SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



portant mission, he was naturally anxious to learn what- 

 ever he could about a number of prominent industrial- 

 ists with whom he must negotiate large contracts. 



"It's most astonishing," he complained, "when I ask 

 what sort of man Robert Jones is, everybody tells me 

 he is a 'swell guy.' When I inquire about Henry Smith, 

 everyone says he is a louse/ I admit that 'swell guy' 

 and louse' are brilliantly descriptive slang, and I have 

 come to identify them as a 'ripping chap' and a 

 'bounder.' But they give me no idea even whether these 

 men are tall or short, fat or thin, fair or dark. What I 

 should really like to know, of course, is whether they 

 are trustful or suspicious, frank or reserved, proud, keen, 

 gullible. Only by the most painstaking cross-examina- 

 tion can I uncover even these elementary traits. As for 

 anything like an apt characterization 



"I know," he continued, "that Americans are not all 

 either saints or sinners. Must I conclude that you are 

 all color-blind; that you register only black and white?" 



Whatever our national tendency toward extreme 

 simplification, Southerners admit readily enough the 

 inconsistency of supporting at the polls a party that no 

 longer represents their convictions. Yet too few recog- 

 nize the discord of principle and practice that rages 

 within themselves. They invent glib explanations, based 

 upon a variety of expediencies, which however satis- 

 factory as excuses, do not ease the inner tension. 



One of Mississippi's Congressmen was taken to task 



8 



