134f THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



movement was reacMng into the seat of govern- 

 ment and menacing the heart of the nation. 

 This attitude would have been highly amusing 

 if it had not been so misleading to the great 

 mass of city people who were not in a position to 

 know the facts yet whose interests were being 

 protected by the stability of the very farm peo- 

 ple who were being so seriously misjudged. 



Numerous farmers' meetings throughout the 

 country laid out programs of policy and action 

 which should have been sufficient to convince 

 any one that the farmers ' national program was 

 perfectly in keeping with the best interests of 

 the nation. One national farmers' convention 

 after another would meet and endorse a con- 

 structive program. There was a decided agree- 

 ment between these organizations so that one 

 might conclude that their resolutions were writ- 

 ten by the same author. There was an absence 

 of radical proposals except in a very few in- 

 stances which received far more publicity than 

 their importance deserved. 



It remained for the President at the sugges- 

 tion of the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry C. 

 Wallace, to call a conference which would show 

 the temper of the people of the farms in un- 

 mistakable fashion. The National Agricultural 



