Evening star., 1951-08-09
The Political Mill .
Mundt Seeks Alliance
At Electoral Vote Level
Senator Believes New Party
Organization Unneeded
The Political Mill
By Gould Lincoln

For the election Of 1952-the presi-
Dental election-Senator Mundt, South
Dakota Republican, is now talking about
an alliance" of Southern Democrats
and Northern and Western Republicans
at the electoral college level" for the
purpose Of defeating President Truman
or any other Fair Dealer whom the
Democratic National Convention may
nominate. As he explains 1t, this does
not mean the organization of a new
political party, embracing Southern
Democrats and Northern Republicans
although that, in Senator Mundt's opin-
ion, is the hope of the future.
This alliance" which Senator Mundt
visualizes for next years effort to turn
the Trumanites out. may work in one Of
three ways. First, the Republicans,
meeting first in national convention,
could nominate, for example, Eisen-
hover or Taft for President, and Byrd
of Virginia or Byrnes of South Carolina
for Vice President Such ticket, he
holds. could win majority Of the elec-
toral college votes, over Mr.. Truman or
any other Fair Dealer Second, the Re-
publicans could nominate their national
ticket. and leave it to the Southern
Democrats to put an anti-Truman,
States Rights, Democratic ticket in the
field.
Claims Coalition Can Win.
Senator Mundt is certain that such a
move would at least throw the election
of President into the House of Repre-
sentatives, where the alliance" would
work to defeat any Fair Dealer. The
third plan would be for the individual
Southern States to place States Rights
presidential electors, pledged to favorite-
son candidates, on their ballots: Byrd in
Virginia, Byrnes in South Carolina, Rus
sell in Georgia, and so on down the line.
Such plan, too, would at least have the
effect of putting the election into the
House of Representatives, he holds.
In earlier days. the cry was for coa-
lition of the South and West to defeat
the Republican candidates for President
and elect Democrats This has been
reversed now by the South Dakota Sena-
tor. Mr.. Mundt claims that the anti
Truman. anti-Fair Deal South, allied
with the anti-Truman, anti-Fair Deal
West. can defeat President Truman
readily if the presidential election should
be thrown into the House, and Mr.. Tru-
man should be candidate to succeed
himself. Each State, in House election
of President and Vice President, casts
but one vote. The vote of Vermont
would be equal to the vote of New York,
or the vote of Idaho to that of Pennsyl-
vania If the IL Southern States
should vote for candidate other than
Mr. Truman, it would take only ii
other States, voting for a Republican
candidate, to deny an election to Mr..
Truman. Once the deadlock occurred.
Senator Mundt is certain the Republic
cans and Southern Democrats could work
out compromise on presidential can
didate
A Lot of "Ifs'' Involved.
Republicans in the South would be
expected to vote for the States Rights
Democratic candidate for President, if
that ticket is placed in the field, and
thereby help to assure carrying the
Southern States against Mr.. Truman.
The number of Republicans in Virginia,
North Carolina, Florida and Texas is
already considerable, and so used for a
States Rights Democrat could be effec-
tive.
IA SCdA III cAF cAAOC VI OA4C NO1A41A45 H1Co1~
Dental campaign, there are a lot Of
"ifs" involved in these plans. For ex-
ample. if Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
should be nominated to head the Re-
publican ticket, there are Southern Dem
ocratic leaders who say confidently that
Gen. Eisenhower would carry nearly all.
if not all, of the States of the solid
South. On the other hand, should the
Democrats in national convention nomi-
nate Chief Justice Vinson, a Kentuck-
ian, and not Mr.. Truman or another
Fair Dealer, the Southern States would
stay in line for the Democratic ticket.
Obviously, it's too early to fix now the
anti-Truman strategy. But according to
reports, the opposition to Mr.. Truman
in the South today is stronger than it
was in 1948 when four States bolted and
gave their electoral votes to Gov. Thur
mond the States Rights Democrat.