Mississippi's Governor

Last week, eight years after leaving under a politically-brewed cloud, Theodore Gilmore Bilbo returned in triumph to the State Capitol of Mississippi, for his second four-year term as Governor. Once tried and acquitted of bribery, Mr. Bilbo had recarved his career, whetting the fighting edge of his ambition on the grindstone of his persecution.* Inaugurated once more, he reiterated all the things he wanted to do for Mississippi. The list sounded to the holiday crowd that had flocked to Jackson from counting house and cotton field, like a sane program to fulfill. It included:

1) Moving the University of Mississippi from small Oxford to thriving Jackson.

2) Establishing a state-owned printing plant for publishing school text books.

3) Selling $53,000,000 worth of State bonds to transform Mississippi muck into motor roads.

Though each of these items was important, Number 2 seemed most important to Governor Bilbo. "I will push the passage of this measure," he cried "and will not smile upon any other until it has been passed."

Governor Bilbo well knew that of all the states, only two--neighboring Louisiana and proud South Carolina--surpass Mississippi in illiteracy./-

*No idle figure of speech. The name "Bilbo," well-loved by collectors of people's-names-that-mean-something, is an antique word for "sword."

/-Fourth-most illiterate is Alabama, home state of Senator James Thomas ("Tom-Tom") Heflin--see p. 9.