The Miami times. [volume] (Miami, Fla.) 1923-current, 1956-02-11
BetWeen The Lines !.


The Governors Conference re-
Gently called in Richmond was not
exactly a ~howling success" II
was called by Virginia's Cover
nor Stanley as a huddle for
southern governors wherein they
could together find better ways
and means of circumventing the
nomentous Supreme Court de-
cision Of 1854.
In the first place the South was
poorly represented, there being
emily five governors in attendance.
Everybody who understands the
current hySteria in the South
knows that the conference was an
inci2ient secession and was call
ed to Sound out" the South on
how far it was willing to go in
open defiance of the nation There
were two key words on the lips
of the conferees, interposition and
notification.
Interposition merely implies a
delaying action in the final COM
pliance with the Supreme
Courts mandates. AS some of the
conferees senSed clearly, it did
not "have teeth" and was the
refore constructed as the protest
that it really was. On the other
hand notification implied a will
ingness to go all out, and stop at
nothing, in resisting the Supreme
Courts decision. 1t implied fight
and force if necessary. Nobody
except the governors themselves
knew what was said and one in
the meeting, but the same COVER
nors who went into the confer
ence not for nullification came
out warm for interposition.
It can be truthfully said that
it was in this conference that the
backbone of the South's resis-
lance was broken. Governor
Hodges OF North Carolina who
did not attend in person, but
sent a representative, was quick
to add since the conference that
North Carolina would not be
stampeded into anything that
looked like defiance of the Unit
ed States. He made it clear that
his state would not be bound by
the actions of other southern
states that wanted to defy the
nation and resist to the utterTnoSt
IT'S mandates.
Florida'S governor did not put
In his appearance and has since
said that it is just as well that he
did not; for Florida would not be
Stampeded into some hasty and
radical action. He made it clear
that Florida needed no assistance
IN working out its own program
and that he would not be a party
to that incioient secession.
But the thing that, above all
others. indicated that the Cover
nor's Conference was a flat tire
was the statement Of Governor
Coleman of Mississippi, who was
supposed to spear-head the new
rebellion. When he returned to
his beloved Mississippi he made
it clear that he was not in favor
of notification since this implies
e force. He further made it clear
that he would not call out the
state militia in resistance to the
nation. for says he, 'That would
be treason"
He finally came out as full
fledged interpositionist which
amounts to a UTILIZED ged protest.
It is a long way from nullifica-
ton to interposition; and even the
hot heads of the South are more
and more becoming willing to
settle for interposition, a rerfect-
" tame and safe and innoccuous
stand. The situation resolves it
self into the one where Governor
Stanley and his bed-fellows,
Griffin of Georgia and THINNER
man Of South Carolina, will have
to make SoTne other move for the
other words through bitter ex-
enough for most of the South. Tn
Governors Conference was a fiat
tire One disastrous secession is
perience the people of the South
for the most part have learned
that seceSsions are poor ways to