FARMERS' STRIKE

Evening Post, Volume 97, Issue 97, 21 October 1933, Page 11

FARMERS' STRIKE

HOLIDAY MOVEMENT

NO CODE FOR AGRICULTURE

ULTIMATUM IN U.S.A.

Dnited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. ■ NEW YORK, October 20. A message from St. Paul, Minnesota, states that farmers on Thursday night were called upon to strike at noon on Saturday by the directors of ,the National Farm Holiday Association, who hoped to increase prices by drying up the channels through which produce flows to market. One of the primary objectives of the strike will be to compel the Washington Administration to formulate and put into effect a National Recovery Act code for agriculture. \ The directors, who attended a secret meeting of the association, said seven or eight States were represented at the session, and telephone calls were .made to officers and members m other btates. COSTS AND PRICES. The directors drafted a proclamation containing the following ultimatum:— We 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 only that which complete necessity demands. We will stay in the homes which we now occupy. We will not sell our products unless wo receive the cost of production, but will exchange our products with labour and unemployed for things wo need on the farm on a basis of cost of production for both parties. The directors declared that the' strike would Ternain in operation until farm products bring the .cost of production and until they were refinanced under the terms of the Frazier Bill. "The moneyed interests of the country," the directors added,: "in our judgment still dominate the Government, which had lost the confidence of the farmers. We still stand ready to support the administration in any programme that will recognise the farmers' fundamental right to ask for and receive the cost of production." The statement said the strike would be effective in. twenty-four States in which the Holiday .Association has members. There are more than two million farmers who are members. It is stated that the success of the strike will be based entirely upon an appeal to individual members and units of the association to refrain from shipping products to market. TJNREST IN NORTH. Advices from. Bismarck, North. Dakota, state that the railroads openly disregarded, the wheat embargo today and wheat was moved out of the State as usual. In the meantime the Governor has ordered the mobilisation of the National Guard to prevent shipments, but he will not send the guard into action until he has studied further the legal aspects of his edict. Railroad executives-said that the next move was up to the Governor, and expressed the opinion that the issue was headed for the Courts. A message from Lincoln Nebraska, states that a revolt against the National Recovery Act broke out in Nebraska when two of its leading Democrats joined the veteran Republican Independent, Senator George Norris, in warnings of unrest among farmers. , Governor Charles Bryan said that the farmers' throats were being cut by the abandonment of the anti-trust laws and the declining farm prices. He urged a policy of inflation. ■ ■ A former Governor, Mr. Keith Neville, has announced his resignation as State National Recovery Act chairman because of the lack of sympathy in its programme in the agricultural territory.