July 20, 1944

Democrats Press 'War Chief' Issue; Second Place Open

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Wallace Gets Ovation as He Appears on Floor, but Foes Start Rush to Truman

By TURNER CATLEDGE

Special to The New York Times

HICAGO, July 19 -- Rallying uproariously to repeated calls to stand by the "Commander in Chief," but faced with the bitterest inter-party row of the last twelve years over the selection of a candidate for Vice President, the twenty-eighth quadrennial Democratic Convention got under way in the stadium today.

Renomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt was a foregone certainty -- so much so that convention officials had arranged for a radio acceptance speech by the nominee tomorrow night. His selection is slated to take place in balloting some time during the evening, when only about 100 votes out of a total 1,176 are expected to be cast against him, despite the deep-rooted dissent of some groups.

All effort to center full attention on Mr. Roosevelt, an effort carried to a high pitch in the keynote speech tonight of Gov. Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma, Temporary Convention Chairman, failed, however, to cool the Vice Presidential race. The contest was becoming more intensive and was prompting repeated appeals of the convention management to the President for further word on his stand. It reached a new notch on the political thermometer when Vice President Wallace arrived this morning to take personal charge of his renomination campaign and announced immediately that he was "in this fight to the finish."

Byrnes Withdraws Name

Opponents of Mr. Wallace, thinking themselves authorized to go ahead after the President's mild personal endorsement of him two days ago, were trying to solidify forces behind Senator Harry Truman of Missouri. The rush to Senator Truman started this morning when James F. Byrnes, Director of the Office of War Mobilization, "in deference to the President's wishes," withdrew from further consideration by the anti-Wallaceites and after word had been put out by substantial party officials that President Roosevelt would be happy to accept either Senator Truman or Associate Justice William O. Douglas as a running-mate if his "personal friend," Henry A. Wallace, was to be ditched by the convention.

Mr. Byrnes sent a note to the South Carolina delegation, which proposed to present him, not to offer his name.

Friends of Senator Barkley, majority leader, insisted that he was still very much in the running, while the same dozen or more other "hopefuls" for second place on the fourth-term ticket stood by waiting for the next candidate to bite the dust.

Leaders of the Wallace opposition were plainly concerned. Mr. Wallace showed greater strength among the delegates than some of them had expected and his backers were becoming almost evangelical as they sought to make the contest an out-and-out show-down between the "right-center" and "left" elements of the party.

Wallace Opposition Jolted

The anti-Wallace leaders were further concerned when the Vice President received a prolonged ovation from the delegates and the galleries as he came into the stadium just before 9 o'clock tonight. The organ and band took up the strain of "Iowa, Iowa, The State Where the Tall Corn Grows" and then went into "My Hero."

The anti-Wallace people still seemed assured of enough votes to stop him provided they could get them behind a single candidate within the next twenty-four hours. But some of the delegates apparently were becoming impatient at all the pulling and hauling which has been going on among them in the last few days and suspicious of all rumors about whom the President wanted or did not want on the ticket.

No substantial part of the delegates, and certainly none of the leaders of the big-city Democratic machines opposing Mr. Wallace, proposed to do anything not wanted by Mr. Roosevelt.

Wallace backers challenged the opposition to show any proof, documentary or otherwise, that Mr. Roosevelt had approved Mr. Truman or anyone else except Mr. Wallace. They scouted reports that Robert E. Hannegan, chairman of the national committee, had received a letter from Mr. Roosevelt saying either Mr. Truman or Mr. Douglas would be acceptable in place of Mr. Wallace.

Attention was directed constantly during the day toward officials of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and particularly toward Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee, for any signs of a break of "liberal" forces away from Mr. Wallace and toward Justice Douglas or another.

Both Mr. Hillman and Philip Murray, president of the CIO, established themselves as powerful forces at the convention, when they turned thumbs-down on Mr. Byrnes, thereby contributing to the weight of pressure which caused President Roosevelt to wave his Mobilization Chief out of the picture.

Reminiscent of the 1924 Clash

Behind the scenes in the contest, observers saw the greatest amount of maneuvering that has been seen in the Democratic party since the Madison Square Garden convention of 1924.

Although this inter-play was claiming the greatest attention among delegates and observers, other subsurface controversies threatened to break out to add drama to this typically Democratic show. Anti-New Deal groups from the South were fretting and fuming and talking more boldly than ever of bolting the ticket in November, possibly by entering a second Democratic ticket.

