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He moved without a wrench from the Republican to the Democratic Party. And it was he who broke the political truce when World War II began, by coming out for the Third Term ("the President's talents and training are necessary to steer this country, domestically and in its foreign relationships, to safe harbors"). At that time, despite his long belief in internationalism, his hatred of fascism, he believed the U. S. should give up thought of open aid to Britain and France. Later he read Thorstein Veblen's The Nature of Peace and Imperial Germany, and changed to a policy of all aid short of war. Stubborn, slow to make up his mind, he drives hard once it is made up.
His old Washington friends see less of him than they once did. Now his appearance is neat, his hair always in place. He sees fewer farmers, more farm leaders. He still loves to argue, using his old questioning form of argument. Now he is surer that he is right, but his patience is abundant. If Roosevelt and Wallace win, Henry Wallace, more than any other man, would be conscious of the weight that would fall upon his shoulders if anything should happen to the President, whom he regards as indispensable.
*Membership, 120,000. Others: American Farm Bureau Federation, 2,950,000; National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, 800,000; National Cooperative Council, 1,500,000. *The Wallace Family still has a small interest in a firm for producing hybrid seed corn. Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead (whose poll last week showed Iowa farmers 34% for Roosevelt, 34% for Willkie, 32% undecided) passed out of the Wallace control early in the depression.