The Farmers' Holiday Association was a movement of

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

farmers who, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, endorsed the withholding of farm products from the market, in essence creating a farmers' holiday from work. The Farmers' Holiday Association was organized in May 1932 by

Milo Reno Milo Reno (January 5, 1866 – May 5, 1936) was president of the Iowa Farmers' Union from 1921 to 1930 and the leader of the Farmers' Holiday Association, a populist organization established in 1932. He was born in Wapello County, Iowa. He died ...

.Description of Farmers' Holiday Movement Collection
, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University The group urged farmers to declare a "holiday" from farming, with a slogan of "Stay at Home-Buy Nothing-Sell Nothing" and "Lets call a Farmer's Holiday, a Holiday let's hold. We'll eat our wheat and ham and eggs, And let them eat their gold". Farmers went to extreme measures to ensure that their wants were carried through. One person was killed when the farmers began to blockade roads, and other farmers rallied to destroy their crops, reducing supply, and raising prices. The highways into

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and

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, Iowa, were blocked by pickets who dumped farm produce on the side of the road. At Le Mars, Iowa some farmers dragged a judge out of his courtroom, placed a noose around his neck, and threatened to hang him unless he stopped approving farm

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

s. The striking farmers were countered by sheriffs, the

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, and vigilante groups. Farmers were partially mollified by the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

1933

Agricultural Adjustment Act The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers Subsidy, subsidies not to plant ...

which paid farmers to limit production which also caused the prices paid to farmers to rise. By 1934, the Farmers' Holiday Association activity had subsided.

References

*Cohen, Adam: Nothing to Fear: "FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America" New York, The Penguin Press, 2009. Pg. 125

See also

References

Further reading