May 1948

Following our rally in Madison Square Garden [in New York City - A.S.], a riot broke out.  Fascist members of the Catholic War Veterans attacked a group of progressive students who were peacefully picketing an anti-Russian motion picture showing at the Roxy Theater.  Our supporters leaving the rally went to the aide of the students.  The police arrived and indiscriminately beat and arrested participants from both sides. 

Vigilante events are occurring more and more frequently.  H.A. has protection, but his supporters do not.   In rallies were H.A. is not a speaker are especially dangerous because we do not have secret service protection.  Rallies at Duquesne University, the University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Colorado, and UCLA have resulted in rowdy confrontations with rabid anti-Wallace vigilantes. 

Even in cities where H.A. is speaking we frequently have difficulty getting the cooperation of the local police.  Detroit’s Police Commissioner Harry S. Toy is nuts and an excellent example of this problem.  He thought communists were entering the country from Canada disguised as rabbis and said that all leftists should be imprisoned.  After Walter Reuther [President of the United Auto Workers – was shot in his home in Detroit on April 20, 1948 – A.S.] was nearly assassinated, the bigoted Toy used this as an opportunity to round up H.A. supporters as suspects – almost all of them being those supporters who were darkly complected or those not of the Christian faith.  This diversion allowed the real shooter to get away.  When we spoke there, we bypassed Toy and obtained uniformed officers hand picket by the new mayor [Democrat Eugene Van Antwerp –A.S.] for additional security.

Fortunately, some of the behavior is so excessive and idiotic that it is comical.  A New York judge announced that he would take into account a parent’s support of H.A. as a factor in determining child custody.   A school board banned the book Twenty Modern Americans [a textbook by Alice Cecilia Cooper – I have requested the file on her – A.S.] because it contained a chapter on H.A.  The most bizarre was when H.A.’s chief poultry breeder [I do not know this person – I have requested the New York office research this person – A.S.] from the Farvue Farm went to pick up hatching eggs sent from Europe to a New York airport.  Knowing that they were for H.A.’s farm, a U.S. Customs official deliberately threw one of the eggs on the floor.  H.A. in his normal even manner suggested that, “Undoubtedly he looked at my poultry expert as one of ‘Henry Wallace’s Communists’ and began to see red.”

If only this was the limit of their actions. 

On May 1, Senator Glen Taylor [of Idaho –A.S.] was roughed up and arrested by police in Birmingham, Alabama.  He was there to speak before the Southern Negro Youth Conference [a Communist front organization designed to create dissension with the Negro race - A.S.] in support of H.A.  Using an ordinance forbidding integrated meetings, the city police chief, Eugene “Bull” Connor, ordered his arrest.  The police shoved Taylor, knocked him to the ground, and taunted him.  They told him that their boss said, “There is not enough room in town for Bull and the Commies.”  He thought they were going to beat him to death.  Taylor was photographed, fingerprinted and jailed.  He quickly made bond and was released.  Taylor immediately returned to Washington and relayed his experience on the Senator floor.  Neither of the Alabama Senators [Lister Hill and John Sparkman – A.S.], his colleagues in the gentlemen’s club, offered an apology for their state’s conduct.

Much worse was to follow just days later.  On May 7, one of our supporters was murdered.  Robert W. New Jr., a twenty-eight year old maritime worker, was murdered by a co-worker.  Rudolph Serreo said he slit New’s throat because he was a “nigger lover” and Wallace supporter.  Serreo’s attorney, Thomas P. Stoney, said, “At the trial I will prosecute Bob New for raising unrest among the colored people in the South.  I will prosecute him also as the chairman of the Wallace committee and as the despicable, slick, slimy Communists prowling the waterfront.”  With the trial being held in Charleston, I am certain Serreo will not be punished.

Almost everyday there is a new outrage and the rhetoric of the Whiskey Rebels is fueling this lawlessness. 

©  2015 Ron Millar

April 1948

 On April 12, H.A.’s eighty-year-old mother, May Brodhead Wallace, died.  The campaign rested so H.A. could attend the funeral in Des Moines. 

