The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-01-09
The Farmers Join Up

Late last summer, somebody writing from
Southern Illinois, wrote letter to our Worker
Correspondence section, in paragraph Of which
he said that the farmers were disconnected, but
that if anybody thought they were anywhere
near accepting the idea of revolution it would be
copying the stupidity of John Pepper Our Work.
er Correspondence editor let that go by, I'M
fortunately, without correction The fact was
that it was the Worker Correspondent in that
case who was taking the line of John Pepper.
We recall this distinctly, since we are inter
csted in farmers, as all Communists are or should
be. We are interested politically, as one inter-
eSted in the proletarian revolution, not person.
ally, in spite of the fact that this scribe who
now sits within "spttin' range of Morgan's
Bank here in Manhattan, was Matched out in q
prairie dug-out shucked corn, MIXED cows cur
ried horses, punched cattle, grubbed Sage-brush
and crossword, irrigated alfalfa, ETC., not to
speak of Stealin' watermelons drownin' out
gophers, swimmif' in buffalo-wallows and other
such sports By the way, the first wage work
we ever did was cow-punchin' on pinto pony
while we were yet so near the grass that we
had to climb up his fore-leg by pulling on the
critters name
But that is all by the way. What we want
to slam and slam hard, is the idea carefully
cultivated by the boss press and soaked up by
even members of our Party, that the poor small
farmers and hard-run middle farmers, are shy
of or hostile to the Communists and to anything
that "looks Red"
This is pure poppy cock. There is nothing
more natural than that poverty stricken farmers
turn to the revolutionary workers Of the city
for aid and guidance. For, who else, please tell
u.s. will give them aid that is effective, guidance
that will lead them out of the swamp of capital
ism?
no Arkansas hay
country by carrying out, perfectly perhaps, h4
with good militant spirit, the advice of the Daily
Worker. We have received Acknowledgement Of
their appreciate by the way, in the form of So,
collected by go ,ibutions from forty Arkansas
farners-"For Jorge and nobody else," with a
note added that, "They done reckon they starved
enough. It's time row f. ammunition" (To give
them ammunition" we turning the So over
to the Daily Workers $4,000 Fund.
here comes to our desk copy of lotal
North Dakota paper. the STANLEY Sum-" with
nice two-column box the front page publish
ing Call for Conference of Farmers of Noun
trail County" signed by 81 farmers and saying,
in part, as follows:
I'VE farmers of Montreal County believe that
there can be no solution of the problems of the
poor farmers, until they have organized them
selves into Leagues of Action for immediate de-
mandS by committees of farmers in each town
ship affiliated with the United Farmers League
to enforce these demands: To fight for free seed
and feed; moratorium farmers debts; and to
fight against high taxes crop mortgages, fore
closure and evictions."
Their conference is to be held in the County
Courthouse "for the purpose of organizing strong
leagues of Education and Action" and mass
meeting is being held in the evening, the leading
speaker being Ella Reeve Mother" Bloor, state
organizer of the United Farmers League. (The
United Farmers League, if any wish to know
has headquarters at New York Mills Minnesota,
and pnblishc~ the Only paper, THE United Farm
err exclusively and really devoted to the farm
ers).
So, folks, the farmers are joining up-and in
place of letters claiming that the farmers are
skeered of the Reds, let us hear of Communists
getting cut into the country = Sundays and get
ting little revolutionary inspiration from folks
to whom fightin' comes as natural as chawing
dog-leg tobacco.