Lurleen In "Fantasy Land9

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 13

Lurleen In "Fantasy Land 9

(From FRANK OLIVER, special N.Z.P.A. correspondent.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 23. There is a new name for the Southern State of Alabama as a result of the election there of Mrs Lurleen Wallace as the State’s Governor. It is “Fantasy Land.” Some of those who were in the State for the lady's inauguration last week said they wondered once or twice whether they really were in the United States or, alternatively, whether another Fort Sumter was about to trigger a new Southern secession. At one point Washington, D.C., was lumped with China, Russia and Cuba among the enemies of Alabama.

“We will not be suppressed by force —force from China, from Russia, from Cuba, or from Washington, D.C.,” she intoned. ' The voice was that of a Southern lady, but the words seemed to be the words of Mr George Wallace, who could conceivably have been his wife’s speech writer. There was a lot of symbolism to be seen. In the first place Mrs Wallace took the oath of office with her feet firmly planted on the eightpoint metal star which marks the spot where Jefferson Davis took the oath of office as President of the seceding Southern States at the beginning of the civil war. It should be noted that when important Yankees get to Alabama, Yankees like a President of the United States, they are not allowed to stand on the sacred star to speak. A large board is

carefully placed between the’ star and their irreverent feet i In addition the area in front of the State capitol was pretty much alive with Con-! federate flags, which contain] stars for just the seceding

states. And the assembled thousands cheered Mrs Wallace tn the echo when she accused Federal judges and the Johnson Administration of undermining the Constitution of the United States. Leading Southern segregationists, from other States as well as Alabama, were present for the ceremonies. The many floats that passed the reviewing stand were loudly applauded and were evidence of Alabama official thinking. One compared Mrs Lurleen Wallace with the Statue of Liberty, another likened her husband, George, to George Washington, while yet another proclaimed: “Uncle Sam is sick. The Wal-

lace programme will cure Uncle Sam.” There was one change from four years ago when Mr Wallace was inaugurated. Then the slogan being shouted was: “Segregation for ever,” but this time two groups of children were in the parade—one I boys and the other girls, and both were racially Integrated. Mrs Wallace in her speech i said more than once she in- • tended to carry forward her husband’s policies and he has been noted all through bis I governorship for militant : opposition to Federal desegregation orders. Reason for Running | She also announced that ‘she entered the race for I Governor in order to permit her husband “to take our fight to the final court of 'appeal— the people of the United States in whom rest

the ultimate sovereign power of this nation,” This has been taken as a semi-official announcement that Mr Wallace Is going to run for the presidency, probably in 1968. ( The Montgomery inauguration of the third woman to become a State Governor prompted a lot of fun and games in various newspapers and the “New York Times” had a leader about “Fantasy Land” in which is said that way down south in Dixie Mrs Wallace “firmly promised her constituents another four yean of make-believe,” and

wryly dubbed her Alabama’s Boadlcea. President Johnson and the Supreme Court and Congress, the paper added, have now been fairly warned that if they insist on treating Alabama as one of the States of an Indissoluble union where the laws of the country are obeyed why then “Her Excel-

lency will meet force with force.” But while the speeches in Montgomery were bravely segregationist, the events of the last four years were put at the backs of the minds of Alabamians.

Four years ago Mr Wallace, a man of short stature, promised to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to prevent Negro children getting in and his slogan was “Segregation for ever.” Negro In Office It hasn’t been kept that way, however. The University of Alabama has Negro students, many public facilities in the State have been integrated, and the first Negro sheriff in a century was taking his oath of office in a nearby town at the same time as Mrs Wallace. Now Mrs Wallace, the

Governor, threatens Washington because of a decision to cut off Federal welfare payments to Alabama unless it complies with the 1964 Civil Rights Act which has desegregation requirements. How she will “resist” is not yet known. As the “New York Times” comments, “in the ‘Fantasy Land’ of Southern politics there is no profit in facing up to reality,” that pretence about no segregation presumably can be kept up “as long as the Alabama voters buy it at the polls." The most biting comment

on the inauguration came in a “Washington Post” cartoon which showed the late Governor, George Wallace, relegated (in an apron) to the kitchen by the Governor and being approached by Negroes with a banner “Equal rights,” asking Mr Wallace if he doesn’t wish' to join the movement. -