Strictly from Dixie

The Senate chamber had been as peaceful as a henhouse at laying time. Hardly a head was turned as New Mexico's harmless-looking Democratic Senator Dennis Chavez rose and said: "I move that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. 101." Too late, his startled colleagues realized that a fox had gotten loose in their midst--S. 101 was the Fair Employment Practice bill which Southern Senators mortally hate and fear.

Alabama's Senator Lister Hill came out of his chair like a rooster flapping for the high roost, began squawking in protest. But Chavez had successfully brought off a slick parliamentary maneuver.* A vote was taken. The motion passed, 49 to 17. The FEPC fight was out in the open.

Georgia's ordinarily quiet Walter F. George stood, livid with rage, to cry: "If that is all that Harry Truman has to offer, God help the Democratic Party in 1946 and 1948!" Boiling at the idea of giving a Negro a white man's wage, Southern Senators planned a filibuster which would tie up all other legislation for weeks--or months.

The delaying action began as soon as the Senate convened the next day. Louisiana's paunchy John H. Overton announced that he had noted "a number of errors" in the Congressional Journal, asked that it be read aloud. As soon as the clerks began to drone he began to interrupt--commas and semicolons, he believed, had been improperly used. Genially, wordily, he then discussed old Southern religion and kindred matters. He was still at it when the Senate recessed for the week.

Meanwhile the big guns of the Southern delegation had been gathering material for the battle to come. Mississippi's roundheaded Senator James Eastland swore darkly to talk "two years if necessary." His fellow Mississippian, Theodore ("The Man") Bilbo was less rash. He would speak twice--"for 30 days each time."

* Senators of both parties had agreed not to introduce controversial legislation until Thursday, the day originally scheduled for the President's State of the Union message. When Thursday came, but no message, most Senators assumed that the agreement was still in force. Senator Chavez argued successfully that the truce had expired. Moreover, he brought up the FEPC bill during the "morning hour" when debate on motions is prohibited by Senate rules, thus forcing an immediate vote before Southern Senators could marshal enough members to defeat him.

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