THE SOUTH: No Bolt, No Enthusiasm

The hot political winds that have been whirling through the South took on pattern and direction last week. The pattern led to two conclusions which seemed to be, but were not, contradictory: 1) there will be no organized bolt of the party by Southern Democratic leaders, 2) Dwight Eisenhower has a better chance to carry Southern states than any Republican candidate since Herbert Hoover in 1928.

Rhubarb & Calomel. The pattern emerged most clearly in South Carolina, whose Democratic leaders gathered at Columbia to complete the state convention recessed last April. The man whose attitude counted most was old Governor James Byrnes. Southern Democrats, he told the convention, had won some victories at Chicago. Stevenson was the most conservative and best-qualified candidate, excepting Georgia’s Dick Russell. John Sparkman had always been true to the South on civil rights. The platform is bad on civil rights, but might have been worse if the South hadn’t been in there fighting. Then the governor got to his recommendation: “To pledge the electors of the state Democratic Party to vote for the candidates of the Republican Party would not be right . . . The state executive committee [should] place on the ballot under the name of the Democratic Party . . . electors pledged to Stevenson and Sparkman.”

There was cheering and applause from a majority of the delegates, stony silence from a minority. Jimmy Byrnes, whose word would be listened to all through the South, had wiped out the possibility of a leadership bolt in South Carolina.

Having done so, Byrnes promptly cut the rest of the pattern. Every voter, he said, should have the opportunity to vote his convictions. Since the South Carolina Republican Party is weak and tangled in litigation, the thing to do is to get the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket on the ballot by petition, as an independent slate. “Many Democrats,” said Byrnes, would sign such a petition. Later, he said he would sign one himself, although he was still not certain how he will vote in November.

The course that Byrnes suggested would not have been possible in previous South Carolina presidential elections. Formerly, the voter had to select a Democratic or a Republican ballot, and not many South Carolina voters wanted to be seen taking the latter. In 1950, South Carolina became the last state to adopt the secret ballot with all candidates’ names on one sheet.* With an eye to this change, Byrnes charted a course by which voters can stay Democrats and vote Republican.

This was not enough for some of the hotter heads, who still wanted to give the Democratic spot on the ballot to the Republican nominees. Said James A. Mayfield of Bamberg County: “Senator Sparkman is just the sugar-coated candy to get rid of the rhubarb and calomel taste of Truman and the C.I.O. gang.” But Jimmy Byrnes’s plan, as is customary in South Carolina, was adopted.

Going Fishing? This was, in general, the way the Democratic nominees and platform have been received throughout the South. In John Sparkman’s Alabama and in North Carolina, there is no serious Democratic resistance, but the enthusiasm is limited. In Georgia, Florida and Tennessee, party leaders accept the ticket, but with little joy.

Some important Southern leaders say that they might “go fishing” on election day. One such is Texas’ Governor Allan Shivers who is deeply disturbed by the Democratic stand in favor of federal control of tidelands. Virginia’s Senator Harry Byrd has not announced his support of the ticket. The prospect: little help for Stevenson from Byrd & Co.

The Southern leaders have not risen up in anger. Their inclination is to yawn, keep their congressional seniority in the party of their fathers and, perhaps, let Ike carry their states if he can.

As the campaign begins, Ike’s best chances in the South are in Florida, Texas and Virginia. Whether he gets any or many of the South’s electoral votes now depends on how well his campaign goes over with Southern voters.

* When James Byrnes was U.S. Secretary of State (1945-47), one of the big international issues was the U.S. demand for a secret ballot in Eastern European countries occupied by the Red army. Byrnes had to carry the ball for a democratic safeguard against voter coercion which his own state had not adopted.