October 1944

The war is going well for us [Subject describes battles in the European and Pacific theaters - A.S.].

The war in Spain went well for a while too.  A short while, but not for the first wave of volunteers.  I was a chofer, a driver, for the American Medical Bureau.  I met up with the Major [Dr. Edward K. Barsky, Chief of the American Medical Bureau – A.S.] outside of Madrid.   Sometimes I drove the Major's car, sometimes an ambulance (one was donated by the students and faculty Harvard University), and sometimes I drove the autochir.  This was the mobile hospital.  It had an operating table, surgical instruments, x-ray machine, a gas-powered generator for electricity and everything you needed to treat the wounded.  I was told it held about fifteen thousand dollars’ worth of equipment.  

In Madrid, we were treated like heroes – even though I had not yet done anything.  I was a little embarrassed by the attention; however, I welcomed their gratitude and love.


 Most of the action at Madrid had taken place before I arrived.  My colleagues did not talk about it, because about 600 International Brigade volunteers were killed.  Many blamed the deaths on inept decision-making. 

We soon moved out of Madrid and relocate to Villa Paz.  This is the Aragon region.  I can still feel the cold – I could never get warm there.  When we were not using our vehicles we drained the radiators to make sure that they would not freeze.  Among the drivers and mechanics, I was very popular because I brought my tool set.  However, I had to watch it constantly because tools were so rare – they would quickly disappear.  Even though I am an anarchist, I became obsessively possessive of my tools.  With the environment both weather and militarily so hostile a breakdown could cost you your life.  I did many runs transporting wounded, but I was far from the front.  I occasionally heard fascist planes, but they were always far away.

The population of the Aragon was mostly anarchristic.  Seeing anarchist ideals put into reality was mind-bloggling.  The towns, villages, and farms operated in a communal manner without hierarchy.   I learned as much as I could with my limited Spanish and pantomime.  Although we were in the middle of a war and there was scarcity of life’s basic needs, the people of the region were incredibly optimistic for the future of the society they were building.  And the pride in that it was something they were building themselves was awe inspiring.  The pride, vigor, resourcefulness, and happiness of the people was infectious.  I felt honored to be there to help with their revolution. 

Naturally, not everything operated perfectly,  The various villages and towns started to print their own currency.  Even the various anarchist syndicates such as bakers, barbers, etc. issued their own money. Unfortunately, the money was rarely accepted outside of the issuing agency.  The leadership in Barcelona ordered that these currencies be withdrawn, the locals cried out that the central authorities were "betraying the revolution."  

Little did they know then what "betraying the revolution" would really look like.


©  2011 Ron Millar

September 1944

The campaign is going well.  Large and enthusiastic crowds at each stop who are eager to support the New Deal ticket to win the war and win the peace. 

More information is filtering out about near debacle at the convention.   The forces against H.A. were well organized and diverse.  They included conservatives who want to halt any additional New Deal programs, big businessmen who want to be free of any government regulations, imperialists who want to expand U.S. hegemony around the world, isolationists who following the war want the U.S. to ignore the world, and southern segregationist who fear federal interference with their Jim Crow culture.  On our side was labor, the progressives, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Because we beat the bosses, H.A. felt even more free to take on issues that the bosses wanted to ignore.  He campaigned in neighborhoods absent from our 1940 tour.  In New York, we appeared with New York City councilman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in Harlem to speak about Civil Rights and we did the same in Chicago with Congressman William L. Dawson.  H.A. proudly attended integrated cocktail parties, even though he does not drink,  in segregated Washington.  H.A. is determined that all Americans will have an equal share of a prosperous postwar economy.  I like to think that I have been a good influence on H.A., but I think I had little to do with it.  It is just H.A. being H.A.  H.A. has had a lot of good influences.  For example, George Washington Carver, an associate of H.A.’s father while at Iowa State College, taught a young H.A. (he would have been around 6 years old), how to identify different parts and species of plants.  George Washington Carver as a teacher!  In Iowa!  There is hope for this country – and its leading light is H.A.

H.A. campaigned on a lot of issues:  full employment, responsible health and old-age insurance, low freight rates and improved roads, free enterprise and opportunity for small business, racial and gender equality, good schools, cultural resources, and a new international order to create economic opportunity and world peace.  However, full employment was his main domestic issue, he said, “The greatest economic sin is the waste of human labor.”   For some reason this scared some people (including people within our administration and campaign); however, among regular citizens H.A. is very popular.  


©  2011 Ron Millar

August 1944

This is just an aside to the unfortunate person who may one day transcribe these rolls.  I don’t want you to think that I have an amazing memory for the quotes I’m rattling off.  I have extensive scrapbooks of speeches and press clips that I am often reviewing and even putting together while using the Dictaphone.  My memory is good, but not that good.

Shortly after the convention, I resigned my job as Personal Aide to Vice President Henry A. Wallace.  I am now the Personal Aide for Vice Presidential Candidate Henry A. Wallace.  

I am reprising my role from the 1940 campaign.  In fact, it was the 1940 campaign that earned me the position in the Vice President’s Office.   Because of my logistics skills, from moving the field hospital in Spain to organizing farmers in Iowa, I was hired for the 1940 campaign.  F.D.R. wanted H.A. to be the primary campaigner while he, F.D.R., remained aloof from the fray.  The campaign was a driving and train tour all over the nation.  H.A. would deliver a half-dozen speeches each day to enthusiastic crowds.  

