National Affairs: Mississippi Mud

Harry Truman’s 1948 attempt to punish Mississippi Dixiecrats, and reward the boys who didn’t walk out on him, came to a sorry little anticlimax last week in Jackson, Miss. A federal grand jury indicted twelve politicos, including the leaders of Mississippi’s pro-Truman State Democratic Committee, for peddling Federal patronage jobs to the highest bidder (TIME, April 23). Among those indicted: Clarence E. Hood Jr., former acting Democratic National Committeeman; Frank Mize, chairman of the pro-Truman committee and brother of a federal judge. The crimes alleged are both petty and sleazy. The committee leaders are accused of charging up to $2,000 for a rural mail carrier’s job, and selling Office of Price Stabilization jobs that weren’t there. As for the Dixiecrats (including Senators Stennis and Eastland), they have long since patched up with the President, once more have the state’s patronage in their own hands.