the New Deal. Specifically, Senator Thomas proposed an amendment known as the Thomas Amendment, to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, intended to help farmers financially by empowering the president to reduce the gold backing for dollars and to print bills backed by silver alone when cash became depressively tight. Lewis Douglas, Roosevelt's budget director, was furious about this threat to the gold standard, and in its final form the amendment was weaker. Thomas was also a reliable friend to Indians and served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs between 1935 and 1944. Roosevelt visited Oklahoma in 1938 and campaigned for Senator Thomas' reelection. Thomas won handily. He was very interested in international affairs, having supported the League of Nations, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, and the World Court. He voted for neutrality in 1935 and 1937, but said his main concern was American military preparedness. He had served in the Army as a lieutenant colonel assigned to military intelligence and retained that rank as a member of the Reserves. In June 1938 he became chair of the Sub-Committee on Military Appropriations, and after inspecting numerous bases found the country's defenses "in critical condition." During World War II his subcommittee secured funding for the top-secret atomic bomb project. Senator Thomas was reelected in 1944, becoming the third-ranking senator in seniority. He chaired the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry from 1944 to 1946 and 1949 to 1950. He attended food conferences in Quebec and Copenhagen in 1945 and 1946 and toured Europe in 1949 as part of an audit of Marshall Plan funds. End of political career Thomas was challenged in the Democratic primary by A.S. Mike Monroney in 1950. This time Thomas lost his bid for the nomination, and gave up his seat to Monroney in January 1951. In semi-retirement, he engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D.C., until August 1957, then returned to Lawton, Oklahoma, where he died September 19, 1965. He was interred in Highland Cemetery in Lawton. Honors Elmer Thomas was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1932. Elmer Thomas Lake Senator Thomas was behind the creation of Medicine Park, situated in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. A lake named after the senator lies to the west of the town, just northwest of Lawton. It has of shoreline and . References Further reading Rook, Elizabeth Thomas. Senator: 1876-1965 The Life and Career of Elmer