FARM BOARD TO FARM STRIKE 43 1 



the majority of the states were against the Board. The states that favored 

 it made plain the fact that they wanted no part of the Simpson adminis- 

 tration; in fact three of their representatives refused to serve on the na- 

 tional board of the Farmers' Union. This action, the bolting states said, 

 was not to be interpreted to mean that they were leaving the organization 

 but rather that they would refuse to sever their ties with the Farm Board. 

 They even went to the extent of appointing Huff as their official represen- 

 tative in dealing with the Farm Board, Congress, and other legislative 

 bodies. They emphasized the point that they would tolerate no inter- 

 ference with their marketing machinery and business operations by the 

 national Farmers' Union. 85 



In Minnesota opposition to the Farm Board was gathering in other 

 quarters, spearheaded by the Minnesota Farm Bureau and several inde- 

 pendent commodity organizations and directed against the Farmers' 

 Union in that state as well as against the national administration. Six 

 Minnesota congressmen, officials of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, the 

 Twin City Milk Producers', the Central Cooperative Livestock Com- 

 mission Company, the Minnesota Cooperative Wool Growers' Association, 

 and the Northwest Grain Association accused the Farm Board of wreck- 

 ing regional cooperative institutions instead of building them up. The 

 Farmers' National Grain Corporation was branded as not a true coopera- 

 tive association, and the terms that it forced on associations affiliated with 

 it were declared equivalent to placing "a gun" at their heads and ordering 

 them "to give up their cooperative status or die." 86 Particular stress was 

 placed on the past of the Farmers' Union Terminal Association, the 

 largest stockholder in the Farmers' National. 



The Farmers' Union Terminal Association was charged with being 

 a cooperative "in name only," and with fraudulent dealings, the "Eleva- 

 tor M" case being cited as proof. Elevator M was a Farmers' Union 

 elevator in Minneapolis containing grain samples that were said to have 

 been "juggled" in such a way that inferior wheat was "graded out" as 

 No. i Dark Northern. An investigation was under way when it was 

 charged that Huff, the former national president of the Union and later 



85. Ibid., December i, 1930; Fargo Forum, November 24, 1930; Iowa Union 

 Farmer, May 20, 1931. 



86. Minnesota Farm Bureau News (CentraF Edition, Grand Rapids), September 

 i, 1931. 



