FARM STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 9

FARM STRIKE.

1 CHAOS IN AMERICA. DETERMINED MOVE. ' j Plan to Force Relief Code for Agriculture. INFLATION DEMANDED. (United P.A.— Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 1.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 20. Dispatches from" St. Paul, Minnesota, state that farmers were called upon to sti ; ike at noon on Saturday by the directors of the National Farm Holiday Association, who hope to increase prices by drying up the channels through which produce flows i to the markets. One of the primary objectives of the strike, according to the directors, who attended a secret meeting of the association, will be to compel the. Federal Government to formulate and put into effect an N.R.A. code for agriculture. Seven or eight States were represented at the meeting, and telephone calls were made to officers of the member units in other States. The directors drafted a proclamation designed for release this afternoon, which laid .down the following ultimatum: —"Wc will pay no taxes or interest until we have first cared for our families. We will pay no interest-bearing debts until we receive the cost of production. We will buy ouly that which complete necessity demands. "We will stay in the homes we now occupy. Wc will not sell our products unless we receive the cost of production, but we will exchange our products with labour and the unemployed for the things we need on the farm on a basis of the cost of production for both parties. Government Dominated. * "The strike will remain in operation until farm products bring the cost of production, and until we pre refinanced, under the terms of the Frazier Bill. The moneyed interests of the country in our judgment still dominate the Government, our confidence in which has been lost, not by any single act, but by a long Series of acts. "We still stand ready to support the Administration in any programme that will recognise the farmers' fundamental right Jo ask for, and receive, the cost,of production for that portion of their farm products consumed in the United States." At a conference attended by about 20 directors of the association, representing Minnesota North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and lowa, it was stated that the strike will be effective in the 24 States in which the association has members. v There arc more than 2,000,000 farmer members. ' Revolt Against N.R.A. A revolt against the N.R.A. has broken out in Nebraska, the home of insurgent political leaders. Two of that State's leading Democrats broke away from President Roosevelt's relief programme and joined the veteran Republican Independent member of tho Senate, Mr. George Norris, in. issuing warnings of unrest among the farmers. The Governor of Nebraska, Mr. Charles Bryan, said the farmers' throats were being cut from ear to ear by the abandonment of the anti-trust laws and by declining farm prices. He urged inflation, instead of "pouring money 111 at the top." A former Governor, Mr. Keith Neville, announced his resignation as the State's N.R.A. chairman because of lack of sympathy with its programme in agricultural territory. Mr. Norris made a second appeal to Mr. Roosevelt to inflate the currency by retiring a billion and a half dollars worth of Liberty bonds with new currency instead of refunding them. Suggested Remedies. A Washington message says that what appears to be a formidable agrarian strike movement in the Western sections caused the Agricultural Administration to redouble its efforts to-day to bring relief to the distressed areas. An extension of crop loans to wheat farmers, Government control of meat marketing and a speedier distribution of bonus cheques for acreage reduction were suggested as likely expedients to meet the situation. Some observers feel, however, that such limited relief would not satisfy the demands of the more radical farm leaders. There is sure to be an increasing agitation for Government price fixing. It is suggested that the brokers of the Chicago Board of Trade be licensed by the Government, and not to be permitted to deal in grains at less than a specified price around a dollar a bushel.

SERIOUS RIOTING. Two Silk Strikers Shot in New Jersey. "BATTLE WITH POLICE. (Received 1.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 20. Tho silk strikers and the manufacturers who are seeking a revision of the silk rayon codes arrived here to-day in such large numbers that the N.R.A. officials abandoned the idea of a closed conference. Instead a general meeting was held. Senator Wagner said that he felt the, only solution of the strike, which is affecting some 05,000 employees in the silk industry, was the readjustment of wage mininiums, and he would recommend this. At Paterson, New Jersey, there was serious rioting among the striking silk workers to-day, which resulted, in the shopting of two strikers and the injuring of eight others in a fierce battle with 60 policemen. The mob attempted to hurl a mill official under tho wheels of a speeding freight train. Much property was damaged. The first disturbance occurred at Clifton, nearby, where 800 strikers moved against the cretonne print works, seized the traffic manager and stormed the mill , with stones.