Disputed Ground

Farmers suffering the effects of drought and depression in the 1930s were looking for relief from what they felt were unfair prices for their crops, and reform of the entire agricultural and economic system of which they were the primary part. In the election campaign of 1932, they heard Franklin D. Roosevelt promise that if elected he would work for a program to help them. The vagueness of the president-to-be led a variety of farm groups to believe that he would support their leaders and programs, but some groups, such as the Farmers Union, were disappointed and their organizers criticized various aspects of the New Deal Agricultural Program. During the dire thirties, new farm groups were formed to voice their opposition to the program. The ideas of these groups were resisted by the Department of Agriculture, which fought back to stifle their opposition and largely won. This work is a history of seven organizations that opposed Roosevelt's agricultural programs. They are the Missouri Farmers Association, the Farmers Union, the Farm Holiday Movement, the Farmers Independence Council, the National Farmers Process Tax Recovery Association, the Corn Belt Liberty League and the Farmers Guild.