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 among five.

The winner was spare and scholarly John Cornelius Stennis, 46, a circuit judge. In him, Mississippians hoped they had a man who would return to the hard-working senatorial traditions of Pat Harrison and John Sharp Williams. John Stennis, born on a farm in Kemper County, had made a bright record for himself at Mississippi Agricultural & Mechanical College and at the University of Virginia law school. He had made an equally bright record as legislator, district attorney and judge. He has never had a civil decision reversed.

Stennis staged an unspectacular campaign. But his earnest speeches drew good crowds. He spoke out in favor of "the Southern way of life"; otherwise, he did not mention the subject of white supremacy. Instead, he talked about improving agricultural methods and backing the U.N. Said John Stennis, a teetotaler, a staunch Presbyterian and a family man (two children): "As a Senator ... I want to plow a straight furrow down to the end of my row."