The American Dreamer: A Tale of President Wallace

[The Govanah Jake]

The American Dreamer: A Tale of President Wallace


(Wallace in his old age tending to chickens)


"The Presidency of Henry Wallace could be described by many things, but one characteristic remains prudent ― the man was a visionary"

- The Presidency of Henry Wallace and the New American Century, Jack Belister (1984)
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POD: Henry Wallace is able to negotiate himself out of the 1944 Vice Presidential Nomination alive despite threats from Missouri Senator Harry Truman. A year later, the Wallace Presidency would begin.

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In the Convention Halls


Biographer and Historian Robert H. Ferrell would once recall in his book "The Attempt to End Henry Wallace":

"In the modern context, perhaps the greatest, most momentous political figure in my lifetime is that of President Henry Agard Wallace. But perhaps the greatest political stories of our century's was the attempt to rid him of the Vice Presidency in 1944"

And it's no question he was not wrong. Going into the 1944 Democratic Convention President Roosevelt remained as firm and popular as he was in the years leading up to that moment. The war in Europe was going smoothly and the decline of Adolph Hitler's National Socialist Germany and Tojo's Japan was a sight to watch. Already Benito Mussolini was but a puppet to Hitler's interests as the allied forces ravaged and pummeled Italy going from the agricultural south straight up into the industrial north. American interests were meanwhile firmly represented by General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Europe and Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific. No doubt victory seemingly on every front continued to legitimize the President's continued governance as concerns over him setting up a fourth presidential run remained as high as was his third run in 1940. This time however was different. This time the President was now clearly aging.

Chain smoking was a clear problem for the president and had declined his health considerably from 1932, 1936, and even 1940. In May 1944, he was tested at Bethesda Hospital and was found to have high blood president, coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, among many other ailments from his bad adulthood health decisions. His personal physicians told him to rest and lay off the campaigning for the 1944 election. Roosevelt knew this decision would appear him in-front of the American people as weak, old, and fragile. In a world entering a new post-war time; he needed to ensure the American people that he had strong capable leadership to guide the growing American superpower into the post-war consensus of Liberal Democracy. All guided of course by the United Nations which Roosevelt desperately tried to make a cause for in front of the American people like Wilson did before him. But as Dr. John Bumgbarner noted in "The Health of Presidents" upon Navy cardiologist Lieutenant Commander Howard Bruenn's inspection of the President in Early March of 1944:

"a drawn, gray, and exhausted individual, who became short of breath on the very slightest exertion. The examination of his eyes revealed some changes due to arteriosclerosis and hypertension"

Thus entering the 1944 Democratic Convention in the Chicago Stadium the real decision was what to do when Roosevelt's inevitable demise occurred. His personal physician surgeon Frank Lahey would even write in a memo to fellow personal physician Ross T. McIntire in the summer of 1944:

"I have reviewed all of his xrays and findings over the past years and compared them with the present findings and am recording my opinion concerning Mr. Roosevelt’s condition and capacities now... I am recording these opinions in the light of having informed Admiral McIntire Saturday afternoon July 8, 1944 that I did not believe that, if Mr. Roosevelt were elected President again, he had the physical capacity to complete a term... As I see my duty as a physician, I cannot violate my professional position nor possible professional confidence, but I do wish to be on record concerning possible later criticism.”

In come the present Vice President ── Henry A. Wallace. A man nobody expected to reach such a position. Of the Scots-Irish stock in the center of the Iowan plains, he entered politics at a early age. Henry C. Wallace was his dad and proved himself and his interest's of agriculture; first breed up on his own farm drove him to the Iowan State Agricultural College in 1885. Although he left 2 years later he lead himself up the politics of the agricultural industry and soon became a key advocate for the American farmer entering the post-war 1920s. He grew the interests of then presidential candidate Warren G. Harding and was selected as the Secretary of Agriculture. His tenure would be short and would not achieve the full dreams the man wanted. Yet he still proved himself as a friend of his fellow farmers helping to end the high post-war inflation on agricultural products. He died on October 25th, 1924 in office but his impact on young Henry Agard would be immense. On what was the greatest influence in his life in a 1953 interview, "My Father Henry Cantwell Wallace was what got me interested in politics. It was his struggle and concern for the plight of the American farmer which got me involved in the idea that yes - politics can be corrupt, but it can be a true vehicle for social justice".

