The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1944-06-08
News -.
BEHIND 80
THENH''!|M|l{$i;|}EEE!11
By PAUL MALLON II
Mr.. Wallace as an
Offering to Go
yAUL MALLON :.

Mr.. Wallace as an
Offering TO Go
The guessing as to whether Mr..
Roosevelt will pick Mr.. Wallace
as a running mate again has been
whetted somewhat lately in the
congressional smoking cloisters,
! but it is a rather dull game.
The frequently publicized move
ments for Speaker Rayburn or
Senator Barley as requirements
hardly represent any action or
any attempt at organizing fight,
but rather the preferments of
senators.
The AP and ms tried to con-
duct polls of the senate, and found
most democratic legislators yawn-
ing surmising Mr.. r. would prob
ably select Wallace as an offering
to CIO, and that nothing they
could do or say would make much
difference. In fact, most demo-
cratic politicos seem to have de-
Icied to watch their tongues most
carefully, and thereby have Gre
ated a strange situation, not un-
like the period of frozen silence
which prepared the way for the
third term campaign.
On free vote of the demo-
cratic side of both houses, either
Rayburn or Barley would run
far ahead of Wallace. A few
months ago, few legislators would
have hesitated to say so.
At that time also. t'aees Go was
highly unpopular Since then,
Go has not changed but its po-
litical action committee has started
spending the 100000 appropriated
for the campaign with some sue
cesses in the primaries.
The fall of Starnes in Alabama
and retirement of Dies has been
followed by defeat of Costello Tin
the aircraft workers district in
Los Angeles and the defeat of
Senator Holman for republican
denomination in Oregon.
Holman was defeated by for
mer public member of the War
Labor board Wayne Morse, gem
orally regarded around here as
not unfriendly to Go. The con-
gressional Interpretation is that
the CIO went into the republican
primary, as there was no contest
among the democrats, and gave
enough votes to defeat Holman,
who was not especially popular
anyway.
Popular Sentiment Unchanged
There is no ground for interpret
ing attitude in the nation as a
whole toward Go (the last meas
uring of popular sentiment nation
ally having been reflected in the
Montgomery Ward case). But
those who make democratic poll
tics their business have coupled
these events with Mr.. Roosevelt's
determination fhey Think to run
and have thus pulled blanket
over their heads, to do any future
business Hereunder.
Of course. Go is a minority
of minority. the lesser part Of
the union labor movement. and
these are thinlY voted primar-
les. What force il could bring
to bear in an election may be
something else again.
For the present. il has at least
100000 and an apparent ruth
less determination TO exert its
fullest political pressure (even
opposing at least one democratic
representative who has voted
with labor on all except two
or three remote issues.
Mr.. Wallace is leader of this
group, in the sense that he chooses
to act like talking custodian for
that residue of votes while Mr..
Roosevelt is busy with the war.
In dispatching him to China,
Mr.. r. said he was 'sa messenger"
not high sounding title Others
flying the same route have been
called ambassadors" and "emis-
saries'O, but Mr.. Wallace picked
up the title proudly in formal
statement. He spoke in the cosmic
grandeur of an Oriental mystic
with such sentences as:
"The. future of China belongs
to the world, and the world in
justice and peace shall belong to
China" whatever that means.
1t would appear wiser for Mr..
Roosevelt to stand with Wallace,
but allow the party to fight for
Rayburn or Barley if it chooses.
The president already has the
CIO which has no place else to 60,
but could gain votes and prestige
by pleasing the democratic party
men who are awe-struck at the
possibility of Wallace again, but
realize Mr.. Roosevelt has as close