Evening star., 1940-12-22

PreSident-ele Wallace, special An
Vice President-elect Henry Agard Wal
lace is in Mexico on his own personal
good will tour, carrying out a long
cherished desire to know at first hand
something of Latin America. He will
return shortly before the Inauguration
to be inducted into an Office that has in
the past been the target of good natured
jokes about its alleged useleessness.
But Mr.. Wallace, according to all in
dications, intends to make something
entirely different out of the job of Vice
President His chief, Franklin Roose-
welt, means to use him as kind of AS
sistant President. And one of his as
signments, which partly explains the
Mexican trip, is to cultivate closer rela-
tions with the republics of Latin America
1t would not be surprising if Mr.. Wal
lace should set new precedents in his new
Office, for there has never been a Vice
President quite like this lanky, intro
spective Iowan who was tapped BY the
President for second place on the Ticket.
In fact, to find any portrait in the ma
tional gallery that resembles him it is
necessary to go rather long way back.
He seems to have come out of an
earlier and simpler day. There is
about him something of Brook Farm, of
Johnny Appleseed, of the New England
scholars and divines who leaned to the
cosmic the mystic, but usually with one
eye on the practical business of living.
In Henry Wallaces brooding meditative
gaze there is perhaps something Lin
colnian.
Manages to Be Adaptable.
1t is difficult to imagine him in the
role of politician He is no gladhander.
Public functions appear to bore him.
He withdraWs into his mental shell and
muses. there while the speechmaking and
the toasts go on. Because of his tenn
permanent his friends were afraid he
would make a poor campaign. While
there are differences of opinion on his
showing in September and october, at
least he did not do badly which is in
dicative of another trait in his character.
Henry Wallace manages to be adapt
able The President sent his running
mate out to campaign and he did the
best he could, working at it as hard as he
has ever worked at anything. If and
when the President gives him special as
signments in his new Office, he will adapt
himself TO the new role and set to work
with the earnestness and sincerity which
are perhaps his most marked charac-
teristics.
He likes work, he asks for il. And Ger
tainly he will be happier working than
he would be attending official dinners
and luncheons, which was the chief duty
of the Vice President before Garner
established the rule of early to bed. early
to rise. Mr.. Wallace submits to the
minimum of Washington social life with
the air of Christian martyr about to be
thrown to the lions in the drawing room.
His grandfather was Scotch-Irish
PRESBYTERIAN minister, with all emphasis
on plain living and high thinking. When
his health failed, physician ordered
him to the "wild lands" of Iowa and an
outdoor regime. There he not only re-
q
farmstead and a place for himself as a
leader in the State, leadership which
his son and his grandson were to take up.
Father Founded Farm Magazine.
That first Henry Wallace to settle in
Iowa instilled in his son deep regard
for the general welfare of his fellowmen.
The son, Henry Cantwen Wallace, estab-
lished Wallaces Farmer, journal which
spread the gospel of scientific farming
and also earned good profit for its
owner He taught for several years at
Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa, where
the third Henry wallace studied scientific
agriculture
He is recalled at Ames as having been
a moody young man of intense serious
ness, with little time for pleasure,
although he belonged to one of the more
social fraternities, Delta Tau Delta. Early
in his studies certain problems interested
him. He wanted to know the why's and
wherefores of human diet and even ex-
perimented on himself. For more than q
week he lived on nothing but soy bean
products. At the end of this test he felt
so weak and so hungry that he was
happy to 60 back to more normal foods
Statistics and their Interpretation had g
fascination for him. This was line he
was to pursue in later life.
Upon graduation he went to work FOR
Wallace's Farmer. but not to the exclusion
of continuing interest in farming