What's Happened to the 'Southern Liberals'?
RECORD, CY W.
What's Happened to the 'Southern Liberals'? By CY W. RECORD Atlanta, Georgia In no other section of the country has the v made such a heavy and volcanic impact gjffn the Deep South. This is true...
...He believes that the Negro is diseased, yet trusts...
...eons organizer* ef the Natten si Aseecasttem for the Advancement of Catered People...
...As much aa this failure of the liberal South is to be regretted, it ? not without im compensations...
...Iii the early de-, press!on years a group of writers, hesded by Herbert Agar...
...I would think that probably from a long run standpoint, it might be well to attempt to stabilize the construction industry, rather than attempt to make it the balance wheel for the entire economy...
...He looks wide-eyed and mad at the newsreel account of the First Lady's greeting the President of the Liberian Republic, and then he scoffs at the almost unimaginable things required by the formalities of diplomacy, while consoling himself with the fact that nqne of his Congressional representatives listened to the Barclay speech in the House...
...MORE -bewildered than perhaps any other '"groups in the South, are the so-called "decent white people" and that poorly defined collection of college professors, intellectuals...
...In Birmingham, Alabama, the representatives of law and order arrest a young girl, a refugee from Hitler Germany, a Jew, for eating in a Negro cafe, and before being released after long hours of questioning she is told, "If Hitler ran you out of Germany for believing you ought to eat with Niggers, then Hitler ain't so bad...
...Southern liberals "¦?· always thought in terms of long-range Programs of bestowing upon the Negroes and Poor rural whites and laborers certain privies, and they have too often thought of their own roles in terms of controlling this gradual process—not of forming functional attachments to or participating with the people who themselves would bear the brunt of actually implementing their aims...
...Over the past twenty years Southern intellectuals hsve sought to give s cultural salty to the loose, disparate and despair-bag mood of the South...
...The opportunity which he had is now man, and at will not come again—not for perhaps a Ins) time...
...Or if very many of them fill get aboard, most abandoned ship when the waters became rough...
...Hundreds of thousands ? persons have migrated from the rural to the gjben industrial centers—seeking jobs and find-gg them at heretofore undreamed-of rates of fey- ' They move from the plantations of the Mis-|un||i|ii Delta into the shipyards of Pascagoula ? 'New Orleans...
...Bat the moment that each -decency" admits ef a saedifVstios ef white...
...He decries the efforts of "Yankee reformers" and their programs to "uplift" the Negro and "disrupt" the Southern "tradition," but he feels deeply and defensively his own guilt and failure in having done so little...
...we should move sway from, as I have said, a brick and mortar society toward a society that lays greater emphasis upon services-greater emphasis upon the spiritual, so to speak, and cultural aspects of life, and that involves in part emphasis upon sack areas a* education, pablic health, nutrition, low coat housing for the mass of the people which, in turn, has implications with respect to pablic health and general cultural and recreational facilities for all our people...
...He heartatad, stumbled, picked himself up and detreeted farte the folds of polite discussion...
...WftttdtS steam ?^·???» merely indifference and mental wnta ass as interpreted as a gsnnhai aad sympathetic toieraace carrying a sense of eedal ? mean sibility...
...inter-racial conference and psaaing a resora-tion...
...The liberals have been caught woefully off-gasrd, unprepared to measure the impact ef the war ia terms of their varied peacetime aims, and unable to channel their genahte humanitarian impulses into the stream of rapid social and economic change...
...war-time practices In the domestic ?????, threaten numerous customs ia Southern life...
...We are very far from having cease te a point where we can afford to neglect construction...
...Its culture hs* been of a different blend...
...And so varied and deep are their implications, that even the self-proclaimed experts on the South do not pretend to eaderstand them...
...When the war presented new bat limited opportunities for a realisation ef hat nwa***-«* was tired and lacked imagination...
...That ? quite untrue for the reason that the , very companies that produce the consumers' durables, take the automobile companies— they will be employing at the end of this year for war work outside, not including the new bomber plants—-the automobile...
...I must add that there are very important areas which involve construction which must be undertaken if we are going to raise our standard of living and raise our productivity in the next two or three decades, including urban redevelopment, river valley development, and land resource development, besides the more standard types of public works...
