THE FARMERS' UNION 235 



Even more progress was reported in the Northwest between the na- 

 tional conventions of 1928 and 1929. During this year serious efforts were 

 made to bring Minnesota into the "Union sisterhood." Minnesota was de- 

 scribed as the most difficult state to organize because of the presence there 

 of many small, unfederated, and unrelated cooperatives which resisted 

 centralized authority. Many farmers thought that there were enough or- 

 ganizations in the state the way things were; many had had unpleasant 

 memories of wheat, potato, egg, and poultry pools which had failed; the 

 opposition of the established grain interests to the erection of farmer- 

 owned and controlled grain-marketing organizations was also strong. In 

 Wisconsin, the membership passed the 6,000 mark and there were five 

 county bodies and locals functioning in thirteen counties. Late in 1930 

 the Union, according to Northwest sources, had enrolled nearly 60,000 

 members and "added three stars to the Union flag." 3 



It came as no surprise that the growth of the Union in the Northwest 

 and the organizing tactics employed there aroused the ire of the conserva- 

 tive Nebraska Farmers' Union, which had nothing but contempt for the 

 organizing techniques of the Northwest Committee and its leadership. 

 A. W. Ricker, editor of the Farmers' Union Herald, an ex-Producers' 

 Alliance man, ex-Nonpartisan Leaguer, ex-Socialist, ex-Populist, and ex- 

 Farmers' Alliance man, sought to reduce the conflict between the two 

 groups to the least common denominator. The Northwest group, he in- 

 sisted, saw the farm problem as one of controlled marketing, with the 

 farmers' goal the power to bargain for prices as organized labor bargained 

 for wages; but the Nebraska group saw it only in terms of "prune and 

 vinegar peddling," i.e., cooperative marketing and buying. 36 



Herron, the editor of the Nebraska Union Farmer, took issue with this 

 description. He accused Ricker of drawing heavily on his imagination. 

 "If there was any battle . . . over the issue of price-fixing versus toll- 

 reducing co-operation, it was waged in the minds of Mr. Ricker and 

 his colleagues. . . . The real issue was whether the Reno-Northwest Com- 

 mittee machine should dominate the organization and re-elect Barrett 

 and Davis as convenient rubber stamps." Price fixing was "the pet obses- 

 sion, or at least the big talking point, of the Reno-Northwest Committee 



35. Ibid., February 3, December 15, 1930. 



36. Ibid., November, 1927. 



