The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-11-21
The Farmers National Relief
Conference in Washington
The Forces at Work in the Growing Struggles of the
Impoverished Farmers Turnout the u. S.

early in December, and so will be
used on the march. Farmers are
being taxed forty cents a piece.
Each delegate must be supplied
with $40, which means 800 per
truck, enough to cover gas, oil, and
some of the expenses on the road
and in Washington. Routes which
the caravans of trucks will take
have been mapped out already.
Sympathetic farmers on the way
have been organized to provide
meals and overnight sleeping
places. Many private citizens have
offered accommodations in Wash
ington. Delegates are to hold meet
ings on the road to recruit new
members and so insure nationwide
representation at the conference.
Whether three hundred or five
hundred farmers will reach Wash
ington is difficult to say at the
moment. Even 300 representative
delegates, however, can speak for
100000 people on American
farms just as well because from
Maine to Arizona and from Oregon
to Florida the reasons for discon-
tent are the same. The farmers
are not coming to Washington to
shake Hoover's hand or cape at
the eyeless needle of the Washing
ton Monument. They will place
their demands against foreclosures,
against evictions, for debt mora
forum, for cash relief before the
President and Congress. They will
formulate national farm program
which will meet the needs of farm
ers throughout the whole country.
They will meet in smaller groups
to tackle sectional problems. They
will listen to delegations of unem-
ployed and draw up a joint fight
ing program for the unemployed
and the small and middle farmers.
They will lay plans for future con-
ferences. Immediately after the
Conference, farmer speakers will
be sent to thousand one-horse
towns and cities to report on the
work Of the conference. to line up
sympathizers and farmers for fur
ther mass action.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
There are obstacles in the way
of the Conference. The Church
has been set against it. In Ne
braska the Catholic Church ar
ranged services purposely on GER
tain nights when meetings were
taking place in order to stop the
election of delegates. Local. state,
and federal officials look with dis
favor upon the whole business.
Washington's new Police Commits
sioner has sent a message to the
nations police to investigate this
proposed invasion by disgruntled
farmers" The exclusion of the
rich farmer and the so-called farm
leader, whose income comes from
other sources than farming, has
aroused intense antagonism. The
farmers long isolation and suspi-
cion of radical ideas must be over
come; he must be moved TO break
through the long thin promises
spun by busy politicians, especially
during election time.
Despite such difficulties, the odds
appear to be all for q successful
Conference. The antagonism of
church, politician, business man
prove the essential soundness and
militancy of this rank and file
farmers movement. This draws the
class lines clearer. The plan to
invite the unemployed and to send
farmer speakers to cities will help
emphasize the interlocking inter-
ests of producer and city con
sumner. 1t will strike home more
forcefully the viciousness of sys-
tenn which gives the farmers half
cent a pound for wheat, while
it soaks consumers eight cents.
The Conference does not intend to
propose one more plan for juggling
the tariff, raising prices by Farm
Board action, debentures or allot-
ments. The exclusion of bankers
and business men Is evidence
enough that the farmers have also
lost all faith in the banker-bus
ness man-farmer cooperatives,
pools from which foxy corporations
tipped the farmer and crunched
the last life out of him.
CONFERENCE headquarters IN
" Washington are flooded With
news from dirt farmers all over
the country, Farmezs who had