So he grew himself up. Rising at a young age to grow up the fields of agronomy. His experiences with fellow agronomist George Washington Carver also influenced his views on African American's. At a very young age he and Carver grew to be friends in their shared interests in agronomy. And where others ostracized him, Henry took him in his home when Carver was prevented from living in the dormitories of Iowa State University. He graduated with a bachelor's degree and went on into experimental agricultural techniques including the breeding of high-yielding hybrid corn. He got the notice of the national politicians. Coincidentally this coincided with the ousting of unpopular incumbent Herbert Hoover by a landslide. Franklin Delano Roosevelt succeeded him and befriended Henry along the way. He was appointed in 1933 to become the United States Secretary of Agriculture, just like his father. The youngest member of the cabinet too at just 44 years of age.


Portrait of Henry Cantwell Wallace

He entered the position as one of the few republican's in Roosevelt's cabinet. But his proud progressive politics endeared him to the president. The Great Depression loomed large and remained a clear challenge to both the President and his cabinet members. For Wallace, a solution to fix the collapsing agricultural sector was in order. But his solution's remained controversial with the price raises in agricultural products being instituted by the slaughtering of hogs, plowing up cotton fields, and paying farmers to leave partial land fallow. Under his reign he helped reign in both the concerns of the urban and rural poor; providing food stamps and school lunches for the urban poor and instituted land use, soil conservation, and erosion control projects for the rural poor. It was under him which helped create the Subsistence Homesteads Division in 1933 under the pretext of the "Back to the Land" movement. He headed trained social scientist Milburn Lincoln Wilson for the task to "give tenants and sharecroppers the resources and skills to rise up the agricultural ladder and help city folk without jobs". All because of Wallace's argument that what made American unique was the constant "pressing upon social resources" and the general belief in a "limitless and inexhaustible soil". Key legislation came in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Farm Credit Administration, among many other key program's he supported.

1940 showed him moving up the social ladder. Ole' John "Cactus Jack" Garner refused to run again with Roosevelt for his increasingly liberal New Deal policy's. The Texas Conservative had enough of playing second base and became a active critic of the President while in the Vice Presidency. Roosevelt couldn't have it and refused to back Garner again. Upon Garner's request to retire; Roosevelt ditched him for the more liberal Henry Wallace going into the 1940 election. Wallace was too be mistrusted of course by both the conservatives and by many southerner's. As mentioned in "Freedom from Fear":

"Wallace was an unreconstructed liberal reformer and New Dealer, qualities that recommended him to Roosevelt. The old guard Democratic Party bosses deeply distrusted Wallace as an apostate Republican and as a doe-eyed mystic who symbolized all that they found objectionable about [what they saw as] the hopelessly utopian, market-manipulating, bureaucracy-breeding New Deal."

Against him stood House of Representatives speaker William B. Bankhead, a proud member of the Bankhead family. He also made a reputation as a staunch southern supporter of the New Deal's pro-labour union policy's. Without any real opposition to him he took on the reigns of the Anti-Wallace crowd. Wallace would win 59% of the delegates in the end, handily becoming the Vice President, and joining a winning ticket defeating the Republican ticket lead by Businessman Wendell Willkie.

American participation in the growing conflicts in Europe and Asia became a impossible ignorance for America. Wallace was thus named as chair of the "Board of Economic Warfare" and "Supply Priorities and Allocation Board" as a key member of Roosevelt's 'War Cabinet'. When Pearl Harbor was bombed both of these positions were brought to the limelight of importance. His action's as the chair of these groups would once again draw the ire of conservatives. He named these critics and the importance of a prepared and ready America in the postwar in his "Century of the Common Man" speech to the Free World Association arguing that the war was really between 'free' and 'slave' states.

His ultimate goal for the postwar world was the continuation of the ideals of New Deal liberalism of labor representation by unions and the abolishment of colonialism. Ire from the united coalition of conservatives, business leaders, and most of all Winston Churchill was clear from this outbursts. And when he feuded with Commerce Secretary once again he was stripped of his war agency responsibilities.

So the question for the Vice Presidency in 1944 was up in the air as the Democratic establishment refused to except Wallace entering the president, a dangerous and radical madman. He was too progressive, too labor friendly, and most of all too wild for these leaders to paraphrase the concerns of James F. Byrnes. Roosevelt backed him however and declared "Henry is a true patriot, a true friend of the people, and a great partner of mine. I'd be glad if the American people give both me and Henry another term". Public sentiment also followed the President. A Gallup poll leading to the convention showed that Wallace held 65% support from respondents on the choice for Vice President. Every other option trailed him including Senator Harry S. Truman who was becoming mentioned as a possible moderate to replace Wallace.

