THE FARM STRIKE 437 



and interesting but reflective of the sentiments of the type of farmer that 

 he led. He accused the colleges of distracting the attention of the farmer 

 "from the real solution of his problems," and of preparing him to accept 

 "the lowly position of the peasant." 4 His main charge was that the colleges 

 were "controlled by exploiters." In bitter vein, he attacked Iowa State 

 College at Ames, taking exception to a particular set of instructions which 

 "advised the farmers' wives how to make undergarments for their chil- 

 dren out of feed-sacks." To Reno, the works of the academic theorists 

 were not "going to be worth a damn in the next two or three years in 

 solving the practical problems that confront us." For the "brain trusters" 

 of the New Deal and the other dispensers of "collegiate farm relief" he 

 had this piece of advice : try to run a farm of your own. The central theme 

 in many of his farm speeches was that agriculture was the only basic 

 industry, because "ever since man appeared on this earth, the procuring 

 of food for humans to eat has been the only basic industry whether it was 

 done by bow and arrow or by our modern methods of agriculture." 5 



In 1931 Reno and his followers burst into the public eye when farmers 

 in southeastern Iowa resisted the state veterinarians who had come into 

 that part of the state to test cattle for tuberculosis. This was in line with 

 the recommendations that the United States Bureau of Animal Husbandry 

 had been making for some time. Medical associations also had been crying 

 out that a substantial percentage of all tuberculosis in children was trace- 

 able to milk from infected cows. Unfortunately, this tuberculin test was 

 undertaken at a time when the morale of the farmer had fallen to a 

 low ebb. 6 



Testing began in Iowa in 1917, when the first accredited herds ap- 

 peared in the state. In 1919 the legislature appropriated $100,000 annually, 

 a sum to be spent for testing in cooperation with the federal government. 

 Two years later this appropriation was raised to $250,000 annually. In 

 1923 the "area-plan law" went into effect which provided that when a 

 certain percentage of farmers in a county requested the test, it must be 

 adopted by the county. This meant that testing was compulsory in many 

 places. About 1929 the test was made compulsory in the state, one of its 



4. Iowa Union Farmer (Columbus Junction), January n, 1933. 



5. Des Moines Register, January 27, 1934. 



6. Walter Davenport, "Get Away from those Cows," Colliers, LXXXIX (Febru- 

 ary 27, 1932), p. ii. 