The goal of the 1944 campaign is to replicate this successful model.

However, I remember that the 1940 campaign had barely even started when we were almost torpedoed.   Embarrassing letters that H.A. wrote to a bizarre guru, Nicholas Roerich, and his staff members were given to the Republicans.

Roerich is a Russian émigré, a painter, a peace activist, and a mystic.   H.A. became friends with Roerich and corresponded about his religious beliefs. 

H.A. does not hold the traditional religious beliefs of his Iowa neighbors.   

Religion is the one of three areas, the others are his vegetarianism and tea totaling, where I don’t understand H.A.   H.A. is a very evidence based man, he looks to science for the answers to earthly problems, but with religion he trusts his intuition.  However, he does approach his search for the metaphysical world as he does for the physical world.  Openness and experimentation.  He is open to learning about and experiencing a variety of religious expressions, regardless of how odd the person presenting the idea, enter Roerich, is seen by the general public or how the general public might respond to the religious idea itself.

H.A.’s family were members of the United Presbyterian Church.  But following his grandfather’s death – remember he was a minister and patriarch of the family – H.A. began his religious explorations.   He read Ralph Waldo Emerson and his followers and H.A. embraced the idea that a divine spiritual force flowed through all living things.  He also attended Roman Catholic services and enjoyed the mass for its traditional performance (I too enjoy the vestments and the incense – but their politics, especially in Spain, where the Church sided with the fascists – are completely unacceptable).  H.A. studied séances, religious symbols and rituals, astrology, native and Asian religions, secret societies, and mysticism – items that the average Protestant Iowa farmer, and American, would find odd and even scary.

H.A. is formally a member of the Episcopal church; however, “Real religion” H.A. told me, had nothing to do with  “church-going, or charity, or any other outward manifestation of what is popularly called religion.”  Religion is a far more all encompassing power, “whereby man reaches out toward God in an effort to find the spiritual power to express here on earth in a practical way the divine potentialities in himself and his fellow beings.”

H.A. became so friendly with Roerich that he sent him on an expedition to Manchuria to collect seeds and plants for the Department of Agriculture.  It was during this expedition that H.A. and Roerich parted as friends.  Apparently, Roerich used the trip to promote himself rather than collecting specimens for the government.

H.A.’s publicity men prepared materials to counter the release of the Roerich letters, but if released, the letters would be very damaging.

Fortunately, F.D.R. and his skilled political fixers threatened to retaliate against the Republicans if the letters were released.  Apparently, Wendell Willkie [1940 Republican nominee for president -A.S.] had a mistress [Irita Van Doren, the literary editor of the New York Herald Tribune -A.S.].   However, everyone thought that H.A.’s religious peculiarities would be more damaging than exposing Willkie’s infidelities.  A campaign staffer claimed that when hearing of the scandal, F.D.R. said, “We can handle sex, but we can’t handle religion.”  Fortunately, a truce between the camps was established and the letters were withheld from the public.  

F.D.R.’s fixers assure us that we have nothing to worry about for this election.

I personally have no use for religion.  I just don’t buy it.  Having seen first-hand the cruelty of man both here in the States and in Spain, if the divine runs through all living things, or is sitting up in heaven looking down at us, then it is doing a really crappy job of inspiring or encouraging tolerable behavior.  There is no divinity in life, there is just life.   There is no divine plan for life, we just follow our instincts for self-preservation and the continuation of our species.  Sadly, many people, most of whom have strong religious convictions, follow their baser instincts and make life difficult and sometimes impossible for others. 

I also have no use for the secular religions of the Market and History.  Those adherents of laissez-faire capitalism, with its mystical and magical invisible hand that directs sellers and buyers, are no more rational than fundamentalist Bible-thumpers.  These religionists think that if the Market is left undisturbed it will take us to an economic promised land.  The same can be said of the adherents of Marx’s dialectial materialism where the inevitable forces of History will produce a communist classless society.   The only inevitable thing is that all religions, even the secular ones, have authoritative priesthoods whose job it is to direct our lives.  Since they are all false, I oppose all priesthoods.  I want to direct my own life – but thank you very much for offering.

Okay, that was preachy.  But just to end my sermon – No Gods, No Masters!  Remember I’m still an anarchist.  Just a closeted one.


©  2011 Ron Millar

July 1944

I just got back from the Chicago Convention [Democratic National Convention July 19-21 -A.S.] and what a fight!  And, F.D.R. was up to his old tricks – just like in 1940.  A bit of history is important to understand F.D.R.

The 1940 Convention [Democratic National Convention, July 15-18 at Chicago Stadium -A.S.] was crazy.  F.D.R. didn’t announce that he was seeking reelection and in fact gave Kentucky Senator Alban Barkley a note to read to the convention what he [President Roosevelt] didn’t want the job.  This was just a ruse and the convention delegates, as expected, demanded F.D.R. run for an unprecedented third term.   The clamor by the delegates for F.D.R. to accept a third-term was helped by a Chicago political operative [Thomas Garry Chicago Superintendent of Sewers -A.S.] who was in the basement of the stadium shouting through the speakers “We want Roosevelt!  The world wants Roosevelt!” and by many others among the delegates who were clued into the ruse.  Naturally, all the delegates quickly joined the chant.  F.D.R. is a master at political theater.

