The Press: Goodbye, Now

The marriage of the New Republic and Editor Henry Wallace had been shaky from the start. It became a trial separation when Henry decided to run for President; Henry would no longer be editor, just a contributing editor (TIME, Jan. 5). This didn’t work, either. Columnist Wallace and the New Republic disagreed about the Marshall Plan, foreign and domestic Communists—and the candidacy of Henry Wallace.

Last week the divorce was complete. Candidate Wallace wrote his last piece for the NR, a meandering 13-column restatement of his life and thought: “Few men have been so privileged as I to see at close hand, and to act in, one of the great dramas of all times . . . The strenuous three months ahead will require my full energies. Moreover, the New Republic editors should be completely free to support . . . the candidate and party which most appeal to them … I am bidding my faithful readers goodbye in one capacity, but I shall sooner or later be seeing them in another.” Two days after the divorce the New Republic’s young Editor Michael Straight-came out for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas for President.