The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-08-02
By CAROLINE BRAMMER


On July 18th Judge Left Erickson
became a figure of national impor-
lance. The press of the nation head
lined his victory over Burton K.
Wheeler During the campaign for the
nomination on the democratic ballot,
Mr.. Wheeler tried very hard to tell
Montanans that the primary race was
the business of Montanans only. A
look at the press of New York for
July II, IS and 10, should convince
anyone that any state contest for the
senate or house is very much the
business of the other AZ states. The
senate and the house of representa-
tives govern the whole of the United
States, and every citizen is rightfully
interested in the character of each
member.
A good portion of the eastern press
contrasted the contest in Montana
with the one in Georgia, where the
man who got plurality of nearly TO-
900 popular votes didn't win the gov
ernorship. The New York Post, liberal
daily which Mr. Wheeler overlooked
in his blanket damning of the opposi-
tion as Moscow inspired, in an editori-
al on July 10, entitled "TALMADGE
AND WHEELER" said
"The people did themselves proud
in two primaries this week. Montana
democrats turned down Burton Wheel
er +. James Carmichael has won
comfortable majority of the demo-
cratic votes in Georgia's gubernational
primary.
Unfortunately, Mr.. Carmichael will
not be the next governor of his state.
Because Georgia's primary election
system is deliberately designed to
check the popular will, it doesn't count
votes directly but tallies them by coun-
ties instead
A Raft Of Rotten Boroughs
"As a result three counties with less
than a thousand votes each cast as
many electoral ballots in the primary
as the entire city of Atlanta (popula-
ton 302,000). And so Eugene Tai
madge, of the sordid Bilbo-Rankin
school of southern politicians, has
come back to plague his state, borne
into office on a raft of rotten
boroughs.
'As for Burton Wheeler, he seems
to have reached sorry end to once
brilliant and useful career. In his later |
years the great liberal who had never
run from fight against injustice be-
came the consistent advocate of ap-
peasing the worlds greatest evil-doers,
the nazis.
at was with pain at first rather
than anger that liberals saw Wheeler
take the path toward isolationism and
America First reaction. They hoped
he would some day see that the world
could not exist half slave and hah
free.
wheeler never saw that. In time
his zenophobia contradicted whatever
liberalism he still professed. At the
first opportunity they had, the COM
mon people he betrayed then turned
him out"
Campaigns Based On Appeals
To ignorance, Intolerance
There is another point to be made
of the two primaries. Both Wheeler
and Talmadge based their campaigns
on appeals to ignorance and prejudice.
Wheeler labelled all opposition, wheth-
er it be his opponent, labor unions,
liberal papers and magazines, or the
citizens who openly criticized him to
his face in Montana, communist. At
time when it is of paramount i'm
portance to the peace of the world
that Americans and Russians come to
understand one another, not an easy
task for two great nations with such
very different historical backgrounds