F.D.R.’s Vice President at the time, John Nance Garner, had earlier expressed he did not want the V.P. job again (probably because he wanted to run for president as did others in the F.D.R. administration and other supporters of the New Deal).  With Garner out, F.D.R. picked H.A. as his choice for Vice President.  I believe one reason F.D.R. selected H.A. as Vice President – in addition to the fact that he did an amazing job as Secretary of Agriculture – is because he did not express an interest in the presidency; however, I hesitate to explain F.D.R.’s political motivations because they are often mysterious and baffling to me.  With F.D.R.'s backing the convention delegates put H.A. on the ticket.

This year [1944] F.D.R. was playing more tricks than in 1940.  Robert Hannegan [National Chairman of the Democratic Party -A.S.] had a note from F.D.R. saying that he would be happy to run with Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman or Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as his Vice President.  The big business interests ran with this and mounted a strong campaign to oust H.A.  We had a letter to Senator [Samuel D.] Jackson [of Indiana -A.S.] from F.D.R. saying that if he was a delegate he would vote for Wallace.  What is really odd about the whole affair is that Truman went to the convention with the intention of supporting James F. Byrnes for Vice President [Byrnes a former South Carolina Senator and Supreme Court Associate Justice and at the time Director of the Office of War Mobilization -A.S.].  Byrnes, was known as “assistant president” for the home front, and he too apparently got the okay from F.D.R. to run for V.P.!  We almost lost it at one point when Pauley [Treasurer of the Democratic Party -A.S.], who supported Byrnes, and Hillman [of the Congress of Industrial Organizations -A.S.], who opposed Byrnes, were near reaching a compromise to support Truman -- who said he didn’t want the job.   And this is a democratic process?!

What were you thinking Mr. President?! 

What made this even more infuriating was that on three separate occasions H.A. had offered to step aside if F.D.R. was interested in having someone else be Vice President.  F.D.R. rejected his offer each time.  Why would F.D.R. want to deceive H.A. and play such an elaborate game at the convention?  He knew H.A. was loyal and would graciously accept F.D.R.’s decision either way.  I really hate the games that F.D.R. plays.

Fortunately, on the night of F.D.R.’s nomination our supporters packed the Chicago convention galleries.

H.A. followed Barkley in speaking before the convention in support of F.D.R.’s nomination, and H.A. gave a great speech.  He opened with “The strength of the Democratic Party has always been the people – plain people like so many of those here in this convention – ordinary folks, farmers, workers, and business men along Main Street.”  Then he presented his progressive vision for America, “The future belongs to those who go down the line unswervingly for the liberal principles of both political and economic democracy regardless of race, color or religion.  In a political, educational and economic sense there must be no inferior races.  The poll tax must go.  Equal educational opportunities must come.  The future must bring equal wages for equal work regardless of sex or race.” 

The delegates roared back their approval.  A Time magazine reporter said, “Whether conservatives squirmed or Southerners saw red or New Dealers cheered, Henry Wallace’s speech was the first that riveted the delegates’ attention.  It was blunt, grave, tactless.  It easily explained why Henry Wallace was the best loved and the best hated man in the stadium.”

F.D.R. was easily, but not unanimously, nominated, and he gave his acceptance speech by radio from the west coast.  F.D.R. expressed that he would have liked to retire, but would accept the nomination out of duty; however, he would not campaign because it was not fitting and he did not have the time.  He said, “What is the job before us in 1944?  First, to win the war – to win the war fast, to win it overpoweringly.  Second, to form worldwide international organizations, and to arrange to use the armed forces of the sovereign nations of the world to make another war impossible within the foreseeable future.  And third, to build an economy for our returning veterans and for all Americans – which will provide employment and decent standards of living.”

Following his speech, as expected and scripted, there was a long, loud demonstration for F.D.R.  As the demonstration wound down something happened that the bosses had not scripted or expected.  Shouts of “We want Wallace!  We want Wallace!” arose in the stadium.  Soon the stadium rocked with the deafening chant, “WE WANT WALLACE!  WE WANT WALLACE!”  The convention organist began playing our song, “Iowa, Iowa, That’s Where the Tall Corn Grows” and the call for Wallace became a demand.  At one point, our opposition attempted to rush the organist with an ax to cut the organ’s electrical cable, but our supporters blocked the attackers approach.  

Realizing that H.A. would keep his job if the vote for Vice President was held now, Claude Pepper shouted to be recognized by the Convention Chairman [Senator Samuel D. Jackson of Indiana -A.S.] but the Florida microphone was dead.   Pepper then raced through the crowd to reach the podium, as did Robert Hannegan [National Chairman of the Democratic Party -A.S.], but Hannegan’s mission was to prevent the vote by adjourning the convention for the day.  Fortunately, for H.A., the gate to the podium was guarded by a railroad union man [identify unknown -A.S.] and Pepper won the foot race against Hannegan and the gate closed firmly behind Pepper to prevent Hannegan’s access.  Pepper called for H.A.’s nomination and the crowd roared in acclimation drowning out any opposition. 

Democracy beat the bosses.

Although H.A. got to keep his position, the Byzantine politics left me bitter.  Our near ousting demonstrates the power of big business in the backroom dealings – and how F.D.R. plays a very bizarre game of politics.

