The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1946. WILL WALLACE RESIGN?

Wanganui Chronicle, 19 September 1946, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1946. WILL WALLACE RESIGN?

J-JAVING been disowned by the President, the only dignified course for Mr. Wallace to follow is to resign from the Secretaryship of tile Department of Commerce. Political considerations require of him ih.it lie should follow such a course, when the overriding consideration, tiie welfare of the United States, seems to demand it. President Truman’s version of his endorsement does not square with that offered by Mr. Wallace to his audience. Nor can it be said with truth that Mr. Truman has increased his stature politically by claiming that the views of Byrnes and Wallace coincide. Things that are opposed to one another cannot he in the same place. The President certainly cuts a sorry figure in this incident, and the most charitable view is that he did not appreciate the significance of the speech: nor did he anticipate the repercussions that would follow its delivery. Mr. Truman l.as evidently made an error of commission of which offence Mr. Wallace stands guilty. Mr. Wallace flies in the face of obvious facts. He attacks friends in the hope of placating enemies. As a diplomat he cannot be rated highly. The American people do not do so to-day. The reactions of Britain are natural enough under the circumstances, but the people of the United States should consider themselves fortunate that they are dealing with a country that has grown used to this sort of thing and has come to know from experience that not, for long may the lion’s tail go untwisted by someone in the United States. That, country, however, has been educated by two wars from which it strove to remain free.

There was no British Imperialist guilty of any conduct which brought about Pearl Harbour. An atomic bomb landed in New York City would be less likely to be manufactured in the United Kingdom, the country that made a present to the United States of all its information and discovery in this direction, than in, say, Russia, the one country that has persistently demanded the right to share information with the United States. There is no British Imperialism to be blamed for the situation in Korea where the Russians and the Americans are not quite a happy party. British Imperialism in India has bade India not. only politically free—freer economically than is the Philippines of the United States —but it has provided an expanding market for American goods in the sub-continent. Russia’s markets are singularly unresponsive to American supplies. Finally the friends of Fascism found in tiie United Kingdom during its finest hour the only barriers to resist their onward surge to .Mr. Wallace’s native State of lowa. The tie-up between America and Britain is destined to grow stronger, not weaker. American production of high-grade consumer capital goods requires the high-spending communities of the British Commonwealth, all of which are free and independent sovereign States. The Secretary of Commerce in the United States, if he is to serve his country well, must, be persona grata to the peoples of the Uniced Kingdom, the Dominions and India. Air. Waliaee has made himself persona non grata in those countries. He may find some less tried friends in Moscow and in the broad expanses of the Siberian forests, but they will be unresponsive to the persuasive sales talk of American sellers of vacuum cleaners. But why go on? The unfitness of Air. Secretary Wallace for.his post, has been sufficiently demonstrated. The American people can see that he is not the man to serve his country well and he should he retired to the section of the country where the chief interests are hogs and corn. No man may go beyond himself and Air. Waliaee, once the Vice-President of the United States, was found to have been hoisted too high for his staiure. It was Abraham Lincoln who said that a man s legs should be long enough to allow his feet to touch the ground. Air. Wallace’s legs are clearly not long enough for the post of Secretary to the Commerce Department. The American people are too businesslike to tolerate him as a handicap on their foreign trade relations. The President has caught the backfire of AL’. Wallace’s speech. When President Roosevelt found that backfire from Wallace was coming to the AVhite House he dropped AVallace. Air. Truman, therefore, has a sound precedent to guide him. He will be unwise not to follow it. ihe world stands in need of wise men, men of vision, men who can put first things first. Air. AVallace has fallen because he put his par.y before his country and within his party set a coterie above llie well-being of his side. The principle of Cabinet responsibility has received some severe strains in recent years in a number of countries, but it is doubtful whether a member of a cabinet elsewhere has set himself to go counter io the es ablished policy of the Government of which he is a member to such an extent as has Mr. Waliaee Usually dilfercnees of opinion arc hammered out behind dosed doors and Uns procedure is sound, because it enables a man to express his opinion m the light of wider knowledge. To carry cabinet differences to the public pla form is inexcusable because it creates a position from which there is no retreat. Air. Truman to use a boxing metaphor has gone into a smother: Mr. Waliaee cannot do that. His”outlook. politically, is black indeed.