The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-07-29
THE DEFEAT OF MR.. WALLACE

their backs on courageous liberal who has won the
love and loyalty of the common people everywhere
and especially in his country The tragic reJec-
ton of Henry Wallace TO appease the reacuonary
elements within the Democratic Party comes at
time when acts Of appeasement are most revolving
The Vaccinations of the Bosses Kelly Flynn, Hanne-
gan and Hague in bold alliance with Negro-paltng
b;pots Of the South have made martyr of Mr.. Wal
lace and will be difficult for them to explain away
the conviction of many millions of Americans today
that in repudiating Henry Wallace, the Democratic
Party has repudiated the liberal platform upon
which he staked his political life
Mr. Wallace has become living symbol OF Amer
ican liberalism and in the hearts of the Negro people
he has won place which few other leaders can claim
TODAY. 1t has been his uncompromising liberalism
which has helped most to maintain the loyalty and
faith of the Negro people in the present admnistra-
ton in the last few years He picked up the banner
of the New Deal when the President saw fit to
change it for the mantle of Doctor-Wn-the-Wa
Mr. Wallace stood firm while others retreated. For
these things he has become the idol Of the common
man and deserved a better fate.
These war years have wrought great changes
In the mind and spirit of our people. They have
grown weary Of legends, of petty patronizing con-
cessions, of brave words which lose their meaning
in mid-air. They are sou-sick of jim Crow of
public humiliation and universal scorn. Trapped
and bound by the circumstance of color, they have
seized tenaciously every democratic straw, hoping
that the day may shortly come when they may be
permitted to live with dignity and enjoy the free
dom for which they paying every battle front
great price.
To play cheap politics with these hopes and to
destroy the promises of the future is profound
mistake for America to make today Racial strife
and violence can destroy democracy just as surely
as an Axis victory and the roting which paralyzed
our major cities last year should be proof enough.
Those national leaders who fight against intolerance
and demand fairplay for all Americans are not mere
" championing the special cause of any one minority
thew are helping to save America from internal
disaster.
In the last few years two men have spoken out
boldly against the drift of America toward racst
maelstrom and both of them have been turned down
by their respective political parties. The Republi-
cans have eliminated Wendell Willke and the Demo
Gratis sold Mr.. Wallace down the river Because OF
the liberal record of the Democratic Party, regard
the rejection of Mr. Wallace as the more serious The
action of the convention indicates that the very views
which set Democrats apart from the reactionary
Republicans have now become liabilities Every 9TH
err New Dealer save President Roosevelt himself has
been crucifed, and if the Democrats believed they
could win without him. he too might have been de-
feated at Chicago.
We believe that unless the Democratic high COM
mand Immediately begins to repair the damage done
at Chicago in selling out Henry Wallace, this con-
yention may we'll become the turning point IN the
political fortune of the Democratic Party The silly
boast of Democratic bosses at the convention that
Negroes and Organized Labor "have no place to go"
may drive the minorites into the reactionary fold
of the Republican Party against their better Judg-
ment The wounds inflicted at Chicago will not be-
healed by salvng them with salt
The liberal spirit of the Democratic Party has
been its greatest strength and unless this liberalism
is positively champoned during the coming cam
paign, the Negro people will not ally themselves
with the bosses and bigots on a gamble that the
President will be able to whip the reactionares in
line and continue his policies which have won him
Negro support in the last three elections. Negroes
do not regard themselves political expendables
in the fight for power and they are not willing to
be sacrificed to maintain legend.
The Democratic pledges for world peace do not
obscure the fact that racsm is of the most i'm
portant causes of conflict in the modern world and