Where the News Ends

CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HEMHY

Where the News Ends by WILLIAM HEMHY CHAMBERLIN More Nofes on the South tjUEEK before last I set down some impressions of a recent trip in the South in this column. But J failed to get all...

...While not a 11 unions are free from discrimination...
...M [.Vote: 'Race Prsfudiet* sf August CUumsms...
...The'chronic unsettle me nt in the coal situation hurt the Democratic chances in the mining counties of Eastern Kentucky and I heard of some discontent among the farmers in the state because of alleged holding back of farm machinery in warehouses when it was needed in the fields...
...From the beginning there has been evident in high Republican and southern reactionary circles " a scheme to sabotage the movement to give soldiers and sailors a say in next year's crucial decision...
...In his carefully reasoned message of November 1 the President presented the subsidy plan as part of the over-all price control program and illustrated so graphically how it works that no one can plead ignorance...
...But they are almost non-existent in the South...
...I haven't heard that the Communists have offered Boss Crump the united front they proffered his Jersey City colleague, Boss Hague...
...Postcards will be provided on which members of the armed forces may, if they wish, obtain from state officials" ballots on which they can vote for state officers...
...Claeasens places his greatest hope for eventually overcoming discrimination in improving housing conditions, in education, and in opportunity for recreation for the masses of all races as the most effective way of attack upon prejudice...
...On Tuesday night Price Administrator Bowles issued a solemn warning over the radio...
...Ts# supply continues to flow to the doorsteps ef the nation...
...000 will be required for the initial ertosie...
...With signing of an agreement by representatives of 44 governments on November 9 they entered actively into common action in the area of international economic cooperation...
...By the end of 1943 it will have expended about $800,000,000...
...The committee vote of 12 to 2 may give friends of the measure a false sense of security...
...The support of this gigantic effort will be worldwide...
...Tbe ballots must be sent out months before the election...
...If Kentucky may well be a closely fought electoral battleground in 1944, barring some new -factor that would turn the election into a landslide, Tennessee seems quite safe in the Democratic column...
...Apply this same method to agricultant Suppose that a ceiling price is set fa |2 milk which makes tbe farmer's share five es2' a quart Suppose that in some section, keenest of crop failure, cost of transportation, .esv - it is impossible to produce milk at that prim...
...This purpose is to give the men and women in the camps and on the fighting fronts a chance -to say what men and what party they want'te nut in charge of our national policies f6f;1)he four years following 1944...
...The spearhead of their campaign is the proposed bill to extend the life of the Commodity Credit Corporation...
...But J failed to get all these .impressions into a thousand words and I feel the urge, characteristic of newspapermen and ex-newspapermen, to tell the full story to my readers...
...There is some Republican strength in the mountainous counties of Eastern Tennessee, where the majority of the people, poor fhrmers who owned few or no«laves, sympathized with the Union and created a hostile enclave in the midst of the Confederacy during the Civil War, or, as they prefer to call it south of the Mason and Dixon Line, the War Between the States...
...The other is to organi* these workers so that they can reap the see* benefits as organized men and women...
...Its whan argument is thst workers who have bsc ta* sense and energy to set up organisetissi through which they can defend themierm should be reduced to unorganized, whits eoOat level...
...In Europe there are more than 20.000,000 of displaced pel sous and in China more than 40,000.000...
...They give us plenty of good meat and vegetables," he said...
...They do not come out openly and honestly against the bill...
...It will sheet holes into the morale of the workers in war plants...
...White and colored men who voted on Guadalcanal or among the mountains of Italy may ask pretty loudly why they are not given the same privilege in South Carolina or Mississippi...
...The injection of tne religious | issue into the 1928 campaign (antiCatholic feeling is stronger in the South than in other parts of the country) brought Virginia and North .Carolina, Texas and Florida into the Republican camp in that single election...
...Just as the representatives and apologists of the railr roads during the recent hearings before the Fair Employment Practice Committee asserted that race prejudice was a part of the American scene, Mr...
...So here goes with some more notes on the Southland, in topical capsule form...
...It will cause privation among millions in tbe lower income brackets...
...How far the spirit of the thing au be carried over into the arrangami sti for normal, peace-time production and exehsoft of commodities remains to be seen...
