FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944

14: Who Runs with Roosevelt?

141 For some time Roosevelt had been feeling much pressure from various parts of the Democratic Party concerning his choice for the vice presidential nomination. The CIO-PAC’s Sidney Hillman met with him on November 8, 1943, for forty minutes, telling him that labor was losing confidenceintheconductof domesticpolicyaspartof thewareffortand thattheonlymanaroundRooseveltfavoredbylaborwasHenryWallace. Roosevelt realized that labor was crucial to Democratic success in 1944, but at the same time he was getting repeated versions of a different message , from party leaders who talked of the damage Wallace would cause to the national ticket if he were a part of it.1 Roosevelthaddonelittletostraightenoutthevicepresidentialmess, and the party, just days before its Chicago convention, opening on July 18, had to face again the question which had been vexing its leaders for so long: who would run on the ticket with Franklin Roosevelt? The afternoon after his press conference in which he agreed to run for a fourth term, Roosevelt called Leo Crowley, head of the Foreign Economic Administration and a confidant, to his office to discuss a running mate. According to Crowley, FDR said first that “Byrnes would make the best vice-president” but then dismissed that possibility by remarking that “the colored question would come up and then we’d have a lot of trouble.” Crowley, upset at the rejection of his friend, ran over to Byrnes’s office to tell him what he had heard.2 1 4 Who Runs with Roosevelt? 142 FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 That same evening, Roosevelt was having dinner and a meeting at the White House with Democratic leaders, primarily to discuss the vice presidency. The most obvious issue, of course, involved the incumbent, Henry Wallace. Wallace had been out of the country, on a fact-finding and goodwill mission to China and Russian Siberia. Wallace’s advisors were concerned that a long absence just before the convention would jeopardize his renomination effort, but Wallace trusted that FDR would look after his interests, while Harold Young, his chief political aide, would continue efforts to develop delegate strength. The vice president’s supporters pointed to the trip as demonstrating Roosevelt’s trust and confidence, as a sign that he regarded Wallace as capable of handling the presidency. Wallace’s detractors suggested that sending him halfway around the world at such a time showed that FDR wanted him out of the way. Wallace left on his trip on May 20. “I have asked the Vice President of the United States to serve as a messenger for me in China,” Roosevelt said in a statement that day.3 After seven weeks of travel, covering some twelve thousand miles in both Siberia and China, Henry Wallace returned to the United States via Alaska on July 5. While Wallace was away, the party leaders opposinghim ,particularlyEdPauley,hadcontinuedtryingtounderminehim with the President. No one really knew what Roosevelt’s leanings were; Ellis Arnall, the liberal governor of Georgia, visited him several weeks before the convention and FDR said it should be Wallace “right down the line.” Of course, Roosevelt knew that that was what Arnall wanted to hear.4 Wallace arrived back in Washington on July 10 and was told by the White House that, before seeing Roosevelt, he was to meet with Harold Ickes and Sam Rosenman, to discuss domestic politics. Wallace was irked by this required meeting; he wanted to get together with Roosevelt , and he knew that Ickes, in particular, was no friend of his. He wired Rosenman from Seattle, “Believe should see President before meeting youmentioned.”Nevertheless,themeetingwiththetwoemissariestook place first.5 Harold Ickes was an interesting choice for this assignment. He and Wallace had engaged in their share of bureaucratic clashes over the years, and he regarded Wallace as hopelessly impractical in administra- Who Runs with Roosevelt? 143 tive matters. Ickes had had a revealing meeting with Sidney Hillman, the Vice President’s strongest supporter, on June 18. As Ickes noted, Hillman “was not unaware that there were serious objections to Wallace.” However , the labor leader insisted the running mate “must be a liberal,” with “certain qualities and be able to attract certain types of votes.” When Ickes suggested Douglas as a liberal alternative, Hillman reacted quite strongly against the justice, saying “that Douglas had never been tested . . . [N]o one knew what he would do under pressure.” Hillman’s reaction was the same to Truman, whom he dismissed as “a rural Missourian . . . out of the...