NEW PARTY A-COMING?
McCulloch, Spencer
New Party A-Coming? By SPENCER MeCULLOCH Jackson, Miss. TN THE land of magnolias and cot-ton futures there is something new under the sun. A bizarre political courtship is taking place. It is...
...Karl E. Mundt...
...Claude Pepper for renomination...
...A pamphlet by Waybright on "The Other Plot To Destroy Our Circulation" received the editorial praise recently of Gerald L. K. Smith, professional rabble-rouser and head of the "Christian Nationalist Crusade," in his official publication The Cross and the, Flag...
...It is necessary to strike a bargain —to sell Old Guard Republicanism to the South with accent on "stability," in return for which the Republicans would thrust in the background such embarrassing topics as civil rights, especially those involving segregation of the races...
...It must walk a tight-rope between Southern tradition and GOP principles...
...II Fred A. Virkus, of Chicago, president of the Conference of Small Business Organizations, is a moving spirit in organizing the coalition...
...Even in 1948 their State's Rights ticket in opposition to President Truman carried but four states...
...Louis attorney...
...The crusade, it was announced, aids in distributing the Waybright booklet...
...Only recently Republicans and Southern Democrats banded together to shelve for the present the Administration's housing bill which would have increased Government authority to insure home building loans by three billion dollars and allowed the Government to erect defense housing not built by private contractors...
...Only one thing is certain—as pledged in a brochure soliciting funds: "there will be no Communists, no Socialists, no Truman pay-rollers in the National Coalition Committee...
...Other committee members include Paul Bakewell, Jr., a St...
...Such procedures may not be conducive to gaining support of 25,000,000 Southern voters...
...He lives on an 800-acre plantation near Clarks-dale, Miss...
...are inclined to look upon the newi coalition movement with wishful-eyes...
...They are abetted by such oracles as Fulton Lewis, Jr., the radio commentator who joined in the smear-Tydings campaign in Maryland, and sundry Northern interests with axes to grind...
...It is bereft of sentiment, in itself an abdication of a Southern legend, and it may only be consummated through a cold cash deal, calculated to drive the final nails in tradition's coffin...
...if you oppose the making of secret agreements, of which our people are not advised, and which unknown to them commit them to war and death in filthy and foreign lands...
...In fact, some of the committeemen are also kept in the dark some of the time...
...if you believe in the right of men to engage in laudable and productive toil free from intimidation, coercion, and regimentation by the Federal government...
...Robert V. Morse, an Ithaca, N. Y., attorney...
...The power of the Congressional coalition has repeatedly evinced itself...
...Carlos P. Romulo naturally (and ably) upheld the United Nations' view...
...The first task of the coalition is to exercise a delicate political compromise...
...1 Tom L. Gibson, a retired mining engineer and an outspoken Dixie-crat, is chairman...
...The methods, however, in attempting to reconcile traditionally opposing groups represent a final measure of desperation to down the policies of the Truman Administration and squelch as well the "Progressives" in the Republican Party...
...Of the three participating speakers, this columnist alone strongly criticized the Government's peace theories...
...Delegates came front 17 states...
...Perhaps it will turn out to be only a dream boat...
...And the people of this world are not convinced that the American policy of peace by the threat of overwhelming force, and postponement of serious attempts at a settlement until such force exists, is the road to peace...
...His publicity man, Ross Murphy, a former Hearst executive, has moved to Mississippi to aid in organizing the coalition...
...Although an immense selling campaign has been put on for this policy, it has not been sold...
...William C. Foster, an official of the ECA, naturally (and ably) defended our Government's policy...
...Taft and McCarthy, as yet unsubstantiated, hover over "hush-hush" meetings held by the prospective coalitionists and certain Congressional leaders in a Washington hotel to speed the political courtship, or at least reach a pre-nuptial agreement for the alignment of forces back of the 1952 political conventions which might bring them to the promised land...
...He is known for his featured series in the Post-Dispatch on the Pendergast, Crump, and Curley political machines, on the Talmadge regime in Georgia, and on the Ku Klux Klan...
...The "Negro problem," coalitionists agree, had best be put on a state-option basis, at least until after the campaign...
...So the Dixiecrats, prived of Federal patronage in tb|| home states, have taken heart ario...
...Thus far, the GOP elephant and the fire-eating brand of Dixiecrats have maintained a precarious balance...
...The list of prospects, too, is carefully scanned—lest a "traitor" come into camp...
