The union times., 1948-01-10
Labor Prepares Its Position On Wallace Move
Top Omcialdom Not Ex- pected To Support A
 Third Party


 of Henry A. Wallace into the 1948 political campaign has broken the silence of organized labor and lib- erals who have shied away from talk of Presidential candidates and concentrated on plugging for big registration drive and defeat of Taft-Hartley congressman.
 The Wallace candidacy for Presi- dent on third party ticket has shift ed political speculation away from talk of the comparative merit of the various COP candidates to the live lier topic of where organized labor will stand in the AS elections. Almost solidly opposed in advance to any Re- publican candidate, organized labor has been tacitly placed in support of Truman, whose nomination is consid- cred certainty.
 Under the glare of the third party move, organized labor is now expected to make its position known in sharply clear tones and to take a more posi- tive role in the AS campaign.
 AFL OFFOSED
 Indications are that top right-wing and center CIO leaders and the entire AFL high command will oppose Wal lace. Most significant labor reaction to date has come from the Amalga- mated Clothing Workers (CIO), which announced its opposition to a third party as soon as the Progressive Citizens of America called on Wallace to run.
 The ACW was expected to follow up shortly by withdrawing support from the American Labor party, a political coalition of New York state C1O unions held together by the cen- ter role of the clothing workers union. Withdrawal of the Amalgamated will be the signal for departure of right wing unions, leaving in the ALP only left-wing unions and supporters of Rep. Vito Marcantonio, who hailed Wallace as the only candidate today who IS adhering to the policies of Pres. Roosevelt"
 Wallace supporters, frankly con- ceding that he cannot expect SUD- port from most top labor official dom, are banking on his drawing appeal with rank-and.file workers and the Negro people to supply him with votes, estimates of which vary from half million to eight mil lion.
 Wallace IS also counting on results such as were obtained in the last Mo- vember elections by the Independent Progressive party of Illinois, which rolled up 3l3OO0 votes against a coali- ton Democratic Republican slate in its first try on the ballot.
 PROS AND CON
 Arguments for and against Wallace were summed up last week in an ex- change of open letters between PM editor Max Lerner and PCA Exec. Vice-Chairman C. B. Baldwin.
 Core of Lerner's position is his SUD- port of the Marshall plan and his be- lief that Truman's domestic record entities him to labor indorsement. Tt IS not sure that Truman is certain to be defeated" Lerner wrote. But it will be made true by third party ticket which will swing votes, however few, away from the Democrats in the crucial electoral states"
 Conforming a third party now as an ill-timed "adventurist move that can offer no redemption for the damage it is bound to do,' Lerner said: "A third party should not en- ter the field merely for its nuisance value. 1t should not enter the field unless it is strong enough to carry large group of its own candidates to victory. That is where I make my sharpest indictment against the cur rent third party movement. It has no mass strength and no hope of getting any" Support for a third party, he said, will come only from the extreme left and the COmmun. ist party.
 Baldwin predicted defeat for Tru- man in AS because he has failed to hght, failed to give leadership to a program that people will be inspired to fight for. Because the Truman leadership in 1o46 offered the people only vacillation and equalization on the price front and anti-labor proposals on the labor front, the crucial balance of-poWer independents did not show up at the polls Nov. of that year. Re- suit: the election to power of Re- publican congress and the defeat of progressive congressman"
 Unless the people are offered a real choice, he said, millions of in- dependent voters will again stay home on next election day. Bald- win further argued that "a Wallace candidacy will provide the stimulus essential to bring out large vote in 1948-without which the pro. gressive congressman, particularly those in the nations many margi.