Governor James F. Byrnes made a campaign speech at the rally of South Carolinians for Eisenhower, announcing his support of Dwight Eisenhower for president

Byrnes, James F. (James Francis)

South Carolina State Documents Depository

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Aclclress by 
Governor James F. Byrnes 
At Rally Of 
South Carolinians for Eisenhower 
In Charleston, S. C. 
October 21, 1952 
~ 
S. C. STATE UBRAm 
IV' fl.l 1 8 1992 
STATE DOCUMENTS 
Address by Governor James F. Byrnes at rally of South Carolinians 
For Eisenhower in Charleston, S. C., October 21, 1952. 
This is a new day in South Carolina. We meet to discuss the 
candidates and the issues in a presidential election. I am happy that 
here and elsewhere at such meetings, notwithstanding the strong convic-
tions of our people, they can carry on such discussions in good humor 
and with respect for the views of those who differ with them. 
For many years the leaders of the two major political parties . dis-
played no interest in how the people of South Carolina would vote in a 
presidential election. They knew that regardless of who was the candi-
date or what were the issues the few people who voted would vote the 
Democratic ticket. 
Four years ago the people of South Carolina at · long last realized 
that the Democratic Party has deserted the principles upon which it was 
founded. 
There is no reason why a man who voted against Truman four years 
ago should not now vote against Truman's candidate, Adlai Stevenson. 
In 1952, in order to place on the ballot the names of Eisenhower and 
Nixon, only 10,000 voters had to sign a petition. Fifty-five thousand 
voters signed the petition. 
That was a new declaration of independence. vVe have been slaves 
to a party label. Let us make Election Day our Emancipation Day. 
For the first time in the history of South Carolina a candidate for 
the Presidency during a campaign came on September 30th to ask the 
support of South Carolinians. The welcome given General Eisenhower 
proved that we like Ike. 
The Truman leaders in the State have time and again assured the 
people Mr. Stevenson will visit us. I fear he does not think enough of us 
to come. And I fear the Truman Democrats do not think enough of 
Truman to invite him. 
I have been getting a little personal attention. Last Saturday a week 
ago, Mr. Stevenson in Nashville, Tennessee, referred to Governor Shivers 
of Texas, Governor Kennon of Louisiana and me as "embittered apos-
tates." Before I announced that I would vote for Eisenhower, Mr. Ste-
venson had an entirely different opinion of me. 
The United Press quotes Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt as criticizing Gen-
eral Eisenhower for accepting my support. Her husband always solicited 
and received my support. 
General Eisenhower did not solicit my support. It was solicited. 
Let me read from a letter dated September 2, just two weeks before I an-
nounced for Eisenhower: "I hope I shall not prove too disappointing 
to you, both because of my long admiration and respect and also be-
cause of the insecurities I feel in view of my brief participation in na-
tional politics." That ig signed "Adlai Stevenson." 
3 
In view of that letter, I am sure Mrs. Roosevelt will now join her 
two sons, Elliott and John, in voting for General Eisenhower. 
On the same day and almost at the same hour that Stevenson was 
speaking in Nashville, President Truman, speaking to an audience of 
Negro voters in Harlem, asked what they thought Eisenhower and a 
dixiecrat Governor talked about at lunch, when at the conclusion of the 
lunch the dixiecrat Governor announced he was going to vote for Eisen-
hower. Mr. Truman expressed the opinion that they talked about tak-
ing civil rights from the Negroes. 
The news reporters declared Mr. Truman was referring to me. He 
purposely created the impression that Eisenhower made some promise to 
me about civil rights and I then announced I would support him. 
You know that I announced my support of Eisenhower on Septem-
ber 18, two weeks before General Eisenhower came to South Carolina. 
He did not have lunch with me. He did not arrive until the middle 
of the afternoon. He did not then, nor at any other time, discuss civil 
rights with me. I shall not descend to the usual language of Mr. Tru-
man. I simply say his statement is absolutely untrue. 
As to Truman's statement that General Eisenhower came to woo 
me or so lict my support, I shall next Monday night when I speak from 
Charlotte make some comments on who did attempt to win my support. 
In this campaign we hear some queer arguments. I have received a 
letter from a gentleman stating he helievccl Eisenhower the best qualified 
man but he did not like hi s bedfellows, Senator Lodge and Senator Taft. 
I shall advise that gentleman if he is going to get out of a bed because of 
Lodge and Taft, he had better look in the other bed before he gets in it. 
In that other bed he will find Mr. Truman. He will find Senator 
Humphrey who caused some Southern delegations to leave the Con-
vention four years ago. He will find Senator Moody of Michigan who 
tried to make all Southern delegations leave the Convention this year. 
At the foot of the bed he will have to pay tribute to John L. Lewis, 
Philip :Murray and Walter vVhitc , President of the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People. If he cannot stand Lodge and 
Taft, he had better not go to bed at all. 
One of the dangers confronting us is the danger of government dom-
inated by organized special interests. I believe in government by the 
people. I would object to a go\'ernment dominated by leaders of organ-
ized merchants and manufacturers and some racial group just as much as 
I object to one dominated by John L. Lewis, Philip Murray and \IValter 
White. 
T get comfort, however. from my knowledge that the average Ameri-
