The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1959-05-15
John Temple Groves

Southern Association of Republican
State Chairmen has been meeting
with a view to sticking together
at the convention, and that payroll
has already come in overtures from
both Dick Nixon and Nelson Rookie
teller. The organization Chairman
G. Harold Alexander says it pro-
poses to demand of the national
party a program for fiscal in
tegrity. states rights, constitutional
government and opposition to the
dangerous slide towards socialism
in this county, Earl Mazo, Wash
ington correspondent 70 the New
York Herald Tribune, commenting
on this Association points out that
II Southern states will have Is per
cent Of the convention votes
This could mean balance Of power
in some circumstances. But think
what balance of power might be
if there were some sort of iason
to promise a Southern get-together
Of both free Republicans and free
Democrats if the. radicals take one
or both Of the conventions.
For many assists in the last Is
years. opines Editor Caleb King.
Jr, in The Florida Times Union.
the South has built up political
prOmissOry note from cOnserva-
tive Republicans. He calls on these
Republicans to aid the South now
against new and more punitive civil
force bills which he believes are
threatened.
In loud amen let it be said, too,
that Republicans have come to a
place now where their hope Of years
to be depends on willingness to an
tagonize a Negro vote they obvious
ly can't win for a Southern vote
they can't win without sacrificing
something for il.
Replacing the Southern Republi-
can leadership which existed mainly
for pap and patronage are a num-
Der of young men with a purpose
and philosophy. But are they also
young men with an imagination? 1t
takes imagination to talk Of free
Republicans and plan action or
such. Because the Republican vote
in elections IS small. we tend to
! forget how powerful the South can
be in Republican national conven-
tons With representation there
based not on Republican population
but on each states numbers in Con
gress. Southern Republicans are
just about as weighty in their ma
tlonal conventions as Southern
Democrats in theirs. But Just as
Southern Democrats have been
slaves TO party loyalty. Southern
Republicans have been slaves to
party skeletons, devoted only to
spoils-t taking
Meat for the skeleton begins to
be indicated. II could nourishI ma
ton
Al. and men have lost their
reason
Unforgivable unforgettable and
unspeakable was the Columbia
Broadcastlng Company's telcvlsion
neWscast the other night showing
the bleached body Of lynch-nlurder-
ed Mack Parker being pulled out
of the Pearl River in Mississippi
The neWscaster warned that it
would not be pretty sight but he
didn't say why it had to be a sight
at all Representative Of nothing
proving nothing item Of an isolated
crime. it served only to lnflame
Negro against white, North and
West against South
II shown in good faith, it was re-
porting that sacrificed decency and
public interest to sensatlonallsm If
not in good faith, it was anti-South-
ern propaganda as its foulest and
most ruthless and dishonest
Five hundred and seventy seven
lynchings in Mississippi! So reports
the lurid Los Angeles Tribune
Negro. Over and over in a bitter
story suggesting armed Negro re
volt, it uses the figure SIT as if
the total were for 1858 or even
| the first four months of 1859. Not
until the last line do you learn that
this total refers to the number since
1882. In recent years, Of course, the
annual total has been zero.
| Eager headlines and bitter edi-
torials all over the nation on the
Mississippi lynching include South
ern headlines and editorials That
is az should be.
| Meanwhile, all hail to Mississippi.
With people doing violent things
all over the world for lesser rea-
sons, the white people and the
colored people Of Mississippi are
heroically Well-behaved.
| Tell it in Gath, along with the
rape -and-lynch story. Publish it
is Askleon along with the damna-
tons
Professor Harry S. for nothing
Truman told his Columbia Uni
llr"-uA mcisaAlteannctei rtahten
versity class in a final lecture that
''the un-American Activities Com
| nlittnn is the nlOSf I'M America u