Evening star., 1946-06-05

clared him politically doomed and
pledged themselves to his destruc-
ton. With hardly an exception,
every one of the leading Wallace
for-PreSident boosters sank his or
her fangs into Mr.. Truman.
Naturally, this increased the dis
comfort of Mr.. Wallace, he having
Just before blithely declared that
Mr.. Truman would be nominated in
ls48 and he would support him.
Fundamental Trouble.
Now, II his friends are to be be-
lieved. Mr.. Wallace is a deeply un-
happy man, greatly perturbed in
spirit and with very dim view
OF the immediate future.
The fundamental trouble with Mr..
Wallace is that there is practically
no one in Washington with whom
he is In sympathetic accord. Con-
genitally unfit for the post of Sec
retary OF Commerce, in a little more
than year Mr.. Wallace has reached
a point where his press department
is having an exceedingly difficult
TIME making out a case for him.
AT intervals. it is true, a release
proclalmlng another Wallace re
1ofm' or proposal is put out. but
u Is forgotten in a day and the
impact upon the public grows less
all the time.
He has not, of course-and never
will have-the confidence of either
little or big business. Though re-
Gently he has been advocating party
discipline in the Democratic party
ne never has had the confidence
OF the regular Democratic leaders.
And, certainly, while his relations
with Mr.. Truman are personally
pleasant, he never has had his con-
ndence-noW, of course, less than
ever.
Perhaps none of this is surpris-
ing. but what is surprising is that
Mr. Wallace seems to have lost to
a quite extraordinary degree the
confidence of a good many of the
old Roosevelt liberals with whom he
once was a political and personal
favorite.
Inasmuch as Mr.. Wallace never
had the confidence of conserva tive
democrats or Republicans, this
would seem to mean that practically
there Is no group left anywhere
with any confidence in him. OF
course, things are not that bad
with Mr.. Wallace. He is still (ap-
parently) the blue-eyed darling of
. the C1O. The Hillmans and the
Murrays continue, as they should,
to regard him as an ideal public
servant. And the radical press con-
tinues to play him up, though not
quite in the way they did.
For example, he is no longer COM
pared to Lincoln and few now re-
member that Wallace speech which
was likened to the Gettysburg ad-
dress. In brief, hardly any one will
contend that Mr.. Wallace has not
shrunk as public figure in the
last IA months.
Attitude of Liberals.
The surest indication of this is
the attitude toward him of the
aforesaid Roosevelt liberals. Some
of these are in the White House
encourage; some are in the State
Department.; one or two are on
the Supreme Court: others are more
or less "at large" From these come
the most caustic anti-Wallace COM
ment. They say that his economics
are absurd and that the consistent
effort to build him up as the real
liberal leader tends to make the
whole liberal movement ridiculous,
But the chief reason for resent
ment toward Mr.. Wallace in this
group is because of his extreme
pro-Soviet stand. On every issue
and at all times he lines up on the
Russian side, which, of course.
throws him against the administra-
tions foreign policy and thus makes
impossible any intimate relation
ship with the President or Secre-
tary of State Byrnes.
1t so happens that a good many
Roosevelt liberals are strongly for
the Truman-Byrnes "f1rmness and
patience" policy. They believe Mr..
Wallace, though always with good
intentions, in yarious wavs js doino