The Pearl is Cast

When minimum space has been devoted by the press to a speech by the Vice-President of the United States, and when that speech concerns relationships with one of our staunchest allies, thoughts which might mold the future are being black-penciled by the hand of complacency. Two nights ago, Henry A Wallace spoke courageously and objectively to a group of Americans, correlating the aims of Soviet Russia with the basic principles of democracy we have bruited abroad fro decades. But Walface's post-war implications will be discounted by the majority of the American people, only partially because of the typical attitude of the press towards any speech by any Vice-President.

Mainly concerned with Russia, Wallace compared the Soviet state with the U. S. and declared that "Both are striving for education, the productivity, and the enduring happiness of the common man." A contrast of our respective labor-capital relations gave top credit to Soviet economic democracy and the Vice-President further stated that "Russia has probably gone farther than any other nation in the world in practising ethnic or racial democracy." In equality between sexes, a democracy much neglected by American thought, Russia has overwhelmingly outdone the civilized world.

The entire text and implications of this speech have been soft-pedalled because of Wallace's acceptance of "Russia" and tabooed "Communism" as factors which are inextricably bound up with the future of democracy. Granted that Wallace was speaking before the Congress of American-Soviet Friendship, the speech was more than a pat on the back for out new ally. He neglected the fact that Russia is still a dictatorship, and that in other ways we have democratic ideals and institutions that Sovietism has missed. But that wasn't Wallace's subject. He took a courageous stand, almost unpreccedented by any other high government official, demonstrating the parallels between the Soviet and American governments and pointing out channels through which a world democracy can be reached. To disregard this speech and this type of thinking is to pursue our ideals with a foresight no more constructive than the traditional attitude of the ostrich.