capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Wallace versus Jones— one/ the 1948 Elections WASHINGTON, D. C—What's behind the Henry Wallace J esse Jones imbroglio ? The answer i* i'»48. And the battle...
...And the battle already is ·? hot one J?ljjht think '48 is juit around the corner instead of Jay years away...
...The British people were told frankly that unless democratic objectives are pursued, the Americans will . not support the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, but retreat into isolai iouism...
...By virtue of this **Mke Secretary of Commerce is the biggest big buai-•«•»man in the world...
...It will be remembered that the Red Army rolled up to the door of Warsaw last summer just as the Anglo-American armies were sweeping across France to the German Westwall...
...We have now an official statement that the United States will not support it...
...The reaulta of Teheran have made mockery of our democratic hopes...
...Everywhere haa been heard the question: What will Roosevelt do about all (his ? There was the suspicion * that he had failed to assert the American position at Teheran...
...Jubilation and optimism were high in London and Washington...
...Readers of The New Leader know well the stark realities of recent developments in Europe...
...flaJ Republicans ·» not particularly excited about fitting down JHtniy Wallace as * poli ? u al candi-mte...
...Both control domestic empires of political power and enable their chiefs to build up polit-k-af machine...
...Totalitarian governments have been forced upon unwilling "liberated" peoples...
...Herbert Hoover demonstrated that in 1928...
...At that time it looked like a swift race to Berlin end the end of the war...
...This takes us back, at last, to the principles of the forgotten Atlantic Charter...
...Tke probabilities are, the Republicans are need-"*'y alarmed It in not likely that Henry Wallaca ?HI do any of tke wild things idealists are pop-wlr aapaoaed to do when they become bank T»« realistic fact ia likely to be Just the contrary...
...If he will stand firm for democratic objectives and give us a world organisation built for peaea rather than far war, he can count on having the entire nation behind him...
...No more accurate term could be applied to What has happened in Poland and Yugoslavia...
...In a more important way it furnishes a preview of positions which President Roosevelt may be expected to defend at the approaching conference of the* leaders of the great powers...
...No Caf's-pavv Totalitarianism THK exact words of President Roosevelt's statement to Winston Churchill are not available...
...The published summary indicates that the President discussed in some detail events in Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy...
...Hi» mandate from the American people runa to this effect...
...1»42, the Secretary of Commerce...
...All of thia la good aa a promise, as a basis of hope...
...None, of course, has had a chance to repeat that performance aince...
...But suddenly Stalin withdrew his Red Army from the Polish front and sent it to Rumania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Hungary...
...The •nd of the war was prophesied before Christmas...
...power...
...We are threatened with a real danger of repetition of our 1919-20 retreat from international cooperation...
...So far as Americans hare understood what ia happening, they have been shocked and repelled...
...80 that Henry Wallace won't have everything he seeds («1 build up for '48, the conservative Democrats art now landing every effort to atrip the secretaryship ef commerce of its present immense potential for politic...
...Why did Stalin halt his armies before Warsaw last aummer when the road to Berlin waa so wide open ? Why did Stalin suddenly renew that offensive less than two weeks before his meeting with Roosevelt and Churchill...
...lsM sboys coin parne* and corporations comprise the ***rlal realm of the Federal Loan Agency which the i?JjHpM placed by Executive Order on Feb...
...Army drive across Poland, blat suddenly renewed Russian offensive against the Nazis is regsrded as Stalin's advance answer to the demands it is expected Roosevelt will make at the Big Three parley that the Soviet Union make United Nations cooperation a fact and cease creating fait$ accom-plits by unilateral actions...
...One of the overlooked facts of political life in Washington is that the two best springboards for presidential aspiranta are the cabinet posts of commerce and a«*riculture...
...But the tapeblicaiis are very uneasy about what Wallace might *> *ilh hia financial powers as head of RFC, Defense ftantCorporation, Defense Supplies Corporation, Petals Piarve Company, Rubber Reserve Company, RFC ^•ftgage Company, Federal National Mortgage Asao-ckrtion...
...Now, 20 years later, 1948 offers the next opportunity...
...Thus far it ia nothing more than naw words for old.' But it may be that at the approaching conference President Roosevelt trill five substance to these words with deeds...
...We have, however, an authoritative summary in the...
...The fact apst?ju to be that Jhjj' Republics us think Henry Wal-*?» would be the vapkest candidate the Democrats could put up...
...It ia mado «Iear that our soldiers have not been aent to the old world to die in order to revive and perpetuate s discredited old, order or to aes the tyranny of Nazi occupation replaced by some cat's paw totalitarianism masquerading: behind a native namr...
...The forces of isolation ism have enjoyed a new lease on life...
...Jt goes without saying, of course, that commerce and agriculture become such springboard* only if the party in power succeeds itself...
...Disaster Loan Corporation and War Damage P*fperatioa...
...It is pointed out significantly that the Soviet armies did not begin to move until just a few days before the parley date, the theory being that, as an answer, the sensational Red Army offensive is the best stopper to all argumenta...
...Hii moat faithfaPaupporters began to fear that he was falling into a position of Wilaonlan ineffectiveness...
...The Republicans undoubtedly will do their pan "i Um coalition with the conEalive Sam ??, but not for the same reason...
...Diplomatic circles say the answers are political...
...Military men in Washington say the answers are not military...
...Km ope has been openly and cynically divided into spheres of influence...
...M- * * * j?fLOMATIC circlea here are very definite In their "*"'an» that there is political significance in the timing W.S...
...Y. Timet which must have been published with the approval of the State Department...
...Hitler was able to rush reinforcements from the dead eastern front to the western front, and to build up for Von Rundstedt's recent counter-offensive which finally was beaten back at a bloody cost...
...Nor will this be the first time that Stalin has used military movements aa a political weapon...
...JNW* conduct *s Secretary of Commerce ia *?* "are likely to lead big business to discover Srlsi man" prepared to spend tk* taa> JW'r'» money in poaring a quart of milk down the lP*t «*every Hottontot in the world...
...America's failure to stand up for democratic objectives seemed to be setting the stage for international collapse and the third World War...
...In fact, that has been the dominant character of all his military moves from the outset...
...He insisted that no government haa the right to force amy regime upon • conquered or liberated people, that each country muat be left free to decide its own fate...
...Whether or not that theory is sound, it is revelatory of the political character of even the strictly military phases of this war...
...This "important official communication may be thought of aa a reply to the persistent British inquiry aa to how far the United States can be depended upon for pastwar collaboration...
...But, then, you can't have everything...
...To all those who have been beset by fear ef auch dangers, the President's message to the British Prime Minister (fives renewed hope...
Vol. 28 • January 1945 • No. 4
