Evening star., 1948-02-21
Wa|Iace's Campaign
To Hammer Home
His Vision Of Peace
Seen Following Political
Rule of Riding Good Issue
When You Have One
Bv Doris FIeeson

kuie or Noin9 5000 issue
When You Have One
By Doris Fleeson
Henry Wallace's campaign plans
are to pour it on and from the same
bottle.
The bottle is labeled Peace, Peace,
Peace.
Anyone who doubts that's a good
prescription doesn't know his po-
litical medicine making.
Anyone who believes that Henry
Wallace can produce peace is, &C.
cording to Mrs. Roosevelt, his pres
ent most telling critic, politically
immature"
However impractical the Wallace
vision Of peace Is, in hammering it
home he is following one of the old
est rules in politics: If you've got
o good issue, ride 1t.
The great Bronx victory which
puts second Wallace man in the
Housewife Marcantonio Is the
other-has probably destroyed any
hope of getting the wandering boy
back home with the Democrats. It's
psychological effects were immedi-
ately apparent.
Audience Roared Approval
From Tampa, Fla, where Mr.
Wallace was making speech
non-segregated-which 1000 people
black and white and Latin descend
ed, paid so cents each to hear-an
eyewitness reports:
"The news from New York was
tonic for speaker and crowd. The
audience had verve and Wallace was
in better platform swing than ]
have seen him before And
when he wound up calling for
peace, peace, peace his audience
rose to roar approval"
From New York came a cocky
statement by c. B. Baldwin, the cool
and inflexible young man from West
Virginia who began his political life
as a Wallace disciple in the AAA
days and did as much as any one
person to push him far further left
than Wallace once said he would
ever 20. He now is Mr.. Wallace's
campaign manager.
Democratic National chairman
McGrath, said Mr.. Baldwin, might
as we'll cease his invitation to Mr.
Wallace to return to the Democratic
Party" Mr.. Baldwin went on to
discuss the Bronx election in terms
that left no doubt he considers
himself a major party leader quail
fled to tell the McGraths and Reeces
where they get off.
Has Minority Votes.
However, Mr.. Wallace has not got
enough fly paper for the vast and
diversified country that is America
to justify the burgeoning third
party claims. In the old isolation
ist terrain where his peace issue
will have its greatest appeal, they
are too business minded, too con-
servative in their economics, social
views and religion, to swallow the
New Dealer who has moved far left
of any Roosevelt conceptions. To
the South Of course he is anathema
because of his civil rights stand.
The Far West has too high a re-
gard for self-help to admire Mr..
Wallace Fundamentally.
But he has now proved he's got
the votes in certain terrain-areaS
populated by minority groups with
grievances against those in power
and by the sadly underprivileged
people who are getting behind in
our economic system. Such was
the Bronx district where the Demo-
Gratis, in a striking failure of politi-
cal judgment, chose to dramatize a
by-election as test of Mr.. Wallace's
strength.
The misfortune of the Democrats
is that such districts have been their
strength. Unless they prevail in
them President Truman cannot
carry the pivotal, industrial, great
city States such as New York and so
cannot be elected.
Unlimited Promises.
Promises unlimited and blame
without stint were Mr.. Wallaces
appeal in the Bronx. For the Jews
he played upon the emotional Pales-
tine issue. For the Negroes and
Puerto Ricans it was their social
economic woes. For the poor and
careworn 1t was high prices. And
for everybody, the fear of war All
these ills Mr.. Wallace and the
Leftists brilliantly and Sticky dram
atized, with Democrats and Republi-
cans as the villains of the piece.
Mrs. Roosevelt wrote bluntly: 1T
is just a case of fooling people"
1t is technique that Mr. Wal
lace's Communist allies are adept in,
but from the thoroughly experienced
Mrs. Roosevelt came also warning
not to dismiss the Bronx incident
as mere communism in action. 1t
was:
'rI would say that this election
points up very simple thing
namely that the Republicans and
Democrats alike had better bestir
themselves to remove the peoples
two great nxieties-inf1ation and
the fear of war-or the course of
our Government in the next few
years may be surprising to both
parties"
Wallace Repaid Flynn.
Politicians know Mrs. Roosevelt
is an expert on the one third of a
Nation, a skilled politician and not
easily stampeded. They agree that
the Bronx election represents sin
gular failure of leadership. By
elections are normally a milk run
for a good organization, yet Bronx
Boss Ed Flynn's boys-and they
worked at it-couldn't get out a
Democratic vote while the Republi-
can showing was pitiful, even grant,
ing their weakness in the Bronx.
Mrs. Roosevelt, they think, has
pointed the way to the answers.
A footnote about one of those
little things that can do so much
to shape great events: In the Bronx,
Mr.. Wallace repaid with interest
Ed Flynn who was one of the group