Truman would become the voice of the Wallace opposition. He was promoted by powerful party operatives including Edwin W. Pauley, Frank C. Walker, and most importantly of all - Robert E. Hannegan. They attempted to persuade the President. They argued to him as the best choice for a moderate of non-offensive option. He was a moderate with ties to Senators Wheeler's Isolationist's and was acceptable to labor after-all. Intense debate ensued. The President offered Byrnes as a option to which the men in the room countered with the options Truman brought. But the President refused to give up on his old friend. He finally spoke to the group of men.

"I understand all of you men want Truman. Bob [Hannegan] included". He paused "But i can't give up on Henry, he is a good man and may show some quality's that might not make him the strongest candidate... but he is a good man."

He excused the men. The men were very disappointed. The President held ultimate sway over the party and he had ultimately backed Wallace. Whatever trick's they attempted in the convention hall's could not excuse this. Hannegan was a expert in "smoke-filled room" politics but when the President finally entered the convention hall's on July 15th he announced to key DNC leaders:

"Men i'd like to make it clear that the decision of mine remain's with Wallace. Now i'd like you too inform the hall that is true" he said to the group.

Democratic vice presidential nomination, 1944

Vice President Henry Agard Wallace (D-IA): 605.64 (51.4%)
Senator Harry Truman (D-MO): 416.30 (35.4%)
 

Sources:

- "White Trash - The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America" by Nancy Isenberg (2016)

- "American Dreamer: A Life of Henry A. Wallace" by John C. Culver (2001)

 - "Henry Wallace, America's Forgotten Visonary" by Peter Dreir (2013)

*Information also come's from individual Wikipedia pages including their biography of Henry Wallace

[OSR STANDS WITH PALESTINE]

[The Govanah Jake]

Paul??

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Roosevelt/Wallace vs Dewey/Bricker


Wallace was overjoyed with his victory facing such odd's from the Anti-Wallacites. He spoke to the convention that evening in a classic style:

"America is greatest when all people are represented in government. The America i know is a land of opportunity and a land were the immigrants of the world came too live the American dream. The last 12 years has shown us that the American people support a New and Fair Deal. They were showed what the Hooverian politics of the Republican party would bring too - economic ruin. They entrusted us Democrats with caring for these same people who the Republican's have forgotten. They gave us the opportunity to make the Government a force for good, employing all good workers in unions, and giving opportunity for all no-matter race, creed, or wealth... I will work with President Roosevelt for these next 4 year's with the principles of justice and fairness for all in mind. I will not take special privileges."

The speech was mostly well received. Wallace did garner much support with the platitudes and classic New Deal rhetoric he espoused. Only the Southern delegations really opposed the speech with audible boo's especially when Wallace talked of civil rights. "Whites and Blacks in America are both in a land of opportunity and should both be allowed to make themselves up to who they want to be" sparked a special kind of outrage and nearly all the Southern delegations ranging from Texas to Virginia tried too silence out the Speaker Wallace. Ellison 'Cotton Ed' Smith, the Senator from South Carolina, would perfectly sum up this response by arguing that Wallace was against the white race and pro-racial mixing. He summed up this view to the Charleston Daily when they asked of the Vice President:

"Henry Wallace is what the Party today should most repel of. Not only is he a agitator of radical forces of the left and unhinged ; but we have seen that he supports race mixing between Negros and the white race. If that happened then the white race would be no more now wouldn't it?"

Thomas Dewey was hoping that Wallace would remain on the ticket. He knew he would be more a liability then a asset for the Roosevelt campaign. The day after Wallace was guaranteed a majority of the convention delegates Dewey set out a new line of attacks. "Do we really trust Henry Wallace too lead America in these important times?" summed up the main lines of attacks. Wallace was too "far left", too "erratic", and too "Soviet friendly" to lead America following the end of the Wars in Europe and the Pacific. While these were being used as the new main line of Republican attack; the key Republican operatives leaked to the press that they held documents proving in essence that Wallace was Soviet funded and backed. Key figures in the Russian government were mentioned too most inclusively being of Vyacheslav Molotov, whom Wallace had meet in a 1943 meeting. A Congressional committee was created to find if these claims were true. The "Wallace Commission" lead by Senator Robert Taft would never prove anything more then past statements made by the Vice president towards some "revolutionary groups" in support. A 1971 declassified would later find the whole claims were based in nothing more in the ambitions of some members within the RNC. The damage was done though; many questioning the President's ultimate decision to keep him on the ticket when it hurt him electorally.

