Had Enough?

For the first time in the last 14 years Democrats were all of one shade--very red. The Party's left-wingers, labor cohorts and New Dealers seethed in red hot anger over what had been done to their darling, Henry Wallace. Its conservatives and middle-of-the-roaders boiled in red embarrassment over Harry Truman's fumbles. Its hard-shelled practical professionals examined their deep crimson bruises and wondered how badly they were hurt.

For the first time in a long time the Democrats were also truly united--united like the victims of a blast, in pain and befuddlement. The Party's strategists picked themselves off the floor and felt themselves gingerly. It was too early to tell where the fractures might show up in the congressional elections in November. But the air was heavy with gloom. National Chairman Bob Hannegan and his able young assistant Gael Sullivan got on the telephone as soon as the dust had cleared. They called many a local Party bigwig. Some were ready to hang out the crepe right away, but many others thought they had suffered nothing worse than sprains and minor dislocations.

Then Hannegan and Sullivan were off to Chicago to assess the damage in the Midwest and to try to get the National Committee machine back on its bearings. Illinois was a fair sample of the dilemma many Democratic leaders faced. A Republican trend was running; the G.O.P. was given a good chance of cutting four of the Democrats' eleven seats in Congress out from under them. The Democratic leaders had counted heavily on a tour by Henry Wallace this month to bolster party strength in industrial districts. Now local Democrats could not drop Wallace for fear of alienating labor votes, and they could not repudiate Harry Truman, their Party's President.

Hot Water. That was the situation in many a hot spot. Said a Philadelphia Democrat: "If they vote on local issues, we might make it. If they vote on national issues, we're out." Said a top labor leader in Washington: "This just about kills the P.A.C.'s hope of electing a liberal House." Said one national strategist: "If some thing like this happened in a presidential election year, it would be curtains."

Where would the saddened liberal-leftists go? Said sorrowful Leon Henderson: "Liberals will become reconciled to Henry's departure--they haven't any place else to go." But top Democrats were afraid that liberals might just stay away from the polls on Nov. 5.

In Los Angeles, some 1,100 "associates" of the leftish Nation gathered in expectation of hearing a stirring rallying cry to the Wallace banner by Will Rogers Jr., their Senate hopeful. What they heard was an anemic speech in which Democrat Rogers sidestepped any mention of Wallace, Jimmy Byrnes or Harry Truman. Many a hot Hollywood liberal went away angered.

In New York City the American Labor Party--without whose votes the Democrats cannot hope to carry the state--gave a cocktail party for the faithful to meet Jim Mead and Herbert Lehman (the ALP as well as the Democratic candidates for governor and Senator). Jim Mead sent regrets. Herbert Lehman showed up, but ducked any discussion of the Wallace affair. Many an ALPman was deep in defeatism.

Hot Pepper. The man in Government on whom the liberal-leftists now counted most heavily was Florida's florid Senator Claude Pepper. Bob Hannegan swiftly overruled attempts to keep him and Wallace off the stump, said that both were welcome. As chief defender of Wallace in the Cabinet, Hannegan wanted to squeeze whatever votes he could out of the Wallace left-appeal.

The Democratic chieftains might well have worried the most about the independent voter. Said one ward heeler: "The average guy might not know the ins & outs of the Wallace-Byrnes row, but he sure knows his President is a dumbhead." Last week Harold Ickes--who is no reactionary--bluntly called the U.S. President "stupid." Would this feeling of disgust be transferred to the congressional elections?

Republicans certainly hoped so. They sat back and enjoyed the enemy's confusion. In Massachusetts GOPoliticos came up with their catchiest political slogan in many a year. The slogan: "Had Enough? --Vote Republican."

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