...these teachers, office workers sad assorted sorts of assistants and attendants haw staid at their old levels and gradually rank into want In the mind of The Time*, this sad pictarr is no argument for organising the white collar folks or for raising their pay...
...And Boss Crump dominates Shelby County, and is lined up for Roosevelt...
...And a good many educational institutions, none too plentiful in the South in any case, although conspicuously better in numbers and quality in Virginia and North Carolina than in the states of Deep South, would not exist if it were not for the support of religious denominations...
...The specious pies is to the effect thst this bill would ''interfere with states rights to conduct elections...
...JtefifJee DEL1GION...
...Consequently, the more enlightened leaders of labor and the largest and most successful unions do their best to root out race prejudice among their members and thus svoid discrimination...
...is mMisksd ?» the Rawd School...
...And the changing leaves of autumn provided a marvellous variety of colors, bright scarlet, softer yellow, all shades of green and brown...
...Tto ceiling price for the entire country rrnuum unchanged...
...It was broken in Kentucky and Tennessee during the period of Republican predominance after the last World War...
...Pacifists are not numerous anywhere in the United States, with ten thousand as an outside figure for those who...
...I had occasion to stop over in Bowling Green, a county-seat town in southern Kentucky, and when one walked along one of its main streets almost every other large building seemed to be a church...
...A Jolly young Tennessee soldier, attached to an armored division, voiced a similar complaint about food in the Army...
...A more plausible reason for pro-British sympathy might be that the South, apart from the Negroes, haa the highest proportion of people of English stock of any large section of the country, ft has attracted comparatively few immigrants from continental Europe, because opportunities were more limited...
...Uncle Sam will not be the Santa Clsus...
...In the ease of copper, for example, he reported that for every dollar which we spent on subsidies we saved $28 in the cost of the product purchased by the government...
...I saw very little drinking and no drunkenness or rowdyism among soldiers during the trip...
...with the feeling that something had been pat over on them...
...Scenery ? Well, the' wooded mountains of Westem North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, Southeastern Kentucky seemed, to me to furnish the wildest and most picturesque views one could find anywhere east of the Rockies...
...oJWc« , The Solid South is a byword in American politics...
...EDITORIAL COMMENT Inviting Inflation '2'HERE are persons in this country—powerful and respected persons—who want inflation...
...The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration will carry over from time of war to time of peace...
...The Republicans might perhaps, gain a political advantage from this sort of betrayal...
...unions on an average am more free from it than are factors in our social life...
...One sees large numbers of young soldiers and a smaller number of sailors traveling on furloughs and weekend passes and they make a very fine impression, healthy, patient and goodhumored in the face of the congested travel conditions...
...The assault on the subsidy program is being led by the so-called "farm bloc" and the great meat and milk, concerns...
...But Republican strength has often proved greater in state .than in national elections...
...This federal agency has been paying moderate subsidies to hold down prices in various areas...
...It was approved on Monday by the Senate Elections Committee...
...This may, it is true, lead to the embarassment of some moss-backed politicians in poll-tax states when the boys come marching home...
...Other patas hats been proposed, but sll of them involve proportional payment of common obbgatious...
...This stronghold of religion has its bad and its good sides...
...As the hearings have proceeded before House and Senate committees, we have had a veritable parade of high-priced lobbyists representing the very monopolistic concerns which have fattened for years st the expense of both farmers and consumers...
...Tht Timet suggests neither solution...
...States and communities boast of the high percentage of men who have volunteered for the fighting services...
...Two policies were possible We could raise the price of copper or we could pay subsidies to the marginal mines...
...Spangler and Governor Bricker — who have boasted of the anti-New Deal groundswell—are scared to desth st the notion of counting 10,000,000 votes from soldiers, sailors and marines...
...It contains the promise of a continuing reality for the international unity that has been developed under stress of war dangers...
...But the South has voted solidly for Race eve It in three ejections, and so far as I could judge, will be found .in the Democratic column without a break in 1944, whether or not the President runs for a fourth term...
...however, instead of using that fact to justify discrimination, he explains how and why it came about and tries to stimulate his readers to more intelligent action in combating and defeating it Mr...
