Evening star., 1948-09-05

sunday, LenQeQ 10 regard IL as
rather silly political stunt, unlikely
to net him any advantage. The
event has proved them wrong.
There is no question that the "trip
has been a victory for The Progress
sive candidate.
He has been able to dramatic the
issue of race segregation as a mil
lion words could not have drama
tized it. He could not lose in this.
When he held an ursegregated
meeting in an area where there is
no sucn thing as an unsegregaJed
meeting, it was dramatic When he
refused to speak because local au-
thorities had enforced segregation
in his audience, that was dramatic,
too.
Undoubtedly, he put the segre-
gated South in position where,
for better or worse, it will have to
think through its problem once
again.
No less important is the fact that
Mr.. Wallace was able to accomplish
this result without precipitating real
trouble. His wake was strewn with
broken egg shells, but there were
no broken heads.
There was no race riot. Once, at
Durham, N. c., there was f1sticuffs
between Mr.. Wallace's white admir-
ers and a gang of white hecklers.
No Negro was involved.
Victory for Wallace.
This was victory for Mr.. WAL
lace. One real race riot ascribed
to him could well have ruined him.
proving correct the suspicion of
some of his critics that this was
what-as tool Of the Communists
he wanted to produce. On the
contrary, Mr.. Wallace not only left
the South without precipitating i'm
portant trouble-he also was able
to demonstrate that he did not want
trouble.
There were other benefits. In the
early days Of the trip, the Hooligans
in his audiences succeeded in max
ing the former Vice President ap-
pear, for the first time, in a martyr
role appealing to all but the hope
lessly bigoted. The egg throwers,
the shouter- downers, the wits who
beloved queries as to the color of
his father-they all handed him
thousands Of words of such favor
able publicity as few presidential
candidates are fortunate enough to
get.
1t was inevitable. There was a
man standing before an insulting
mob, trying to say something while
egg yolks oozed down his neck and
soaked into his shirt collar. No
matter how foolish or dangerous
the things he wanted to say-in
that setting, he was right and they
were wrong. Most thoughtful peo-
pie around the land were forced
to acknowledge it, and the ac-
acknowledgement was victory for
Mr.. Wallace.
Turned Other Cheek.
So avid was the public interest
in the indignities to which the cam
didate was being subjected that later
in the tour, when the indignities
ceased, that too was news. By turn
ing the other cheek, 1t appeared, the
former Vice President had made
his point.
One of the biggest gains Of the
Southern trip lay in the fact that
so long as it continued, the issue OF
Communist influence in the new
party faded into the background.
Wisely, in his speeches, Mr.. Wallace
fostered this effect by barely touch
ing on such subjects as Russian
American relations and the Mar
shall plan.
He stuck close to home. The
South must develop. 1t must have
more industry, better agriculture.
The Federal government should
foot the bill-four billion dollars
would do the trick, he thought,
There should be more Tennessee
Valley Authorities, more schools and
hospitals, more fertilizer. The
Southerners should pull together to
these ends.
He was best in dealing with the
farmers. They knew what the late
President Roosevelt's one-time Sec
retary of Agriculture was talking
about, and vice versa. Locally, OF
course, his least popular subject was
the race issue. But the candidates
pleas for tolerance struck many a
responsible note elsewhere, and the
local reaction to those pleas magni-
fed that note and made it ring
For here a nissue on which many
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