Duel in the South

On a grey afternoon last week, 150 police motorcycles popped and putted along Atlanta's downtown Peachtree Street. Behind them, in a red bus bearing the hopeful sign "White House, Washington, D.C.," a high-school band tootled Dixie. More than 250,000 Georgians, lined along the city's sidewalks and gazing out of windows, applauded as a hawk-beaked man in a blue Cadillac convertible smiled and waved his white Panama hat. It was Georgia's own Senator Dick Russell, the Southern Democrats' choice, come home to start his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

That night, 3,400 Southerners paid $50 apiece to squeeze into four dining rooms of the Atlanta Biltmore Hotel for Dick Russell's opening campaign fund dinner. Georgia's Governor Herman Talmadge and three neighboring governors--South Carolina's James F. Byrnes, Florida's Fuller Warren and Mississippi's Hugh White--were on hand. There were delegations from Louisiana, Texas and Alabama. It was an impressive launching of the S.S. Southern Democrat, 1952.

Characteristic & Dry. Dick Russell drifted through the dining rooms soberly clad in black shoes and a neat dark blue suit. Then he took his place at one of the three head tables to deliver a characteristic speech, dry but sensemaking, warning against Government waste, defending states' rights and condemning corruption. He had to cut out his sharpest debating point because radio and television time was running out, and he didn't get to make it until a press conference two days later. The argument: he is the only Democratic candidate who can beat Eisenhower because he can carry the South. Said Russell: "With 148 electoral votes in the 13 states,* I only need to get 118 from the other 35 states . . ."

The next day, Russell flew across the border into Florida to get down to urgent business. In Florida's May 6 presidential popularity contest--and in a second election 21 days later to choose Florida's 24 delegates--Russell is pitted against the current Democratic primary champ himself, Tennessee's Estes Kefauver.

Four Blocks Away. Russell lost no time in taking aim at Estes' coonskin cap. Said he: "I understand my opponent has been here and addressed you . . . He's a member of the Armed Services Committee of which I am chairman. He is more fortunate than I in being able to stay away from Washington to present his candidacy. I have not been able to do that because I have certain specific legislative responsibilities . . . We would have been glad to have him with us to work . . . on important matters . . ."

Russell took note of the Kefauver campaign methods. "I have noticed my opponent in the role of underdog. He has referred to the machine being against him . . . He is doing pretty well with his operation. I read where he has twelve rooms in a hotel four blocks from the White House. I hope that's as close as he gets . . ."

Russell challenged Kefauver to a winner-take-all bet on the Florida primary, kept hammering away at Kefauver's sponsorship of Atlantic Union: "It will be a blow to the cause of liberty around the world to submerge the sovereignty of the U.S. with other nations." On his first day, Russell spoke to 7,500 in Gainesville, Ocala, Leesburg and Orlando, finished with a bright pink case of sunburn on his bald head. He planned 30 speeches in ten days.

The Governor Was Out. Dick Russell knew he was up against some tough competition. Kefauver, the man with few delegates but plenty of popular victories behind him, had already trudged through a good part of Florida with hand extended, and would be back again this week.

In Tallahassee, he marched into the state capitol to shake the hand of Governor Warren, who has been feuding with Kefauver ever since the Senate Crime Investigating Committee brought out some embarrassing facts about the political connections of gamblers in Florida. The governor just happened to be out. When Estes heard that a former Florida National Guard chief had refused to attend a Kefauver house rally, he was on the man's doorstep at 7 a.m. He was invited in, and talked over coffee for almost an hour. Said his startled host: "He almost convinced me."

Kefauver called in his 81-year-old father for a handshaking tour, and Illinois' Senator Paul Douglas flew down for some speeches. Watching this duel in the South, most politicians and reporters agreed that the odds favored Dick Russell. He is the regular Southern Democrat; he has powerful organization support (from Governor Warren, Florida's full congressional delegation) ; he was drawing bigger crowds than Kefauver. But the experts were beginning to get a little leary of quoting the odds when Estes Kefauver is running.

* Russell was using old figures. As a result of the 1950 census, the 13 states suffered a net loss of two electoral votes, now have 146.

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