ELECTIONS: More than Magnolias

In & out of Mississippi, cheers went up. Cried the Delta Democrat-Times: "Mississippi has proved that she is not foredoomed to follow the mongers of ill will." Echoed the New York Herald Tribune: "Now the confirmation is at hand . . . that Mississippi [has] more to offer than Bilboism, 'magnolias and white supremacy."

Mississippi voters had given ranting old Congressman John E. Rankin, last of their nationally notorious demagogues, the worst beating of his career. In a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Theodore G. Bilbo, John Rankin finished fifth...