...he said, the boost in prices wjB cost the nation $8,000,000,000 during the year...
...He also stresses the fact that children have no racial prejudice, they acquire it only from the attitude of their elders...
...Hep roaring evangelism, of the type which the late Billy Sunday practiced so successfully on a nationwide scale, is most popular in the Southern states, although she furore against teaching the theory of evolution seems to have died down and the laws which Tennessee, Arkansas and perhaps some other Southern states passed on this subject have been repealed or are ignored...
...The United States plan for the raising of the sum is to tax each cooperating nation or tat basis of its annual income...
...mostly of the Protestant and . evangelical type, seems to have a stronger hold on the South than on most other sections of the country...
...No three great powers will monopolist the support or the control...
...Then the boys would come home, as they did in 1918...
...Nothing so crude as that What they say is that the fighting men should be handed the same ballot that is used .by the folks back home...
...Were we to fsil in furnishing the necessary aid, the suffering, the unrest, the turmoil would make political stability impossible...
...But Shelby County, where Memphis is the largest city, dominates the vote of Tennessee...
...Not all national candidates may be named at that time...
...Experts calculate that by the payment of this modest sum it has saved tbe consumers some 18,000,000,000...
...A bipartisan war commission made of two Democrats and two Republicans is to see to it that the votes are honestly counted...
...clothed and furnished the means of helping themselves...
...Under the subsidy plan thus far followed tar Commodity Credits Corporation pays to desk ers enough to permit them to give aa advaaasj price to all of the producers affected...
...From casual talks with Kentuckians I got the impression that there is little criticism of the President's foreign policy and.that the swing away from the New Deal which was so marked in'the Middle West in the 1940 and 1942 elections was rather less pronounced in this border state...
...The actual farmers are better off than they havelever been in our history...
...Its supporters are boasting that they have votes enough to put it through tat House of Representatives...
...The furnishing of food and clothes thus has wide political importance...
...The desired effect is obtainad...
...But there are lobbyists of great organizations besieging Congress right now to open the gates and let all of these tilings happen...
...That is not an easy task...
...Republican opposition is still more significant The very men—clever politicians like Mr...
...This seemed a trifle farfetched, although Civil"War memories are far stronger in the Sooth than in the North...
...The roads in Eastern Tennessee have been decorated with signs: "Jesus is coming soon," "Prepare to Meet God," etc by some religious enthusiast...
...But the camp cooks just don't seem to know how to serve it up in a tasty way...
...We adopted the second method—which was the only deciana' that reasonable men could make...
...At its worst, like all American cooking, it can be terrible...
...The first way would cost millions—in the end billions...
...1944...
...During the recent increase in radial intolerance due to the teachings and practices of the Nazis, the Fascists and their ilk, he points -out that advancing civilization has tended to reduce racial conflicts...
...Gasfroaomy and Scenery COUTHERN cooking, centered around dunes like fried chicken and candied yams, can be very appetising indeed at its best, although perhaps a trifle rich for a steady diet...
...The only way to defeat them is to pass the bill essentially as ' it stands...
...Kentucky, to be sure, has just elected a Republican Governor by a very narrow margin...
...To the average Southerner this is a war to beat the I enemies of the United States, rather than a crusade for a new world order...
...The ballots would not be there...
...If this bill is aiewoi to become law...
...It ia rather late in the day for this set of thing...
...are not forced out of business...
...One old Virginian told me that England Was still very popular in the South, because of its friendly attitude toward the Confederacy...
...The bill as it came from the House Banking and Currency Committee would prohibit the payment of any subsidies after December SI of this year...
...The second would hold the expense down to hundreds of thousands...
...It is calculated that up to 210.000,000 persons in Europe and Asia must be cared for in, one sray or another for varying periods...
...h* two Republican members of the Senate Flections Committee who voted against the measure revealed the source of a part of the opposition...
...That will be tough on reactionaries...
...If workers allow themselves to be divided by prejudice between whites and Negroes, Jews and Gentiles, or native and foreign born, their effectiveness in their efforts to better their condition will be surely reduced...
...no camp for conscientious objectors is located in this area...
