The Pittsburgh Press (February 14, 1944)
Democrats face convention fight on Wallace vote
Vice President actively campaigning for renomination; conservatives want party stalwart on ticket
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Vice President Henry A. Wallace’s active campaigning for renomination on his transcontinental tour foreshadows a bitter contest at the forthcoming Democratic National Convention.
Conservative Democrats, finding themselves unable even to impede momentarily the fourth-term nomination of President Roosevelt, may attempt to wreak their vengeance on Mr. Wallace – if they can. They want a party stalwart on the ticket.
Whether the question of Mr. Wallace’s renomination reaches a convention floor showdown will depend on Mr. Roosevelt. If Mr. Roosevelt wants him again, he will have to lick the party regulars to put Mr. Wallace over.
Many observers here believe the President decided last summer to discard his 1940 running mate.
Clashed with Jones
That was when Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones and Mr. Wallace disputed conduct of foreign economic policy. Mr. Wallace then was head of the Board of Economic Warfare and an important figure in Mr. Roosevelt’s war councils.
The President adjusted the dispute by relieving Mr. Jones of certain duties under circumstances entirely satisfactory to Mr. Jones and by stripping Mr. Wallace of every shred of power and authority except his elective office and the trivial ex officio duties pertaining to it.
But Mr. Wallace came up smiling and undertook a series of speaking engagements, frequently before labor or left-wing audiences, in which he has undoubtedly made himself solid politically with the New Deal wing of the political coalition which put Mr. Roosevelt in office in 1932 and has kept him there since.
Talks fourth term
Meanwhile, Mr. Roosevelt has been under occasional and scattered fire from the left. It is reasonable to believe that Mr. Wallace is attempting to establish his own political prestige with the left-wingers sufficiently to persuade Mr. Roosevelt to keep him on the 1944 ticket.
Mr. Wallace is making his own campaign almost synonymous with the movement to draft Mr. Roosevelt for a fourth term. On the West Coast and now on his return journey, Mr. Wallace is telling questioners that Mr. Roosevelt should be renominated.
There is no hint of White House displeasure over the persistent draft-Roosevelt campaign of which Mr. Wallace now seems to be the principal spokesman.
Farley, Garner put heads together
San Antonio, Texas (UP) –
Former Postmaster General James A. Farley visited former Vice President John Garner at Uvalde yesterday.
Mr. Farley said that they had talked of politics “past, present, and future,” but that none of their conversation was for publication.
Willkie outlines Far Eastern trade
San Francisco, California (UP) –
Immediate establishment of trade ties with Russia, China and other transpacific countries “without waiting for any post-war golden age” was advocated by Wendell Willkie last night.
In a radio address devoted largely to the industrial prospects of the Pacific Coast, Mr. Willkie said:
Narrow nationalism, domestic economic ineffectiveness and feeble leadership may well cause these hungry markets of the East to seek other sources of provisioning; for if we do not meet their needs, others will, and this section of the United States will be unimportant in the new economic pattern.”
Mr. Willkie spent yesterday afternoon in Sacramento with Governor and Mrs. Earl Warren, but refused to say whether they discussed political questions.
Browder: Retain Roosevelt
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Earl Browder, Secretary of the Communist Party, said yesterday that the reelection of President Roosevelt in November and the strict enactment of the Tehran program are the only ways the world can reach security through victory and
Speaking at Symphony Hall, Browder said that:
Patriotic men and women of all parties must unite to convince Roosevelt that the country demands his continued leadership.
He said the Tehran program can be summed up in one word: “Security.”
And that means not only physical security which provides safety from attacks by aggressors. It also means economic security, social security, moral security – in a family of nations.