can is a man of independence. He will pay hi s clues to his church and 
his labor organization. He will follow his leader in religious and labor 
matters. But when it comes to voting for a President, he will follow 
his own conscience and vote his own convictions. 
Candidate Stevenson now is trying to run against former President 
Hoover. He argues you should not vote for Eisenhower because clur-
4 
ing the Administration of President Hoover twenty-two years ago there 
was a business depression. I recall the hardships of that period, but 
certainly Eisenhower had nothing to do with that depression. 
The Truman Democrat will admit that. He will probably say that 
Eisenhower is all right, but if he is elected, we may have a Republican 
Congress and they would enact laws that would bring about a depres-
sion. The fact is that when the Hoover depression occurred, the House 
of Representatives was controlled by the Democratic Party. If any 
legislation brought about that depression, that legislation was passed by a 
Democratic House. 
If they go back to a depression in 1930, they ought to go back to 
the depression of 1920. Cotton dropped Irom 39 cents in July, 1920, to 10 
cents in July, 1921. Tobacco dropped from 23 cents to 11 cents. \lll e 
had bankruptcies. vVe had suicides. That depression was during the 
Democratic Administration of vVoodrow vVilson. 
If we look back to the Democratic Administration previous to Wil-
son's, we find that in the Administration of Grover Cleveland as Presi-
dent and Adlai Stevenson as Vice President we had what was properly 
called a panic instead of a depression. 
Neither Hoover, Wilson nor Cleveland was responsible for those de-
pressions. It would be absurd to hold candidate Stevenson responsible 
for any action of the Democratic House in the Hoover Administration 
or for the depressions of the Cleveland and \lllil son Administration. It 
is equally absurd to vote against Eisenhower because of a depression 
during Hoover's Administration. 
If you disagree and think Eisenhower should be held responsible 
for the so-called Hoover depression, then you must hold Stevenson re-
sponsible for three wars that were started during the Democratic Ad-
ministrations of Wilson, Roosevelt and Truman. 
Now we have some safeguards again s t depressions-the Insurance of 
Bank Deposits, Unemployment Compensation, Social Security, and other 
measures urged by President Roosevelt and whicl1 I helped to enact 
into law. Yesterday Eisenhower again declared he favors the con-
tinuance of those laws. He believes in supplementing them with other 
social laws to make certain we will not again have bread lines in this 
country. 
While the Truman Democrats will not accept credit for the wars start-
ed, they claim credit for all prosperity. They would give you no credit 
for your intelligence, your initiative and your energies. 
They say the farmer should vote for Stevenson because he is pros-
perous. Farmers are receiving high prices, but high prices do not neces-
sarily mean high profits. They forget the farmer now must pay high 
wages and high prices for everything he buys. 
Those who work for wages and salaries are receiving higher in-
comes; but when the deductions are taken from your pay envelopes and 
your income taxes are paid, are you much better off? 
5 
I sympathize with the plight of the preacher, the teacher, the police-
man, the fireman and all those who live on fixed salaries or fixed incomes. 
The hardships they suffer are due directly to the bungling of the Demo-
cratic Administration. 
When the Korean War started, a ceiling should immediately have 
been placed on prices, wages and rents. Congress passed the necessary 
control legislation in September, 1950. The Democratic Administration 
did not put the controls into operation until February, 1951. In the 
meantime the cost of living increased month by month. 
Instead of enforcing controls, Administration officials have granted 
increased wages to group after group. Then they have granted an in-
crease in prices, which took from the workers the wage increases given 
them. 
To a large extent our prosperity is a war prosperity. The record 
will show that when World War II started, the price of cotton and to-
bacco immediately increased and wages increased. Again when the Ko-
rean \Nar started, the price of cotton and tobacco increased and so did 
wages. That was true of business generally. We want prosperity, but 
we want prosperity with peace. We do not want prosperity clue in great 
part to war, to the shedding of the blood of our sons. 
The other clay I heard of a gentleman who when told, "We never 
had it so good," replied, "That may be true of you, but not of me. Two 
years ago I had a son, an only child. He was killed in Korea." 
Let me talk about the Korean War. When we withdrew our troops 
from South Korea, we knew there was some danger of an attack from 
North Korea. In January, 1950, six months before the Korean War 
started, the Administration announced what it called our "defensive 
perimeter" in the Pacific area, inside of which area we would resist 
armed aggression. Korea was outside of that area. 
The announcement was that if a country outside of that area were 
attacked, the initial obligation would be upon the people attacked to re-
sist it, and those people would have to rely upon the United Nations 
for aid. 
Mr. Stevenson is quoted as saying that the men in the Kremlin 
thought the North Koreans would not be opposed. Our statement may 
have misled them. 
After our announcement, six months elapsed before the war started. 
We did not urge the other members of the United Nations to prepare to 
defend South Korea. We did nothing to prepare ourselves to resist an 
attack. 
We had only the occupation forces in Japan. They were neither 
trained nor equipped for combat service. They were outnumbered. 
They were almost driven into the sea. Our casualties were shocking. 
