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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

Foner:

February of '47.

Q:

And the Wallace campaign was in '48.

Foner:

The things I remember about the Wallace campaign was, first, to try to persuade Henry Wallace to run. We had to develop this ground swell, telegrams that had to be put out to him to urge him to run, that kind of thing. So that was the first thing. Now, then you have to separate the campaign -- I'm sorry.

Q:

Who generated that? Did it come from the union or from --

Foner:

Now, in New York City, there was strong Wallace sentiment and strong support. Remember there had been the American Labor Party, there were communists in the City Council, there were American Labor Party people in the City Council, there were some people in Albany. By the way, you know, 65 elected two assemblymen, a state senator and assemblyman from its ranks in Albany, Kenny Sherbell and Sam Kaplan to the assembly. So there was a base for it, and in a sense, it was very different from America, as New York is most of the time. So that when you campaigned for Wallace in New York City, you were not going into hostile territory. You were running with the tide, to a degree. You weren't a majority, but you were an important force. You had to be listened to, you had to be covered, and you could generate a lot of support. The unions came in, the CIO Council was involved in it - - to what degree I can't remember now, but the local unions were involved in it.

Q:

Ultimately, though, the CIO did not back Wallace.

Foner:

Oh, no. Absolutely not.

Q:

And the Central Labor Council here didn't either.

Foner:

No, no, no. They did not, but nevertheless, there were people there who may have moved out of the council and devoted full-time to the Wallace campaign as labor forces. So that's what I remember about the Wallace campaign, and trying to promote support for him among the union members. Remember, at the end the whole bottom fell out because of the Truman thing, but we weren't exactly running huge support for Wallace. This is before -- I'm in 1250 now, 1250 and 5 are essentially conservative members. The Local 5 membership is largely non-Jewish. Stern's Department Store is a Fifth Avenue store, and therefore, it doesn't hire a lot of Jews. Hearn's, most of those, Oppenheimer-Callius, Loeser's the membership is not Jewish. They're





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