As best as I can piece together from whispers and third-parties, F.D.R. was willing to drop H.A. because Tommy Corcoran [part of Roosevelt's "brain trust" -A.S.] expressed to F.D.R. the Tory British, particularly [Winston] Churchill, hatred of H.A. because of H.A.’s  anti-imperialist speeches, which they felt threatened the continuation of their colonial empire.  Ed Pauley [an oil man who was the director of the 1944 Convention -A.S.] told F.D.R. that big businessmen feared H.A. and would not support the ticket.  Ed Flynn [a New York lawyer and former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee -A.S.] told F.D.R. that the Democratic Party could raise all the money it needed and more if H.A. was dropped.   Bernard Baruch [a stock market financier who was Director of the Office of War Mobilization -A.S.] offered F.D.R. a million dollars if he would drop H.A. 

Regardless, we won and I have another four years of steady employment.  Assuming we will win the election in November, which of course we will!


©  2011 Ron Millar

June 1944

Okay, onto Spain.

While H.A. was leaving the party of his family – the Republicans and embracing the Democratic Party, I was working with the party of my father and my namesake – the Socialist Party.  I never mentioned my political activities to my Aunt or the Wallaces.  I didn’t think they would approve and I didn’t want to do anything that would affect the comfortable life in which I found myself. 

After my namesake Eugene V. Debs died in 1926, Norman Thomas became the standard bearer of the Party.  Although I could not vote – too young – I was very interested in the 1932 election.   I was fortunate to hear Mr. Thomas speak in Iowa promoting his campaign for president.  I was even more fortunate to meet A. Philip Randolph, union organizer and civil rights leader also stumping for the Thomas campaign.   I read many of Randolph’s articles in back issues of the Messenger, a radical monthly newsletter that advocated against the chains of segregation and for the freedom of democratic socialism.   When possible I would attend Socialist Party rallies and meetings, and when I got my car I had many more opportunities.  My candidate, Norman Thomas lost the election, but Mr. Wallace’s candidate, F.D.R., won.

But wait, I have been very rude.  I have to take some time and thank my Great Aunt for taking care of me when no one else would.  She left Texas at a young age to get away from the “hard south” as she called it.  She is a strong, intelligent women who following the death of her husband, worked tirelessly to raised her family, and then found me at her door and raised me too.   She earned enough money to send her two daughters to school to become a teacher and a nurse.  Strong, proud, resourceful women, and they douted on me.  They helped me catch up on my missed school years.  Their careful attention, along with our extended family, also prevented me from missing school and getting into mischief.  I knew my Aunt would find out immediately and I did not want to disappoint her.  Our community was very tight-knit in Des Moines and very proud.  Education and hard work were stressed to better both the individual and the community.  

Now, I’m not using the names of my living relatives and friends because I don’t trust J. Edgar Hoover.  I might be paranoid, but the F.B.I. has spies and informants everywhere.  If you are reading this Mr. Hoover please be advised that you are the antithesis of everything that makes America great.  You hate anyone who varies from your narrow vision of what makes an American.  You are [this section was not transcribed due to the use of crude and obscene language -A.S.].

Unfortunately, Mr. Hoover has the power to turn his hate into action.  Just ask the passengers of the Buford, like Emma Goldman, Ethel Bernstein, Peter Bianki, Dora Lipkin, Alexander Berkman and over 200 others, who were exiled to Russia.  With unequal justice under his law, anyone who does not fit Mr. Hoover’s narrow definition of an American are harassed, imprisoned, and exiled.  Just in case the FBI, steals these cylinders, or the transcripts that might be made one day, and wants to harass my friends and relatives – who did not already have a high public profile, I’m not going to help them by giving out names. 

If H.A. ever becomes president, I’m going to lobby him to fire Mr. J. Edgar Hoover.  That’s a promise.

Okay back to Spain, or at least how I got there in the first place.

When H.A. went to Washington to become the Secretary of Agriculture, he convinced Congress to give him extra-ordinary powers to control the production and price of agricultural products.  Meanwhile, I was helping farmers in Iowa by assisting with rallies and other protests.  My favorite actions were the penny auctions.  At farm foreclosure auctions, the farmers and their allies would attend in mass.  Possible bidders would be escorted from the property.  Without bidders the intimidated auctioneer would sell the property back to the farmer for a penny.  Sadly, the populist farm organizers frequently did not want to associate with people of my skin tone; however, the communist organizers eagerly accepted my help.  Soon I was helping to organize farmers and driving them in borrowed trucks to the auctions and other events.  The power of an organized citizenry amazed me and scared me a little too – I saw that with different leadership the mob’s anger might easily be turned against me.

The penny auctions were successful.  Iowa issued a moratorium on foreclosures.  However, the moratorium was challenged in court by the financial interest who held the mortgages.   In protest, a group of farmers in La Mars, Iowa kidnapped, abused, and nearly lynched Judge Charles E. Bradley who was hearing the case.  Governor Clyde Herring declared martial law and dispatched troops to put down the “Corn Belt Rebellion.”  The authorities raided the Communist Party headquarters in Sioux City and arrest over eighty farmers and organizers.   Following this “Rebellion,” Wallace and F.D.R. had no problem getting their ground-breaking agricultural legislation through Congress. 

Soon half of the nation’s farmers, three million, signed on to the various federal programs to limit production in order raise prices on produce.  In one program Wallace called for the slaughter of six million baby pigs, which would naturally reduce hog production.   The resulting one hundred million pounds of pork and pork by-products (lard and soap) were given to the poor.  H.A. said, “Not many people realized how radical it was, - this idea of having the Government buy from those who had too much, in order to give to those who had too little.  So direct a method of resolving the paradox of want in the midst of plenty doubtless could never have got beyond the discussion stage before 1933.”  Through these and other agricultural programs hunger was abated and the income of farmers rose by over thirty percent in the New Deal's first year.

