Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-04-10
The Southern Way
In the national Controversy

me SOutHeTn way
In the national controversy
ra aging over segregated
schooling. we often hear Of
"the Southern way of life"
This phrase is used with too
little understanding both by
those who WELD it for de-.
tense and those who hurl it
in attack. 1t is true that the
South has a way Of life,"
but the point missed is that a
way Of life" is a normal
social phenomenon. "Way of
life" is, in fact, our everyday
translation Of the old term
regime" And regime" is
a word rich in social mean
ing.
OF all regions, the South
has maintained a regime in
the clearest and most endur-
ing form. 1t has a society
more unified by impondera-
bles, more conscious of self
definition, more homogeneous
in outlook than any other
region. 1t should be recog-
nized that these are con-
serving forces. The effect of
a regime is to conserve and
stabilize.
The South has had the
enormously difficult prob
lem of accommodating a large
minority distinct in race and
culture.
The South is the natural
prime target of those who
hate the very idea of regime.
Anyone who looks beneath
appearance to reality must
see that the attack upon the
Southern school system is
but one front Of a general
attack upon the principle of
an independent, self directing
social order. with a set of
values proper to itself. 1t is
the one pushed most vigor-
ously now because for a va
riety Of reasons it can draw
the most publicity, and it is
the kind of action for which
the liberals Sentimentalism
makes him most gullible.
No long memory is needed
to recall other fronts on
which the attack against the
South has formerly been &C
tive. Not very long ago the
issue was "fundamentalism,"
and the South was being cru
Gifted for holding a religious
belief not terribly different
from that of respectable
contemporary neo-orthodoxy.
Later it was the Share-crop-
ping system, which certainly
brings great wealth neither to
owner nor cropper, but which
is nothing to get excited over
from a distance, unless one
starts with a strong initial
prejudice. Still later it was
the poll tax. again nothing
to get excited over unless you
believe that adding to the
number of votes automat:cal-
" adds to the amount Of wis
dom. Thus the attackers have
said by their actions, "Any
stick to beat a dog!" This is
the reason we urgently need
to look for the real impulse
behind their militancy.
The modern liberal has
confused liberty with power,
but the only use he has for
power is to destroy. If these
fanatical destroyers are al
lowed to have their way. the
next thing to be challenged
will be the basis on which the
more general American way
of life" is forming. The same
charges of inequity leveled
against the Southern regime
will be leveled against CAPT.
talism, private property. the
family and even individuality.
The liberals rage is directed
against all restraints which
allow things to grow in their
own native character. He has
a verdict Of guilty against
everything that stands in the
way Of certain ideas which
are themselves life-denying.
Most of us readily admit
that this Nation owes both its
independence and its happi-
ness to the principle Of self
determination. That principle
is now in danger of being
suppressed by a blind zeal
for Standardization and en-
forced conformity To oppose
that trend, we do not have to
become sectionalists. We need
only to grant the right of dis
tinct groups to exercise some
liberty of choice in the or
dering of their social and cul-
tural arrangements. If that
liberty is denied, there will be
no ground left on which to
assert any other liberty.
w. A. Powers, Jr.