43 2 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



president of the Farmers' National Grain Corporation, helped conclude 

 a deal whereby the Farmers' National took over the properties of the 

 terminal association, gave up the license for Elevator M and made it a 

 private warehouse not subject to state regulation and inspection. 87 This 

 was a development publicized in the press the truth of which had never 

 been substantiated, yet it did serve to widen the gap between the pro- and 

 anti-Farm Board factions. Union spokesmen there traced the charges to 

 the doorsteps of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, an inveterate 

 foe of the grain cooperatives. 88 



When the Corn Belt Committee met in Chicago in May, 1931, differ- 

 ences among the farmer organizations had reached a new high. The 

 apparent unity that characterized the workings of the body at the time 

 of the McNary-Haugen movement was gone. A resolution passed in 

 condemnation of the Farm Board, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, and the 

 Hoover administration in general caused the pro-Board groups to with- 

 draw and form the National Committee of Farm Organizations in 

 support of the Farm Board. 89 The majority of the Farm Bureau states 

 and sympathetic commodity groups affiliated with these bodies and the 

 conservative elements within the Farmers' Union supported the admin- 

 istration. The Nebraska Farmers' Union with its well-known antipathies 

 toward state control and centralization condemned the program. The 

 organizations remaining in the Corn Belt Committee comprised the 

 radical wing of the Farmers' Union, the Missouri Farm Association led 

 by Bill Hirth, and a number of independent commodity organizations. 90 



The bitterness of the latter groups toward the pro-Board factions was 

 summed up by Milo Reno. He cited the bitter opposition reigning within 

 the Farmers' Union after the second veto of the McNary-Haugen bill 

 and queried whether the right-about-face made by some of the Farmers' 

 Union states and their support of the Republican administration was the 

 result of the bribes paid by the Farmers' National Grain Corporation and 

 the "full belly" that followed. Reno wrote: 



87. Ibid. 



88. Farmers' Union Herald, September 7, October 19, November 2, December 21, 

 1931; Fargo Forum, November n, 1931. 



89. Farmers' Union Herald, May 18, 1931; Des Moines Register, May 6, 1931; 

 Minnesota Farm Bureau News, June i, 1931. 



90. Farmers' Union Herald, May 18, 1931. 



