Storage of agricultural products for price stabilization has also been used in modern times in many countries, including the United States. The term "ever-normal granary" itself was adopted from a Columbia University dissertation on Confucian economic practice that was read by future US Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace around 1926, some time before he came into office. Wallace brought the term into the mainstream of American agropolitical thinking after the 1934 drought. One example of this idea was presented by Benjamin Graham in his book, "Storage and Stability", written in 1937 during the Great Depression. Graham suggested that much like years of high agricultural yields, the years of overproduction of commodities in general could be neutralized by storing commodities until periods of underproduction. The idea was in response to the overproduction of goods during the depression, as well as the desire both to preserve jobs and to keep prices stable.