Wallace On . . .

The following quotations of Henry A. Wallace are presented to help fit tonight's speech into context. They are all from recent issues of the New Republic, of which he is editor.

Foreign Policy and Prosperity

"We cannot achieve the goal of full and stable employment nor maintain the present "high level of employment" on a two-world basis.

It will be less costly to present thoroughly positive programs for building One World and to have patience in winning Russian support, than to continue on our present hazardous course toward certain depression and possible war. We cannot win economic security or peace through a policy of heavy armaments and the subsidizing of reactionary governments, or by subsidies to economics that can't prosper in a divided Europe."

Maintaining Prosperity

"The prospects for avoiding continued and increasing inflation and an eventual crash are not good. The present Congress has exhibited a shocking lack of knowledge of the basic needs of our own economy. Its actions in removing almost all economic controls, its drive to waken the trade unions, its failure to use the report of the President's Economic Advisory Council as a basis for constructive action are evidence of a philosophy that should have disappeared from Washington when Hoover left the White House in 1933. But that philosophy has returned, and so has Hoover."

Labor and the Present Administration

"No labor official interested in political progress will proclaim support of the present Administration at this time. Some progressives, through an astounding naivete and lack of political judgment, are dissipating their power with premature pledges to an Administration which has not earned the support of progressives. Some, calling themselves progressives, are selling out for petty favors. Other true progressives in public office are being forced to give up their independence of action because labor and liberals have not given them the support that resistance to present trends requires.

No liberal can safely pledge support to this Administration at a time when our foreign policy includes the support of reactionaries everywhere; when the Administration is advocating ever greater armaments, demanding universal military training and promoting war-mindedness; when it is using gentle exhortation rather than political power to get price reductions; and makes only feeble gestures to win liberal and labor support."

The 80th Congress

"When inventories have grown and dollars in the hands of workers and farmers at home and nations abroad are really scarce, when breadlines are formed again over the length and breadth of this nation, we shall remember this Congress as the one which brought America closer to depression and closer to war.

... Instead of the great leadership demanded to guide the world to peace, it has legislated in prejudice, hysteria and fear. It has failed to meet the urgent needs of relief and rehabilitation overseas.

At home this Congress has thrust upwards rents, profits, and prices. It has lowered the value of pensions, war bonds, and savings. It has threatened the earnings of labor and the family farmer. Its record is one of disservice to the preservation of our democratic capitalism and the promises which that system holds for all our people. Democratic capitalism lives by abundance. It needs sound planning and legislation to avoid recurring depression. It cannot stand still. The dynamic ingredients of democratic capitalism demand that we either move ahead or retreat. The record of the present Congress is a record of retreat. There is no security in retreat. The smears and witch-hunts promoted by Congress will never save democratic capitalism. Only positive action to prevent depression can do that job."

The Third Party Question

"We need organized, independent, political action. We need liberal Democrats fighting within the party to make it, if possible, once again the party of Jackson, Wilson, and Roosevelt. We need independents who will meet the varied legal requirements of the different states for a third party as a hedge against the complete sellout of the present Democratic leadership. We need new political raw material--new candidates for public office. Older men and women who have shied away from politics must step into the battle as candidates, if we are to improve Congress. Young Americans must be encouraged to make careers in public service. No thinking liberal ... can find two dozen members of the present Congress worthy of future support. We must uncover new candidates thoroughly devoted to fundamental American principles and capable of anticipating and meeting future problems."

Labor and Political Action

"It is not enough for labor to use the Taft-Hartley vote and other domestic issues as criteria for measuring candidates. Labor cannot safely ignore the relationship of foreign and domestic policy. The men and women and children who are dying in Indonesia or Palestine or Greece are workers and farmers, too. Labor here at home must act or we shall feel the terror common men and women have already felt in so much of the world.

Civil Rights in the United States

"Unless they are stopped, the present methods of fighting communism and socialism by whipping up hysteria and invoking systems of thought control will give us a police state here. We cannot preserve and improve our system of democratic capitalism by undermining our high standard for human rights and civil liberties.

The United Nations

"Ignored, circumvented, obstructed, the United Nations still remains our great hope for enduring peace. Those of us who know that One World is not only possible, but necessary, must direct our efforts to strengthening the UN....

... Only through a strong UN can we have peace. Only by being fully and constructively used can the UN gain strength.... In the long run it is the United States which will suffer a permanent loss of prestige unless we show our willingness to build One World through use of the machinery of the UN."