St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1948-01-09
LETTERS
Readers Disagree With
Editorial on Henry
Wallace-Third Party

AhS"uCio DAodBA CC WIN
Editorial on Henry
Wallace-Third Party
Editor: The Spokesman RecOr der
represents not only the leadership
Of an important Negro community
but also is in many respects the
best newspapers in the Twin Cities.
1t is therefore with real concern
that we read recent utterances of
your newspaper in regard to the
current political situation. 1--WE re-
fer especially to your recent edi-
torial regarding Henry Wallace and
the third partyD
1t is of utmost Importance that
there exist intelligent, progressive
leadership in both our Negro and
general population which does not
unthinkingly support every panacea
or every supposed Messiah that APP
pears on the political scene. 1t is
also of great Importance that we
not allow ourselves to follow all
political groups which make loud
cries for race equality, full en-
ployment, peace, ct cetera, until we
have carefully studied their real
meanings in using those easily
spoken slogans and until we ex-
anime the means they would use as
well as the ends they acclaim so
loudly.
Real advance will not come
through the programs of the Com
munists in the field of race rela-
tons, or in any other field. The die
tatorship Of the proletariat" might
possibly decide to raise the level of
Negro opportunity to that of the
white man, but it will very likely
lower both far below the present
Negro standards as far as free OPP
portunity and free expression are
concerned.
We are not Negroes and can thus
not make such a choice, but we be-
lieve that many Negroes would pre-
fer to attempt to gain freedom and
equality Of opportunity the slow,
democratic way than to have it
handed to them by a dictator. Stain
and his noisy friends in this country
may call it democracy" but a very
quick glance at the reality of the
communist ideal will cause intelli-
gent observers to wonder
Since the present cry of the Com
munists and their bedfellows is
conferred around the almost uni
versal desire for peace" we should
examine what they mean when they
use this term. We will quickly find
that it means essentially the same
thing the fascists and their friends
meant in the 1930s-appeasement.
And good sense should tell us that
the results will be the same now as
they were then. The parallel be-
tween the appeasement of 1888 and
that Of 1913 should be no less clear
because today's totalitarianism is
that of Communism and not NaZ-
ism, and because the great messiah
of the appeasers is Henry A. Wal
lace and not Charles A. Lindbergh.
We sympathize with the SpOkes-
man. Recorder in its admiration
for the things which Henry Wallace
and his hackers appear on the sur
face to stand for. Peace is what we
all want and race relations certainly
need improving. We admit both.
But we must not forget, first, that
with this great cry for better race
relations comes a blind adherence
to appeasement which is more like
~ to lead to war than a policy Of
treating the Soviet Union on her
own terms. And we must remember
that real progressive advancement
in race relations or any other field
of public policy is not likely to
come through groups who are what
amount to agents for a foreign
power, or who earnestly believe in
a panacea which is to be achieved
through a dictatorship.
Mr.. and Mrs. Robert Y. Fluno
$50 Eleventh Ave. S. E.,
Minneapolis Ia, MINI.
Editors Note: Any American
candidate for public Office who is
not a known Communist and who
openly advocates the end to race
segregation and full equality and
no race discrimination is certainly