Evening star., 1948-07-26
Platform and Rules
OF Progressive Party
Show Red Tinge Extent
By Raymond P. Brondt,
Washington Correspondent Of the
c. I..,,~ R..k

extent of Communist influence ir
the new Progressive Party of Henry
A. Wallace is clearly evident in the
two most important documents OF
the convention that ended late yes.
terday. These are the party plat
form and the party rules.
Candidates may come and can
didates may go. but party platform
Is historical statement of the
principles binding the rank and file
party workers and prospective
spokesmen of the new organization
The party rules determine what
groups will control the organization
and how they can attain their ends
The chairman of the Progressive
Platform Committee was Rsxford
Guy Tugwell, former New Dealer
and now professor at the Univer-
sity of Chicago. The secretary, how
ever, was Lee Pressman, former
counsel of the CIO, who has gen.
orally followed the twisting Com
munist Party line as drawn by
Moscow. The chairman of the
partys Rules Committee was Repre-
sentative Vito Marcantonio of New
York City, who has had an almost
100 per cent pro- Communist record
in Congress.
Comparison Tells Story.
How far the Platform Commit
tee was dominated by Communists
and fellow travellers is shown by
comparing the deadly parallels of
the planks affecting Soviet Russia
and the Communist Party with a
draft resolution prepared in May by
the National Committee of the
Communist Party of the United
States for presentation to a Com
munist convention next month.
The draft is lengthy, verbose
document that took up five pages
Of small type in the party news
paper, the Worker, of May 10. It's
summary of "the major issues con-
fronting the people in the present
election struggle" included these
paragraphs that can properly be
compared with various planks in
the progressive platform:
81. To fight for peace by checking
and defeating the Truman Doctrine
and the Marshall Plan; to press for
return to the Roosevelt policy of
friendship and collaboration with
the Soviet Union; to fight for the
Wallace plan for economic aid
through the United Nations: for
withdrawal of all American military
aid and personnel from Greece,
China and Turkey, and an end of
American military pressure in the
Mediterranean, as well as a halt to
the militarization of Latin America;
to grant immediate independence to
Puerto Rico; for fulfillment of the
Potsdam Agreement to guarantee a
united, democratic and peaceful
Germany and Japan;-for full sup
port to the new Jewish State OF Is
rael; for strengthening of the UN.
on the basis of equality and collab-
Grafton of the Big Five and against
the anti-Soviet Western military
bloc.
"2. To resist the militarization of
the United States; to oppose uni
versal military training, cohscrip-
ton and the colossal war budgets;
to fight for policy of genuine dis
armament, including a halt to the
production of atom bombs, destruc-
ton of existing stockpiles and es-
tablishment of true international
control of atomic energy.
g. To resist the reactionary often
sive at home and the mounting
attacks on the rights of labor and
the civil liberties of the people; to
repeal the Tait-Hartley law: to de-
feat the Mundt bill and all other
efforts to outlaw or prosecute the
Communist Party; to cancel Tru-
mans loyalty degrees: to dissolve
the Un- American Committee; to-
halt all forms of political discrim-
ination and persecution of labor,
progressive and Communists organ
izations; to stop the deportation
drive and other forms of diScrimina-
ton against the foreign-born: to
demand prosecution and punish |
ment of all Fascist anti-Semitic and |
anti-Negro acts and groupings, and |
to fight for legislation making such
activities criminal offense."
Documents Compared.
The Wallace platform distributes
these items throughout its own
statement of principles and promises.
The two documents, however, can
be compared as to Cd military meas
ures that would aid the Soviet Union
and (2) matters that would favor
the Communist Party here and
abroad.
The conventions Rules Commit
tee, under the Craftsmanship of Mr..
Marcantonio. produced set of reg
ulations that could give the Com
who are strongest in larger
cities, dominating position with
in the new organization. There was
a sharp debate on the convention
floor Saturday over these rules but
the conventions permanent chair
man, Albert J. Fitzgerald, president
of the left-wing United Electrical
Workers, gaveled down all objec-
tions. AS result of this co-opera-
ton between Mr.. Marcantonio and
Mr.. Fitzgerald, the convention ap-
proved a national committee setup
in which each State with 13 Con-
gressmen or less will have two ma
tional committeeman, while the
larger States will get one additional
committeeman for every five Con-
gressmen in excess of 13. Thus
New York will have six additional
national committeeman and women,
or a total of seven, while Missouri,
LOST.