Progressive Party erects bar
to Wail street’s plans for war

By ISRAEL EPSTEIN

History will long remember the Philadelphia convention which formally launched
the Progressive Party, and nominated Henry Wallace as its candidate for president. Still

small, this party is now?definitely an obstacle in the path of war and fascism.
Internationally, thé convention meant t

he crystallization of

a mass anti-imperialist

resistance front in the country, resolutely opposed to the “cold war,” Truman doctrine and

Marshall plan. .In the midst of
frenzied calls for the annihilation
of the USSR, the party has declar-
ed strongly for American - Soviet
friendship.

Internally, the convention broke
with all the ‘above class’ demo-
S0gy of America’s two-party sys-
tem. It openly proclaimed that or-
§anized labor must stand in the
vanguard of democracy. In the face
of recent “conspiracy” arrests of
Communist leaders, and such mon-
Sstrosities as a judicial decision that
courts may deny Marxists or Pro-
gressive mothers the custody of
their children, it stated that the
Civil rights of Communists must be
resolutely defended.

In the sphere of race relations,
the convention produced not only
Promises: but an example of. full
Participation by representatives of
America’s 13 million oppressed
e8ro people, as well as of other non-
Anglo-Saxon “second class citizens.”

The 4,000 delegates who came
to the convention from every
state, and the 30,000 people who
heard Wallace accept the nomjn-
ation at an unprecedented mass
meeting, represented all Ameri-
can strata except Wall Street,
big industry and the corrupt local
Political machines which operate
by patronage instead of principle.
The absence of such groups
marks the difference between this
new people’s qoalition and its
Predecessurs. Even the bloc that
elected Roosevelt four times in-
cluded: monopolists and machine:
Politicians in leading roles.

For the first time in America, a
Major party convention was opened
by a Negro. Charles P. Howard of
Owa, a former Republican,-said in
his keynote speech that he “felt hu-
Man dignity for the first time in
his life.’ Paul Robeson, great Ne-
8ro progressive singer, was ac-
Claimed as one of the party’s chair-
men. Larkin Marshall, Negro pub-
lisher, was named candidate for the
U.S. Senate, something not seen
Since the ’seventies.

No feudal slavocrats from the
South participate in the movement
to balance off the demand for
Negro liberation as they did even
Under Roosevelt. The party has put
UP. many Negro candidates.

For the first time, a major po-
litical convention was chaired by
& union leader, Albert F. Fitzger-
ald, president of the 600,000-
strong United Electrical, Radio
and Machine Workers (CIO). The
46 percent ‘of convention delegates
who were members of various un-
lons symbolized rank-and-file la-

. Dor support by contrast to the
Official opposition of top AFL
And CIO leaders, who are harness-
ed to Truman and the Marshall
Plan. For the first time, a major
Us. party called for nationaliza-
tion of banking and some key in-
dustries,
j The Progressive party is neither
‘bor nor socialist. It represents a
a joint front, still largely middle-
Class in character, of all sections
Of the people who oppose war, mon-
poly, strike-breaking and “anti-
red” terror, A weakness of the party
‘s that potential labor and farmer
Support is still far from sufficieatly
Mobilized, ‘

The party’s formal inauguration
Bae an electrifying nation-wide ef-
€ct. The press and radio still fol-
low formal democracy in allowing
ime and space to major conven-
tions. Voices attacking the Truman-

anshall course were heard on @&
Nation-wide platform for the first

time in three years, All the fury;

|

RA UUM

War causes named

—PARIS.

Social inequality and oppression
of labor were named as the main
cause of war by the world’s fore-
most social scientists in a report
to the UN Education, Scientific
and Cultural Organization here.

The best way to avoid war, the
group declared, is to end “exploi-
tation of man by man” for profit,
S.-called aggressive nations are
not themselves a root cause ot
war, since they arise only where
“economic inequalities, insecuri-
ties and frustrations” are imposed
by rulers.

