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Show "Porty Split" More Pyn than a Fire Schism of Dixie Democrats Could Wreck Party Hopes By BAUKIIAGE , : News Analyst and Commentator, I A political year may be pretty hard on business, inter- 'j national affairs and persons who expect congress or the Pres- 'j ident to take some highly important but controversial action j; which might scare away votes but, if you can stand on the ' sidelines dodging the brickbats which each side hurls at the j; other, a political year is lots of fun. One thing that is as interesting to the casual observer as workmen i excavating a cellar, a sandlot baseball game, a fire or a dog-fight, are j ' the quadrennial ."party splits" which threaten (several months before j the conventions) to rend the big parties in twain. They usually end the " same way both splinters singing Sweet Adeline, and cursing the other nartr in r,trfppr harmfmv 3 f - - - j i j ! On the surface the recent row be- I ; tween the southern Democrats and !.'! i the White House : t ( .'. 'II' ' ' i. looks like one of those affairs. There is no doubt ' that the southerners south-erners are good and mad. And by all their standards stand-ards they have every right to be. So there is no telling what might happen! But the fact re- , mains that the ' Negro voters in both Republican and Independent Independ-ent voters, they must stop trying try-ing to sell the program of the National Association of Manufacturers Manu-facturers as good Republican doctrine . . ." That wasn't Henry Wallace speaking. speak-ing. Nor Democratic national headquarters. head-quarters. That was Republican Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon. Morse assails "the conservative leadership" of his own party as vigorously as he scores reaction re-action in the 'Democratic party. I already have discussed Wallace and his third party "split." There are those who think it of so little importance that it can be ignored. Some now are predicting that before be-fore the election, Wallace will be granted some concession, some advantage, ad-vantage, and will come out for Truman Tru-man for president. I wouldn't go that far, but I have heard the prediction pre-diction in more than one quarter. Republicans are supposed to welcome Wallace to the race, and to count on him to cut down the Democratio vote to something some-thing almost insignificant. Let me quote Senator Morse on that subject, as his words appeared in an article in the February issue of the Progressive magazine. Morse says that Wallace mustn't be taken too seriously, but that he mustn't be ignored either. He adds: "Let my Republican party never forget that there are not enough Republicans to elect a Republican president, nor enough Democrats to elect a Democrat as president. Fortunately For-tunately there are not enough fellow-travellers to elect Wallace." "Splits" can't be ignored, it is true. They are important because there is always the possibility that the splitters might find another Teddy Ted-dy Roosevelt, to lead them. That can't happen often, though, and meanwhile splits are fun to watch. j Baukhage the norm can ;l : vote either Re- publican or Democratic, Just as they ', please. In fact, the colored popula- I tion really has more freedom than , the rest of the electorate because it j: has no tradition of following a strict : pattern. ,'i A Democrat, however, Is he lives I in the South and if he is to remain a ' Democrat, .has to vote with the ! Democratic party, even if he does it ! ' with anger in his heart and tears in I his eyes. Since the administration j i banks on this, we see even a presi- ! j dent from the southern state of Mis- : ! souri, defying the wishes of his : 1 friends below the Mason-Dixon. I am not questioning any of the j ; ';! supporters of civil rights and the ' ! ;l Constitution from the President '. i down, but there does remain the 1 j , 1 fact of the Negro vote, and there re- j i ! mains likewise many a warm pe'r- i sonal and political friendship which ' j i has to be subjected to a painful I ' ordeaL The "split" is exciting to , 1 ; watch whether with Sweet Adeline j ! ' or not. j ' And if you look across the aisle, j j you'll see some more splinters. j Listen to this: ... If Repub- i ' Hcan leaders in congress want ' to win the political confidence of ' i . |