The midland journal., 1946-10-11
News "a
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Released by Western Newspaper Union.
WALLACE SPEECH MEANT ONLY
TO INFLUENCE N. Y. PRIMARY

WALLACE SPEECH MEANT ONLY
TO INFLUENCE N. Y. PRIMARY
WASHINGTON. - The inside on
the Byrnes Stuttgart speech was
that it was made to influence the
German elections. The inside on
the Wallace New York speech was
that it was made to influence the
Communists in the New York cleo
ton. Unhappily the twain met.
President Truman, being caught on
both sides of the same question,
finally had to put Wallace out of his
cabinet.
Mr.. Wallace has told his audi
ence, assembled under the BAN
ner of the National Citizens Po-
litical Action committee (which
Is a CIO political holding COM
pany created to get around the
law limiting direct labor con-
tributions in political efforts)
and the Independent Citizens
Committee of the Arts, Sciences
and Professions, that MIR. Tru-
man had "just two days ago
read these words and said they
represented the policy of his
administration"
Now Wallace, then cabineteer Of
commerce for Mr.. Truman, was re-
ferring probably only to his own
words about not being pro-Russian
or pro-British, but he let the audi
ence know the President had gone
over the speech, and he did not say
the President had cut out anything.
TAKE FLOWERS, DUCK BRICKS
This was blunder. Customarily,
a cabinet officer only takes blame
for everything a President does
wrong. The people are not supposed
to know a President ever makes a
mistake. Cabinet officers are chos-
en- as shielding goats, among 9TH
er reasons. Rare, indeed, is the
one so bold as to profess his speech
has been read over by the Presi-
dent. OF course, Presidents fire.
quently have read these speeches
of cabinet officers in advance, but
quietly, so no one can prove it. The
President usually keeps himself in
a position to accept congratulatory
flowers later if the speech goes
over well, but to duck and say he
never heard of it, if the bricks start
to fly.
The blunder only started at
those points. Mr.. Wallace had
no business making a foreign
know any more about it, pre-
sumably, than about COM
merce, although he was secre-
tary Of commerce, and might
be assumed to speak with au-
thOrity on the latter subject.
When his speech laid down for
eign policy in conflict with the
policy Mr.. Byrnes has been
building up for more than
year, with day and night work,
the protests of MIR. Byrnes could
be heard anonymously through
the press around the world.
Now Mr.. Byrnes had been doing
right well with his foreign policy.
At least he won his election. The
returns from the British zone
showed victory for the Christian
Democrats, while the Communists
ran last.
What Mr.. Wallace did to the
Dewey election in New York City
will not be ascertained for certain
until November, but he did not win
any votes in Moscow. His plan to
set up two worlds of influence, one
Moscow's and one anti-British and
critical of our friends on our side,
was Immediately rejected by the
Moscow radio. It did not even
carry what he said, not recognizing
that Wallace was proposing a new
anti-Byrnes foreign policy. The
Moscow English language broad
cast (it may not even have been
mentioned in the Russian), said
Il quote:) cat large political rally
in New York City, the United States
secretary of commerce and Senator
Pepper demanded return to
Roosevelt's foreign policy.
The audience loudly applauded
Wallace's condemnation of imperi-
alism but punctuated his remarks
against the USSR with cries of dis
approval"
What Wallace did to intellectual
liberal thought was chaotic. I will
give you one example In his fifth
paragraph he said: up till now
peace has been negative and I'M
exciting" In the next breath, two
paragraphs later (honest to good
ness, you can look it up: )"Mod-
ern inventions have made peace the
most exciting thing in the world"
Is the peace exciting or is it un-
exciting? There you have Mr.. Wal
lace firmly maintaining both sides
of the question, only a paragraph
awav from himself in both dirac.