Evening star., 1946-09-21
wallace Firing Seen
As Late Move 10 Boost
White House PRESTIGE
BY the Associoted Press

of Secretary of Commerce Wallace
both as a restoration of White House
authority and as belated effort to
.extricate himself from a series of
his own mistakes
In requesting the resignation, the
New York Times said, the President
did what he could to rescue Amer
lean foreign policy from the near
disaster into which the events of the
preceding eight days had plunged it. -
A similar view was taken by the
Providence (R. ~ Journal Bulletin,
which said the president has re-
stored that unity and continuity in
foreign policy which was being un-
dermined by the unsatisfactory and
uncertain situation of the past
week"
When the President politely fired
Mr.. Wallace, presidential prestige
seemed to have reached the nadir,
commented the Omaha World
Herald Mr.. Truman had appar-
CIlUly IlduC dIl tilC CI4tlS pOooAbiS,
there were no more to make.
This, too, was the theme of the
St. Paul Pioneer Press editorial
which said: President Truman, in
dismissing Henry A. Wallace from
the cabinet, seeks to liberate himself
from the consequences OF an almost
unbelievable series of blunders which
he himself committed"
President Truman" editorialized
the Minneapolis Tribune, has dis
covered finally what the rest of the
Nation found out a week ago-that
the cabinet is not big enough to
contain both Henry Wallace and
James Byrnes."
The New York Herald Tribune
declared that from nearly every
point of view Mr.. Truman's
action in regard to Mr.. Wallace,
while it is not too little, is en-
phatically too late. It's merits is
that it Is decisive"
"Belatedly the President has as
serted himself and restored to the
White House its authority if not
it's unsullied self-respect," said the
Dallas Morning News, while the
New York News observed:
Frankly we didn't suppose Mr..
Truman had it in him to act so
decisively. It's pleasure to find
we were mistaken
To the Chicago Sun the Presi-
dent. in removing Mr.. Wallace
finally surrendered to the coalition
of conservative Democrats and Re-
publicans which rules Congress
~ while the Baltimore Sun
said "the sure result" would be
the martyred and hence more in
fuential Mr.. Wallace and shaken
and perhaps weakened Democratic
party"
The Birmingham (Ala.) Age-Her-
aid said:
1T was probably inevitable and
necessary that Mr. Wallace's res
4gnation would be called for Mr.
Truman had gotten himself into an
awful mess in this affair. But he
has acted now with decision and
courage in a difficult situation"
To the Louisville Courier Journal
the president did yesterday what he
should have done at the beginning" :"
LAS private citizen, he tMr. Wal
lace) will be in a position to desagree
at will and his opposition can even
serve healthy purpose" said the
Atlanta Constitution. From a par
tisan standpoint, of course, Demo-
cratic prospects may well have been
injured by the necessary showdown" :"
In Los Angeles, the Times said the
President, "by waiting more than a
week makes himself sorry
figure in the eyes of the Nation and
the world, and his prestige has been
irreparably damaged If there is
any more wobbling by the President,
only the resignation of Harry S.
Truman himself and the succession
of James F. Byrnes to the presidency
could save us from a foreign policy
disaster
The st. Louis Post Dispatch said
AT last he (Mr Truman) has taken
the best action open to him I"
to serve notice on the world that the
United States Government has but
one foreign policy
If from now on the President
listens more to his responsible aides
and less to his political manipula-
tors this country may regain some
of the prestige it has lost said the
Detroit Free Press. The amends he
(Mr. Truman) has made come late,
but they may undo something of the
damage he has done"
The Richmond (Va.) News Leader
commented that the President Took
his stand on foreign policy" and in
the same city the Times Dispatch
said the custer means not only
that our foreign affairs are back on
something like even keel again, but
it also means that important left
wing support may be fast leaving
the party on the domestic 'front.'
Whatever Mr.. Wallace may do
editorialized the Salt Lake Tribune,
"or whatever following he may en-
list with the aid of Soviet sympa-
uhizers, there is no question but the
administration is better off without
him"