Evening star., 1944-09-06

sessed Of wisdom, courage and char
acter foreign to his system. Such
men are devoid Of sensitiveness and
being overplayed does them no dam
Age-quite the contrary. They dc
not really fool themselves, but they
do fool q good many undiscerning
people.
1t is different with the sincere
man-particularly sincere man
who has certain limitations and yet
burns with the inner flame Of the
born reformer. It is not good at
all for such a man to be over
played.
For what occurs then is that he
takes the whole business with deep
seriousness and pretty soon begins
to believe he looks like the lovely
picture his friends have painted
or, anyhow, he spends his time try
ing to look like that picture. In
evitably he gets out of focus.
This is what happened to Vice
President Henry Wallace few
years ago. His friends were respon-
sible. They gave him large over
dose Of praise then, and there are
signs now they are preparing to
overdose him again.
Groomed for Presidency.
Before we got into the war the
little group Of advanced New Deal
ers with whom Mr.. Wallace had
trained began to groom him for the
presidency. And certain evidence OF
favor from Mr.. Roosevelt seemed
ground for holding that Mr.. Wal
lace was his preference for his sue
cessor. There never was any real
ground for this assumption, but 1t
seemed plausible.
At any rate, Mr.. Wallace made
q speech which threw his friends
into ecstasies. 1t was likened to the
Gettysburg address. He was hailed
as a second Lincoln and labeled as
the great liberal leader of the coun-
try" 1t was a terrific case of over
playing though 1t would not have
been so bad but for Mr.. Wallace's
efforts to measure up. From then
on his speeches were all based on
the assumption that he really was
the great liberal leader"
After a while this began not to
sit so we'll with the White House
aides and the Wallace campaign
begged down very quickly when It
became clear that Mr.. Roosevelt's
real choice for his SUCCESSOR was
Mr.. Roosevelt. ,--, q
The notion that Mr.. Roosevelt had
q special fondness for Mr.. Wallace
was badly damaged, too, when the
President sustained Mr.. Jesse Jones
in his feud with Mr.. Wallace and
shot the latter's so-called Board of
Economic Welfare from under him.
For d while "the great liberal
leader" was somewhat subdued, but
his friends did not let him stay
that way. His campaign for re-
nomination, supported by the CIO
and all the radical organs in the
country, got under way.
Again hailed as the great liberal
leader" Mr.. wallace responded with
a series OF speeches assailing big
business and the railroads and pro-
claiming himself the champion Of
the common man."
In all this he was entirely sin
cere. However, the general response
was not favorable. Mr.. Wallace
gained a reputation of being an
extreme and somewhat unbalanced
radical whom 1t would be very bad
to have in the White House-if any
thing happened to Mr.. Roosevelt.
To such an extent did this feel
ing spread, that Mr.. Roosevelt's
political wheel horses, svch as Eddie
Kelly of Chicago, insisted that the
denomination of Mr.. Wallace might
rost him a million votes. In con-
.equence, Mr. Wallace, honest, sin
cere and full of noble impulses, was
ditched by the President-for purely
selfish and sordid reasons.
Friends Kept in Line.
It was a dreadful blow to Mr..
Wallace and his friends, but they
were all so completely committed
to Mr.. Roosevelt that they could not
afford to get mad and denounce
him. Like Mr.. Wallace, they just
had to keep in line.
But this reverse only discouraged
the Wallace group for a short while.
Already another drive to everyday
him has begun. His boosters In the
radical press insist that he now has
a larger personal following than
ever before which, Of course, is nom
sense. The CIO publicity agencies,
the liberal columnists and the
organs of the Communist party all
sing the same tune.
Despite the treachery which sunk
him at Chicago, Mr. Wallace, they
say, is still the hope Of the liber-
ais" Moreover, though he will sup
port Mr.. Roosevelt in this campaign,
in the future Mr. Wallace will not