The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1932-01-08
The Hunger March to
Washington

fore, facing eviction and Starva-
ton. also told them how we
were organizing into the United
Farmers League for the protection
of one another; told them how we
refused to pay taxes, refused to
/ be evicted, refused to have our
few belongings sold by the sher-
/ iff. Told them how our farmers
demonstrated one thousand strong
on our streets. l brought greet
ings to the city workers and told
them to line up with us. And the
city workers applauded. They
shook my hands after the meet
ing and told me to bring their
greetings back to the organized
farmers of the northwest.
Wherever / went somebody
knew about Plentywood, Montana.
They did not know anything a
bout our famous lawyers and doc
tors. Had never heard of the
Plentywood Herald. Did not know
we had very important man by
the name of Stegner. What they
did know was that PlentywOod,
Montana, was the place where the
Producers News was printed. They
knew Charles E. Taylor. They
knew Rodney Salisbury. They
knew that Sheridan county had the
best bunch of fighting farmers in
the United States and some of
them even knew me.
In Washington, D. c., a man
whom l had never seen before
came and shook my hands. He
had seen my picture in the Pro
Gucers News and was glad to meet
me. He even introduced me to his
daughters and they smiled at me
as dirty as / was and held my
hand a little while. After coming
back / find the Producers News
has more than doubled its sub
scription list, thanks to the U.F.L
From all parts of the land we
met in Washington on the date
set. Reporters from everywhere
were there to write their stories a.
bout us. Artists drew our pictures
and moving picture machines fol-
lowed us wherever we went. Pho
tographers' lights flashed in our
faces like lightning on bad
stormy night.
When we stood in the old ma
rine barracks all chewing on the
dry half loaf of bread handed to
us for breakfast by the big city,
that was one time we did not have
our pictures taken. When we
could not wait for our turn for the
use of the only toilet provided for
the 500 of us, when we used the
empty lot across the street and sat
there doing what had to be done
that was another time we did not
have our pictures taken. We were
the guests of the city of Wash
| ington.
Never before had Washington
seen anything like the Hunger
March and Washington was ner-
vous, had every policeman and de-
tective armed to the teeth, about
two thousand of them, had thous-
ands of soldiers and marines all
ready for immediate action, ready
to kill. And there we were 1910
of US, not one of us carried a gun
and still, Washington was afraid,
not of US but scared of the mill
ions and millions of unemployed
and starving people we represent
ed. When we stood before the
capitol shouting our demands and
singing the International and 9TH
er songs, we knew they could kill
every one of US, but that did not
stop us. 1t was up to them to
make the move.
We marched thru the Negro Sec
ton and sang:
'Black! Andl White!
Unite! And! Fight"
And shouted. "Three cheers for
the solidarity of the black and
white workers! Huray! Huray!
Hurray!"
: That is what the capitalist class
is scared of-the solidarity of the
black and white workers and the
solidarity of the farmers and city
workers.
/ We stopped to see VIM. Green,
the fake leader of the A. F. of L.,
TO find out why he was against
unemployment insurance, but he
would not tell US, and we found
| that the same police who protect
: ed Hoover protected Mr.. Green.
Whenever Mr.. Green, the faker,
. wants some publicity he make up
some child labor bill and Senator
King from Utah, another faker. is
: the one who is going to introduce
the bill. ALI the papers come out
with pictures of Green and King
on their front pages and writeups
galore about these two child labor
champions. When the publicity
dies down then Sen. King takes
the child labor bill and puts it in
the furnace-he is a kind of iani-
tor. 1t was Sen. King of Utah
who met our committee and want
ed them to turn our demands ov-
er to him, but our committee was
to smart for him.
And the papers came out and
said the Hunger March was a fail
ure because we did not see Hoov-
er. Hoover was well protected
people with bad consciences al.
; ways are, even Hoover's janitor-
they call him custodian" was well
protected with machine guns wher
ne opened the back door and told
our committee not to go any far
Their.
Hoover might not believe it but
ne could have laid down and gone
70 sleep among us without anyone
narming him. We did say a lot