...They have been confronted directly and for the first time with the actualization of certain •epecta of their programmed aims—in-, "eased economic opportunities for Negroes, a .partial letting down of the heavy bars "f segregation, the growth of trade unions, the farther use of Federal authority...
...Nevertheless, the problem of solving the mass unemployment will depend in that period so heavily upon construction that I would be inclined to think because of the peculiar bulge that the war has given us that it would be desirable to plan to step up construction to a higher level, definitely a higher level, than we could hope permanently to maintain...
...It is not likely that they will employ more than 700,000 or 750,000 workers...
...Southern liberals, in their failure to understand the potentials of these forces, have natesed the boat...
...The thought, for instance, ™t Negroes, organized and led by their own leaders, might make immediate demands for ^rtain rights ? and prepare to implement such demands is shocking to the liberal tempera-Jnetit, not to say terrifying...
...When some of their programs of more equitable training and employment op» portunities for Negroes sppi umlief isalsaafarii in even the slightest degree in Southern war industries, they become apprehensive...
...At the same time he believes that the Negro is viciousapd cunning, quick to take advantage of i*re~slightest opportunity along the road to "social equality...
...in order that we might have a program of construction in the Depression period when depression will be threatening, seriously threatening, possibly a total volume ef construction of...
...The emerging group* ef srtiealste Seeth-era Negroes are net the "handkerchief heads" aad "Uncle Teens" drawn frag« ' »¦»eng the hat-ia-hemd ministers er eoUege presidents...
...I The new forces in Southern life which have emerged during the war will continue during peace time...
...Bat France and Luxembourg are far away, and as far aa he knows, all their people are white tike himself...
...At the aaate time it gives the Negro new (bat quite limited) economic opportunities and a growing sense of self-sufficiency that enables a severance of hie close dependence on, and subordination to, the white community...
...Secretaries, and news-Paper editors known as "Southern liberals...
...But I 'think we should deliberately plan to build Up construction* immediately at the end of the war because, in my judgment, we are going to find in certain areas inflationary tendencies, notably in the inventory area, the net export surplus area—that is to say food, foodstuffs and the like—and consumers' durables...
...say, something like 18 billion dollars...
...The people working in this area, both in government and private industry—I find' that they believe that the construction industry will be seriously deflated at the end of the war...
...And there is a Southern tradition whose origin can be traced and whose specific manifestations can be measured...
...I think that is not an extreme figure when you consider that in the twenties with a mirch lower income, smaller population, much lower productivity than we are now capable of, under full employment we had 11 billion in construction a year in the twenties...
...The construction aad aparstton . of war production industries in this section superimposes a condition of rapid industrialization and relatively high wage raten upon aa impoverished rural background...
...But they appear to be frightened by the proe-¦ects and potentials of these developments *nd the groups who are behind them...
...The result has been friction and explosion...
...war and certain promisee of the peace * to follow, emphasize the neurotic contradictions in the makeup of white Southern man...
...with the most intimate task of keeping his house, preparing his food, or caring for his child...
...He favored equal educational opportunities for Negroes, but he could only cast his vote for s Talmadge or a Rivers—or aa Arnall...
...White Southerners cemented in their beliefs and practices by common denial during the reconstruction period, hold certain unquestioned ideas on this matter...
...The automobile companies have never employed more than about 660,000 workers at a very high level of activity of those industries in peace time...
...These developments and many more, too, bsve created profound disturbances, breaking the individual's continuity with his social and occupational past, creating new tensions, and giving a new emphasis to those that were al-anys latent...
...There are areas of construction which are relatively short term projects which could be particularly thrown in in this special period, and which could be taken opt in the subsequent period when again demand Would be restored more or less in these other areas...
...fro mthe red hills of Westem Alabama into the varied war industries of Mobile...
...And their ' actions suggest the instability ef their attitude, along with either then- naivete or cringing hack of conviction...
...But more of this liter...
...I think from the long run standpoint, it may well be what we ought to aim at is stabilisation of this industry...
...1 rom the mountains of Georgia and the Carolinas into Savannah and Charleston, Wilmington and Norfolk, Brunswick and Panama City...