Unable to do it in 1940 with threats by democrats of releasing information of Wendell Willkie's rumored extramarital affairs with Irita Van Doren, the continuation of Vice President Wallace lead to a new opportunity to take down the Roosevelt/Wallace ticket. In September of 1944, the "Guru letters" were released to the public describing Wallaces bizarre religious beliefs and the Administration's interaction with mystic Nicholas Roerich. In 1933 on behalf of the Agricultural Secretary, Russian mystic and noted scholar Nicholas Roerich was sent to the Soviet Union on a horticultural expedition specifically in the areas of Central Asia. Their, Roerich would be on behalf of Wallace collect drought resistance seeds, among other products. Roerich had others plans in mind. He seeked to find the legendary Shambhalla. As this was approaching British territory into the Himalayas, the British thus thought Roerich was still a Russian spy. Wallace was furious at these actions and recalled him immediately. Roerichs legal troubles would not here and he would be forced out of the country to India due to tax evasion. The report finished off with saying that Henry Wallace was "unstable mentally" and "unfit for the high office". These takes hurt the President and more specifically the Vice President badly. His personal approvals went from 47% to 36% in a matter of 20 days and pressure was mounting for him to leave the ticket.

Henry made this up by campaigning hard throughout the campaign season. His areas of expertise remained both the Upper Midwest and the West. The "Farmer's Warrior" would find lots of support their and the Guru letters did not drop support much in his home regions. In Iowa he garnered large crowds and crisscrossed the west in his "The Wallace Way" speaking support for the New Deal and the President. The President also did campaign, but in a much less vigorous less. He took out time for speeches and for public appearances and tried to brush off concerns of his tiredness and old age. But it was clear he was being out-campaigned vastly by his Vice President, a quality that is disputed to this day on whether it benefited or harmed the president. He also didn't stay clear of attacking Dewey. Upon claims that he sent a US Navy warship to pick up his Scottish Terrier Fala, he responded to Republican ridicule by saying "Fala was furious" at these rumor's. He followed up by saying "Thomas Dewey is no 'save hands moderate' and will ruin everything we stand for [speaking to the Labor Union]". Though he spent the vast majority of his time on the trail fundraising, meeting with key constituency's including with Labor, and giving his famous radio talk's which gave his message far greater reach then the Republicans could ever wish for.

Dewey for his part was able to make it a close election. Wallace proved to be a easy attacking point and the polling proved it. Gallup showed 50% for Mr. Roosevelt and 48% for Mr. Dewey a month before the election while the consensus was that Dewey would vastly outperform both Willkie and Landon in trying to defeat Roosevelt. Dewey was able to provide enthusiasm too on the levels of Wilkie. The young governor portrayed himself as a moderate, as a Anti-New Dealer, and as a social reformer. He portrayed his record as New York District Attorney in convicting "Lucky Luciano" and Waxey Gordon as prove of this. Arguing in Cleveland, Ohio he said "I am a independent man while Mr. Roosevelt is in the pockets of American Communists and Labor Unions". Dewey argued for the dismantling of most of the New Deal and for a return to a moderated laissez-faire condition. His inclusion of conservative John Bricker helped unite the party too and the base proved as energized as it had ever been against the other 3 Roosevelt opponents.

America in the end decided to stay on the course. Operation Overlord had proved a overwhelming success in France and with the help of the British and Free French divisions General George Patton helped oversee the liberation of Paris. General Choltitz commanding the opposing army lead in full retreat escaping heavy casualty's. In the Pacific too success reigned in for the American troops of Douglas MacArthur who crushed and crippled Japanese naval capacity at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. With this news, President Roosevelt and Vice President Roosevelt looked a favorite in the final day's of the election's.

             


SOURCES:

- 'The New Deal and the Guru' by J. Samuel Walker

- 'The Editorial Notebook; The Two Roerichs are One' by Karl E. Meyer

-'United States presidential election, 1944' by Wikipedia