...Quack evangelists have done and can do a good deal of harm in promoting race and sectarian prejudice under the guise of promoting their particular brand of religion...
...UNITED REHABILITATION |70R a leng time the United Nstion* have been a going concern on the field of battle...
...What they mean is that this measure takes no account of southern poll-tax •laws...
...It involves southern Democrats as much as members of the opposition party...
...Forty-four sabots will pay and make the decisions...
...What impressed me on the trip was not any shortage of food (steaks are much easier to come by in the rural South than in the industrial Northeast), but the wastage through poor preparation...
...7 East IMA *. New Tori- S. V...
...I * fafrlothm 'THE South is patriotic in an oldfashioned con* ventional fashion...
...Hardly any of the men would vote.: With honeyed words and disloyal action they would rob "fighting youth of its vote...
...hence he condudes that it is not an inevitable and inherited tendency at alL Beassea punishing anti-social attitudes and deliberate efforts to spread racial ill-will together with education for democracy in general, Mr...
...Claeasens does an excellent job ef tracing the irrational roots of prejudice...
...It baeomnv however, the basis for s long-drswa-ott polemic in last Monday's issue in favor of testing down the rewards of organises1 wprien no matter how vigorously pries levels issj skyrocket This whole paper-and-print-consumiag campaign is a piece of dishonest propaganda...
...Great populations must be fed...
...o • The vote on this measure will take pines next week...
...Prices remain stable, and dealers and producer...
...have gone to work camps or gone to jail because of refusal to accept combatant military service...
...Even some of the occupied countries will ks sble from the start to pay their part Here we have genuine internationalism st work...
...For most of the mines the price set by OPA would be sufficient To get the quantity required it was necessary to operate marginal mines in which the cost is high...
...On the other hand progressive clergymen in Southern cities and towns have put in some earnest and courageous work in trying to improve race relations and get at least a squarer, if not an absolutely square deaf for the Negro...
...The South is too poor to feel the impact of the heavy, increases in personal income taxes in the middle and upper brackets as much as some other sections of the country...
...Labor unions aim fee 'get for the workers a higher standard of living and a larger share of tbe total production of industry...
...LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Writers Urge Wide Sale Of Claessen's 'Race' Pamphlet from FRANK R. C «OSS WAIT H end ALFRED 14X1 ft LI WIS fa tke Editor: '^Ajjrjrust Claessens' little book, "Race Prejudice-," should be read" by all who are sfneerely interested In- the abolition of racial discrimination—that weakest link in ouf American life...
...In Kentucky and Tennessee and North Carolina one heard the normal amount of complaints about the inconveniences of rationing...
...They knew it, and they are not backing this profit-grabbing campaign...
...So the bill provides that blank -ballots be distributed and that soldiers am) sailors be permitted to write in the names of their choice...
...1: is true that under war conditions ss always —the unorganised workers have suffered awst There are two ways out of their trouble OH is to keep prices down...
...I2.SOT..0O0...
...While the cost of living has gent ep 29 "r...
...MtrCf S AND WHITE COUAU 1N weeping crocodile tears for tkessja^sritsi * collar workers, The New York Times ui reviving one of the most hoary and hypsCrlthal of all anti-trade union wails...
...Talk to a Southerner, in or out of uniform, about war aims as conceived by the editors of PM, "The Nation" and "The New Republic" and he would probably think yoa were slightly cracked...
...The bill is admirably designed to achieve its purpose...
...Claessens' book tells us the same thing...
...and" IN*fact makes the labor moveaism the most hopeful of all smMPJ for finally ending racial m\>* crimination...
...They will try to amend the bill to this effect But we know f roar long experience what this would mean...
...The reactionaries of both parties are in this thing up to their necks...
...16.000,008 Mast of families, it reports, have received Utik or no increase in wages since the start af u» war...
...COUNT THE SOLDIER VOTE '¦'HE Green-Lucas bill to give votes to men * and women in the services should be passed...
...It will add billions to the cost of tbe war...
...That country should be a paradise for anyone who, like myself, is an enthusiastic mountain biker...
...Under its provisions all citizens from the South, black or white, poor or rich, would exercise tke electoral privilege...

Vol. 26 • November 1943 • No. 47


 
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