The platform framers were working into the night trying to devise a set of compromises which they hoped would again coalesce the dissident elements which have been held together in the Democratic party for a dozen years.

The Resolutions Committee has promised the platform for tomorrow morning. The chief problem it was wrestling with tonight was a racial plank which would cut a center course between the Southern Democrats standing against any declaration attacking "white supremacy" and Northern and Western delegates demanding a statement of policy against discrimination which would be at least as strong as the one adopted by the Republicans.

It is highly probably that as the convention proceeds, and particularly before choice of the Vice-Presidential nominee on Friday, the leaders will ask further advice from President Roosevelt. For, despite his disavowal of any intention to dictate to the convention, the main question as each major controversy developed was: "What does the President want?"

President Roosevelt's name is magic among many of the delegates. Every delegate knows that he will be the main issue, if not the only one, next fall, and the aim obviously is to hoist th banner of the "Commander in Chief" as the campaign standard.

The delegates plainly demonstrated this tonight when they rose as a cheering mass to the words of Governor Kerr's keynote as he made such declarations as: "The farmers -- the workers -- the rand and file of our citizens -- the armed forces of our nation -- democratic but not decadent, are marching, tramping and climbing with our Commander in Chief to victory."

The keynote speech was at least a temporary solvent for the disputes and contests which had grown during the day and the delegates had an evening of good old-fashioned oratory.

Kerr Indicts Republicans

Although Governor Kerr pitched his keynote on "Roosevelt, Commander in Chief," he devoted a substantial part of his address to an indictment of the Republicans and the ticket which they nominated in the same hall three weeks ago.

Speakers at the first session of the convention this afternoon and earlier speakers tonight included Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago, Senator Scott Lucas of Illinois, Thomas J. Courtney, State's Attorney of cook County and Democratic candidate for Governor of Illinois; Representative William Dawson of Illinois, the only Negro member of Congress, and Mrs. Charles W. Tillett, assistant chairman of the convention, none of whom left much for Governor Kerr to "keynote" in the way of recommendations for Mr. Roosevelt and the Democratic party.

Governor Kerr opened his attack on the opposition with a sally against Herbert Hoover, charging that the mantle of the former President had been placed upon the shoulders of his cherished disciple, Thomas E. Dewey. That mantle, he declared, had already become "a shroud."

He cited the record of the Democratic party and the Roosevelt Administration in meeting the problems of war and peace, declaring that the aim now was "complete and speedy victory" and "a just and abiding peace" and that the promise of the party to a world at peace was "responsibility and cooperation."

Lauds Age and Experience

But he wove into his recitation of the party record and promises a running attack on the Republicans. He attempted to counter the bid of Mr. Dewey to youth by extolling age and experience. He sought to dull the Republican promise of all-out prosecution of the war and international organization for peace with a full citation of the Republican record on defense and preparedness measures in the past.

He asked "Shall it be Thomas E. Dewey or Franklin Roosevelt" at a peace table where England would be represented by its "greatest and wisest," Winston Churchill, Russia by her "most experienced and strongest," Joseph Stalin, and China by Chiang Kai-shek.

"Tried or untried," was the issue before the country, Governor Kerr asserted. He called on the delegates and spectators to imagine for a moment that Mr. Dewey were elected and sat as the American leader in the peace conference. What would Mr. Churchill and Mr. Stalin think, he asked, when they learned that Mr. Dewey looked on them as just tired old men.

He indicated by the space devoted to Mr. Dewey's appeal to youth that this question is being taken quite seriously by the Democrats. He asked if the country was to discard as "tired old men" 57-year-old Admiral Nimitz, 62-year-old Admiral Halsey, 64-year-old General MacArthur, 66-year-old Admiral King or 64-year-old General Marshall.

Directing his remarks also to the fighting forces around the globe and to all men and women of the nation, he declared that "we have stormed the beaches of poverty and discouragement and fear," that the country had seen the "hearts of the people filled with new life," that "we have overrun the ramparts of special privilege and reaction and planted the banner of democratic liberalism high on the hill of human progress."

"Under our great Commander in Chief we will not retreat!" he shouted. "We will not falter in mid-passage! We will win!"