G. O. P., South

Brow-wrinkling in Florida, Herbert Hoover last week sought a realistic answer to the Republican party's most headachy riddle: How can the G. O. P.'s gains in the South be consolidated and permanently retained?

To help Mr. Hoover, Col. Horace A. Mann of Tennessee, chief undercover Hooverizer of the South during the campaign, was established in a Miami Beach hotel to greet Southern politicians of all colors and conditions; to listen to their tales, dispel their fears, promise them nothing. Meanwhile, into the Hoover presence were ushered a few Southern gentlemen, ponderously respectable, eager to impart advice, to deplore the Negro's domination of Southern Republican politics. Infinitely patient, the President-Elect listened and listened.

"Lily Whites." Upon how the G. O. P. treats the Negro in the South depends, to a large extent, the Negro vote in Northern States like Ohio and Illinois, where it is often crucial. The white gentlemen, exponents of the "New South," urged Mr. Hoover to buttress and continue the revolt against the "black machines" of the South, to cultivate the "lily-white" movement by which it is hoped to Republicanize permanently many a Southern Democrat whose party faith was shaken by Rum and Romanism.

The G. O. P. dilemma on the Negro question is reminiscent of the mighty conflict within the Methodist Episcopal Church on the same issue and its historic split in 1844-45.* Mr. Hoover's longing is to avoid an analogous schism in his party.

Offending the Negro politicians will never do, for their power at the nominating convention of 1932 may be as great as ever. But the Hoover heart beats in sincere, if muffled, sympathy with Southern white men. His instinct is to heed their wishes. He knows the sting of the "nigger lover" cry, which was raised bitterly albeit futilely against him in the campaign. In his Elizabethton, Tenn., speech, he said, by way of promise: "I believe . . . that appointive offices must be filled by those who deserve the confidence and respect of the communities they serve."

Chief among Mr. Hoover's "lily-white" visitors last week was Col. Henry Watkins Anderson of Richmond, Va., who said:

"A very few bad appointments would destroy this [favorable] view of Mr. Hoover in the South and wreck the very substantial foundation for a strong Republican party which has been begun in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. . . ." Adroit, he added: "Unless a very high-class Republican can be found for appointment to any local office, a Demo-crat should be named."

Old Black Guard. Battling Col. Anderson and the "lily-whites" was and is the Old Black Guard, of which outstanding figures are:

Perry Howard, Republican National Committeeman from Mississippi, whose dealings in cash and Federal patronage are now being exhumed by a Senate investigation. He has already been dropped as a special assistant to the U. S. Attorney-General.

Ben Davis, manipulator of party politics on a "paying basis" in Georgia. He used to be on the Republican National Committee but was ousted last year.

Richard Haile, once a grocer, now a mortician; for twelve years (1912-1924) National Committeeman from South Carolina, and still a most influential adviser of white Committeeman Joseph ("Tieless Joe") Tolbert.

Robert Church, Memphis millionaire, dictator of the "Lincoln Belt" which stretches darkly from Missouri, north and south, through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio. Toward the close of the 1928 campaign all but six of the 25 leading Negro newspapers were calling for Smith's election. Puzzled and worried, Nominee Hoover summoned Millionaire Church to Washington, heard his grievances against Col. Mann and the "lily-whites," spoke a few soothing words. In the last week of the campaign most of the rebellious journals, at Church's command, changed front and Hooverized vociferously. But with Col. Mann still holding forth and the "lily-whites" stronger than ever, Millionaire Church may require fresh and stronger reassurances that the bleaching of the G. O. P., South, is to be purely moral, not racial.

*Long agitated by slavery, the Methodist Episcopal Church, meeting in New York in 1844, adopted a resolution prohibiting Bishop James Oswald Andrew, whose Southern wife was a slave-owner, from serving the Church as long as slaves were in his family. Indignant, Southern members withdrew, met at Louisville the next year, organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.