The poor showing of Norman Thomas in the election soured me to electoral politics, but through the penny auctions I learned first hand the power of direct action.  I picked up information and books by Mikhail Bakunin [Russian Anarchist 1814-1876 - A.S.], Peter Kropotin [another Russian Anarchist 1842-1921 - A.S.] and Emma Goldman [yet another Russian Anarchist - this one lived in the United States and was appropriately deported - A.S.].  I became fascinated with the ideals of anarchism [Subject goes on diatribe of how all power structures and authority - from laws to traditions - must be questioned - A.S.]. 

Okay, okay, back to Spain.

Through the communist organizers, who thought my anarchist interests were naïve and unscientific, I learned about the opportunity to go to Spain and fight against the fascists, who were trying to overthrow the democratically elected government.   Sadly, the democratic nations of the world would not come to the aid of the Spanish Republic and established a “non-intervention.”  Fortunately, anti-fascists from around the world organized and joined the struggling democracy’s fight against fascism.   It was an amazing effort.  32,000 volunteers, from 53 nations, formed The International Brigades in Spain [The International Brigades were under the control the Soviet Union’s Comintern - A.S.]

I was well aware of the fascists, Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in German,  and their murderous rampages against Anarchists, Socialists and Communists in their countries.   Regrettably, many in the United States supported the fascist regimes thinking it was a quick way to restore order and prosperity, in addition to solving the problem of “undesirables.”  In addition to the lure of Spain itself, the ability to fight the spread of fascism made my participation inevitable.  Best of all, the Communist Party would arrange and pay for transportation there and back.   The first volunteers left for Spain right after Christmas in 1936.  I wanted to go with them, but my Aunt begged me not to go.  Negotiations with my Aunt continued through the Winter, Spring, and Summer of 1937.  Eventually, we compromised.   She said I could go to Spain if I did so legally.   The U.S. had initiated passport restrictions for volunteers going to fight, so most Americans had to go to France and secretly cross over the Pyrenees to get to Spain.   Fortunately, it was still legal to go to Spain to provide humanitarian and medical assistance.  Without my knowledge my Great Aunt had her daughter make contacts with colleagues who had connections with the American Medical Bureau in Spain.  With a new passport and a job with the American Medical Bureau I left for Spain in October 1937.  I arrived in Spain in mid-November and served until the following April.  [A deep sigh is audible followed by a long silence before the Dictaphone is turned off –A.S.]

[Dictaphone turned back on - A.S.]  I was fortunate and did make it back.  About a third of the nearly 3,000 American volunteers were killed in Spain and many of the survivors were wounded.  I made it back physically intact. 

I did not want to leave Spain.  We were told to leave Spain.  We had to come back to the States, even though the war was not won.  We had to leave because the Spanish Prime Minister, Juan Negrin, in a deal with the League of Nations, ordered all of the International Brigades out of Spain in exchange that the foreign fascists would also leave.  We left, but naturally the dishonorable fascist Germans and Italians stayed.

When I did get back, I had a hard time making the transition to civilian life.  I initially stayed with my grandmother in New York, my grandfather died when I was in Spain.   I couldn’t find steady work.  The nation slid back into a recession when the conservatives convinced F.D.R. to pull back on his spending on federal programs.   I don’t know if my employment problems were the result of the recession, my activities in Spain, or because I left my self-confidence and youthful exuberance in Spain as well.  In addition, I gave my tools to the Republic as a parting gift.

I also left behind most of my Communist friends because of the Communist repression of the other leftists in Spain.  In 1937 the Communists attacked the anarchists and members of POUM [Worker’s Party of Marxist Unification – Trotskyites - A.S.] in Barcelona and around the Republic.   I heard rumors but I was too busy at the front – and you heard lots of rumors at the front.  Back in New York, I could not bear to hear my former communist allies tell me that it was necessary to unify the opposition to Franco – “one revolution at a time.”  I knew this was the Party line from Moscow and it was dead wrong.  Emma Goldman when she escaped from the Soviet Union wrote about how Lenin and Trotsky betrayed the revolution and attacked the anarchists and other leftists who did not turn their minds and bodies completely over to the Bolsheviks.  Stalin was just continuing this brutal tradition. 

I attempted to find support in the bohemian and leftist communities that supported Emma Goldman and countless other radicals in New York, but none provided the solace I needed.  Unable to find satisfaction in New York, I decided to move to Philadelphia to try to rediscover my parents.  This too was futile.  Naturally, nothing was familiar and I had no family or friends there.  I missed Spain. 

My depression hit bottom on April 1, 1939 when the last defenders of the Republic surrendered.

Again my Great Aunt came to my rescue.  Still in Des Moines, and still in contact with the Wallaces, my Great Aunt asked Mr. Wallace, now Secretary Wallace, to get a job for me.  Fortunately, Mr. Wallace agreed. 

At first I was a driver and messenger and did odd jobs at the Department of Agriculture.  Since I always enjoyed playing with mechanical things, I quickly learned how to repair typewriters.  This made me very popular among the secretaries and my social life improved tremendously, as did my self-confidence and mood.   However, unlike in Spain, the fairer skinned of the fairer sex, would only meet me surreptitiously.   Discussions to bring these relationships into the open light of day would immediately be met with shocked expressions of  “What would people say” and “I have to think of my reputation.”

