MCNARY-HAUGEN MOVEMENT 43 



the program of "organized agriculture," while the Democrats were com- 

 mended for what some McNary-Haugenites believed was a promise to do 

 for the farmers what the Republicans had refused to do. 91 Notice was 

 served that the 1,000,000 farmers behind the Corn Belt Committee were 

 for Al Smith. 92 



Peek, a bitter-ender in his endorsement of Smith, created the im- 

 pression that the Democratic candidate was for the McNary-Haugen bill. 93 

 But when Smith was pinned down to explain what he meant with his 

 barrage of words promising to do something for the farmers, he admitted 

 that he was not for the equalization fee. This put the Democrats in pretty 

 much the same position as the Republicans. Both had told the farmers 

 that controlling the surplus was necessary, but the equalization fee was 

 not going to do it. 94 Meanwhile, Peek had described Hoover as the "agri- 

 cultural adviser of the last two administrations" and accused him of being 

 more responsible for the "continued depression in agriculture" than any 

 other single person. 95 



Threatening as the language of the farm groups was, the Republicans 

 appeared unmoved, and in November they scored the most decisive victory 

 in the history of the Republican party. The Hoover vote totaled 21,391,993 

 the largest ever cast for a Republican candidate and it showed in- 

 creases in every section of the country. He got five and a half million 

 more votes than did Coolidge in 1924.^ This was good evidence that 

 neither the nation in general nor the farmers in particular were enraged 

 over the twice-vetoed McNary-Haugen bill. In fact farm conditions had 

 taken a turn for the better, especially over the period from 1926 to 1929. 



91. Ibid., July, 1928; Butterfield, in Current History, XXIX (November, 1928), 

 pp. 269, 273. 



92. Farmers' Union Herald, July, September, 1928; Des Moines Register, July 17, 

 1928; Des Moines Tribune, August 31, September i, 1928. 



93. Kansas City Times, August 6, 1928. 



94. Kansas City Star, August 5, 1928. 



95. Kansas City Times, July 30, 1928. 



96. Edgar E. Robinson, The Presidential Vote, 1896-1932 (Palo Alto, Calif., 1934), 

 pp. 24-25. 