...however...
...It will be running at such a low level that it will take time to build it up even though we plan now to build it up and there is, I find, a general belief that in the first year it may be that we cannot bring construction up higher than say 6 to 7 billion dollars, which would be very considerably below the construction at the end of the last war if one takes into account our larger economy today, our larger population and our higher productivity...
...If the poor and oft-times hungry "red-neck" ia bewildered by the eise •f his pay check, the ways of city life, his changed occupational role, he ia not alone, for confusion aad bewilderment characterise ether groups as well—the business men, the industrialists, the long-adjusted industrial worker, the middle-class and professional groups, and the Southern liberals...
...And it is for that reason that ? believe we should plan deliberately now to build up construction, to build up housing and public works immediately at the end of the war in order to facilitate reemployment in these other areas...
...not at the present rata, however, and only after a long, but temporary set-back in the post-war period The number of indus-trial workers will not decline to the pta sm» number, and among those who remsin there will be the basis for a wider and more »table trade union movement, one capabk of action on the political front that may eventually alter the very character of Seathern politics...
...He was Waffbte to locate himself among or identify himself with the new contenders for power...
...companies will be employing about a million workers in peak wartime employment...
...For one thing, the pointed amass emerging during the wwr have mode iaaiaadmte choices necessary, and the choices made have reflected the potentials among floiilhaiii f r't'i In addition, the capacity of the liberal to act has been measured, and the air baas been cleared of the smoky clouds of irrelevancy...
...He declares that the Southern Negro is "the happiest people on earth," and confesses his envy of his shiftless and irresponsible role, and yet he is completely consecrated, through violence, if necessary, to "keeping the Nigger in his place...
...Now, however...
...aad a fundamental improvement ef Negro, states, then the "decent" »asrfJheia walte man sees the real implication ef Ms beliefs f He is afraid, aad ? «arfck to recant The Southern "liberals" of which there ark few, were among the first to show their tram colors after the outbreak of the...
...Far fit is among these people that the aiaas of the " liberals, if they are honest, will had amp-port, and It is against them that the art rations aad violence whack represent denisia of the liberals ends, will be practiced...
...But the war has moved too fast for them, A rapid Industrialization hss pitched the Negroes into the factories, given them a greater measure ef economic independence sad has tended to break down segregation Barriers...
...in avoiding violence between racial groups, and .in "protecting" the Negro agamat the reaction* of "ignorant" whites—by, in fast, "bsep ing the Negro in his place"—which was no drfi ferent in its effects than what the most reactionary groups throughout the South ? rope sei to do...
...This tradition haul its earlier origins in the two centuries of slavery preceding the Civil War, while its more current aspects and practices derive from the Civil War and ensuing reconstruction period...
...Some will go back to agriculture...
...Central in this tradition is the body of belief with reference to the role of the Negro in South-em white culture...
...He castigates the Negro press for "agitating" the Negroes, but in his own mind he knows that the grounds upon, which seed fall are fertilized by his own failure and indifference...
...These fears betray a tragic absence of flexibility and staying power...
...for already they have confronted h sad steed firm...
...IT HAS never been an easy matter to be a lib-* e-pl in the South...
...Cy W. Record contends they have failed and tells the reason why...
...He talks of solving problems of race relations in terms of generations and centuries by bestowing privileges, but he opposes the slightest self-directed effort in the present...
...in no other section were the habits of Eg thinking, arid doing, no firmly implanted, —-aestionably practiced, or so encrusted with STways of the past...
...They may be untrue from a formal scientific viewpoint...
...He recently entered the U. S. Areay...
...No eae . can read Dae Passes' account ia...
...display* a , fundamental inability te make aa the mind, a confused failure te align thamsalvsa with new fsaal forces in Hoe there life—the ever- ' increasing numerical aad peHtieal stremgth ' of industrial workers aad the eater ging aware aad articulate Negro groups...
...That may surprise some, and I think that there has been some erroneous reasoning, particularly with reference to the accumulated deferred demand in consumers durables...
...Their pro-claimed immediate interest was in making changes-in the pattern of race relations "gleit ual...
