Evening star., 1947-12-29
WAITING for Wallace

THE address which Henry A. Wallace Is
sSheduled to make tonight is being awaited
wath considerable interest, especially by
the strategists of the Democratic n1gn
command. For Mr.. Wallace, II he commits
himself to a third party candidacy, may
be able to do measure OF damage 10 tne
Democratic Party that is far out OF pro-
portion to his real strength.
Tn recent weeks there has been a sub
stantial falling away of Wallace strengtn'
An increasing number OF those TO tne
political left. who thought they had 1ouno
in Mr.. Wallace an instrument for bringing
nressure to bear on the relative conserva-
tfsrn of the two major parties have come
I'd see that the evil consequences OF tnlrd
partv ticket under the Wallace banner
would far outweigh any gains IN the
domestic field.
This is so because the main thrust OF
the Wallace drive has been against our
foreign policy He has made CONSIDER
able attack. of course, on the domestlc
palicies of both the administration and the
Renublicans. But the fact remains that
tie overriding issue which has been raised
bv MIR. Wallace is that OF our foreign poiicy'
and 1t has become clear that tnere can
he no compromise on this 1ssue' tnat
rnte for wallace is vote for reversal OF
the whole basic policy Of resistance 10
canomunist, aggression which has oeen
agreed upon by an overWhelmlng maJollty
ri our people. And in consequence FORMER
wallace adherents have been renounclns
their allegiance in more or less enolttereo
terms.
If Mr.. Wallace has secretly hoped that
he could bring enough pressure to pear
against the President to force retreat on
the foreign policy issue without actuany
taking the field himself, he has failed. For
the administration, through Democratlc
National Chairman McGrath, has an
nounced that while 1t would welcome sup
mort from Wallace next year, 1t Will not
change it's policies to get that support
This is a courageous and thoroughly COM
mendable stand 1t now remains 10 De
seen whether Mr. Wallace will actually
take the third party plunge, ano II So
how much damage he can do
The record of third-party movements
in this country is not especially revealing.
In 1924 the elder La Toilette broke WIN tae
Republicans and ran as the thlro-par'y
candidate of certain trade unions, the
Socialists and number of liberal groups.
He ran ahead of the Democratic candloate
in eleven States, but the Republican tlcKet
won easily. Twelve years earlier, however
when Theodore Roosevelt split with the
Renublicans and formed third party, ne
Toff In n0nIl2r
vote and threw the election to WOODROW
Wilson.
Tn 1860 there were two third parties
In the field and Lincoln won the presidency
with only 40 per cent of the popular vote.
In 1872 Horace Greeley had had enough
of the administration of General Grant.
He formed a third party and also got the
Democratic nomination, but he was showed
under by Grants second term bid.
A Republican split in 1884, however, had
more significant consequences. The nom
ination of James G. Blaine, who had been
accused of corruption while Speaker OF
the House, was offensive to some of his
party Unwilling to support Cleveland,
these dissidents split their votes between
candidates of the Greenback and Prohibi-
ton parties These tickets polled total
of AZ, 900 votes in New York State, which
Blaine lost by 1,149 votes. If he had
carried New York he would have won the
election
Whether Wallace can duplicate this per-
formance remains to be seen. His greatest
strength probably is in New York, how
ever, and if, as third party candidate,
he can throw that State to the Republicans
there would be little chance of the re-
election of President Truman.