Evening star., 1948-10-10

around the country, is that OF the
beaten man who won't give up:
Wait till next time.
"The Progressive Party is here
to stay-election day Is only the
beginning-we are building a new
political party in this country, and
we shall go on building" This is
the message which, above all others
he seems anxious to get across to
his remaining followers as he travels
around the land.
Strictly a Wishful Thinker
Mr.. Wallace probably believes it
for he is not the sort Of man likely
to be bothered by the fact that his
message obviously Is backed up BY
nothing more substantial than wish.
full thinking. He is strictly a wishful
thinker. Two weeks ago, for exam
pie, he outlined q program for world
peace. It was based. he indicated
on the proposition that Americans
can have peace in return for want.
ing 1t badly enough and praying fol-
it hard enough.
Wishful thinking got Mr.. Wallace
into his present impossible situation
that Of a good" man who cannot
bring himself to a clear recognition
of the evil ends to which he is being
used. Mr.. Wallace is doubtless con-
tent, insofar as he is aware OF his
to rely on a new set of
thought-up developments
to get him out Of it. He probably
believes he can have his new party
If only he wants it badly enough
and prays for 1t hard enough.
But the fringe membership Of Mr..
Wallace's following-as opposed to
the Communist hard core"
which knows exactly what it wants
out Of him-wiu not be 50 easily
satisfied. For this group, the signs
are becoming clearer every day. 1t
is not only that they learn, with the
latest publication Of each opinion
poll, that the strength of this
progressive" movement has been
dwindling steadily since the party's
founding convention last June.
Logic Is Damaging
1t is not only that they know the
experts now expect Mr.. Wallace to
poll something like three million
votes next month-which, in proper
ton to the number of votes cast,
will be about third as many as
Fighting Bob" La Follette's Progress
sive Party got in 1924.
These considerations must give
honest, hopeful Progressives food for
thought as they contemplate the
future of their movement. But it Is
not statistics that are pulling the
party apart at the seams. It is the
logic of the situation.
It is the fact, for instance, that
there is nothing in the picture today
absolutely nothing-which would
lead a reasonable person to suppose
that a Communist-dominated party
or even Communist-tainted one
would be any more palatable to
American labor or American liberals
Of the New Deal school next year OF
thereafter than it has proved to be
this year.
1t is the fact that there is also
nothing in the picture which in
dicates that Mr.. Wallace would be
able to win back the labor or liberal
leaders even if he were, in a drastic
admission of his error, to attempt
to purge" his party of the Com
munist elements which now provide
its motive force.
1t is, In short, the fact that thi.
new party is not. and cannot become
the left-of center, the little man.
party-as Wallace himself and the
starry-eyed mass of his initial fol.
lowing meant it to be. It is, anc
will remain, a regulation. QUITO.
order Communist front organization
or nothing at all.
Facts Are Sinking In
Tie third party is not a dead
duck because of these facts; the
facts have been there ever since Mr.
Wallace got off to a hopeless start
by allowing himself to be persuaded
to 60 along with the Communists
instead of trying to work with labor
and the liberals. The party Is
crumpling up simply because these
facts are getting home today to the
consciousness Of all but the very
dumbest and most doctrinaire OF
the hopeful, unhappy thousands
who, last spring, made the Wallace
movement look as If it might carry
some weight.
The writer accompanied the Pro-
gressive candidate on the first two
weeks of his final, transcontinental
campaign tour, now in progress
which will have taken him 5000 miles
through Is States by election day
Everywhere we went, signs of de-
fection from the Wallace cause and
the decay of his political prospects
stared us in the face.
1t was to be found in an inter-
minable succession of determinedly
cheerful, grimly enthusiastic "ral-
lies" painful, drab little lunches and
embarrassing press conferences
where the wounded candidate, hit
ting back at his imagined oppressors,
on one occasion testify accused Q