The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-08-27

to pay interest and taxes and thu: prevent their land going under the hammer because of inability tt meet their obligations. Many of both classes rode tc their picketing in their own au. tomobiles.
 We run these things for a year and then find at the end of the year we can't get enough for our crops to pay for the gasoline we've used,' one striker from Woodbine Ia, said when I noted the preva- lence of cars.
 Very few permit their names to be used in connection with any comment they make lest they be- come embroiled with the law. In response to the charge launched in some quarters that there were communists at work among them. one farmer expressed bit more forcefully than others a common reply on the point:
 NO, there aren't any of those. If we found any, we'd throw them out. Neither are there any guns among us-and neither is there any booze. All these things are poison"
 The farmers declare they are not organized but there is every evidence of very definite leader ship in this movement.
 In this connection the two most active heads of the present move ment are Milo Reno, president of the National Farmers Holiday as- sociation, and John Chalmers, a leading organizer in the associa- tion. Although officers are entitled to $4 per diem under the bylaws neither draws pay because anyone receiving other income receives nothing for his work in the asso- ciation. Both have independent in- comes.
 Reno is a native Iowan, 66 years old 5 feet II inches tall and a fore most farm union man, although considered radical by farm bureau members. He was president of the Iowa Farm union from 1922 to 1880 when he. resigned to run for congress on the farm-labor ticket. He has wavy, touseled hair just turning from black to grey, wears horn trimmed glasses and a five gallon hat.
 He started college but dropped it to read law and then dropped that to try homesteading in the Black Hills, later to return to tenant farm near Ottumwa. He is brilliant orator, convincing and witty.
 Chalmers is farmer-renter, middle aged, gray haired. Of his three children, two do farm work while he tends to his strike" busi- ness. During the strike he is giv- ing his produce to the poor. He is Scotch, lean and cool-headed--a former member of the United Mine Workers and once belonged to the Carpenters union.
 By T. w. INGOLDSBY United Press Stan Correspondent
 Omaha, Neb., Aug 27-UP)- Iowa and Nebraska farmers tight ened picket lines on highways leading to Omaha and Council Bluffs market centers today in a determined effort to increase com modity prices.
 The strikers concentrated on milk trucks to cause a serious shortage of milk and cream. A dairy one of the largest here, was forced to ship all it's products by rail from Dubuque, $50 miles away.
 All trucks attempting to reach Council Bluffs, Ia., across the Miss ouri river from here, had been stopped. The city was cut off from it's sources of livestock, produce and dairy products.
 Steps were being taken to iso- late Omaha from the rural sec tions.
 Court action was expected to de- velop today from the first casualty in the strikers ranks. A 24-year old farmer, Raymond Miller, was seriously injured when he tried to halt a speeding livestock truck. He was thrown from the motor when guards kicked him loose.
 The picketeers threatened to file charges against the driver whose identity, they said. was known to them.
 The campaign against milk trucks came after the Nebraska . Iowa cooperative milk producers and distributors met but failed to reach an agreement increasine milk prices by 45 per cent.
 The strike at Sioux City so far has resulted in new scole of $1.80 a hundredweight for milk testing 3.5 per cent butterfat. With the new scale, farmers there were ex- peced to allow a resumption of milk traffic.
 John Fletcher. attorney general of Iowa, so far has not given m opinion on whether Sheriff Percy I.ainson of Pottawatomie County could place deputies in the ranks of the strikers.
 Mineola, l.. l.. Aug 27.--fUP)- Defense attorneys for three Nassau county policemen enlarged with first