FARM BOARD TO FARM STRIKE 4 21 



die winter wheat belt to urge compliance; this "quickly developed into 

 a running debate with editors and officials, productive of epigrams, per- 

 sonal reflections, and sarcasm." The Baltimore Sun was quick to label it 

 as the "Legge show," while the Fargo Forum went back to classical 

 antiquity to come up with the term "anabasis" to describe the wanderings 

 of the two gentlemen from Washington. Hyde told the farmers that a 

 25 per cent reduction in wheat acreage would put production on a domestic 

 basis and would give to the farmers "the full benefit of the 42 per cent 

 tariff." 



There were other reactions to the acreage-reduction proposal. Some 

 called attention to the emphasis that was being placed on wheat produc- 

 tion in other nations; and it seemed strange that while Mussolini some 

 years back had been urging increased production, Legge and Hyde should 

 now be asking for a reduction. Governor Clyde Reed of Kansas felt that 

 it would be wiser to use the facilities of the Board to feed the hungry 

 people of Europe than to undertake a decrease in the acreage. Some felt 

 that reduction appeared "logical and sensible," but others did not. Still 

 others found it hard to understand why the government went to the 

 trouble of encouraging reclamation projects like Boulder Dam, which 

 made production increases possible, and at the same time urged the farm- 

 ers to reduce their output. 



The pleas of Legge hardly met the approval of the people of Kansas. 

 He was quoted as telling its citizens that "The biggest hog will always 

 lie in the trough. Kansas is now in the trough." Whether Legge actually 

 said this is beside the point. Many Kansans believed it and were incensed. 

 The Wichita Beacon demanded his resignation and an apology. Legge in- 

 sisted that what he said was "Is Kansas in the trough?" and not what 

 the papers quoted him as saying. When he was confronted with the de- 

 mand for an apology and his resignation, he replied to the publishers of 

 the paper, through a group of interviewing reporters, "You can present 

 my compliments to Max and Louis, and tell them to go to hell." 61 



The Board had first become unpopular with the private interests, which 

 feared that it would go far "in substituting cooperation for private busi- 

 ness marketing, public credit for ordinary credit," and it had aroused the 

 undying hostility of the United States Chamber of Commerce. Now it 



61. Ibid. 