When Mr. Wallace, now H.A., became the Vice President, H.A. promoted me to become his scheduler and personal aide.  My key responsibilities are making sure that meetings are with people actually working to get things done (no frivolous socializers or self-promoters are allowed to get through the doorway), making sure that H.A. keeps to his calendar and his visitors don’t overstay their allotted time, and that all the materials, briefing notes, reports, presentation aides, etc., needed for the meetings are prepared and distributed.   This is a very important position and has let me become an active participant in the New Deal – happy days did indeed return. 

An Anarchist working for the Vice President of the United States – I don’t think Emma Goldman would be very proud of me; however, the work is meaningful and I really enjoy the company.

Yes, I skipped over Spain.  I guess I’m still not ready to talk about it.

©  2011 Ron Millar

May 1944

My boss just left yesterday [May 20 - A.S.] for a fifty-one day trip to Soviet Asia and China.  He won’t be back until July 10, just nine days before the beginning of the Democratic Convention.   This is an important convention.  It will determine if he will be the Vice Presidential candidate for the next election, and a powerful cabal is seeking to replace him. 

But H.A. is not concerned.

H.A. believes in government, not politics.  This is the opposite of most everyone else here in Washington who focus almost exclusively on the politics.  Their goal is achieving high office to obtain power.  H.A.’s focus is using government as a tool for doing good for the public welfare, not to enhance his own welfare.   I fear he believes that most people think like he does.  He believes that when presented with multiple options people will select the superior option.  Sadly, in Washington politics, they will select the option that their political boss tells them to select. 

I told H.A. he needed to spend this time to rally support for his renomination.  He said he needed to spend his energies in helping to win the war and the peace, and that the delegates will do the right thing in the end.

H.A. asked me to go with him on the trip, but I begged out saying I did not have the language skills – H.A. has been studying Russian – and that I would be most helpful by keeping things organized for him on this end.   What I am really going to do is to work with Senators Joe Guffey [Pennsylvania] and Claude Pepper [Florida], who will be our floor managers in Chicago, and Sidney Hillman [head of the CIO Political Action Committee - A.S.], who is organizing labor, to ensure that H.A. continues as F.D.R.’s Vice President. 

Against us is Ed Pauley, Treasurer of the Democratic Party, its chief fund-raiser, and a rich big business oil man.  Pauley has organized powerful group of allies intent on ousting H.A.: Robert Hannagan, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, [Edwin M.] Pa Watson, F.D.R.’s appointments secretary, [Oscar R.] Jack Ewing, the Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party, Charles Michelson, the Party’s Publicity Director, George Allen, the Party’s National Secretary, Frank Walker, Postmaster General, and Edward Kelly, Mayor of Chicago, where the convention is being held.  This is a formidable group. 

And, lots of people want H.A.’s job including such powerful men as Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, former South Carolina Senator and F.D.R. confidant James Byrnes, and House Speaker Sam Rayburn.

However, H.A. has what they don’t – the support of the people.  A recent Gallup poll determined that  H.A. had the support of 65 percent of Democratic voters.  No one else was even close:  Barkley, 17 percent, Rayburn, 5 percent, Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia, 4 percent, Brynes 3 percent, Douglas, 2 percent, Senator Harry Truman of Missouri, 2 percent, and Undersecretary of State Edward Stettinius, 2 percent.

The bosses may hate us, but the people love us.

So why do the bosses want H.A. out?  It’s really simple.  They want to protect big business and maintain the war machine, and H.A. will not serve their interests.  A memo that an ally obtained for me from George Allen best sums up their paranoid fantasies:

I see President Henry A. Wallace sitting in front of a microphone in the Oval Room of the White House, reading a message to the people of the world.  His forelock droops appealingly over his right eye.  His flat Iowa voice proclaims that the United States of America shall henceforth be called the Soviet States of America, that all Democrats from Mississippi weighing more than two hundred pounds shall be rendered in order that unwashed comrades in Greater Russia can be assured an adequate soap supply, and that scientific socialism shall bring to the Western Hemisphere that same conditions that prevail through the glorious territories of mother Russia.

This guy is an idiot.  I know Communists and H.A. is not a Communist - but anyone who supports any regulation to protect people and a fair market place is considered a Communist by these people.


There is only person whose choice in the matter really counts and that person is F.D.R., and no one knows what he is planning.  He hasn’t even announced yet if he will accept another term as President!  F.D.R. is a great man, but he can be very frustrating.

Hmmm.  I guess I really don’t want to talk about Spain.

©  2011 Ron Millar

April 1944

The Vice President of the United States gave me, yes me!, his Dictaphone.  He said I had a story to tell.  Henry Wallace, farmer, writer, scientist, politician said he wanted to hear my story.  Oh yeah, Testing. Testing. Testing. 1. 2. 3.  


Now Henry Wallace, he has a story.  I’m his Personal Aide, but Vice President Wallace said I needed to get my story – my experiences – about the Spanish War on record.  He has tried to get me to tell him about it in person, but I’m either too shy or too concerned what emotions might arise to talk about it in person.  That’s when H.A. suggested the Dictaphone.  So here it goes.

