Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman

APARTMENT 15-A 29 WASHINGTON SQUARE WEST NEW YORK 11. NEW YORK Carl February 20, 1948 Dear Mr. President: 1 was interested in your comment on the defeat of Ed. Flynn's candidate in Bronx County. I think Ed. Flynn has proved the point which he has been trying to make for a long time, namely, that in large urban areas there are great groups of people who are extremely radical and very much opposed to what they feel is Military and Wall Street domination in our present Administration. These people in the Bronx followed = husband because they relt he understood their needs and they were getting, dom- estically, protection which they had never had before. There has always been a strong element of communiem in this section of the Bronx. I can remember it specifically among the youth groups back in 1933 and 1934. I noticed the night I spoke that every time Mr. Wallace's name was mentioned, it was cheered. I was not very much surprised by the results of the vote because in the big, urban centers, even those wno are Democrats Just do not come out to vote because they are still radical enough to be unhappy about what they feel are certain tendencies they observe in our Administration. Ed. Flynn has told you this, I think, on a number of occasions. It 1s important because 1f the Democrats are going to win in a State like New York, they have to carry by a great maj- ority, the big urban centers. I am sure you are well aware of this, but 1 feel it my duty to re-enforce what already has been said, disagreeable as it is. I never thought this district was a good one to hail as a pilot light of what would happen in the national election, but naturally it would be one which Mr. Wallace and the American Labor Party would pick to make much of, since they were almost sure of success. Ed. Flymn, I think, felt that his organization would do much better than it did, but he did not count on the fact that even Democrats in areas such as this are unenthusiss- tie at the moment. I wrote in my column the other day, as a result of the indications I find in ay mail, that the two things bothering