444 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



the strikers were compared to those of the Boston Tea Party and William 

 L. Garrison. 28 A patriotic tone was given when the Khaki Shirts of 

 America, former members of the Bonus Expeditionary Force that had 

 marched on to Washington, took the lead in blockading the Des Moines 

 highways. 29 



Governors Bryan of Nebraska and Turner of Iowa both refused to call 

 out the militia, thus leaving the matter of preserving peace to the local 

 authorities. Businessmen, however, kept appealing to the governors for 

 action. Finally, Governor Green of South Dakota announced that he had 

 a plan for a conference of the fifteen chief executives of the agricultural 

 states to promote an "orderly, practical, legal, and non-violent program 

 for raising farm prices." 



Criticisms against the strikers came from various sources. The liberal 

 Nation referred to them as "rebels without ideas." 30 The Minnesota Farm 

 Bureau, like other groups, conceded that the strike focused attention on 

 the plight of the farmers, but charged that it failed to take into account 

 factors that were of fundamental importance in determining prices, such 

 as the tariff, purchasing power of the consumers, the monetary question, 

 world competition, and the effects that the strike would have on the 

 existing marketing machinery. 31 



What the strike achieved in the way of national publicity was offset 

 by the lack of accomplishments; two victories scored by the milk pro- 

 ducers in the Omaha area were erased shortly after it had ended. The 

 New Yor!( Journal of Commerce said that as "a demonstration of the 

 intensity of the economic depression . . . the revolt of the farmers is deserv- 

 ing of serious consideration"; but "as a plan for raising farm prices . . . 

 it betrays a pathetic ignorance of the causes and the possible remedies 

 for inadequate prices." 32 



When the governors' conference was set for September 9 in Sioux City, 



28. W. T. Davis, "The Farmers' Holiday," New Republic, LXXII (September 

 21, 1932), p. 156. 



29. "The Farmers' War for Higher Prices," Literary Digest, CXIV (September 

 10, 1932), p. 9. 



30. "Rebels Without Ideas," The Nation, CXXXV (August 31, 1932), p. 184. 



31. Minnesota Farm Bureau News (Central Edition, Grand Rapids), September 

 I, 1932. 



32. Quoted in Literary Digest, CXIV (September 10, 1932), pp. 9, n. 



