Reliable Source

When Henry A. Wallace, former Vice-President, Cabinet member, and Presidential confidant, steps to the rostrum in Soldiers Field tonight, he will be speaking as a private citizen. It is a striking tribute to the vitality and appeal of his ideology that, although he has no official standing and no claim to prominence other than as a member of the Fourth Estate, he is able to attract large and enthusiastic audiences wherever he speaks, and has become the symbol of all that is distasteful to Russophobes, isolationists, the Un-American Activities Committee, and the Old Guard of both parties.

Intelligent criticism of Mr. Wallace's statements is customarily a scarce commodity. His opponents damn him wholly, and his admirers praise him indiscriminately. Where a man generates such violent repulsion or attraction, it is difficult to discover a sizable number of appraisers who are able to seek out the undeniable merit in his position and at the same time criticize and reject what is impractical or undesirable. The press has been of little help to fair minded critics. All too often Mr. Wallace is portrayed as all good or all bad.

Bob Kenney, of PCA, was perhaps a little optimistic when he predicted that the West Coast states will elect Wallace delegations to the Democratic convention. But the fact remains that Mr. Wallace is the recognized leader of a large but amorphous group that encompasses the most active part of the Democratic "liberal" element. He is voicing the issues which will be prominent in the election of 1948 and for many years to come. The opportunity to hear his views expressed, ungarbled and first hand, is one that should not be passed over lightly by his friends or his opponents.