©  2015 Ron Millar

March 1948

Thanks to the Whiskey Rebellion, Strom Thurmond [Democratic Governor of South Carolina – AS], and other conservative, big business, and racist agitation, the small groups of protesters we saw late last year, are now larger and more violent.  An angry mob of 2,500 greeted our arrival at a coliseum in Evansville, Indiana.  One of the protest signs read “Dear Uncle Joe, How am I doing?  Faithfully yours, Hank.”  The mob tried to break into the auditorium, but the police were able to stop their advance.   In a speech in a park near the University of Iowa, two eggs thrown by an audience member just missed H.A.  The newspapers encouraged this rouge behavior by running headlines like “Hot Reception Looms in K.C. for Wallace.”  In another outdoor rally in Columbia, Missouri eggs were again thrown and hecklers attempted to disrupt H.A.’s speech. 

The Soviet mob is also out of control.  Jan Masaryk [see February 1948 entry - AS] was murdered by being thrown out the bathroom window of his office.  The official pronouncement is that his death was an accident.  Playing off the national motto "Truth Prevails," Mr. Masaryk would often say "Truth prevails, but it's a chore."  The circumstances of his death would be ironic if they were not so tragic for him and his country.  Thank you for your service and courage Mr. Masaryk, I hope that someday people will awaken to the horrors of both Capitalism and Communism so that truth will one day prevail.

©  2015 Ron Millar

February 1948

The conservative political bosses, which are most of them, and their allies in newspapers and radio pressed their Wallace equals Communist rhetoric even harder.   I can't believe that only the most rabid Red-baiters actually fall for these lies; however, it seems that a growing number of Americans believe H.A. is a “dupe” or “fellow traveler” or a “pink.”  We have tried a variety of responses to educate Americans, but so far none have worked well. 

H.A. does not always help by saying things like, “I’m not following their [the Communist – AS] line.  If they want to follow my line, I say God bless’em.” 

He has even tried appealing to fair play and liberty, and a little scare tactic by saying, “Our most precious freedoms are being undermined by the cry of ‘Red!, Red!’” and the surefire way of bringing communism to the United States is to let “reactionary capitalists drive the country into a depression.”

We are also getting pressure from overseas.  London [Clement Attlee Prime Minister of Great Britain – AS] is insistent on holding a conference to establish a German state from the American, British, and French occupation zones.  R.A. refused any conference that did not include the Soviets.  He knows that nothing frightens Soviet leaders more than a revived Germany with the potential to reassert its power in central Europe.  H.A. is also working to prevent the creation of a fifty-year military mutual defense pact proposed by Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.  To H.A. it is obvious that any military agreement will be seen by the Soviets not as a defense agreement, but as an offensive alliance against them.  The Soviets are paranoid and we cannot feed this paranoia.

Although, it is getting harder and harder to deal with the Soviet Union.  The Soviet’s orchestrated the removal of almost all non-communists from the government of Czechoslovakia.  The only exception is the Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk – the son of the famous and beloved Tomas Masaryk [First President of Czechoslovakia 1918 to 1935 – AS].

Fulfilling his promise from the State of the Union Message, H.A. asked Congress to enact the recommendations from his Civil Rights Commission.  If Congress does not act, he said he would issue executive orders to end segregation in the federal government and the armed services.  The reaction of southern politicians was immediate and hostile.  South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond held a press conference saying that the national Democrats could no longer take the South for granted and “they talk about breaking down the laws which knowledge and experience of many years have proven to be essential to the protection of the racial integrity and purity of the white and Negro races alike … As a nation we have favored the protection of racial autonomy and integrity in other lands, such as Palestine and India, but a different doctrine is sought to be applied here at home.”  [In private Governor Thurmond’s protection of racial integrity has not been so strong.  When he was 22 years old Mr. Thurmond impregnated his family’s 15 year-old maid and subsequently had a mixed blood daughter. – AS]  The Mississippi House Speaker, Walter Sillers Jr., was more direct calling R.A.’s civil right’s policies, “damnable, communistic, unconstitutional, anti-American, anti-Southern legislation.” Southern radio and newspapers were rabid in their rhetoric against H.A.’s efforts.  The White House was swamped with letters expressing the deep seated fears and hatred associated with the diseased minds advocating white supremacy. 

