© 2015 Ron Millar
April 1948
© 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.
© 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
© 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
© 2015 Ron Millar
November 1947
We
just got back from traveling, again - this time to the Near East. We left on October 17 and returned November
4. Just a few days prior to our
departure the government agreed to a UN plan to partition Palestine into
independent Jewish and Arab states.
H.A. called for the creation of a Jordan Valley authority, based on the
successful TVA program in the States, and he called on the Jews and Arabs to
“abide faithfully by the ultimate decision of the United Nations.” H.A. believes that peace is possible even in
Palestine. He said, “I saw evidence on
the village level that the Jew and Arab get along very well, provided hatred
and discord are not incited from the outside.”
While
we were away HUAC was at it again. They
held a hearing on Communism in Hollywood.
H.A. attacked HUAC from Palestine, “From here where Elijah fought the
prophets of Baal and close to the mount where Jesus gave his famous sermon,
people without fear ask, ‘Has America really gone crazy?’ Is the un-American committee evidence that
America is traveling the road to fascism?
On behalf of millions everywhere you must answer no so loudly the people
of the world can hear. You must destroy
the un-American committee at the polls and in the courts, or it will destroy
many of the foundations of democracy and Christianity.”
Naturally
H.A. toured kibbutzs and offered his farming advice; he also toured many
religious sites and relics. Speaking of
relics, H.A. stopped in Rome, which included an audience with Pope Pius
XII. When Eugenio Pacelli was elected
Pope Pius XII in 1939 he stopped the Vatican’s criticism of fascist Germany and Italy and praised the victory of
Franco in Spain. Idiot.
© 2014 Ron Millar
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