Serving the Liberal Cause
DOUGLAS, PAUL H.
Serving the Liberal Cause Man from the Valley By Francis Pickens Miller North Carolina. 253 pp. $8.75. Reviewed by Paul H. Douglas Former Democratic Senator, Illinois THE MEMOIRS of Francis...
...He achieved a good record as a pro-Roosevelt progressive, and with Governor James Hubert Price helped to lay the foundations for the liberal political movement in Virginia...
...Miller may well see his son move on to the governorship or sen-atorship or both, and one day not only enact the rest of his father's political program but go beyond it...
...He traveled widely, making many contacts throughout what was then called the free world, until he finally felt compelled to quit the ymca because it would not face the problems of poverty, inequality, and the growing spread of fascism...
...Reviewed by Paul H. Douglas Former Democratic Senator, Illinois THE MEMOIRS of Francis Pickens Miller record a full and productive life of public service marked by uncommon political courage...
...Later transferring to Eisenhower's staff, he rendered distinguished service and, after eventful tours in Berlin and Paris, was discharged in the summer of 1946...
...Besides their personal accomplishments, three other proofs of true success have come to them...
...Visiting there to lecture, I was shocked to find that the city of Thomas Jefferson and the home of his university virtually boycotted the Millers...
...Francis Miller would cite all this in support of his biblical faith, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth by itself alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit...
...Being highly religious, Miller worked more than a decade for the YMCA's international student programs and the incipient ecumenical movement...
...There he had many experiences with Wild Bill Donovan, a general interested not in ideas but in action—the more fantastic the better...
...Miller renewed his offer to help and was rebuffed a second time...
...When Pearl Harbor came...
...Miller immediately returned to the Army and was assigned to the oss...
...Finally, his eldest son, Andrew, was elected Attorney General of Virginia by a large majority in 1968, a time when men with more dubious antecedents were defeated...
...Back in Virginia, Miller gained the support of Robert Whitehead to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1949...
...The party again made overtures to Byrd, who once more supported Eisenhower and enabled him to carry the state by 118,000...
...Under Virginia's laws, it was as difficult for potential voters to register as it was easy for Republicans to invade the Democratic primaries...
...Miller made a good showing, but with all those enemies he was defeated in the primary...
...Senate nomination...
...The cost is heavy, yet only through the sacrifices of men like Miller can the continued redemption of politics be achieved...
...The Miller family took much social as well as political punishment in Charlottesville during the early 1950s...
...He remained active in church affairs, helped to desegregate the schools of Charlottesville—where the Millers had moved in 1947—and served with distinction in the Department of State...
...The son of a distinguished Virginia family, he grew up in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and fought on the front lines as an artillery officer in World War I. Afterward, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, graduating with honors, and began his exemplary public career...
...Helen Hill Miller, a skillful and imaginative author in her own right, has written several successful books on Greece and has given to Camelot a "local habitation and a name...
...Although it looked at first as if Miller might win, he was bitterly opposed by the Byrd machine, which marshaled the politicians, the bankers, the businessmen, nearly all the newspapers, and the Republicans against him...
...How long, O Lord, how long...
...And while the destroyers helped to defend the coast of southern England when the Allies lay helpless after Dunkirk, the internationalists protected FDR's vulnerable political flank from the isolationists in the Presidential race that year by inducing his gop opponent, Wendell Willkie, to promise that he would not criticize Roosevelt for aiding Britain...
...Residents of the state have told friends of mine that they voted for Andrew in part to atone for the treatment they accorded his father from 1947-66...
...Discouraged, Miller began to take a much more passive political role...
...To this I would add the final lines from the cynic, George Bernard Shaw, in his Saint Joan, "O God who has made this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive thy saints...
...Miller also decided to seek office himself and was elected to the Virginia Legislature, despite his refusal to join Harry F. Byrd's conservative Democratic machine...
...The Establishment viewed this as the ultimate lese majesty and beat him by a majority of nearly 2-1...
...Secondly, Miller's grandson was baptized in the St...
...Undaunted, he launched another campaign in 1952, running directly against Byrd for the U.S...
...Turning his energies to the movement to involve America in international affairs, he participated in efforts to persuade Frankin Roosevelt to let Great Britain have 50 overaged destroyers after Hitler's victorious sweep through Europe in the spring of 1940...
...Even though Byrd was already planning to support Eisenhower, the party chiefs refused to permit Miller to organize an independent committee to work for Adlai Stevenson...
...Eventually they moved to Cape Hatteras and the more friendly social and political climate of North Carolina, where they still live...
...Judged by even the most worldly standards, therefore, the Millers' lives have not been a failure...
...The entire affair did credit to everyone concerned...
...First, much of Miller's program has been put into effect by two former Byrd governors, Lindsay Almond and Mills Godwin, making it a significantly different Democratic party that now operates in Virginia...
...That was bad enough, but 1956 was worse...
...As it turned out, Byrd publicly endorsed Eisenhower, who carried the state by 80,000...
...In addition, Miller was spurned by the National Democratic leaders whom he offered to help...
...Petersburg, Florida, desegregated church where his son is pastor, and by the black assistant minister...
...it was American politics at its best...
...Their theory was that since the liberal Democrats would back the national ticket anyway, there was no need to pay them special attention, whereas the Byrd Democrats had to be courted and should not under any circumstances be offended...
Vol. 54 • August 1971 • No. 16
