The Washington times., 1937-10-25
Always To Do Right
Despite Criticism
Is WallaCe'S Goal
Trying Only to Read
lust Farmers of
Nation
By THEODORE HUNTLEY

BY THEODORE HUNTLEY
do you like to be interviewed?
Henry Agard Wallace laughed
He leaned back in his chail
IN the big office which looks across
the Mall
L don't mind it," he aid
slowly. But I sometimes for
get. in talking to newspapermen
as do other human beings, that
they are looking for something
to print! 1 get to explaining
something, and the first thing l
know I've said m ct hing
shouldn't.
TRAPPED BY TRICK
"At a press conference the
other day I was asked about a
corn loan. I didn't want to dis
cuSs it. We we're not ready to
say anything about it. I ex-
planned this. Then one OF the
correspondents asked me what
the corn loan figure would be if
worked out on the same basis as
the cotton loan. I calculated 1t,
and said 46 cents. T h e next
morning at least three metro
politan papers said there would
he a Ascent corn loan"
Trapped by a trick question!
No corporation lawyer. this
man from Iowa. A smart lawyer
would have avoided the trap. A
newspapermen would have seen
it-and did. But to Henry Wal
lace, who was a publisher, a dirt
farmer and a corn geneticist and
weather authority before he be-
came Secretary Of Agriculture,
and who probably knows as much
about corn as any man living, it
didn't greatly matter.
NATURAL SIMPLICITY
An interview lasting half an
hour produced several tangible
impressions. There is simplicity
of manner about Henry Wallace
which might be misleading. His
eyes see brown soil and waving
grain stretching endlessly across
what once were grazing plains
Henry Wallace is neither rustic
nor provincial.
A full life of labor, reading, re-
search and reflection have de-
veloped depths which do not show
on the surface. They may be
Illuminated by chance. more
rarely by revelation, or as a new
book comes from his pen. He has
written at least eight-five in the
last three years, at the busiest
period of his life.
BELONGS THERE
You get the further impression
that he belongs where he is be-
cause he does not belong else.
where. Henry wallace is a
farmer. The farmers know him
as one of themselves.
His ideas may prove right or
wrong in the acid test of results.
His policies often are questioned.
There are those who think them
insane. There are others who see
them as inevitable.
Right or wrong in method, you
conclude that Henry Wallace is
trying rather desperately to do
what he thinks is right.
"You have been accused" he
fold HAf haia4 an iIno1icf
in politics. Do you admit the
1ndictment?"
''Well-practical. l hope" was
the low-voiced answer. You
don't get anywhere unless you
are"
You seem to draw some of
your principles from the teach
ings of religion. Are you a Bible
student?"
GRADUATE OF AMES
'Not particularly-not now.
In my earlier life was. My
grandfather was a Presbyterian
minister. United Presbyterian"
"You are Presbyterian now?"
mo, I'm an Episcopalian. rAy
boys started to sing in the Epis-
copal choir, and we w~j,t to their
church."
They still sing in the choir?"
mo, both are in Ames now"
AmeS-Iowa State College
was Henry Wallace's school.
You seem tc get some of your
texts from the Bible-your ever
normal granary goes back to
Joseph's time. Store the surplus
OF tat years so it will be available
in lean years."
There's similarity, yes.
But the term ever normal
granary' is not new. 1t was first
used editorially in Wallace's
Farmer in 1920 of 1921, shortly
before my father became Secre.
tary Of Agriculture under Presi-
cent Harding. We've been
talking about it more or less
ever since"
Secretary Wallace has been
called visionary, his thinking
fuzzy" confused by idealistic con-
ceptions. 1t took less than five
minutes of the interview to dissi.
pate all this.
Here" he said, was the prob
lem: On March /, 1898, we had
a carry-over of 386 900 900
bushels of wheat. The normal
carry-over is about 10000, 900
bushels. The cotton carry-over
on August l, 1888, at the begin
ming Of the new crop year was