Evening star., 1947-06-18
Ominous PoruIlel

Henry Wallace, in his Water Gate speech,
again resorted to the technique of attack
ing the President by innuendo. To men
Truman, in meeting major domestic
problems, need not manufacture emer-
gencies-they are here, now"
The inference from this statement in
the context OF its delivery is plain: Mr..
Wallace was implying that the President
had manufactured the emergency which
led to the PRONUNCIATION of the So-ca!led
Truman Doctrine of aiding countries
threatened by Communists Perhaps Mr..
Wallace believes this, despite the over
whelming evidence to the contrary. But
if so, why does he not come out and say
it in so many words?
OF more Importance, however. was one
statement which Mr.. Wallace made directly
and categorically. II am convinced" he
said, "that (the) Russians genuinely desire
peace"
That statement is the key to his whole
position and it marks the essential line
of division between himself and the Pres
ident and the Congress. 1t also points up
an ominous parallel between the things
Mr. Wallace is saying now and the things
that were being said by the critics of Pres
ident Roosevelt decade ago.
Mr. Wallace believes we can do business
with Stain; that if only the President and
Secretary Marshall will meet the Soviet
ruler and Mr.. Molotov in Berlin the points
of difference between our countries can be
reconciled and peace and prosperity
assured.
He makes it sound easy, just as those
who shouted down Mr.. Roosevelt when he
made his quarantining of aggressors speech
in 1887, made it sound easy to do business
with Hitler. Mr.. Wallace recalls that
Stain has told some visitors that he favors
peace and cooperation. And Mr.. Wallace
believes him. Yet there were some people
who believed Hitler, or who wanted des-
perately to believe him. when he said the
same thing ten years ago.
Mr.. Wallace declares: "The failure of
force to suppress ideas is nowhere more
clearly demonstrated than in the recent
history of Italy, where Mussolini stood
not long ago-as the mighty suppressor of
communism. Today, in Italy, there is
Communist Party of 100000 members"
True enough, as far as 1t goes. But Mr..
Wallace forgets that there is Communist
Party of 100000 members in Italy today
only because of the fact that force, a great
deal Of force, was used to suppress the
ideas for which MuSsolini and his partner,
Hitler, stood And he also forgets that
the world might have been spared the
ordeal of World War II if force had been
used to suppress and stamp out the Nazi-
Fascist theology before it assumed such
formidable proportions.
This is not an argument for the use of
force to suppress communism now 1t is
merely intended to point out that Mr..
Wallace is wrong; that force can be used,
and sometimes has to be used, to suppress
ideas that assume militant form and
threaten the foundations of our own
freedom
1t has not come to that yet in our rela-
tions with Russia. But the President, as
the responsible leader of 140, ,000, 900 people,
cannot indulge in the easy assumptions
which Mr.. Wallace tosses around. He has
to take into account the possibility of a
clash, and unlike Mr.. Wallace, he cannot
ignore the developments which indicate
that the Russians do not genuinely desire
peace.
That being so, the country should well
come the challenge which Mr.. Wallace has
flung down. He says in all but so many
words that unless the President and the
Congress reverse their present policies he
Will initiate third-party movement. In
the circumstances, that would have many
advantages. And not the least of these
would be to draw the lines sharply, and to
give the people chance to show whose
leadership they want to follow