Evening star., 1940-07-19
Battles for Farmer
Gave Wallace Start
In Public Life
Democrats No. Z Man
Broke With G. O. P. Over
Agricultural Plank

DIOke WIN ~. ~. T. OVeT
Agricultural Plank
In Henry Agard Wallace the
Democrats have as their vice presi-
dental candidate dirt farmer"
with scientific touch whose name
is perhaps more closely identified
with problems of American agri-
culture than any other.
His selection as the No. 2 stand
ard bearer for the Democratic party
came after almost two decades OF
active public endeavor to achieve
economic justice" for farmers as
a powerful wedge in the battle for
social and economic stability of the
country at large.
During recent months Mr.. Wal
lace has been the most vigorous
advocate within the administration
OF q program for economic CO.
operation between the United States
and the other American republics.
He sees South America as a new
frontier for the frontierless United
States.
From the lush and prosperous
days of the middle 1920s. when Sec
retary Wallace, as comparatively
young editor of the crusading Iowa
paper, Wallace's Farmer, warned of
an economic smash to come, on
through his seven years as Secre-
tary of Agriculture, the vice presi-
dental candidate has fired the cause
Of higher farm prices and income.
Once Was Republican.
Secretary Wallace once was a Re-
publican and his father was q
Republican Secretary of Agricul-
ture. Failure of the G. O. p.
to present a farm plank to his liking
caused the Iowan to bolt the party
In 1928 to support AL Smith. He
again refused to support President
Hoover in 1882 and helped swing
the all-important corn belt to the
Democratic banner by his approval
OF the farm policies outlined by
Franklin D. Roosevelt. The latter
made him his Secretary of Agri-
culture.
A prolific writer and speech
maker, Secretary Wallace has stirred
many sharp controversies, political
and economic, many of which, un-
like Mr.. Wallace himself, were often
dramatic.
Secretary Wallace, who will be 81
next october 7, is q mild hammered
man. His favorite posture in Office
conferences requires that his feet
be rested on the rim of his waste
paper basket. He has no recre-
ational hobbies except walking and
tossing boomerang-literally. He
was born on a farm in Adair
County. Iowa.
Secretary Wallace was educated at
Iowa State College, which awarded
him B. S. A. degree in 1910 and
gave him an honorary M. S. A. in
1920.
Father Held Post.
Secretary Wallace now occupies q
cabinet post held by his father
Henry Cantwell Wallace, under
Presidents Harding and Coolidge
His grandfather, Henry Wallace, was
a member of President Theodore
Roosevelt's Country Life Commits
sion, an agency which studied ways
and means Of improving agricul-
tural conditions.
All three Wallaces served as edi-
tor Of Wallace's Farmer.
Mr.. Wallace's policies as Secre-
tary of Agriculture under the New
Deal, involving production control
price-pegging, large Government ex-
pendltures on farm subsidies and
other Federal regulatory measures
were hailed by New Dealers as the
salvation OF the American farmer
but were denounced by opponents
as establishing "regimented, So
cialized" agriculture.
Secretary Wallace has referred
to the 1910 Republican party plat
form plank as ''poisonous" to the
best interests of the farmers and
the choice of Senator McNary OF
Oregon to be the running mate OF
Presidential Candidate Wendell
Willkie as bait for the farm vote.
Rebuke From White House.
Always stanch supporter of Pres
ident Roosevelt's policies, Mr.. Wal
lace nevertheless has not escaped an
occasional "tsk, tsk" from the White
House, prompted in most instances
by remarks made in some of his
many public addresses
Last fall Secretary Wallace's sug
gestion in a West Coast talk that
the President should be a candi-
date for third term brought from
a presidential aide the first open
reaction of the White House to such
talk by a cabinet officer. Chided
Stephen Early, White House secre-
tary:
1T would have been kind and
polite of the speaker to have con-
suited the victim before he spoke. u
Secretary Wallace and the Su-
preme Court never got along very
we'll after the tribunal took the
teeth out of his first big farm re-
form move, the Agricultural Adjust
ment Administration. Inner circle
New Dealers, nevertheless, had occa-
sion to frown skeptically at the
Secretary of Agriculture when he
failed to enter into the spirit Of the
Presidents move to revamp the
court. 1t developed later, however
that Mr.. Wallace simply had been
well aware the farm pressure groups
never would have subscribed to the
court fight.
Presidential Flame Dies.
Secretary Wallace's hand at one
time was being raised timidly as q
1910 presidential possibility, but the
flame died down as other names be-
gan to punctuate the political hori-
zon and third-term talk, much OF
it from the cabinet members own
tongue, gained momentum.
The Roosevelt running mate was
married in 1914 at Indianola, Iowa
The Wallaces have three children