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Henry A. Wallace (1945 - 1946): Secretary of Commerce
Henry Agard Wallace was born October 7, 1888, in Orient, Iowa, and graduated from Iowa State College with a bachelor of science degree in animal husbandry (1910). He began his career on the editorial staff of Wallace's Farmer (1910-1924) in Des Moines, Iowa, and served as editor from 1924 to 1929.
An author of many agricultural publications, Wallace experimented continually between 1913 and 1933 in breeding high-yielding strains of corn, devising the first corn-hog ratio charts indicating the probable course of markets (1915). In 1926, he created the Hi-Bred Corn Company, a firm which marketed the first hybrid corn for commercial sale.
As secretary of agriculture in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1940), Wallace drafted the Agricultural Adjustment Act (A.A.A.) of 1933 and the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936. Wallace resigned from the cabinet in 1940 in order to run as vice president on the Democratic ticket in 1940.
As vice president (1941-1944), Wallace served as chairman of the Economic Defense Board and chairman of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board.
Wallace returned to the cabinet during the fourth and final Roosevelt administration, serving as secretary of commerce; he remained in that post when FDR died and Harry S. Truman assumed the presidency. Wallace resigned in 1946, however, owing to his growing displeasure with U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union.
He became editor of the New Republic and, in December 1947, formed the Progressive Party, declaring his own candidacy for the President of the United States. Wallace's literary works include Agricultural Prices (1920) and Sixty Million Jobs (1945). He died on November 18, 1965, in Danbury, Connecticut.
An author of many agricultural publications, Wallace experimented continually between 1913 and 1933 in breeding high-yielding strains of corn, devising the first corn-hog ratio charts indicating the probable course of markets (1915). In 1926, he created the Hi-Bred Corn Company, a firm which marketed the first hybrid corn for commercial sale.
As secretary of agriculture in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1940), Wallace drafted the Agricultural Adjustment Act (A.A.A.) of 1933 and the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936. Wallace resigned from the cabinet in 1940 in order to run as vice president on the Democratic ticket in 1940.
As vice president (1941-1944), Wallace served as chairman of the Economic Defense Board and chairman of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board.
Wallace returned to the cabinet during the fourth and final Roosevelt administration, serving as secretary of commerce; he remained in that post when FDR died and Harry S. Truman assumed the presidency. Wallace resigned in 1946, however, owing to his growing displeasure with U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union.
He became editor of the New Republic and, in December 1947, formed the Progressive Party, declaring his own candidacy for the President of the United States. Wallace's literary works include Agricultural Prices (1920) and Sixty Million Jobs (1945). He died on November 18, 1965, in Danbury, Connecticut.