I’m Eugene Abraham Lewis, better known as Gene.  I work as a Personal Aide to the Vice President of the United States – but I guess I’ve already said that.   My boss, did I mention he is Vice President Henry A. Wallace – likes me to call him H.A. – gave me a gift, his old Dictaphone, and a big box of used, but freshly shaved, government stock wax cylinders.   H.A. thought I could use the device to record my experiences as a volunteer with the International Brigades fighting fascism in Spain.   It was such an overwhelming experience that I have difficulty talking about it.  H.A. thought the Dictaphone would help overcome this problem – but I’m repeating myself again. 

This Dictaphone has quite a history.  H.A. used it writing and editing the famous Wallaces’ Farmer, a weekly publication advocating for the farming community and scientific farming.   The Wallace family is very prominent in Iowa and admired by farmers nationwide.   H.A.’s grandfather, also named Henry but known as “Uncle Henry” to everyone, was an ordained minister and founder of the family paper.  He believed farming was man’s noblest work and he worked tirelessly to improve farm life.  H.A.’s father, Henry C. Wallace, followed in “Uncle Henry’s” footsteps, running the paper and he also served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Warren G. Harding.  The Wallace’s were staunch Republicans and strong supporters of President Theodore Roosevelt – that is until the Republican Party became dominated by big business as embodied by President Calvin Coolidge.  In 1924, H.A. broke with the family tradition and voted for the “Little Giant of the West,” Senator Robert La Follette of the Progressive Party instead of Coolidge.  H.A. knew it was a protest vote and Coolidge easily won the election. 

Like his father and grandfather, H.A. advocated for farmers and promoted scientific farming methods.  He wrote for and edited the family paper and authored several books on farming and politics – using this Dictaphone.  Also like his father, H.A. served as Secretary of Agriculture; however H.A. did it under a Democratic president – the great F.D.R. [Franklin Delano Roosevelt - A.S.].  H.A. is now F.D.R.’s Vice President, but I think I’ve mentioned that before. 

As a boss, H.A. is tireless.  This makes keeping up with him quite a chore.  Some people think he is a bit of an odd-duck.  I just think he is shy and not cut out for the “I’m your pal” type of politics that is seems required today.   I think his best quality is that he is open to any idea regardless of its source or popularity (or lack thereof).  He doesn’t let dogma or preconceived notions interfere with his decision-making.  When evaluating what path to take, he tests the validity of the various options and supports the option with the best evidence behind it.  He simply loves learning and experimenting.   H.A. is very intelligent, but not arrogant.  He rewards thoughtful discussions with his full attention, but has no time for the frivolous.   He has always been honest with me, rewarded my hard work, and treated me as an equal.   

But enough about H.A. this is supposed to be my story. 

I was born in 1915 in Philadelphia to George and Ida Lewis.  I was their first and only surviving child.  I was named after my father’s hero Eugene V. Debs, labor leader and presidential candidate of the Socialist Party and my mother’s hero Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed the slaves.  However, I barely remember my mother or dad, or Philadelphia for that matter.  My parents, and my baby sister, were killed by the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918.  My mom and dad were only 20 and 21 respectively – how incredibly young!   My father was a proud member of Local 8 of the I.W.W. [International Workers of the World a.k.a. Wobblies -A.S.] Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union.  The Local was lead by Ben Fletcher and organized longshoreman.  I still have my father’s I.W.W. membership card – it is a prized possession and throughout my travels it has never left my person.  My mother took in people’s sewing and laundry at home and helped support I.W.W. efforts to organize workers and hinder the draft [for World War I - A.S.].  I don’t know why I survived, but since the Spanish Flu killed my parents and sister, I developed a morbid fascination with the nation of Spain.   I know the flu didn’t actually come from Spain, but Spain haunted me as a child and even more so now.

After their deaths, I was first handed off to my mother’s parents in New York City.  My first memories are of that cramped tenement building and the teeming city.  My grandparents were very loving and attentive.  They taught me to read and write.  Unfortunately, because of all the heavy lifting at his meatpacking plant my grandfather simply worked himself out and became a broken bedridden old man at the age of 55.   I was seven and preparing to go to school when I was tearfully told I had to leave.  Although they might have had a final destination in mind – perhaps my father’s parents in Texas, I was shipped from relative to relative across the country.  I felt like each stop was an audition for a new home.  I tried to make myself useful and picked up new skills at each stop.  I lived in industrial cities like Pittsburgh and in the rural farmlands of Indiana and all kinds of places in-between.  I learned to cook and clean, plant and pick, and tailor and tinker.   I traveled by way of cousins and other relatives spending weeks, months, or even a year with each family until an outing was arranged to take me to my next destination.   However, times were difficult for my family in the supposed prosperity of the 1920s.  The factory jobs that were opened to us during the war quickly were taken back by the demobilized soldiers returning from Europe and a lot of other white men who didn’t fight in the war.  Although we excelled at our work, we were told our services were no longer required.  I agree that soldiers should get their old jobs back, but that doesn’t need to mean the total exclusion of my people from these jobs.  The farmers were suffering too.  They had to live on below subsistence prices for their produce because of their abundant harvests.   The idea that bountiful harvests produced economic failure just didn’t seem right to me.  

By the time I was thirteen I had made it half way across the country and moved in with a Great Aunt who worked as a cook and housekeeper for Henry A. and Ilo Wallace.   I didn’t know it then but this was to be my home until I shipped off to Spain just eight years later. 

When my Aunt found out that I had not been to school since leaving New York, she made sure I was enrolled and attended everyday.  


