Evening star., 1947-04-28

Let those who think we should
not be grateful to these bad bosses
Of Chicago, Jersey City and New
York, who frightened President
Roosevelt away from renominating
Mr.. Wallace as his running mate in
1914, consider that trenchant fact.
Let them reflect upon Mr.. Wallace's s
present views as expressed In his
British speeches.
Let them reflect, too, upon his
opposition to the American plan for
control of atomic energy as pre-
sented by the Baruch Committee
to the Security Council of the
United Nations. Let them consider
also the kind of Secretary of State
we now would have If Mr.. Wallace
were President and what there
would be anywhere, including here,
to stop the spread of communism in
the world.
Bosses Rendered Great Service.
Never mind about their motives.
No matter that they were undoubt-
edly animated by their inherent and
incurable political selfishness. No
matter that Chey did not know from
what they were saving the country
and had no notion they were saving
it at all.
Fully considering all these things,
the fact remains that few men in our
history have rendered better service
to the Nation than that trio of more
or less unsavory city bosses who
swung Mr.. Roosevelt away from Mr.
Wallace in the 1914 Democratic con-
vention and induced him to send
word down the line for another can
didate.
One of these bosses was Ed Kelly
then Mayor of Chicago, and in that
day very dominant man politically,
indeed. The second was that ruth
less. battle-scarred and widely de-
nounced Mayor of Jersey City, Frank
Hague. The third was Mr.. Roose-
velt's close friend, Ed Flynn, the
highly cultured boss of the Bronx.
1t was the emphatically expressed
view of these gentlemen that Mr..
Wallace's denomination would
weaken the ticket very greatly. He
might, they urged, cost it million
votes in the big cities. He might
cause its defeat. He ought not to
be named. Sd
Widely published at the time, these
things have rather faded from the
general memory now. Nevertheless,
they caused Mr.. Roosevelt to ditch
his first choice-Mr. Wallace-and
scour the field for new running
mate, eventually settling on the then
Senator Truman.
1t is not likely that, with the war
on, these bosses thought Mr.. Wal
lace could really drag Mr.. Roosevelt
down to defeat. It is likely they
thought he would make the fight a
little harder for them in their par
ticular bai'iwicks. And, certainly,
they had a strong personal distaste
for him and his pink and red fol-
lowing anyhow. o..
Reelection Was Assured.
Undoubtedly, but for them, he
would not only have been renomi-
mated but reelected. There is no
record in American political history
either of the weakness of a vice
presidential candidate defeating the
ticket, or of his strength electing it.
Under our system it is impossible
to vote for the presidential candi-
date without voting for his running
mate. With the voters, 1t is the head
Of the ticket that counts. The per-
sonality and record of the vice
presidential candidate become mat
ters of unimportance. Neither the
geographical reasons for a vice
presidential nomination nor his
home State popularity ever has
gained or lost the ticket a State it
would not have gained or lost with
another man.
1t is impossible to find any COM
petent politician in either party to-
day who believes the Wallace nomi-
nation in 1914 would have affected
the result: practically without ex-
ception they agree that if those
three city bosses had not forced
Mr.. Roosevelt to change his mind, |
the Mr.. Wallace so recently gallop- |
Ing around foreign lands, misrep-
resenting the purposes of his coun-
try. would be President Wallace,
sitting in the White House making
both foreign and domestic policy |
according to his own three -thumbed,
twelve-flngered, web-footed ideas.
So, when one considers what these
men averted, there is disposition
to forgive them for all the sins they
have committed In the past and any
they might commit in the future. |
What difference does 1t make that
they were not patriotically insnired2