Wallace Urges More Jews in Agriculture; Denies Jews Unfitted for Work on Land

Expressing vehement disagreement with those who say, “for either curious or questionable reasons,” that Jews are inherently not adapted to agriculture, Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace said tonight that “when a higher percentage of the Jewish people are on the land, our national life will be all the healthier.”

Mr. Wallace, in an address to the 50th anniversary banquet of the National Farm School, held at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, praised Jewish agricultural accomplishments in the Middle East, and declared that he was “convinced of the wisdom of a Jordan Valley Authority, with the irrigated land of southern Palestine and Transjordan available to Jews and Arabs on an equal basis.” He recalled that when he was Secretary of Agriculture he had something to do with the mission to Palestine of Dr. Walter Clay Lowdermilk of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, who is the father of the Jordan Valle plan.

He pointed out, however, that “I have never been able to see any reason why outstanding Jewish agricultural exploits should be confined to the Near East. To me there is something peculiarly appropriate about the Jews making an equal success on the land here in the United States.” Since about 20 percent of the American people make their living on the land, Secretary Wallace advocated that the same percentage of the Jewish population take up farming.

Recalling that in Biblical days, the Jews were an agricultural people, and that many of their prophets were “farm people–speaking out against the evils of the cities,” he added that agriculture furnished a “fulsome opportunity,” for the exercise of the scientific genius demonstrated by Jews in other fields.

“Hopefully, I look forward to the day when there will be as many Jewish scientists in agriculture as there have been in the development of atomic energy,” he continued. “The contribution of Jewish scientists to the development of atomic energy is one of the greatest spics of all scientific history.”

Hailing the contributions of the National Farm School in the half-century since its formation, Mr. Wallace said that “it is also a splendid thing that boys of other faiths are admitted to the National Farm School. I hope that an unwritten quota is never adopted, as is the case in all too many schools which we all might mention.”

During the banquet, the National Farm School presented Mr. Wallace with an award for his contributions to the development of agriculture and “in serving the cause of humanity everywhere.” Other speakers included Dr. Frank Kingdon, Dr. Daniel Poling and Albert M. Greenfield, a member of the board of trustees of the institution. Miss Fannie Hurst presided.