45 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



for what was lost as a result of the reduction in property taxes; some 4,000 

 miles of roads were to be added to the state highway system to provide 

 more public work; sweeping powers were given the banking commis- 

 sioner to aid in reorganizing the state banks; the insurance commissioner 

 was granted sweeping powers to regulate insurance company loans; a 

 special levy was placed on chain stores to produce $1,300,000 for state aid 

 to public school districts; a tax of ten cents per pound was imposed on 

 oleomargarine sold in the state; and state appropriations for the next two 

 years were slashed nearly 20 per cent. 48 



Legislation was enacted in other states, too. In South Dakota a tax was 

 enacted on not net but gross income; grace was extended in the payment 

 of taxes; the general levy for 1934 was eliminated; and the assessed valua- 

 tion of properties was reduced by over $144,000,000. In North Dakota 

 Governor Langer issued a proclamation forbidding the forced sale of 

 farm properties and later that year declared an embargo on all wheat 

 shipments until the cost-of-production level was reached. In Wisconsin 

 legislation which required the governor to levy a state tax when the 

 balance had fallen below the two-million mark was repealed, and the 

 statutory time during which farmers could redeem their property was 

 extended to three years; milk was classed as a public utility and the state 

 department of agriculture and markets was authorized to fix the price 

 paid for it. 49 



In the spring of 1933 Arthur C. Townley, a veteran of other farm 

 campaigns, was asking that Congress adopt a plan which called for the 

 issuance of $1,000,000,000 in scrip to be used in the exchange of products 

 between farmers and organized labor. His plan also provided that workers 

 operate idle factories and plants in which the products needed by the 

 farmers would be produced; the farmers, in turn, were to be pledged to 

 accept the scrip when it was offered them as payment by labor. Townley 

 told his farmer listeners that they could win this strike "if you can provide 

 a plan by which all of these people can pay you cost of production." 5 



As had been predicted earlier, the Farm Holiday Association was to 

 call a national farm strike unless prices had reached the cost-of-production 



48. The New International Year Boo%, 1933, p. 504. 



49. Ibid., pp. 758, 6n, 844. 



50. Farm Holiday News, April, 1933; Iowa Union Farmer, May 3, 1933. 



