THE SOUTH: New Accent

THE SOUTH New Accent

The South had never seen anything like it. The Republican candidate for President, traditionally a figure who leaves the South to the Democrats, flew across the Mason-Dixon Line, winged over the cotton and tobacco lands of four states, dropped into six cities, spoke to 100.000 Southerners, showed himself to half a million.

“Eee-Yow!” Dwight Eisenhower’s first stop was Atlanta. At the airport, he stepped from his chartered Constellation to be greeted by Georgia’s Democratic Governor Herman Talmadge and Atlanta’s Democratic Mayor William B. Hartsfield. As Ike rode along downtown Peachtree Street, four tons of confetti, carefully distributed by Young Republicans, fluttered down. Thousands of Southerners cheered from the sidewalks and windows. It was the liveliest reception Atlanta had given anyone since Clark Gable came to town on December 15, 1939 for the premiere of Gone With the Wind.

Before the 30,000 Georgians gathered in Hurt Park, Eisenhower soon struck the right note. Said he: “It seems that some of the opposition spokesmen look upon this meeting as a revolution . . . Through generations they have been counting the votes of the South ahead of time, along with the cemetery tombstones and the vacant lots that they carry in the election rolls in some of the cities they run up north.” The Georgians, who had heard complaints that Ike wouldn’t conduct a “fighting” campaign, gasped and then let out a mighty roar of approval.

Ike went on: “This Washington mess … is the inevitable . . . result of an Administration by too many men who are too small for their jobs, too big for their breeches, and too long in power.” There were shouts of “Now you’re talking!” from the crowd. Above the other cheers came the Rebel yell, “Eee-Yow!” which Ike was to hear again & again as he moved through the Democratic South.

“Stumble, Fumble & Fall.” In Jacksonville, Fla., 20,000 cheered as Ike hammered away at the Democratic Administration: “… I am going to talk about the Washington mess, a mess because we have an Administration of stumble, fumble and fall.” Ike moved on to Miami, Tampa, Birmingham and Little Rock. His main theme continued to be corruption in the Federal Government (he discussed in detail the Internal Revenue Bureau scandals, including the conviction of collectors in Boston and St. Louis) and his aim to clean it out.

When Ike got back to New York, 38 hours and 3,595 miles after he had left, few Republican professionals were ready to claim that he had chipped off any of the Solid South’s electoral votes. But he had won thousands of individual votes, and was making plans for more campaigning below the Mason-Dixon Line. Ike has a fighting chance to carry Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Virginia. In other Southern states, he has about as much chance as a Democrat has in Vermont: hardly any.

The most important fact of Ike’s flying tour was the Southerners’ demonstration of real enthusiasm for him. Never before has a large part of the South shown a pro-Republican (as differentiated from an antiDemocratic) attitude. In 1928, the Republicans’ best year in the South, the votes Herbert Hoover received were largely in protest against Al Smith. In 1948, when the South bolted, there was a strong anti-Democratic feeling but no enthusiasm for Republican Tom Dewey.

The new attitude in the South could have a profound effect on national unity if Dwight Eisenhower is elected President. The Republican-Southern-Democrat coalition in Congress could become a positive and constructive force on such issues as foreign policy and decentralization of government, where Eisenhower and most Southerners see eye to eye.