556 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



relief in 1928 had become staunch defenders of it by 1930. For instance, 

 the Farm Bureau did a complete about-face when its national president, 

 Sam Thompson, formerly an outspoken McNary-Haugenite, asked the 

 members to close their ranks against the foes of the Farm Board. The 

 Farmers' Union, on the other hand, was badly torn with dissension over 

 the issue. A smoldering controversy broke into the open in 1930 when 

 John A. Simpson, a bitter opponent of the Farm Board, was elected 

 national Union president. His election, however, did not stop the Union's 

 pro-Farm Board faction, which had a strong following in the wheat- 

 growing section, from giving further support to the administration agency. 

 Similar difference broke out in the Corn Belt Committee and reached a 

 climax when administration supporters withdrew to form the National 

 Committee of Farm Organizations. 



At least two phases of the Farm Board program withholding crops 

 from market and acreage-reduction proposals are noteworthy because 

 they were adopted by the New Dealers and carried to even greater lengths. 

 Withholding operations were engaged in by the Farm Board when it 

 made loans and provided ways and means to withhold crops from mar- 

 ket, especially after they could not be sold at the government-sponsored 

 price. In 1933 the Farm Board came to the conclusion that acreage restric- 

 tions were indispensable to the success of any farm program. The Board 

 gave special emphasis to these two phases of its program in two sections 

 entitled "Surplus Control Methods" and "Production Adjustment Involves 

 Land Utilization" in its third annual report. 



Meanwhile, there had emerged in the state of Iowa the farm holiday 

 movement led by Milo Reno and other elements in the Farmers' Union. 

 They favored a program that would provide the farmers with "cost of 

 production plus a reasonable profit" with the element of force injected 

 into it. This represented an act of desperation in one of the most critical 

 periods in history, an act which gained a few members in the adjoining 

 states, attracted nation-wide attention, and dramatized forcefully the 

 plight of the farmers. Foreclosures were to be checked and farmers were 

 to be persuaded, if necessary by force, not to ship their goods to market 

 unless prices rose to the "cost of production" level designated by its leaders. 

 John A. Simpson was recommended for Secretary of Agriculture. Finally, 

 when the administration failed to accept its price-fixing proposal, the 



