Wallace and The New Republic

During the past two years, Managing Editor Michael Straight of the New Republic has attempted to make of the magazine he inherited from his father something more than the bone-dry receptacle of warmed-over liberal thought it had become after Herbert Croly's brilliant reign. The announcement that on December 1 Henry Wallace will assume the newly created post of Editor constitutes the most important single event in the renascence of the New Republic.

Wallace will bring to Michael Straight's magazine the years of experience which he had as editor of the farm journal which he in turn had inherited from his father. His long experience in government, his warm concern for the welfare of the peoples of the world, and his ability to dramatize complex social situations with such slogans as "60,000,000 jobs" should enable the magazine to broaden its scope beyond its present circulation of 50,000 readers, almost all of whom live on the East Coast. By becoming more of a national magazine, the New Republic has a very real chance of becoming the first magazine in American history of any significant size to be devoted principally to the betterment of the lot of the common man.

As for Wallace himself, by becoming the head of a magazine which during the past two years has begun to resume its place as the most articulate exponent of progressive political action in the United States, he will be able to retain the mantle of leadership of the American liberal movement. Both Wallace and the New Republic are to be congratulated on the appointment.