MAN
WANTED
\JOHN J. SYNOi
On August 19, the voters of
the State at Virginia laid the
ghost of what once was Jhe 20th
Century’s finest, ahnoet-noble,
American political organization:
The Byrd Machine.
On that day, and for the ffrst
time in a generation, the Demo
cratic voters of the Old Domin
ion chose as their gubernatorial
nominee someone other than a
Byrd-Organization Candidate. (
Of the two then who contend-'
ed for the nomination, one was
a big-mouthed, demogogic, labor
lawyer type. The other, a politi
cal swaddling tfhose only claim
to recognition'is dubious: He was
a personal friend of Jack Kenne
dy. ' • > ■ \
And what of the Byrd-man?
He warn’t ' The August 19 elec
tion was but a run-off, really.
In the June primary, the “Byrd”
candidate — talking out of both
sides of his mouth — ran a mis
erable third.
Thus, what once was the very
kernel of Southern character is
no more; the Philistines have
overrun thr. citadel.
* • •
Eight yt-ars ago, a (political an
alyst wrote out the situation
as it then existed' in Virginia
politics and predicted, unless
the organization came back to
principle, it would collapse.
There was reason for the anal
ysis. It had been little noticed
by the press, but a shift of two
per cent in that year’s
(1961) gubernatorial election
would have seen the defeat oi
the Byrd candidate. Subsequent
ly, in 1965, the now-outgoing
Mills \Godwin won the seat even
handily, with a minority of the
votes cast.
In any event, the analysis was
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presented to Senator Byrd, in
1962, while be sat as an honored
guest and at ease in the govern
or’s mansion on Virginia’* In
auguration Morning; the morn
ing Albertus Harrison, the two
per-cent governor, whs sworn
in. Besides the Old Senator, the
gathering included the governor
elect (who, having business on
the capitol steps, soon left to
preen; Young Harry (now U. S.
Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr.); the
then-chairman of the Third
(Richmond) District ^Democratic
Central Committee; and the an
alyst. The five of them.
Typically, Harry Byrd saw the
validity of the arguments made
and offered to personally .under
write the effort needed to stem
the flow of things. Having made
his offer, the tired old nian took
off for the festivities. On leav
ing, he said: “Young Harry will
work out the details.”
And that was the end of that;;
nothing ever came of it.
The Byrd Organization, along
with the wind, has gone.
What happened?
It is simple' enough. At its
best, the organization was both
a temporal and spiritual thing.
Its spirit was thk will of the peo
ple of Virginia as embodied in
the Old Senator. Its temporal
power came from monied indi
dividuais — “business leaders”,
as they like to be called. For' 40
years, working in tandem, the
two gave Virginia such a govern
ment as was the envy of every
other State. >
Then, one day in 1956, some
29 of these “business leaders”
came in a group to tell their
leader they would no longer sup
port him if he persisted in his
policy of Massive Ressistance To
'Racial Integration. To that ulti
matum, Byrd replied: “I can’t
do it alone.”
The Byrd Organization (as op
posed to Harry Byrd, himself)
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SENATOR
SAM ERVIN
* SAYS *
With so many problems which
press for attention, Congress is
not prone to give serious con
sideration to any measure es
tablishing the legal machinery
to deal with a Constitutional Con
vention until U must. That time,
however, seems near at hand.
On May 1, Iowa became the
33rd state to request a conven
tion to amend the Constitution.
With several of the remaining
17 State legislatures still in ses
sion, and Deleware’s legislature
scheduled to convene in Octob
er, there is a .possibility that the
34th State may call for such a
convention soon. Congress will
then be faced with the necessity
of carrying out the provisions
of the Constitution in respect to
a never-before-used amendment
process.
began to die that day.
In 1964, the Noble Roman
made his last bid for a seat in
the United States Senate. He
carried every county in the state.
This past June, in contrast, the
gubernatorial candidate who
shouldered Byrd Machine’s tat
tered gonfalon, polled but one
sixteenth of the potential vote,
about sex per cent (actually, 23
per cent of those who voted.)
That,_ it seems to me, should
be a lesson for political aspirants
with guts, youth, and adherence
to the principles the Old Sena
tor espoused. The people have
not changed. *
There is a job open.
i Recognizing that the need for
s the establishment of orderly,pro*
- cedures relating to such a call
- might be needed, I introduced
t a bin in the 90th Congress to?
*. provide rules governing the call
, and operating of such a nation
al convention.
• ' No action was taken on
- my measure that session. Again
• on a prolonged debate to delay
' or ignore such a call, this, in
■ my judgment, could weaken the
i doctrine of “separation of pow
■ ers” by thwarting the mandate
3 of the Constitution which per
I mits two methods of amending .
1 the Constitution. These coequal
1 inethods afe by amendments
3 adopted by two-thirds of the
3 members of Congress, and) rat
1 ified by three-fourths of the
States; and by application of the
legislatures of two-thirds of the
States to Congress which shall
1 call a convention for proposing
1 amendments and the ratification
! thereof by three-fourths of the
• States.
' The impetus for the petitions
by the States who now urge a
[ constitutional convention ap
pears to be the decisions of the
j Supreme Court rendered in the
reapportionment cases and the
j subsequent controversy which
| these decisions prompted, Con
, gress has thus far .taken no ac
' tion which assures that an
amendment will be submitted
to the States to overrule these
reapportionment decisions, al
though the Senate came close to
achieving the necessary two
thirds vote on the 1965 andi 1966
resolutions offered on this sub
ject. Now, 33 State legislatures
have used the alternative meth
. od to call for amendment of the
Constitution.
The measure which I have in
troduced in no way seeks to re
solve the substantive aspects of
apportionment of state legisla
tures. Instead, it deals with con
vention petitions, their effective
period, their transmittal to Con
gress, their rescission, the Con-,
gressional call, the selection of
. delegates, the selection of the
presiding officer,'the manner of
voting, the proposal of amend
ments, and the termination of
such a body. My bill would es
tablish an orderly procedure so
that if Congress is faced with
a convention call, it may deal
with it'by known procedures.
The enactment of such a bill,
Shich has received careful com
ittee study, would eliminate
much of the ,procedural dark
ness which now surrounds any
convention call.
SHOULD HAVE STAYED
Last Thursday at about 10;45
Henry Earl Stocks of 1405 Cen
tennial Trail, Kinston, struck the
parked car of Stanly Heath at,
313 East Lenoir Street, inflict
ing on both cars damage esti
mated at only $125, but toe made
the mistake of leaving, result*
mg in his indictment for drunk->
en driving, reckless driving and*
leaving the scene of an accident.
BAD WEEKEND FOR HUBERT
Hubert Thompson of Deep
Hun route 1 was booked at the
polios station in Kinston over
the weekend on charges of
drunken driving and driving
without a driver’s license and at
the,sheriffs office toe was book?
j ed on charge of assault with a