NEW DEAL: LATER STAGES 59 



campaign, accused the Roosevelt administration of having failed to do 

 anything for the farmers. He did all that and then turned around and 

 promised the farmers pretty much the same thing that the New Dealers 

 did. He would give them cash benefits equal to the tariff benefits enjoyed 

 by protected industries, and that was talking the language of the McNary- 

 Haugenites about ten years after the movement had reached its peak; he 

 would seek an amendment to the Federal Warehouse Act to make it pos- 

 sible for farmers to borrow on feed reserves that were stored in their cribs; 

 he would give full attention to crop insurance and any proposals designed 

 to aid "capable farm tenants" in buying farms. And then he pledged him- 

 self to honor "all outstanding obligations made by the present Admin- 

 istration." In the final analysis Landon was simply telling the farmers, 

 "Help put the Republicans in and we'll give you everything that the 

 New Dealers ever promised, perhaps more." 17 



It was soon evident that no amount of criticism and promises that the 

 Republicans could make could undo the grip of the administration on the 

 farmers. The presidential election was a smashing triumph for the New 

 Deal. This came as a great shock to John D. M. Hamilton and other 

 Landon leaders, who had been counting heavily on farm opposition. The 

 "Kansas Coolidge" failed to carry his own state, let alone capture the 

 votes of other farm states in the Middle West. As the Milwaukee Journal 

 wrote: "The farmers were voting for AAA. There is no other inter- 

 pretation." 18 



Other phases of the New Deal program saw steps taken to combat farm 

 tenancy, to provide additional relief in the case of dire emergencies, to 

 seek to reduce the effects of the drought, and to adopt programs designed 

 to redirect the use of marginal and submarginal lands. As a result, various 

 agencies and committees were set up to investigate, to make recommenda- 

 tions, and to try to remedy conditions that for the most part in the past 

 had been either ignored or else considered the special concern of the in- 

 dividual farmer. 



The New Deal tried to provide for those farmers who were "clinging 

 to the outside fringe of our economic system," and who, the belief was, 

 if given "a boost," would be able to "get back on their feet." This type of 



17. Business Wee\ (September 26, 1936), pp. 9-10. 



18. Milwaukee Journal, November 10, 1936. 



