The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-10
SOUTHERNER MAY CROWD WALLACE
 OUT OF CABINET
North Carolina "Dirt Farmer" Has Chance for Agricultural Portfolio Over Iowa Edi-
 tor-South Busy
By ROBERT T. SMALL

St. Augustine. Fla, February s.-(Spe- ciaL)-A new drive has started against Henry C. Wallace of Iowa as Secretary of Agriculture in the Harding cabinet
 First, it was the packers who assailed the Iowa farm editor. The anirnus of the packers was plain, for MT. Wallace first assailed them, and so Mir. Harding cast aside their criticisms. Now the farmers of the country and the farm controversy.
 The farnerS drive iB in the interest of former Senator Marion Butler of North Carolina. The movement primarily is ot the south, but it is said to be spreading to other parts of the country and to be gaining dally in strength All of the larm organizations in the south and vir- tually all of the state commissioners ot agriculture in this section of the country have indorsed Mir. Butler and are pre- pared to nght for him until Mr. Harding makes a detnite Aecision one way or the other.
 HE DELAYS WORK
 The commissioners of agriculture ot some Il or 12 states have asked for an appointment with senator Harding anu are prepared to lay siege to him if he ever returns to his headquarters here at St. Augustine The President-elect has been putting off tn evil hour of settling down to work and making positive his cabinet selection until the last possible moment. The lure of the Indian river. even as viewed from sandbars and mud reets, has hied him far beyond the al lotted time. The letters and telegrams which have accumulated for him ln St. Augustine during his absence can be counted by the dozens
 The fight for Marion Butler is predi- cated primarily upon the assumption that Senator Harding really wants q southern man in his cabinet. The theory that Senator Albert Fall of New Mexico, who is to be Secretary of the Interior, would be the Representative of the south has been discarded. New Mexico is of the west and Senator Harding appreciates that fact.
 c. o. P. WILLING
 The republicans feel they have made distinct progress in breaking the solid south" and they would like to capitalize that progress by having distinctly southern man in the cabinet. Oddly enough, some of the strongest backing for a. cabinet man from what may be termed the Old South comes from Okla hona One of the new states of the lmOn, ana SLdnuiuS dl tnc boh uci inii- between the south and west, Oklahoma feels itself affiliated with the country south of Mason and Dixon's line.
 The argument is being brought to bear upon Senator Hardlng that if he is to' name a cabinet member from the south that member should preside over the de- partment of agriculture, for the south essentially is an agricultural country.
 A sDIRT FARMER"
 Senator Butler for more than 90 years has been regarded as one of the stalwart republican figures in the south He has been a man of the character to keep the party feeling alive. Furthermore, Mir. Butler has, as a qualification for Secre- tary of Agriculture, the fact that he is a ..dirt farmer" He owns and operates far1hNof ome 1200 acres and has been studehssof agriculture nearly all of his life. There are many persons in the country who would like to sec prac- tical rather than a theoretical farmer at the head of the department of agricul- ti,re. and to these MT. Butler has a par ticular appeal.
 At the time when the Farmers Alliance flourished in tho south in the late eigh- ties, Mr. Butler was head of the organiz- ation. When it appeared, however, that the alliance might effectualy wipe out the republican party, MT. Butler an- nounced himself as republican. His ap- pointnent, it is argued. would greatly strengthen republican prospects in the solid south in the future.
 MT Harding Is giving heed to the argu- ment.