The Wages of Moderation

In the 15 months of his second term as governor of Alabama, moose-tall (6 ft. 8 in.) James Elisha ("Kissin' Jim") Folsom has striven to the limit of his limited talent to keep the peace between the races. He opposed or vetoed almost all the racist state legislature's anti-Negro bills; he criticized the spreading White Citizens' Councils. Last January he termed the legislature's resolution of nullification "nothing but hogwash," but he let the resolution pass without his signature so as to avoid an uproar.

In this spirit of moderation, Folsom submitted himself to the voters for a mid-term test of strength, running for Democratic national committeeman in the 1956 Democratic preferential primary. Last week Alabama rudely turned him down. Folsom won only four of the 62 counties he had won in 1955. He lost industrial Birmingham despite the support of the leaders of organized labor. He lost his own native Coffee County. He lost all of northern Alabama, the state's traditional stronghold of relative moderation. The tally against Kissin' Jim: 226,738 to 78,174, just short of three to one.

The man who beat Folsom was another significant pointer to Alabama's hardening mood: State Representative Charles W. McKay Jr., 35, lawyer, World War II bomber navigator, chairman of the Sylacauga White Citizens' Council, who authored the state's nullification resolution.

McKay's way of campaigning was to call Folsom "one of the foremost supporters of the N.A.A.C.P." His victory was a grim political omen that would put little heart into the beleaguered moderates of the Deep South.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.