...He proclaims his support of "equal but segregated" economic, political, and educational opportunities, but he restricts the Negro to the most menial and unskilled jobs and denies him training opportunities, denies him the right to vote and oppresses him with southern justice, provides three months a year elementary schooling for the black child.^ehile lacking, a first-rate Negro college in the whole section...
...That, of course, leads into social security and your social welfare expenditures...
...its polities separatist sad reactionary, dominated by absentee iadiutrial Sgents and ambitious politicians who play demagogic roles...
...If, however, we succeeded in stabilizing the construction industry, we would have performed an enormous stabilizing task, Because, if you look at construction in the past, it has been most violently fluctuating and to stabilize the construction industry would mean a very violent fluctuation in public works construction, offsetting the fluctuations in the private sector in this area...
...The farther exercise of the Federal power in matters portanities for Negsssjar* *ejssasesa*usss whhdji *r*j^^^J** '^hwerwr'of**ffrN*j> ment, and no longer personal dependemt upon him for economic and emotional security...
...1*HE white Southerner, for instance, believes * that the Negro is harmless and childlike, needing the paternal guidance of the superior Anglo-Saxon...
...The logic of things and events pricks aa inflated See thai a ideology, an ideology which was already suspect among many of its adherents who defended its virtues hi the light ef day, bat wende red aad ' doubted them la the long night...
...or, his deacriprlem ef Negro laborers without realizing that the , seemingly trivial and insignificant events of daily war-time living, work, and travel, are pregnant with many implicit meanings for which, for waat of a better term, we summarize aa the "Southern tradition...
...Allen Tate, Donald Davidson aad others issued a manifesto called •T Take My Stand" which scored the evil effect* ef industrialism on Southern cults re...
...They will net be dawned by faslhsin fary...
...This is true perhaps...
...18 billion in this depression period is, I think, not too much at all to aim at...
...In those areas we shall have inflationary tendencies, whereas in other areas we shall have a very large amount of unemployment despite this , large demand in these special areas...
...They are the yoaager ?stelle*-tuals...
...The dictates of manpower shortage require the ose of Negroes in skilled high-paying positions and in ever larger numbers in unskilled jobs...
...la this crisis what has been the attitude ef the potentially powerful group of Southern Liberals...
...BeeoreV a young Southern writer, was on the staff of the Manpower Commission in Atlanta...
...Their watered and unmoscular energies were quickly turned to denials of .the 'aims and programs proclaimed during peace-time...
...This feeling charaetermee not only -&*??*\ fisted industrialist or plantation owner, ar^flee drawn-faced "red neck" or the soapietoua afcjaVd white worker, bot elan the so-ceiled ¦ *???*?1 end "decent" Southern white people are participating in it in ever-increasing suaabera.^ ; Seathern editors hcsTfi...
...They may be contradictory, and seemingly, mutually exclusive...
...How to Cfoor ffco Rood A FTER two, three, or four years—I am not going to try to predict—but after two, three or four years, I think we can be sure that there will be a tremendous decline in the expenditures on consumers' durables...
...So that I weald think that it wee Id be the part of wisdom to seam a very large I public works and public development program, to have this blueprinted, ready to go...
...They will seek farther ties with their fellow N agree* to the North and Eaa* and will secure farther aee ef the Federal authority in their behalf...
...Much ia happening now, „id quickly Older industries—textiles, iron and ??!, and lumber, have been rapidly expanded, jfaw plant facilities for the production of ships, Kittens, and aircr»fhave been constructed lutttily end manned with sharecroppers and day Carers...
...They talked...
...If we facilitate reemployment in these other areas, then we can be sure also that the stimulus to the general activity will help to reabsorb labor in the areas that must absorb a very large part of the workers dismissed from military forces and from manufacturing, namely trade and service industries...
...I would think we will have in the Reconversion Period a spotty situation where there are strong inflationary periods in part of the industry which will give us inflation unless we control prises end retain our control in that interval at the same time there ? unemployment elsewhere...
...But few white Southerners fancy themselves as practitioners of the methods of science...
