THE FARM STRIKE 447 



... to prevent foreclosures, and any attempt to dispossess those against whom 

 foreclosures are pending if started; and to retire to our farms, and there barricade 

 ourselves to see the battle through until we either receive cost of production or 

 relief from the unfair and unjust conditions existing at present; and we hereby 

 state our intention to pay no existing debts, except for taxes and the necessities 

 of life, unless satisfactory reductions in accordance with prevailing farm prices 

 are made on such debts. 



Other resolutions passed requested farmers to boycott the sale of agricul- 

 tural repossessions and asked for the enactment of the Frazier bill and 

 the voluntary allotment plan, provided that the prices set were not below 

 the cost of production. President Roosevelt was asked to appoint as Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture John A. Simpson, whom the North Dakotans regarded 

 as "beyond question agriculture's most fearless and outstanding leader," 

 and a middlewesterner as Secretary of the Treasury. They declared war 

 "on the International bankers and lesser money barons," and said with 

 melodramatic eloquence that the farm home, "the granite foundation of 

 this great republic," must be preserved, for if "that shall crumble, the 

 Government itself must fall." 42 



On March 12 and 13, 1933, less than ten days after Roosevelt took the 

 oath of office, the national convention of the Farm Holiday Association 

 assembled in Des Moines. 43 The motto was "The Farmer Feeds the World 

 and Deserves His Pay." When the convention was called to order, there 

 were delegates present from Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wis- 

 consin, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, and Kansas; representatives from 

 Colorado, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas were expected to arrive 

 later, and still other states had reported that delegates had been selected 

 but they could not arrive because the bank holiday had made it almost 

 impossible for them to obtain funds to cover their expenses. 



Resolutions again were passed calling for prices based on cost of pro- 

 duction; moratoria on rural and urban properties; and the exercise of the 

 right of eminent domain by the federal government to take away land 

 from insurance and mortgage companies "on a fair basis of settlement" 

 and to reopen this land for settlement by "actual home-owners" according 

 to the provisions' of the Frazier bill, which empowered the government 



42. Farm Holiday News, February 20, 1933. 



43. Iowa Union Farmer, March 8, 1933. 