One of the main forms of war-
breeding social inequality is pos-
session of colonies and squeezing
of their people and resources for
the benefit of foreign owners, the
report said. Another is the op-
pression of minorities within any
nation,

RT

“Political values’ of bust
weighed by Wall Street

—WASHINGTON

President Truman and his economic advisers warned: Con-
gress last week that a depression may be just around the
corner unless something is done to curb inflation.
wages, production and profits are at all-time highs. «But,
Truman declared, this could be the lull before the storm un-

Prices,

less the government takes “vigor-
ous measures” to bridge the un-
certainty between a postwar boom
and a stable economy. ws

Truman’s views were set forth
in his midyear economic report to
Congress. The report, incorporating
an analysis by the Council of Econ-
omic Advisers, is required by the
Full Employment Act of 1946.

The president’s three-man econ-
omic council, headed by Dr. Edwin
G. Nourse, said “unworkable rela-
tionships in the. price structure”
might cause: a “break in the econ-
omy which could lead to “a general
recession of serious proportions.”
‘Truman's statement followed
hard on open speculation in Wall
Street on the political values of
another depression regardless of
the human values involved.

In its July 26 issue, Barron’s, in-
fluential Wall Street weekly, spoke
of “the political values of a possible
slump” soon as opposed to one in,
say, 1952, because Truman would
be blamed for the former and Dew-
ey, if he is elected, for the latter.
By a strange coincidence, the U.S.
News developed the same idea.

‘Desperate provocation’

‘as a “desperate provocation”.

‘ston, Jacob Stachel.

This picture shows six of the twelve American Communist lead-
ers indicted by a New York grand jury in what William Z.
Foster, national chairman (front row, second from left), denounced
They are (left to right): Eugene
Dennis, general secretary; Foster, and New York City Councilman
Benjamin J. Davis, Jr.; and (rear) Jokn Williamson, Henry Win-

With

lines around the Armory here, ad-
ministered a temporary set-back to
the Un-American outfit, the retreat
is for the purpose of awaiting what
it considers the right time to re-
new its smear attack with two new
targets:

The maritime unions facing a
Taft-Hartley law showdown with
‘waterfront employers, and the Pro-
gressive Party of Washington
which will enter state and local
candidates in the field on the Wal-
lace-Taylor presidential ticket.

The star performer who got bad-
ly tangled up in his own lies, despite
careful coaching and frantic efforts
of Canwell and his chief investiga-
tor, William J. Houston, is George
Hewitt of New York who claims
to have once been a leading mem-
ber of the Communist Party under
a variety of names.

Hewitt first fell afoul of the

ing Mrs. Florence Bean James of -
the Seattle Repertory Playhouse

in Moscow in 1934. Yet the day
pefore he had testified that he

left Russia in 1933.
Attorney Clifford O’Brien then

: reactionary slander has not re | declared “This man is a perjurer on
Stored the barrier thus broken. De-) -,., records.”

aunciation of domestic imperialism
Nd pro-fascism, almost “treason

tll yesterday, now regained expres-
°n—though no knows
ong,

1 for how

Canwell promptly ordered O’Brien
ved and he left before state

emo 5
* patrolmen could eject

highway
him.

?

Canwell committee—witch-hunt group
set up by Washington state legislature—la
of the University of Washington and the

While mounting public indignation, reflected

Smear-crazy Canwell group’s
star witness nailed as perjurer

By TERRY PETTUS

its star “witness” twice proven a liar and perjurer by its own records, the
patterned on the House un-American committee
st week abruptly terminated its public smearing
Repertory Playhouse a week ahead of schedule.
in part by daily demonstration picket

SEATTLE.

facts when he testified to meet- .