The combination of powerful southern Democrats and conservative Republicans ensured that the civil rights legislation would not move, but R.A. saw his responsibility to attempt to move the legislation forward, educate the American public, and demonstrate that the oppressed have a friend in the White House.  In addition, H.A. thought it was the right thing to do.

The fear and hatred expressed by the Whisky Rebels, Strom Thurmond, Walter Sillers, and many others reflect beliefs that are deeply ingrained in America.  Eventually our Jim Crow laws will be overturned and society will change to embrace concept of equality.  Perhaps someday soon polite society will be aghast at the language of militant white supremacy; however, a lingering base fear and loathing will exist for generations.  Language will transform to use code words that mask the target and the rationale for this undying fear and loathing.  I’m sure that unscrupulous politicians and political parties even fifty years from now will be using coded language to capture political power by unifying the southern states and capture border and other states where this fear and loathing still pervades our society. 

However, today, I get to see the faces twisted with hatred spewing fearful obscene epitaphs without any attempt at restraint.

©  2015 Ron Millar

January 1948

H.A. declared his candidacy for president on December 29, 1947.   Like, H.A., the timing was unusual -  this is months before most presidential hopefuls formally launch their campaigns.  It also lacked the political paraphernalia and trappings of the campaign launch.  It was just a radio address without fanfare; however, his message made up for the lack of political hoopla.  He said, “The people are on the march…We have assembled a Gideon’s Army, small in number, powerful in conviction, ready for action.  We have said with Gideon, ‘Let those who are fearful and trembling depart.’  For every fearful one who leaves, there will be a thousand to take his place.  A just cause is worth a hundred armies.  We face the future unfettered, unfettered by a principle but the general welfare.  We owe no allegiance to any group, which does not serve that welfare.  By God’s grace, the people’s peace will usher in the century of the common man.”  He added, “We are voting peace and security for ourselves and our children’s children.  We are fighting for old-fashioned Americanism at the polls in 1948.  We are fighting for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.  We are fighting to end racial discrimination.  We are fighting for lower prices.  We are fighting for free labor unions, for jobs, and for homes in which we can decently live.”

H.A. has asked Florida Senator Claude Pepper to be his running mate, and Mr. Pepper has enthusiastically agreed.  His formal addition to the ticket will be announced in July at the Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia.

At the State of the Union Address on January 7, H.A. highlighted his program to expand the New Deal and fight the bosses of industry and politics.  A unfriendly Republican-controlled Congress was confronted with popular programs calling for a forty-dollar tax cut for every taxpayer and dependent, an increase in corporate taxes, an increase in the minimum wage, lower inflation with price and rent controls, regulation of big business, an end to the draft and improve pay and working conditions for the enlisted men, and a universal national health insurance program.   He also called for programs that drove the wedge further between progressives and reactionary southern Democrats forcing Democratic members of Congress to pick a side.  H.A. called for legislation to protect civil rights that included anti-lynching legislation, abolition of poll taxes and literacy tests, end racial discrimination in the armed services, and establishment of a fair employment practices commission and a permanent commission on civil rights. 

He argued that his domestic policies were in the mold of the New Deal in taking on “economic royalists” and the “good-for-nothing Republican Congress”, but H.A.’s vision was to take the New Deal to the next level.    As for foreign policy, he declared, “I have fought and shall continue to fight programs which give guns to people when they want plows.”  He denounced efforts to make the United States an imperial power under the false aegis of fighting Communism.

Naturally, the Whiskey Rebels shouted treason – several from the floor of the Congress – an incredible show of insubordination, but their outbursts played well with their reactionary base.


©  2015 Ron Millar

December 1947

Not yet transcribed.  -AS