The Pittsburgh Press (July 30, 1944)
Wallace blames Southern group
Lays his defeat to ‘reactionaries’
Des Moines, Iowa (UP) – (July 29)
Vice President Henry A. Wallace today exonerated the South as a whole for his failure to win renomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, but inferred that he blamed “Wall Street-financed Southern reactionary leaders” for the outcome of the voting.
“It is important to say a word about my Southern friends,” Mr. Wallace, who is serving as permanent chairman of the Democratic Platform Committee at the State Convention, told the delegates.
The farmers of the Midwest owe a lot to the farmers of the South. We would never have gotten satisfactory agricultural legislation if it had not been for men like Marvin Jones, Senator John Bankhead and Senator Alben Barkley.
There are certain reactionary leaders, but they are usually financed directly or indirectly from the North. More and more an intelligent, constructive liberal leadership will arise in the South which will not owe anything directly or indirectly to Wall Street or to outworn prejudices.
One function of a liberal, constructive Democratic Party is to keep the West and South united. Another function is to keep the farmer and labor united.