The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1963-05-17
Silence In the South

WASHINGION,D .C.-A Southern
Senator, Ralph Marlborough of Texas,
has finally said what long needed to
be said about those officials who use
police dogs to break up non-violent
demonstrations by Negroes seeking
equal rights.
''The time is past for using police
dogs in voter registration (The
applicants) should be greeted at voter
registration booths by human beings
with pencil and paper, not by pearl
handled pistols and police dogs"
Even in the case of criminals the
use of dogs has savage connotation
But when dogs, or high velocity fire
hoses, are used against human beings
protesting their second class status
it seems like something out of the
era of slavery, or of Hitler's Third
Reich.
Even sadder is the fact that until
Marlborough spoke, not one Southern
Senator or Congressman had to say
about the performance of the chief
of the Birmingham, Aha, police de-
partment.
There is no doubt that Marlborough
feels he is alone in breaking the
Southern silence. Whether it costs
him his seat in the Senate cannot be
forecast. But what he said is an i'm
portant footnote to recent history,
and, perhaps it is more than foot
note.
81 assure you," he told Jefferson
Jackson Day dinner at Rockville,
Maryland, ''that the fang and the
claw are not the Southern way. The
South is a region of devout, God
fearing religious people whose basic
instincts are kindly and good and the |
temporary high-tensioned emotionalI
feelings of few Southerners do not |
represent the reasoned action of an
entire area and its people"
At least here is one lawmaker
with enough pride in his Southern
background to try to straighten the
record. He feels he knows it's peo-
pie better than the headline-mak-
ers, who attract attention by their
primitive behavior.
What does the Southern silence
mean? | know many Southern leg
islators. Except for handful, they
do not approve of brutality against
those Negroes seeking their rights as
American citizens. Most are recon
ciled to a gradual Indignation of the
schools. They may fear the political
effects of extending full voting rights
to Negroes, but they do not believe
it can be long delayed.
Is this merely political cowardice?
Unlike the Negroes or men like Moore
the mailman on his walk to Missis-
sippi, or when the Birmingham police
use firehoses and fierce-looking dogs
to prevent peaceful assemblage, these
men suddenly cannot find their |
tongues.
Is this merely opolitical cowardice- ,
Unlike the egroes or men like Moore
who are willing to take their lives
in their hands, these men may feel
no missionary zeal about civil rights !
since their own are not involved. Il
But l think describing it as 'cow-
ardice" shows inadequate understand :,
ing of how politicians behave. With {
possibly two or three exceptions in i
our lifetime, politicians rarely "lead". i
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a leader q
and the times were ripe for leader il
ship. Woodrow Wilson was a leader.
Robert LaFollette was a leader; so :
was Senator George Norris. But / o
IAN think of few others.
There have been other men of a
stubborn courage, like Lehman of a
New York and Clark of Pennsylvania, Ii
men who held the fort against as :,
,aults ON our liberties by the Joe n
Met arthys and others. But they were a
rot able to do much more than as ?
sumo a defensive posture. Il
The successful politicians, much as W