Evening star., 1945-01-26

This is clearly UNDERSTOOD Dy the
Democratic and Republican Sena-
tors who are determined that if he
is given the job he shall not have
the power to move us in this danger
Gus direction. The issue in this
matter is basic one. 1t does not
matter what Mr.. Jones thinks OF
Mr.. Wallace nor what Mr.. Wallace
thinks of Mr.. Jones. The thing is
far deeper than that.
The real issue is whether the most
extreme socialistic and radical ele-
ments in the country Gncluding the
Communists whose organs are warm
Wallace supporters) shall have their
shining hero in post where, be-
cause of the control over almost
uncounted billions, he would have
more power than any other man in
the United States, save only the
President, who, under pressure from
the forces behind him, put him
there.
Issues Behind Fight.
Both sides in this fight agree that
the outcome will settle the domestic
direction of the fourth Roosevelt
administration. A victory for Mr..
Wallace will demonstrate the DOM
nance of the CIO radicals not only
over the White House, but over
Congress. 1t would launch us on
a new and wilder program of gov
ernmental control and spending.
A defeat for Mr.. Wallace would
establish the independence of Con-
gress. 1t would serve notice upon
Mr.. Roosevelt that it and the coun-
try are thoroughly distrustful of his
CIO friends; that they do not in
tend to be led or bullied into accept
ing their rule; that they regard Mr..
Wallace not as a great liberal"
leader, but as a dangerously un-
balanced and extremely impractical
fellow; that he, the President, no
matter what his political obliga-
tions, cannot command congress
sional cooperation in any effort to
thrust these Wallace-supporting
groups into position where they can
use the public funds to promote
their ill-conceived ideas.
AS things are today, it does not
seem likely that Mr.. Wallace can get
what he wants. Nearly everybody
agrees that if the vote on confirma-
ton were completely secret he would
not get more than dozen votes.
Opposition leaders claim today
they have 40 sure Senators against
him, which is a clear majority with
every member present. That means
that Mr.. Wallace would fail of con-
firmaticn if his name were to come
up now. No more heartening thing
to the business of the country could
happen.
But the complication is the bill
introduced by Senator George which
will remove the Federal loan agen-
cies, including the RFC and some 80
others, from the Department of
Commerce.
Passage of this is thought to be
sure, in that it offers an "out" to
several timid Democratic Senators
who come up for reelection next
year who are opposed to Mr.. Wallace
and do not want to incur the Presi-
dents displeasure by voting directly
against him.
Thus the chances now are that the
Wallace nomination will be held in
committee until this bill has been
passed and signed by the President.
The suggestion has been made that
Mr.. Roosevelt may veto the proposal
and that it then would be difficult
to get votes enough to override. But
in that case the Senate certainly
would reject Mr.. Wallace.
Better to Do 1t Now.
OF course, it would be better to
reject him now in addition to pass
ing the bill, because the post of
Secretary of Commerce is one for
which he still would be untitled even
after Congress has stripped him of
control over the loan agencies.
That would spoil the beautiful
dream of having billions to carry on
socialistic experiments, but even as
a routine Secretary the capacity to
harass and annoy business would
remain. Though that view is
strongly held by Senator Harry F.
Byrd and various other opposing
Senators, the prospects all are that
once the bill becomes law Mr.. Wal
lace will be confirmed.
It also has been suggested that if
the bill SO limits the Secretary's au-
thoritv that he would become one of