They now exceed 120,000 and are daily increasing. 
We are now drafting between 40,000 and 50,000 boys a month. The 
Secretary of Army, Mr. Pace, stated last Saturday that about 10,000,000 
young Americans will see military duty in the foreseeable future. What 
6 
does he mean by "foreseeable future?" If he means ten years, that would 
mean we will draft one million boys a year which is more than twice 
the number now being drafted. We ought to know of these plans. 
There is uncertainty in every home. No boy can make plans for his 
future. 
It is more than a year since we started truce negotiations. Now we 
know the truce was nothing but a communist trick to stagnate our armies 
while they built up their offensive power. Today the communists out-
number us in planes as well as in ground forces. Since the truce talks 
began, 6,000 American boys have been killed and 30,000 wounded. 
The South Koreans are doing their part. We are supporting 400,000 
of their soldiers. We have about 250,000 men in Korea. But all the 
other members of the United Nations combined do not have 50,000 men 
in Korea. Eisenhower says, and I say, they should bear a greater portion 
of the burden. 
Some days ago General Eisenhower suggested that more of the 
South Koreans should be trained to take over the defense of their coun-
try. He quoted the ambassador of South Korea as saying, "Give us 
n1ore guns, save your sons." 
The President and the candidate of the Administration immediately 
denounced Eisenhower as giving aid to the communists. They declared 
the South Koreans were not sufficiently trained to take over the defense 
immediately. 
General Eisenhower did not say "immediately." He did not advo-
cate abandoning Korea. We have been training some Koreans. Eisen-
hower says the earlier we start training more of them, the earlier we can 
reduce our forc€s. 
President Syngman Rhee states that only one in every four South 
Koreans of military age is in the armed service. With that force they 
hold one-half of the line. The Koreans want to serve with the armed 
forces. If we train even two out of the four eligibles, we can greatly 
reduce our forces. 
Mr. Stevenson is quoted as having said at Louisville we probably 
made a mistake in allowing our troops to cross the 38th parallel. That 
proves it would be dangerous for him to be President at this time. Our 
experts say that line cannot be defended. In any event, should the Ad-
ministration announce as its policy that our forces will not go beyond 
a certain line and will not attack the supply lines of the enemy, it would 
invite defeat. 
Eisenhower says we must continue to discharge our duty to resist 
armed aggression. But Americans are entitled to know whether our ob-
jective is to win this war. I do not want American soldiers to stand 
forever on the 38th parallel and fight and die as they have been fighting 
and dying during the last few weeks. 
Communist China with its hordes of people can continue that kind 
of war for years. We cannot. They regard boys as expendable. We do 
not. Never before have we engaged in war without the objective of 
defeating the enemy and making him sue for peace. 
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SOUTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRARY 
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0 01 01 0153844 4 
General Eisenhower knows what war means. Like all men who have 
been in combat, he hates war. He knows the importance of prepared-
ness to preserve peace. 
I want to see an end to what Mr. Stevenson has called the Washing-
ton "Mess." But the candidate of the Administration cannot clean up 
the "mess" of the Administration. Before be started on his Western 
trip, President Truman declared that Stevenson had to run on the record 
of the Truman Administration. Stevenson did not dissent from that 
statement. 
Truman is speaking daily at the request of Stevenson. I regret that 
Stevenson has not expressed disapproval of Truman's vicious attacks 
upon Eisenhower and his profanity. On the contrary he has praised 
Truman's speeches and begged for more of them. 
Truman's cabinet members are leading the fight for the election of 
Stevenson. If Stevenson is elected, Truman will call on Stevenson to 
continue his policies and his appointees. 
He will claim that the people have given a mandate to continue 
Trumanism. Stevenson will be under such obligation to him that he 
will have to comply with the request of Truman. 
Do not be deceived. Do not deceive yourself. In your heart you 
know that would happen. There would be no change in Washington. 
A vote for Steyenson is a vote for Truman and his Administration. 
I have spoken at length about foreign affairs because if we can put 
an end to the Korean war and the threat of World War III, all other 
problems are relatively unimportant. The question for us is which candi-
date can best lead us in solving this problem of war or peace, life or 
death. 
My personal relations with Mr. Stevenson have been very cordial. 
I have known General Eisenhower more intimately. During World 
War II and since then I have seen him in crisis after crisis . He is de-
cisive and courageous. He has faith in God and love for his fellow-
man. He is an inspiration to the youth of our land. 
firmly believe he is the best qualified man for the Presidency. I 
firmly believe he can do more than any other man to promote peace 
in the world and restore confidence in government. 
Because I believe these things with all my heart, I hope you will 
vote for Dwight Eisenhower. 
E 


Address by Governor James F. Byrnes at rally of South Carolinians for Eisenhower in Charleston, S.C.

https://dc.statelibrary.sc.gov/bitstream/10827/2186/1/Governor%27s_Message_1952-10-21.pdf

Address by Governor James F. Byrnes at rally of South Carolinians for Eisenhower in Charleston, S.C.

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