Near Zero

Henry Wallace was miles away, but he caused quite a commotion in Los Angeles last week.

The county's Democratic Central Committee met there to steer its course for 1948. Perhaps no political organization has fewer inhibitions or more inner tensions than the Central Committee. Its 225 members are a rare assortment of Upton Sinclairites, Socialists, Communists, PCAsters, Hollywood leftists, Roosevelt New Dealers and Ed Pauley conservatives. Their meeting was not serene.

Chairman Rollin McNitt, a needle-nosed lawyer who was once a Republican, began with a demand that each committeeman sign a pledge dedicating all his 1948 campaign work to the nominees of the Democratic Party, forsaking all others. It was high time, snorted Rollin McNitt, that Wallace supporters, "either fish or cut bait." They had no business backing a third-party candidate in California's Democratic primary.

With that, the catcalls began. Cried one Wallace supporter:"I'm not excited about Truman." Screamed a Trumanite: "Why don'tcha go home?" The meeting was rapidly getting out of hand when Hollywood's Frank Scully, one-legged author of Fun in Bed, onetime candidate for the California assembly (his slogan: "Out of the Gully with Candidate Scully"), took the floor. Supporting himself on chrome-plated crutches, he began an oil-on-the-waters speech. "Let's not divide ourselves to the point where we're zero," he said. "We're damn near that now."

When a heckler interrupted Scully on a point of order, Scully snarled: "Sit down, you mug!" The heckler kept clamoring. Scully calmly eased himself to within a few feet of him, hoisted up his right crutch and whacked him on the shoulder. That about ended the meeting. The committeemen agreed that they would support the regular Democratic nominees after the state's primary on June 1. But until then, Wallace supporters were free to wreak whatever havoc they could.

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