604 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



farmers of the South the importance of diversified farming if 

 they were to escape ruin. He fought the weevil of the cotton 

 boll by starting the South on her change from cotton alone to 

 cotton, corn and live-stock. And incidentally out of his work 

 grew the gigantic, nation-wide farm-demonstration movement 

 through county agents. 



When Wilson and Knapp went from Iowa to Washington, 

 Wallace stayed in Des Moines and devoted himself to his life- 

 long work as editor of Wallace's Farmer. 



Two of the trio have passed over the river. Dr. Knapp 

 died in the harness two or three years ago, full of years, honors 

 and good deeds. Uncle Henry Wallace has just joined him in 

 the ranks of the great majority. He leaves vacant in American 

 life a position so unique that, though he was not at the time of 

 his death, nor was ever, so far as I am aware, the holder of a 

 public office, his loss will be felt more keenly than would that 

 of a thousand men who have been elevated to places of eminence 

 by the votes of the people or by appointment. 



Henry Wallace will be remembered by the farmers and many 

 others when the great mass of governors, senators, congressmen, 

 justices of the Supreme Court, and cabinet officers of the day 

 are forgotten. For he worked with the people, not over them. 



He was a Pennsylvanian who as a young man identified him- 

 self with the farming interests of the Middle West. The writer 

 was born in Iowa, and is no longer young, but he does not 

 remember the time when Henry Wallace was not a strong, quiet, 

 uplifting force in that state His strength was exerted like that 

 of a growing tree, which heaves the ground under its roots by 

 the power which it drinks in through its branches out-spread 

 in the sky. Nothing can resist such a force, because it is patient, 

 unceasing, tireless, and always bears upward against the gross 

 things with which it contends. Like the tree, too, Uncle Henry 

 was strong because his roots were in the soil. 



He was a good writer, but he never tried to shine as a fine 

 writer. He chose the field of Iowa journalism at a time when 

 its prospects for usefulness were far brighter than its chances 

 of business success mainly, I suspect, because he was a preacher. 



He had been a minister of the Gospel, and wanted to preach 

 to the farmers of the country along different lines from those 



