Hide Article Text (OCR)
BYRD SOUNDS KEYNOTE OF SOUTHERN RESISTANCE (The Roanoke World News) While Candidate Truman was delivering his opening campaign speech in Washington Thursday ’ at a Jackson Day dinner, Harry F. Byrd stood before a similar gathering in Richmond with an audience that included the’ General Assembly of Vir ginia and every member of Con gress save one who was ill to sound the keynote of Southern resistance to the President's civil rights proposals which he charg ed ‘‘could very conceivably lead ‘ve dictatorship.” ‘Southern Democrats to the last man, with one possible exception named but evidently Claude of Florida, are ready to in fight against the pro to the bitter end, he warn ‘ed, using ‘‘every legislative de ‘viée within our power.” He ob viously was referring to the fill . ‘The program, he charged, up a possible field of Fed abuse of power “‘which may be used to prevent the free dis scussion of the record of the party to power.”’ The Virginian was especially _— against the anti-poll tax, segregation and FEPC por tions of the Truman plan which ‘he called a ‘‘mass invasion of States rights never before even ested, much less recom mended, by any previous presi dent of any party affiliation in Nation’s history.”” He was careful to point out that the strongest anti-lynch law in the country was adopted in Virginia at his own recommendation as Governor in 1928. How will the Federal Govern ment coerce the States into com pliance with these obnoxious laws if they are enacted? That is an easy one and Senator Byrd named it as the withholding of Federal funds which the tax payers of Southern States have helped to contribute. The Justice Department also would be given power to supervise elections and primaries for Federal offices. No thing like it has been seen since the hateful days of the carpet bagger regime. Those who heard Senator Byrd were well aware of the serious ness with which he regarded the occasion. The fact that Virginia’s congressional delegation stay a wholesale exodus from Wa ington rather than listen to Truman and thereby bless program with their presence, all too obvious. Party bs who have supported the dent into alienating the South 1 be making a fatal error is misjudge the importance of josture. It did not just happen. Virginia like the rest of the South is deeply offended. Democrats who have known for years that their Party was captive in the big cities of the North and East yet who have suffered in silence now refuse to bow any longer. “The Southern people have their pride,’’ is the way Senator Byrd puts it, ‘and if I know them rightly they do not intend to submit tamely to having their customs and traditions made a political football for the benefit of political aspirants.” ‘That °as clear and unmistakable warning from one of the outstanding men in the Party. . At the present moment there is no intention, at least as far as Byrd is concerned, to break with the Party nationally. The battle will be carried on in Con gress and if it is lost, said Byrd, “then it will be time enough to decide what action the Southern States should take.’”’ From this we can see that while he does not agree with colleagues’ who want to break now, hé may be willing to consider it later. The Richmond address will not lose its significance in Washing ton or elsewhere in the country. Senatory Byrd is a respected lea der of no mean ability. If De mocratic chieftains underesti mate him now that will reveal a serious lack of judgment. It was he who prevented Henry Wallace from being the vice pre sidential nominee in 1944 and thus the President of today. Where he leads the rest of the South will follow. There has been talk of Byrd for vice president on the Truman ticket. It is hard to believe that he would accept the nomina tion. In ability he is head and shoulders above the man who oc cupies the White House quite by accident. If he allows his name to be used in the National Democratic convention he can register a solid support from be low the Mason-Dixon line. There is a good probability that he could get votes from other States as well. We do not anticipate that he could win the nomination but a show of strength could do more than anything else to earn respect for the States which consistently furnish the in ward strength of the Party. Senator Byrd did a courageous and wholesome thing at Rich mond. What he said will install new vigor in Southern Democrats to resist efforts of their Presi dent to kick them around. It will not go unnoticed in high coun sels of the Party, especially af ter what happened last Tuesday in the Bronx.
Newspaper Details
Winchester Evening Star
Winchester, Virginia, US
Wed, Feb 25, 1948
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Casey T.
USA 10 Jul 2026
Other Publications Near Winchester, Virginia
The Winchester Times
The Star
The Evening Star
Winchester Gazette
Winchester Evening Star
