Boss Byrd's Man

Harry Flood Byrd, Virginia's junior U. S. Senator, was not a candidate for his old job as Governor of the State in last week's Democratic primary. Nevertheless he found himself the major issue in a three-cornered campaign for that office. The candidates were: Norfolk's Joseph T. Deal, a onetime Representative, Louisa's W. Worth Smith Jr., a State Senator, and Tazewell's George Campbell Peery. Because Democrat Peery was favored by Senator Byrd, Messrs. Deal and Smith centred their fire on the "Byrd machine," lambasted the Senator's "boss rule" of the State. But Virginia Democrats like ''Boss'' Byrd and when they went to the polls last week they cast a 2-to-1 vote nominating his man. Nominee Peery's election in November to succeed Governor Pollard is a foregone conclusion.

If there was any other issue than Harry Byrd's old dominion over the Old Dominion, it was the sound state of Virginia finances. These Candidate Peery solemnly vowed to carry on. Born 59 years ago on his father's farm in the southwest corner of the State, George Peery plowed, clerked in a store, taught school, studied law under John William Davis at Washington & Lee. The 9th Congressional District in which he lived had been under the Republican thumb of the Slemps, Father Campbell and Son Bascom, for 25 years. In 1922 Democrat Peery defeated the Slemp candidate, went to the House, stayed there six years. A modest, substantial citizen, married and the father of three, he made a cautious, sedate gubernatorial campaign, recommended Repeal of the 18th Amendment, ignored the noisy attacks of his opponents. Said he: "I am more accustomed to fighting Republicans than Democrats."

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