad.
"The straw that broke this
camel's back" he tells his listen
ers, twas Senator Byrd's vote
against the Marshall plan" The
state that claims Jefferson and
Madison and Monroe should con-
tinue to choose leaders who are
willing to look ahead and support
measures to realize the democratic
dream, at home and abroad, he
says eloquently. In a campaign
where the other contenders are
talking patronage, division of
state funds, and such-like matters,
Miller is getting the most enthus-
iastic response when he asserts
that, before school financing, con
servation, and other such problems
can be faced, the state must be
freed of the machine.
Totalitarians Of either the Com
munist or the Byrd variety come
in for Miller's attacks. Both, he
tells his audiences, "don't trust the
mass of people and they want as
few people as possible to vote"
Both would set up class against
class. Both use the lie as a political
weapon. 81 am fighting here these
totalitarian methods | have seen
in Europe for years." Miller as
serts.
"Politics is a good word" the
candidate tells his audiences. at
means concern with the public in
terest" Whether or not he wins,
Virginias agree that his campaign
is serving as a history making
rallying point for believers in the
democratic way in a state where
the party of that name has for 20
years been dragging the word
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