Prairie Fire

When spring wheat fell below 75-c- a bu. last fortnight, tall, oratorical Governor William Langer of ever-radical North Dakota, taking advantage of a law passed by the last Legislature empowering him to curtail "an unwarranted drain upon the natural resources of the State," ordered an embargo on North Dakota wheat. Last week this embargo took effect. First effect was upon big wheat-carrying railways running through the State. The Soo, Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul let out a concerted yelp of dismay.

Attorneys for the roads held a joint meeting, found that if they obeyed Governor Langer's order they would run afoul of the Interstate Commerce Act. Yet Governor Langer's militia was mobilized, prepared to stop grain shipments with bayonets if necessary. The roads chose to be impaled on the Governor's embargo rather than on the Federal law. They jointly informed the Governor that they would have to accept wheat for shipment, although they "realized the paramount necessity of higher grain prices for our farmers." The roads hoped that "if the people of North Dakota obey your command, common carriers will be in no way involved in this matter."

Meantime to South Dakota's Governor Berry, Iowa's Herring, Montana's Cooney, Minnesota's Olson, Kansas' Landon and Nebraska's Bryan, Governor Langer dispatched invitations to join him in an effort to bottle up the Northwest's output until prices rose. Doubting the legitimacy of the measure, Governor Langer's neighbors declined to join his embargo. But Charles Wayland Bryan of Nebraska, brother of the late Great Commoner, took the Langer invitation for a text, delivered a sermon of his own on the woes of farmers. Governor Bryan dramatically declared: "The unrest in the nation is increasing. All of the anti-trust laws have been either nullified or overridden. The people are now being plundered. The prices of the farmers' products are decreasing so his throat is being cut from both ears at once. The only remedy so far in sight, as everything else tried has failed, is to increase the farmer's income by increasing the amount of basic money in circulation."

Governor Bryan was loudly echoed by another Nebraska Democrat, onetime (1917-19) Governor Keith Neville, who beat Governor Bryan once in a primary and whom President Roosevelt appointed as State NRA chairman. Mr. Neville proceeded to resign from NRA because he felt "entirely out of sympathy with the manner in which NRA's program is being conducted in agricultural states. . . . The price of agricultural products, including livestock, in Nebraska today is less than was the case when the program went into effect."

Retorted General Johnson: "The A. A. A. . . . was given to farmers. . . . Upon careful reading of your letter, I find not one word of criticism of NRA . . . which is the only part of the program in respect to which you and I have responsibility/'

Democrat Bryan endorsed a telegram to the President from Insurgent Republican Senator George William Norris, who demanded that the Government at once redeem $1,500,000,000 of 4th Liberty Bonds in "new money" instead of with new securities (see p. 11). "The farmer is rapidly losing confidence," said Senator Norris, "because he sees the price of everything he buys going up, while everything he sells is daily going the other direction."

Throughout the farm belt the temper of agriculturists was rising like fire. Conditions were propitious for a reappearance of that bad weather bird, Milo Reno of the Farm Holiday Association. Up he bobbed in St. Paul, where with 20 directors of his association he asked his followers (2,000,000 claimed) to pay no taxes, no debts, buy nothing, sell nothing until they were offered at least "cost of production" for their products. This proposal met with a far better reception than it did last summer, when the Agricultural Adjustment Administration's price-raising plans took farmers' minds off their scheduled strike. The Farm Holiday presidents of Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Ohio quickly sounded off. Governors Schmedeman of Wisconsin and Olson of Minnesota expressed their sympathy with a national farm strike.

In his excitement, Agitator Reno took a wild swing at George Nelson Peek, Agricultural Adjustment Administrator, who as president of the American Council of Agriculture used to occupy precisely Mr. Reno's position as a professional Farmers' Friend at odds with the national Administration. "We were promised a new deal by which agriculture would receive the same consideration as other groups. Instead, we have the same old stacked deck and, so far as administering the Agricultural Act is concerned, the same old dealers."

By this time, farmers in 27 states had joined the holiday movement. "It would take a bolt from the blue to clear the atmosphere." said Secretary of Agriculture Wallace. And from the blue was precisely where not one but two bolts came. President Roosevelt shunted farm strike news off front pages by taking preliminary steps toward the recognition of Russia (see p. 9). He followed this up with his fourth Sunday night radio heart-to-heart with the country. Before outlining his policy for a managed currency, he forcefully reminded farmers: "In spite of the speculative reaction from the speculative advance, it seems to be well established that during the course of the year 1933 the farmers of the United States will receive 33% more dollars for what they have produced than they received in the year 1932. Put in another way, they will receive $400 in 1933 where they received $300 the year before."

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