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Show Lack of 'Political Sense' Leads Wallace to Oblivion By BAUKHAGE New Analynt and Comrnvnliitor. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, I). C. WASHINGTON. - Unless some strange shift in the tide of national affairs takes place between the time these lines are written and when they appear ap-pear in print, the name that once bristled in the headlines, made the Paris peace conference shudder shud-der and com-pletely com-pletely confounded confound-ed the Truman administration will be filed un- But he is willing to adopt strange methods to achieve this. (Remember (Remem-ber the little pigs.) In making clear to his friends that it was his ambition to be secretary of commerce he convinced them of his belief in five propositions. They were that: 1. He believes the capitalistic system cannot survive another war. 2. He believes the capitalistic system cannot survive another financial depression such as we went through in the early 30s. 3. He is convinced that the country is headed for another such depression. 4. He believes that this catastrophe ca-tastrophe can be avoided If certain cer-tain simple measures are taken. 8. He believes that this end the perpetuation of free enterprise enter-prise justifies almost any means. As soon as Wallace became secretary sec-retary of commerce he attempted to reorganize the department along lines which had made the depart- der "W" and for- Baukhage gotten by most people who aren't subscribers to the New Republic. I refer to the name Henry Agar Wallace. I have talked with a great many men who knew Wallace well. Most of them who liked him still like him. But many who supported him in the past follow him no longer. One of them said to me: "Henry Wallace has been drowned at last in a sea of ideas. He has gone down for the third time and there is nobody with a lifeline handy." han-dy." I think of two other men, one an experienced government official, a trained politician; another an ardent New Dealer who happens to be equipped with a mathematical mind sharp as a steel trap each of these men followed Henry Wallace a long way. But each man at one point in his career suddenly stopped aghast at one of Wallace's self-created misadventures, shrugged his shoulders and regretfully turned j away. One of the first criticisms you hear j from Wallace's political friends is that he has no political sense. As head of the department of ag riculture, Wallace, according to j most disinterested observers, was a j success as a policy-maker and an administrator (Don't bring up the little pigs he did that against every one of his natural predilections. I , As secretary of commerce he was a dismal failure. Wallace did understand agricul- j ture, agriculturists (farmers) and i ment of agriculture so successful insofar in-sofar as co-operation between government gov-ernment and farmers is concerned. One of the first steps was to try to establish a system of "field agents" (similar to agriculture's county agents). Good men were hard to find; it takes time to build such a system. The personnel recruited under such conditions and within so short a time would be bound to include in-clude many incompetents and thus open the system to immediate attack at-tack by an unfriendly congress. Nevertheless, Nev-ertheless, Wallace pushed the idea as far as he could during his tenure of office. This, his critics say, showed his inability to perform in a field with which he was unfamiliar, showed his lack of "political sense" (or, if you will, his failure to grasp the complexities of inter-personal relations), Like many other men who have been thrust into high government of-liies of-liies without sufficient political experience, ex-perience, he attempted to absorb that experience vicariously. The very fact that he lacked an understanding under-standing of political and personal i relations caused him to accept advisors ad-visors and counsellors who frequent- i ly led him astray. Perhaps if he had been less advised his conduct would have been less ill-advised. ... agronomy. He believed that he had (and has) the correct formula for solving the economic (business) ills of the country. But what he didn't realize was that he was handicapped handi-capped by what is incorrectly called an "inferiority complex" when it comes to dealing with human beings be-ings who made the wheels of business busi-ness go round. He had a strange and deep suspicion of the business world. Perhaps that wasn't so strange for it reflects the natural attitude of the farmer toward the "city slicker." Perhaps it was another an-other phase of that "shyness" which characterized Wallace. Let's look at this "suspicion" business: busi-ness: On one of several occasions, Wallace Wal-lace as secretary of commerce addressed ad-dressed a prominent group of conservative con-servative business men. His colleagues col-leagues watched the event with considerable con-siderable trepidation. They knew the group was unsympathetic to Wallace Wal-lace and that Wallace knew it. However, How-ever, it provided an opportunity to create a friendly atmosphere, if nothing more. Wallace made a swell speech. His colleagues were agreeably agree-ably surprised. His audience was almost capitivated. In fact, as the speech went on, one after another of the listeners showed that Wallace's Wal-lace's views were well received were anything but inimical to business. busi-ness. Many of the ideas he advanced ad-vanced were accepted as sound, sane and sensible. So far so good. Wallace reached the end of his prepared pre-pared script and then, suddenly overcome with this strange defensive defen-sive complex, this "suspicion," said something to this effect: "Tonight I have probably wasted your time and mine, for I realize that you couldn't possibly agree with me nor I with you." The whole effect was ruined. Intimates Admire Wallace's Integrity Men who know Wallace best agree that he is absolutely honest, that he is unselfish, that he can be a very deep student of a subject which interests him, that he has a powerful power-ful ambition to be a leader of the forces that will preserve old-fashioned American free enterprise and competitive capitalistic endeavor. Nations Keep Jealous Eye on Antarctica Adm. Richard Byrd is about to I take off again for Antarctica with a horde of anxious nations worried to death lest he run away with the five million square miles of ice-capped ice-capped rock which covers the south polar regions as the dew covers Dixie (but different!). The foreign claims are legitimate enough, for daring explorers have been nibbling at that piece of frostbitten frost-bitten plateau (bigger than Europe) ever since John Briscoe actually discovered dis-covered what was given the name of Enderby land in the early nineteenth century. Many others followed, but few took the keen interest in the Antarctic waste that Admiral Byrd did. although he didn't turn in that direction until after he had flown over the North Pole. Which reminds me of a dull Sunday, Sun-day, May 9. 1926. I was keeping watch in the Washington office of a feature syndicate which had the rights to Byrd's adventures. We knew he was going to hop off fur the pole from Spitzbergen with Floyd Bennett soon, but we didn't know when. Messenger boys had a habit of dropping unimportant messages on the particular desk which I occupied and I hardly glanced up when one, still soggy, was tossed within my reach. 1 finished the last episode of the comic strip I was studying and opened the envelope. It contained con-tained one word, "polaris." That was the code word that meant that Byrd had flown over the North Pole and was back alive. On November 29, three years lat- : er, he flew over the South Pole. The flight was only a small part of extended ex-tended explorations made on two separate expeditions. Now Byrd is off again, with jealous jeal-ous competitors watching him with jealous concern. His expedition probably will be met with mixed emotions by the penguins who are the only human-looking inhabitants of Antarctica Byrd's first visit was a novelty to those decorous birds who never go out except in formal evening attire .but I imagine homo sapiens has become to them just another an-other sap who has to go in when it snows. |