I quickly grew close to the Wallace family.  I am the same age as H.A.'s eldest H.B. [Henry Browne], three years older than Robert, and five years older than Jean.  I easily made friends with H.A.'s children and often played with them.  Theoretically, I could even go to school with them.  Iowa’s schools were not segregated.  The Iowa Supreme Court struck down “separate but equal” school system in 1868.  Iowa is a gem.  


Although not everyone in Iowa shines brightly.  I did not go to school with the Wallace children because neighborhoods were segregated and the school boundaries just happen to have been drawn to mirror these neighborhoods.  Because of my Aunt and the openness of the Wallace family I was able to experience two different Iowas.    

As in my other stopovers, I again I attempted to be useful to earn my keep; however, I had given up on finding a permanent residence.  In addition to helping in my Aunt’s home, I also helped out at the Wallace house on some evenings, weekends, holiday breaks, and summers.  Mr. Wallace, before graduating to H.A., saw my enthusiasm and skills and put me to work at a variety of tasks.  I would started out just helping around the house, but then Mr. Wallace put me to work on this hybrid corn projects, which he did in his backyard – these project would culminate in the creation of Pioneer Hi-Bred corn seed company that helped make the Wallace’s a very comfortable family.  My backyard projects lead to me working on the various family farms in the state.  I enjoyed camping out on the farms and tinkering with the machinery.  I became very adept at repairing the equipment and especially enjoyed working on the old tractors and trucks. 

Soon, with the help of my family and the Wallace family, I acquired an impressive mechanic's tool kit, and I was repairing the cars and equipment for my family, the Wallace family, and other friends and neighbors.   With times being tight my services to extend the lifespan of old equipment were in high demand – plus I was just a kid so my fees were very reasonable.  If I was ever stumped by a problem, my aunt’s son-in-law, a very skilled mechanic, explained it to me or if he was stumped too he would introduce me to someone who could teach me.  Soon there was nothing mechanical that I could not fix.   Mr. Wallace, who apparently was following my mechanical exploits, introduced me to the workers in his Wallaces’ Farmer printing plant and I explored the new and fascinating equipment and, with help, soon mastered them too. 

I was able to continue my informal apprenticeship at the printing press even when the Wallace family lost ownership of the paper in 1932 due to the economic depression.  Although the paper transferred to new owners H.A. continued his work as editor and the Wallace family was still solvent – many, many farmers in Iowa were going under, losing both their farms and livelihoods.

Although Iowa, the nation, and the world was suffering from the economic crisis, I was doing fine.  By the time I was in my mid-teens I had stashed away a good deal of cash, and earned a lot of in-kind payments – chickens, clothes, pies (my favorite).  I used both to repay my Aunt for her generosity – and love, and I also purchased a second-hand car.  With the car, I quickly became “a man about town” and created even more opportunities to help friends and relatives, including the Wallaces.  I was a driver, with a car, for hire.  I transported people, packages, and messages all over the state and even did a few trips out-of-state to Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

During this time I also embraced the political party of my father, the Socialist Party.  During my travels I would meet with party members and pick up literature.  I also did some messenger and passenger work for them, especially during the 1932 election.

While I embraced my father’s politics, my aunt told me that Mr. Wallace struggled with his politics.  The Wallaces’ hated Herbert Hoover – something about Hoover betraying the farmers and attempting to undermine H.A.’s father when they both served in the Harding Administration.  Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce and Wallace was the Secretary of Agriculture.   Four years after H.A.’s father died, Herbert Hoover became president.  This apparently was a very bitter time for H.A. – he had campaigned for Al Smith, but Iowa’s rural, Protestant, teetotalers could not bring themselves to vote for this big city, Catholic, wet politician. 

Although he was still officially registered as a Republican, H.A. was a man without a party.  He saw that neither the Republican nor the Democratic party was working to solve the problems of the farmer, in particular, and the crisis of the depression in general.  Unlike these political parties, H.A. was examining a lot of policy options.  He was very interested in a proposal by M.L. Wilson, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State Agricultural College.  Wilson proposed paying farmers to limit their production, what he called “the domestic allotment plan.”  The plan proposed that by controlling the production of farmers, crop prices would rise and stabilize the agricultural economy.  H.A. helped Wilson promote the idea and Wilson became acquainted with Rexford Guy Tugwell an economics professor at Columbia University and a member of F.D.R.'s “Brain Trust”  [Roosevelt’s team of advisors - A.S.].

H.A. began to see potential in a Roosevelt presidency, and to win the election, the Roosevelt campaign knew it needed to recruit the support of farmers and saw H.A. as a necessary and natural ally.  Wilson and Tugwell worked to bring H.A. to the campaign and shortly after F.D.R. won the Democratic Party nomination for president H.A. was invited to lunch at Hyde Park with F.D.R.  The lunch was a hit with both participants.  H.A. returned to Iowa committed to the election of F.D.R.  Iowa and the majority of the nation sent F.D.R. to the White House.  A few weeks after the election, H.A. was called to Warm Springs, Georgia [Roosevelt’s spa retreat - A.S.] to meet with the president-elect and his team, and a few months later H.A. was asked to serve as Secretary of Agriculture, and Tugwell, shortly after F.D.R.’s inaugural, became the Assistant Secretary of State.

Wait a second, all I’m doing is talking about H.A. – this is supposed to be about me.  But I guess our past and futures are tied to one another, so my story is also his story – except Spain of course – which is what H.A., and I, wanted to use this Dictaphone for – oh, well.  I’ll try again another day.




©  2011 Ron Millar