The Augusta Courier

Thurmond Scores Kennedy's Action on Mississippi Case

Senator Strom Thurmond, in a speech to the area Exchange Clubs, at Greenville, South Carolina, on October 4, 1962, condemned the action of the federal government in Mississippi and says that the government's action there is in stark contrast to the administration's failure to arrest all Communists in this country who have refused to register as tools of Moscow as ordered by the Supreme Court.

He further said that the action of the administration in Mississippi is in stark contrast to the failure of the federal government to get the Communists out of Cuba.

In his speech, he said:

Some misguided leaders and advisers in government, whose principal aim for government seems to be the creation of a socialistic equalitarian welfare state, would lead our people to believe that the wave of the future is socialism—call it democratic socialism as Mr. Schlesinger has dubbed it, or Fabian socialism as the British have named it—and that we can have this "pie in the sky" state, and still maintain our liberties. As a matter of fact, however, capitalism, which is no more and no less than economic liberty, is the only economic system which will work in a free society. Let us not forget that liberty can be preserved only when it is decentralized in the hands of the people and local government, and not in the hands of a bureaucracy of elites who rule from an all-powerful central government in Washington.

Enslavement of People

The current situation in Mississippi illustrates only too clearly the dangers of usurpation of power by the National Government and also the possibilities of oppression which exist even for free people under the rule of a powerful central government. As in Little Rock—except even more so—the people of Mississippi have seen the cold steel blades of bayonets thrust at them—in an arrogant, shocking, and completely unconstitutional show of national force and power. This was done to work the unconstitutional will of the national courts against strong public opinion in a sovereign State which sought to retain its constitutional control over its own educational institutions. Also, this show of force was designed to serve as a dagger at the throats of other States including South Carolina, which might wish to flash a bit of its constitutional authority over education. These abominable actions in Mississippi on the part of the National Government stand in stark contrast to the Administration's failure to even send marshals to arrest all communists in this country who have refused to comply with the Supreme Court order to register as "tools of Moscow." These actions also stand in stark contrast to the refusal of the Administration to take effective actions to decontaminate from the western hemisphere the real enemy—which is in Cuba. This enemy of the American people, the forces of world communism, continues to build a communist arms and propaganda arsenal 90 miles off our shores. However, we do not mass the troops, even for a show of force against Cuban communism, which is being manipulated