THE FARMERS' UNION 253 



so "that the program affecting the common people of America shall be 

 executed with Democratic and not with dictatorial bureaucratic and 

 fascistic methods and controls." 8 



The continued aggressiveness of the Farmers' Union was well attested 

 by the resolutions adopted by its national convention in 1937. At this 

 meeting the delegates affirmed their belief that "we, as an organized 

 group, must unite upon a militant program of action that we must adopt 

 a positive rather than a negative attitude toward the solution of problems 

 confronting our industry." Unless a program of positive action should 

 be adopted, "America will become the victims of fascism and dictator- 

 ship, the prey of war lords and munition makers; a shackled and Dese- 

 crated Ghost of Democracy." The farm problem was only a part of the 

 larger economic problem which confronted the nation and which was 

 bound to become more serious. "A profit system must be predicated upon 

 the theory of scarcity, which necessitates controlled production and con- 

 trolled distribution for the specific purpose of price-fixing." The sole 

 hope for the maintenance and safeguarding of democracy was the build- 

 ing of "a system of cooperative business, owned by producers and con- 

 sumers," that would strive for potential abundance for all, instead of 

 "controlled production and controlled distribution for the specific pur- 

 pose of price-fixing." To achieve these ends, the Union recapitulated its 

 demands of previous years. 83 



Historically, the policy of the Union was to seek "cost of production." 

 This was enunciated in convention after convention. In 1937, the national 

 convention went on to say that "since the cooperative movement is of 

 necessity slow in its growth, we, being practical people, recognize that 

 we have an immediate problem; a problem which cannot wait for its 

 solution upon the slow growth of the cooperative movement, a problem 

 which society as a whole, expressed through the Congress, must tem- 

 porarily solve through the medium of Legislative Enactment." 8 



82. Farmers' Cooperative and Educational Union of America, National Legisla- 

 tive Program and Resolutions Adopted at the Thirty-third Annual Convention, 

 November 16-18, 7957 [in Oklahoma City], pp. 3, 6-7. 



83. Ibid. 



84. Ibid., p. 5. But it should be noted that in 1939 M. W. Thatcher, chairman 

 of the insurgent Farmers' Union Legislative Committee in Washington, opposed 

 this principle. Thatcher said that "cost of production" was "a grand idea but it 



