The Wilmington morning star., 1944-07-25

responsibility for the personal views Of Mr. Pugier
and often disagree with them much many of
his readers. His articles the good purpose Of
making people think
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
CHICAGO.-The party OF unity tolerance
and justice went primitive in the last ses.
sions of the convention called to ratify Mr.
Roosevel's prior acceptance of his fourth nom.
inaton.
The legions OF those who would enforce
brotherly love with the heavy end of a sawed.
off pool cue found themselves mere playthings
OF passion in an ecstacy of the old party
spirit They wound it up in a magnificent
exhibition of double-crossing and trimming
merriy reminiscent of the long parliament Of
1924 in which Tammany Hall packed the old
Madison Square Garden and Wooed the proud
and sensitive Southern brethren with the
strains of Marching Through Georgia." Ha-
tired and suspicion were unconfined and half
a-dozen sulky aspirants for the vice presiden-
tial nomination were walking around today
asking old friends to be good enough to re-
move that dagger from between their shoulder
blades and only half-confident that trusted
hand wouldn't shove it in deeper.
The Democrats of the Southern tier and the
urban bosses of the North were responsible
for the first great political beating ever given
the CLIO and the American equivalent of the
IeHCH Popular Z TOnt at the ndnQS OF the
party which gave it being. This group, rep
resented by Sidney Hillman as leader of a
collection of Communist organizations and in
dividuals, set up convention headquarters and
boldly undertook to dictate the selection of
Henry Wallace to succeed himself. The South
is afraid of the CLIO because of its memorable
instructions in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania which President Roosevelt condoned and
Frank Murphy, now of the Supreme Court,
tolerated as governor of Michigan. The South
ern politicians had noted Wallace's expressed
impotence with Bill of Rights democracy
and his open fellowship with manipulateSs of
the Communist conspiracy in the United
States, all in the name of military unity with
Russia although Russia had protested to dis
own them.
And, in the actual convention the picket
line methods of the direct actionists of the
Clio were reproduced in subdued but disturb
ing version by the Wallace claque, obviously
organized according to the radical or COM
munist system of intimidation. Ed Kelly the
mayor of Chicago and the one democratic To-
cal machine boss who had slugged it out with
the CLIO communists in bloody riot and beat
en- them, in technical command of the
actual convention He had the tickets, the
ushers were his, and his police around Chi
cago should have been able to anticipate Hill
mans plans.
Nevertheless. the stooges who packed the
hall on two occasions were not Kellys people
but Wallace's and Hillmans. The sight Of
their big placards. mounted on sticks, was a
reminder of CORY riots of other years. when
the CLIO, under many of the same organizers,
also carried placards which were quickly re-
moved from the sticks which then became
handy clubs. In those fights which terrified
many communities, some of the sticks had
slots in one end in which safety razor blades
were wedged and became bayonets OF sort
The Wallace element had booed and issued
not requests or petitions but commands to the
democratic convention and the reaction was
the nomination of Harry Truman.
This Missouri senator has a soldiers record
from the first war to be weighed against his
long and knowing association in Kansas City
with the corrupt machine of Tom Pendergast,
to whom he once publicly protested his politi-
cal debt and personal devotion He is the
product of one of the most revolving systems
of vice, thuggery, larceny and other low crime
in American urban history, who accepted its
favors and support until it disntegrated of
it's own vileness, but he has never been sus-
pected of sympathy with the communists or
their fellow travellers in Washington, New
York California.
Had Wallace been selected the Communists
truly could have claimed that they had named
the man who would succeed to the presidency
In the event OF PRESIDENT TlooSeNelC ue1n1Se
or retirement during fourth term. True,
the Political Action Committee supported the
President too. But there were, in his ad-
herence so many other factors that it could
not claim sole responsibility for his success
The Democrats OF all groups had to accept
Mr.. Roosevelt. But Wallace lacked even the
unqualified approval of the boss, and the Hill
man groups support was so arrogant and
contemptuous of all other sections of the party
that it became at once Wallaces greatest
strength and his fatal weakness
Bv contrast with the Democrats pleas to-
the nation and the whole world to live in
neace and trusting friendship, their own con-
vention was a spectacular revival of its own
old ouarrelsone trait There are a number
of Democrats who leave town SO bitter and
so distrustful of Mr.. Roosevelt on domestic
issues. especially labor and taxes, that they
will give themselves the private satisfaction
of voting for Dewey The wives of three emf
nent party men are known to feel that Mr.,
Roosevelt ruthlessly obstructed h e Il hus.
hands careers and to feel that he has been
grossly inconsiderate and ungrateful.
Truman's selection was victory for the
ma chimes of E9 Kelly. Frank Hague of Jersey