THE FARMERS' UNION 237 



Union out of the national organization. This threat came to naught when 

 Gustafson later was forced to resign as president of the Nebraska or- 

 ganization because he accepted a position with the Farm Bureau-sponsored 

 United States Grain Growers, Incorporated. 39 



By the middle twenties, the leadership in opposition to Barrett had 

 passed into the hands of John A. Simpson, the president of the Okla- 

 homa Farmers' Union and a rising influence within Union circles. In 

 1927, Simpson had recommended to the national convention, the recom- 

 mendation coming in the form of a constitutional amendment, that in the 

 future the presidency and the secretaryship be nonsalaried positions to be 

 filled by individuals who were also state presidents at the time they were 

 elected. During the debates on the amendment Milo Reno, who later 

 sided with Simpson, came to the defense of Barrett. In the end the Simp- 

 son amendment failed; 45 votes were cast for it and 59 against it. Illinois, 

 South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma voted for the amendment, and 

 Iowa, Montana, California, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Georgia, Minne- 

 sota, North Dakota, Missouri, and Arkansas were against it. The states 

 which favored the Simpson amendment voted for E. M. Pollard of 

 Nebraska for national president. These states even suggested a boycott 

 of the national convention the following year, a threat of no mean con- 

 sequence, since they paid half the national revenues. The Nebraska Union 

 Farmer agreed with Simpson that it would be a waste of time, money, 

 and effort to have the national Union continue under the leadership of 

 Barrett and Davis, who were nonetheless re-elected in 1927; Barrett, how- 

 ever, announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election. 40 



Apparently this announcement by Barrett was hardly adequate to placate 

 the insurgent states, for on January 9, 1928, they assembled in Des Moines 

 to reform the national Union. The rebelling states included Oklahoma, 

 Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota, and a faction in the Wis- 

 consin Union. Nebraska was anxious to elect as president someone who 

 had an understanding of the problems of the corn-raising states. Simpson, 

 who was too ill to attend this convention, sent a statement censuring the 

 national administration for failing to build up the Union and for accepting 



39. National Leader, January 23, 1922; Minnesota Leader (Olivia), July 29, 1922. 



40. Des Moines Register, November 17, 18, 1927; Nebraska Union Farmer, No- 

 vember 23, 1927; April 24, 1935. 



