AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



group"; in fact, it was the theory on which the Farmers' Union was 

 founded in Texas. For years Union committees had been appointed to 

 estimate the "cost of production" and to name prices for cotton and other 

 farm products. Membership in the cotton states, where this theory had 

 been widely accepted, had vanished into thin air, while in those states 

 where a program for "toll-reducing cooperation" had been established, 

 the membership of the Union had increased. If Nebraska was one of 

 those states which went in for the "prune and vinegar peddling" to which 

 Ricker had referred so slurringly, it had nevertheless done rather well. 

 "We have peddled some vinegar, besides other groceries, a lot of twine, 

 farm machinery, fencing, seeds, feeds, oils, gasoline, paints, work clothing, 

 and other supplies too numerous to mention." This had saved Nebraska 

 farmers substantial sums of money. Ricker, on the other hand, was 

 associated with at least two other organizations over the past ten years, 

 i.e., the Nonpartisan League and the Producers' Alliance; the last was a 

 price-fixing venture that never got beyond the dues-collecting stage, and 

 it was "a bit unbecoming and presumptuous" for him "to assume the 

 role of godfather to the Farmers' Union." 87 



This flare-up between the editors of the two Union papers was part and 

 parcel of the mounting opposition to Charles S. Barrett, the national 

 president since 1906, and A. C. Davis, the national secretary. Barrett 

 without question was a man with many political ties and great influence 

 in Washington. On this account, no doubt, he had managed to be re- 

 elected president year after year, despite the fact that neither his state of 

 Georgia nor for that matter the whole South was any longer of con- 

 sequence in the Union. The organization, during his tenure, had spread 

 from the South into the Middle West, and had changed its program from 

 holding products off the market for a fixed price to cooperative marketing 

 and purchasing, although lip service was still given to "cost of production" 

 and fixed prices. 38 



For a time, C. H. Gustafson, the president of the Nebraska Farmers* 

 Union from 1913 to 1922, had loomed as the chief antagonist of Barrett; 

 in fact, a story circulated to the effect that he had threatened either to 

 unseat Barrett at some future national convention or else lead his Nebraska 



37. Nebraska Union Farmer, December 28, 1927. 



38. Ibid., April 24, 1935. 



