Evening star., 1948-07-25
By the Assoeioted Press


form OF Henry Walldce's Progress
sioe Party. The preamble Is q gen.
eral statement of the platform prin-
eioles. The platform iDas adopted
today By the Platform Committee
and Is expected to be approved by
the party convention tomorrow. The
preamble:
Peace, Freedom and Abundance.
Three years after the end Of the
second World War, the drums are
beating for a third. Civil liberties
are being destroyed. Millions cry
out for relief from unbearably high
prices. The American way Of life is
in danger.
The root cause of this crisis is big
business control OF our economy and
Government.
With toll and enterprise the Amer
lean people have created from their
rich resources the worlds greatest
productive machine. This machine
no longer belongs to the people.
Never before have so few owned
30 much at the expense of so many.
Ten years ago Franklin Delano
Roosevelt warned: THE liberty of a
democracy is not safe If the people
tolerate the growth of private power
to point where 1t becomes stronger
than their democratic state. That,
in its essence, is Fascism."
Today that private power has con-
stituted itself an Invisible Govern
ment which pulls the strings of its
puppet Republican and Democratic
Parties. Two sets of candidates COM
pete for votes under the outworn
emblems of the old parties. But
both represent a single program-a
program of monopoly profits through
war preparations, lower living stand
ards and suppression of dissent.
For generations the common man
Of America has resisted this concen-
tration of economic and political
power in the hands of a few. The
greatest of Americas political lead
ers have led the people into battle
against the money power, the rail-
roads, the trusts, the economic royal
lists.
We of the Progressive Party are
the present-day descendants of
these peoples movements and fight
ing leaders. We are the political
heirs of jefferson. Jackson and Lin
coln-of Frederick Douglass, Altgeld
and Debs-of fighting Bob" La Fol-
iette, George Norris and Franklin
Roosevelt.
With the firm conviction that the
principles of the Declaration of In
dependence and of the Constitution
of the United Sattes set forth all
fundamental freedoms for all peo-
pie and secure the safety and well
being of our country, the Progress
sive Party pledges itself to safeguard
these principles to the American
people.
Throughout our history new
parties have arisen where the old
parties have betrayed the people. AS
jefferson headed a new party to
defeat the reactionaries of his day,
and as Lincoln led a new party to
victory ever the slave-owners, so
today the people, inspired and led
by Henry Wallace, are creating a
new party.
The Progressive Party is born of
necessity-the necessity of securing
peace, freedom. and abundance for
the American people
Betrayal by the Old. PARTIES
The American people Yant peace
But the old parties, 'obedient to
the dictates of monopoly and the
military, prepare for war in the
name of peace.
They refuse to negotiate a settle
ment of differences with the Soviet
Union. ssss3s~sx 2 :
They reject the United Nations as
an instrument for promoting world
peace and reconstruction.
They use the Marshal Plan to re-
build Nazi Germany as war base
and to subjugate the economies of
other European countries to Ameri-
can big business.
They finance and arm corrupt,
Fascist Governments in China,
Greece, Turkey, and elsewhere
through the Truman doctrine, vast
ing billions in American resources
and squandering Americas heritage
as the enemy of despotism.
They encircle the globe with mill
tary bases which other peoples can
not h,,t uia,, q c tbrootc IN +noir fraa
dom and security.
They protect the war-making in
dustrial and financial barons OF
Nazi Germany and imperial Japan,
and restore them to power.
They stockpile atomic bombs.
They pass legislation to admit
displaced persons, discriminating
against Catholics, Jews, and other
victims of Hitler.
They impose a peacetime draft
ana move toward universal military
training.
They fill policy making positions
in Government with generals and
Wall Street bankers.
Peace cannot be Won-but profits
can-by spending r-increasing
billions of the peoples money in
war preparations.
Yet these are the policies of the
two old parties-policies profaning
the name of peace.
The American people cherish
freedom
But the old parties. acting for
the forces of special privilege, con-
spire to destroy traditional Ameri-
can freedoms.
They deny the Negro people the
rights of citizenship. They impose
a universal policy of Jim Crow and
enforce it with every weapon of
terror. They refuse to outlaw it's
most bestial expression-the crime
OF lynching.
They refuse to abolish the poll
tax, and year after year they deny
the right to vote to Negroes and
millions of white people in the
South.
They aim to reduce nationality
groups to a position of social, eco
nomlc. and political inferiority.
They connive to bar the Progress
sive Party from the ballot.
They move to outlaw the Com