...They may at some later time realise their error, and one can only hope that if and when they do, their vacillation will net have earned the disgust ef those with Wbosg they meet ultimately strive for a better South, The Post-War Economy Five Trouble Areas—Key to Prosperity fy dLVIN HANSEN II MOW, at the end of this war, I think it is quite plain what we are going to be confronted with is going to be explained pretty much by what happens in these five areas, and I have already indicated that in some of these areas we can expect a very large demand in construction...
...f Is later years, ander the impact of the New Deal, the intellectuals' meed shifted te politic*, and a new group arose, the Southern Liberals, composed primarily of newspaper editors and publicists, who sought to work out S policy which would harmonize race relations and swerve the South into a politically liberal course...
...nevertheless, as time goes on...
...SOUTH" * —the phrase is usually writ-ten in capitals sad quotation narks —has been a unique factor in American life stece the beginning of the colonies...
...its economy antagonistic te national interests...
...He believes the Negro is incapable of much educational advance, but he concedes the "smartness" of a young field hand who went East to college and became a successful lawyer...
...We ought to more and more go into a service society as time goes on and away from purely emphasizing material things...
...He sloganizes his beliefs by such phrases as "They are just like children," but follows it with "If you give one an inch, he will take a mile...
...proclaimed war aims hi the international «Phere,- aid man...
...I should like to say that from the longer-run standpoint, I would not wish to advocate a continued long run program of vast constiuction year in and year out We ought eventually to move away from a brick and mortar society...
...The l'beral all too often has been forced to stand alone, isolated, and with no groups with which he could identify htmsslf in an active way...
...It is even more difficult at present...
...Among the moving spirits in this action ware Jonathan Daniels, Virginius Dabney, John Temple Graves, Jennings Wrry, Mark Etheridge...
...And they, in turn, expenditures in this area, properly financed, appropriately financed will certainly profoundly help us to maintain a full employment society without having to engage forever in a vast construction program...
...He cried out against the system of peonage and forced labor in Georgia, bat his action consisted primarily in attending aa...
...He opposed Governor Dixon's fanning the fires of race hatred, but be supported Governor Sparks...
...Many customs aad traditions are tine challenged...
...Generally, the effect of such developments has been to step np to a very rapid rate many of the trends and changea only "lightly noticeable, in the South during the impoverished and 'economically lean years ef peace...
...V- ?., %.:· * Their behavior throughout, from taw * early panicky chastisements ef John Tern- * pie Graves in his well-ei resisted ? ? lemma te Mark Etherktgc's partially tree, but eg* peaaeaaeat-timed aad appeesimenl arjesdpfl, 'J statement in Birmingham, and the more recent "view-with -aharm -and -reg "-et" pre- ' nounceanents ef Ralph MrGill...
...about the possibilities of vteenBSS aad tension, and by their own talk and publie display of doubts, lent aid and comfort to those who made no pretense of "decency" or "liberal» ism," to those who organised for a systematic denial of the implications of a democrats* waT as far as the Negro was concerned...
...the trade anion leaders, the eoarag...
...The White Southerner prayerful sends his son to war, takes seriously the alma ef freedom for France and the principality ef Luxembourg, hates Hitler with a deep and active violence, and bays War Bonds and Stamps...
...It has been thought that this demand would be so vast that it would Very krgely take care of the reemployment problem...
...of the Mobile shipyard workers, er Southern rural women eat a bus...
...Y.W'.C.A...
...Inventories, inventory accumulation will fall again to zero sooner or later, and our net export surplus will very drastically decline...
...He believes that the Negro is shiftless and lazy, but he employs him to do jobs which he would not do because it is considered beneath his dignity as a white man...
...He opposed segregation in pi liistpls, hag his program carefully and specifically called lor its continuation...
...His function will now be a HsgsUrs'aaO ' that of keeping "the lid on...
...The intense demands growing out of labor shortages portend a further 'modification of employment policies and labor remtiona that has significant implications for the pattern of industrial paternalism...
...New war-time wages are flowing Into jang-empty, lean hands...
...When that time comes, there will also be",4 very probably, a decline in investment in equipment and the one area that will have to be stepped up in that period very sharply if we are going to prevent mass unemployment ? the construction field...
Vol. 26 • July 1943 • No. 27
