Apostle of Apartheid

For some time Georgia's Herman Talmadge has cast a covetous eye on the U.S. Senate seat that Walter George has occupied with distinction for 33 years. But 77-year-old Senator George likes it where he is. As a result, Talmadge, frustrated, has been bouncing around Georgia, squirting furtive jets of venom in Walter George's direction, but not quite daring an open, all-out attack.

Last week Herman continued his spray attack with a 79-page book, You and Segregation, which, while avoiding direct mention of Walter George, nevertheless emphasized the fact that Author Talmadge is a far more violent critic of the Supreme Court's desegregation decision than Senator George, who has made a career out of moderation.

"Will you listen, Americans?" Talmadge asks in the book. "Segregation in the South . . . has proven itself to the best interest of both races . . . Nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent . . . easy preys to outside nations . . . exactly what the Communists want to happen to the United States." Talmadge offers to segregationalists a two-point program 1) the whites must organize from the county level, to head off creeping integration; 2) white voters must beware of that "candidate . . . who will make deals, sell us out."

The book will serve Talmadge as a very handy campaign tool. After one week it had sold out its first printing of 10,000 copies in Atlanta (it will be published nationally this week), and a second printing of 50,000 copies was on the presses. Asked what he thought of the book's reception, Talmadge beamed: "I think it's just fine."

In Washington Walter George kept his own counsel. He has scheduled eleven speaking engagements in Georgia for this month, however, and is expected to announce before Thanksgiving that he will be a candidate for reelection.

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