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he £vening Sta?
With Sunday Morning Edition
Published by THE EVENING STAR NEWSPAPER CO., Washingfon, D. C.°
SAMUEL H. KAUFFMANN, Chairman of the Board
CROSBY N. BOYD, President
NEWBOLD NOYES, Edifor
BENJAMIN M. McKELWAY, Editoria] Chairman
A—26
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1966
Upset in Georgia
Although Ellis Arnall was the odds-
on favorite to win Georgia’s gubernator-
ial runoff primary, there were a few
people—not many—who thought that
Lester G. Maddox might just possibly
squeeze out a victory. No one dreamed,
however, that he would win by some 70,-
000 votes. And there are plenty of people
who are now asking: What does this
mean?
It would be easy to conclude that
Maddox, a segregationist who closed his
Atlanta, restaurant rather than serve
Negroes, is a beneficiary of the racial
issue. And to some extent he doubtless
is, especially against the background of
the recent senseless race flareup in
Atlanta. But this is not the whole story
—not any more so than racial disorders
are the sole explanation of this week's
Senate show of displeasure with the
way hospital and school desegregation
guidelines have been handled. Majority
. Leader Mike Mansfield probably spoke
for most of the Senate members when
he said that the disaffection was not
concerned with desegregation as such,
but resulted from a general feeling that
the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare had been moving “too fast.”
There is no way of knowing to what
extent racial resentment figured in the
decision of Georgia Democrats to cast
their ballots for Maddox. But it is a
matter of record that Maddox said little
about the race issue during his cam-
paign, His big rhetorical guns were
reserved for the federal government,
President Johnson, the Great Society,
liberalism, socialism and communism.
Arnall, on the other hand, was tagged
with being a “Washington man.” And
during the campaign he could not get
out from under a statement, widely
attributed to him, that “I am a national
Democrat and anyone who doesn’t like it
can go to hell.” :
So, hopefully at least, it looks now
as though Georgia will not be ripped up
one side and down the other by a gover-
norship campaign keyed to race in the
weeks which remain before the Novem-
ber election.
The Republican candidate is Repre-
sentative Howard Callaway, who was a
Democrat until 1964, when he swung
over and helped carry Georgia for
Senator Goldwater. Callaway is not a
racist, and he can be expected to make
his bid for the governorship primarily as
an anti-administration man.
When the runoff voting patterns
have been checked out, Maddox may
conclude, of course, that racial feeling
was the sleeper in his big win. But then,
again, he may not. He may decide to
stick to the formula which carried him
so successfully through the primary.
If this proves to be the case, LBJ
and all his works will be in for a fearful .
pounding on the Georgia hustings
during the next few weeks. But that is
greatly to be preferred to a campaign
that could undo the notable progress
which Georgia has made in recent years
in building a better racial climate.