Previously Mrs, James was,

taken: out of the room by armed
officers when she demanded that
witnesses smearing the Repertory
theater be recalled for cross-exam-
ination. ‘

Hewitt’s next cropper with the
truth came in testifying against Dr.
Melvin Rader, history professor and
author. The witness asserted that
he was in charge of a Communist
party school in New York during
the summers of 1938 and 1939 and
positively identified Dr. Rader and
Dr. Ralph Gundlach, of the psy-
chology department, as being in at-
tendance.

This brought heated denials from
both educators, and Attorney Ed-
ward E, Henry, counsel for Dr. Ra-
der, sought and obtained permis-
sion from: Prosecuting Attorney
Lloyd Shorett to have Hewitt cress-
examined by a deputy prosecutor in
preparation for the filing of per-
jury charges.

Shorett sent Deputy Herbert
Davis to the hearings but Chair-
man Canwell flatly refused to al-
low his witness to be questioned.

“Those are Communist tactics to
intimidate a witness,” he shouted.

But records of the University
show that Dr. Rader was teaching
summer sessions in:1938 and 1939
and has proof that his first visit
to New York was in 1945.

Dr. Gundlach also has proof that

they say.

he was not in New York either of
those years. He commented bitter-

ly:

“Most of the so-called evidence
presented at the hearings is such
that it can’t be checked because

cross-examination is not permitted.
Here is one statement that.can be
checked. The result shows the
quality of the witnesses appearing
before the committee.”

Canwell hurriedly shipped
Hewitt back to New York by
plane last weekend apparently |
fearful that a criminal warrant .
would be signed. The perjurer
was carefully guarded and es-
corted to the plane by highway
patrolmen.

Canwell told the press that all
his friendly witnesses are protect-
ed by “legislative immunity.” This
means that they are not only pro-
tected against cross-examination
but cannot in any way be held ac-
countable in the courts for what

With “un-friendly” witnesses, it is
another story. Canwell announced
that he will bring contempt pro-
ceedings against ten or more of
those who refused to testify as to
their political beliefs, and those
who refused to testify as to the
political beliefs and association of

fellow faculty members.

Australian seamen place |
ban on ships to Malaya

—MELBOURNE.

The Australian Seamen’s Union has declared a ban on all
ships carrying arms out of the country, thus frustrating
Australian government plans to help British military suppres-
sion of Malayan plantation workers.

Australian Foreign Minister Herbert V. Evatt gave evi-

dence of the affectiveness. of the
ban when he spluttered, just before
leaving for London July 22, that
arms would be shipped to curb
“Malayan Communists” at “any
cost.”

Insistence of Australian workers
that they will neither produce nor
move goods to help suppression
of other peoples has infuriated
the. country’s right-wingers for a
long time. Austarlian maritime
and dock workers refused to
handle Dutch cargoes and ships
for Indonesia for over two years.
They have boycotted Greek ships
since the recent executions of la-
bor leaders in Athens, They have
maintained a boycott against
Spain since the Franco dictator-
ship seized power.

To bolster the British colonial re-
gime’s fantastic claims of a “red
terror’—the pretext for monopoiy-
inspired military operations to
crush the Malayan labor move-
ment—Malcolm MacDonald, Brit-
ish high ccmmissioner for South-
east Asia, this week asserted that
“communists intended to proclaim
a soviet republic of Malaya.”

(Malcolm MacDonald, former Bri-
tish high commissioner in Canada,
is a son of Ramsay MacDonald,
first Labor prime minister of-
Great Britain, who completed his
betrayal of Socialist principles by
leading his “Nationa] Laborites in-
to the Tory fold.)

MacDonald’s claim was advanced
in an effort to justify military op-
erations, including the use of
planes, against rubber and tin, work-
ers rebelling against intolerable
conditions on Malayan plantations
controlled by powerful monopolies.

Among organizations banned by
the British colonial regime are the
Malayan Federation of Trade Un-
ions and the Union of Former Anti-
Japanese Fighters which has been
pressing for fulfillment of British
promises made when Malaya was
still occupied by the Japanese.

‘anes PACJFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 6, 1948—PAGE 3