...if you stand in opposition to allowing our wealth and resources being wasted in crackpot socialistic schemes and experiments, or being drained off into foreign lands in support of unfriendly people and hostile governments...
...Some who are rallying to the new cause are citizens of sincere intent...
...Democrats...
...The Opposition to Official Policy The western world, at least, as a result of World War II, is profoundly and instinctively pacifist...
...But the party, like the proverbial steamboat 'round the bend, is launched...
...The secretary is Joseph L. Ellis, a Clarksdale capitalist...
...This unromantic courtship, in an area where the terms "damn Yankee" and Republican have been synonyms since the Reconstruction Era, is spurred by the conservative bloc in Congress whose members rise nobly above party platforms and principles to crush liberal measures...
...The preamble stated: "The objective of the Committee is to effect a coalition of all right thinking Americans — Republicans and old-line Democrats and all anti-Truman forces in support of a single ticket in the next Presidential election...
...They are honestly perplexed about what to do about what they regard as irresponsibility, to say the least, in the national Administration...
...It's a question of any port in a storm...
...The intent is clear...
...The purport of the program, prospective contributors are told, is in the remarkable pronouncement: "If you believe in the rights of states to regulate their internal and domestic affairs free from interference by the Federal government...
...They can never attain a balance of national power by themselves...
...The Dixiecrats, as such, it's generally conceded in their home territories, are through...
...They include that sterling patriot of South Dakota, Sen...
...They are eager for help...
...if this is your position, as a right thinking American citizen, then we ask that you join with us in this undertaking...
...they study the pattern of such anti-"Fair Deal" organizations as the American Guard, of Anderson, Ind., which essayed to set a national pattern to get out the vote against "socialized medicine" and similar welfare proposals on a precinct basis...
...Compromises must be made, sights lowered or raised as expediency demands, but always with the eye on the main political targets...
...But the mail that has come in to the Town Hall has been almost unanimously in favor of the viewpoint I expressed—that our Government is not sincerely, intelligently, and energetically trying to reach a settlement which would protect all alike, but is making political action subservient to military strategy, and that this is highly dangerous to peace...
...But with the Republicans and a national recruiting campaign the future lies now in a clouded crystal ball...
...The Committee states that "the present confused and perilous state of our government and nation today is due wholly to the lethargic attitude and inaction on the part of millions of people all over the country who, on the occasion of the last election, would not bestir themselves and work and vote in behalf of a return of constitutional government, and allowed the present socialistic regime to remain in power...
...The shadows of Sen...
...and Edgar W. Waybright, Jackson—an attorney of Jacksonville, Fla., who was adviser to the Klu Klux Klan there as it aided in beating Sen...
...Grandiose resolutions were adopted at the organization meeting...
...I recently had an opportunity to test this...
...Dorothy Thompson In her syndicated column...
...Three consecutive roll-call votes in the House of Representatives indicated that the balance of power there is held by about 25 Southern SPENCER McCULLOCH, a reporter for The St...
...But there are stalwarts in the background who are less politically perplexed...
...The Dixiecrats, remnants of a disorganized group swelled by those akin in spirit, are wooing the Old Guard of the Republican Party, in an attempt to establish a national political coalition for 1952 to dictate a Presidential nominee—any nominee—who will bring back the "good old days" when labor reposed in a stipulated bracket and the captains of industry triumphantly bore the banner of the "American Way of Life...
...The gold-plated grass-roots or*1 ganization was formed last Decern-* ber at Jackson, Miss., under thtf name of "The National Coalition Committee...
...The Town Hall of the Air staged a debate on the issue "Roads to Peace in 1951...
...Louis Post-Dispatch, specializes in interpretative reporting of political and labor affairs...
...H. Barry McCormick, of Chicago, a printing executive who formed an "Illinois for MacArthur for President" Committee in 1948...
...While the avowed program of the coalition is clear, some of its operations are kept on a confidential basis among the top coalitionists...
...Philip M. McKenna, of Latrobe, Pa., head of the "Gold Standard League...
...For the Southerners, and perhaps for many of the ultra-conservative Northerners, the new coalition represents a measure of desperation...
...He made an exploratory trip through the South last winter and since the Jackson meeting has quietly arranged the Washington conferences...
...Other organization committee members include business men, and lawyers from both sides of the Mason and Dixon line...
...Its proponents hope that it may reach right down into the grassroots in the precincts, although even its most ardent advocates realize that it's a reversal of nature to grow a crop from the top down, even if well watered with a flow of money...
Vol. 15 • May 1951 • No. 5
