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American Broadcasting Network news commentary about Brooks Hays FROM: EDWARD P. MORGAN AND THE NEWS Friday, November 7, 1958 American Broadcasting Network Putting the overplay of maudlin pollyannaisms aside, sometimes, surely, a man's finest hour really is in defeat. Ugly as the circumstances were, bitter as the consequences are, that hour has arrived for a sensitive, civilized Congressman -- ex-Congressman now -- from Little Rock named Brooks Hays. For eight successive terms -- 16 years -- Hays, a Southern Democrat, who gave that label a mark of distinction and not disgrace, had served his district and his native state of Arkansas in the House of Representatives. It was he who tried to moderate the differences last year between the president and Governor Faubus, and avert the emotional tornado that finally broke over Little Rock's Central High. For his pains, Faubus cut Hays down at the polls last Tuesday by a dubious trick which may even yet be challenged in the courts, though not by the victim himself. A man accomplished in breaking pledges even to presidents, Faubus did not scruple to keep a solemn promise to support all the Democratic candidates, Hays included. Instead the governor released his executive assistant, one Claude Carpenter, to help hatch a covert plan sprung in the last eight days of the campaign to confront Hays with a write-in candidate in opposition. "I fought like a tiger," Hays said afterward, "but it was too late." He got 49 percent of the ballots but his opponent,...

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Brooks Hays Materials

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University of Arkansas