THE FARM STRIKE 439 



pulsory measure; and two, by organizing committees to resist the state 

 veterinarians when they attempted to apply it. 



Typical of the methods employed in the latter instance were those 

 used in Tipton, Iowa. On February 21 there were committees organized, 

 one on every telephone line in the county, to notify farmers when the 

 cow testers, or "cow squirters," as they were also called, started for the 

 farm of anyone who objected to the test. Farmers who cared to chop 

 wood, or pitch hay, were to go to the farm of the objector. State veterin- 

 arians, upon seeing these additional hands, would proceed with caution; 

 either they would leave the farm peaceably or they would be subjected 

 to force. 10 



In March farmers visited the state capitol in Des Moines to protest 

 against the compulsory law; most of the farmers came from areas in which 

 the test had been rejected by force and thus had brought about the jailing 

 of some of their members. Reports that farmers would come to the capitol 

 "armed with pitchforks" were disproved as the marchers moved through 

 the downtown area. One placard read: 



Fake, Fake, Fake 



Vets condemn our cattle 



And to the packers take 



Fake, Fake, Fake 



We oppose compulsory T. B. Tests 



We demand justice. 11 



Reno used constitutional arguments in opposing the test, stating: "The 

 real basis of the objection . . . lies in the fact that their property is no 

 longer their own. Any little shyster who has come out of a certain college 

 in the state can go on a farmer's property and conduct a test which is 

 more apt to be wrong than right." 12 About that time a newspaper photo- 

 grapher and a veterinarian were forcibly ejected from the farm of one 

 of the objectors in the Tipton area. 13 Shortly thereafter, word circulated 

 that the state militia was being held in readiness. 



These preliminary skirmishes resulted in a compromise between the 



10. Iowa Union Farmer, February 18, 1931; Des Moines Tribune, March 10, 1931. 



11. Ibid,, March 19, 1931. 



12. Des Moines Register, April 13, 1931. 



13. Des Moines Tribune, April 15, 1931. 



