Stand Up!: The Story of Minnesota's Protest Tradition by Rhoda R. Gilman

Author:Rhoda R. Gilman [Gilman, Rhoda R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Political Process, American Government, Political Science, Social Science, Sociology, Biography & Autobiography, Political Ideologies, Political, Political Advocacy, State
ISBN: 9780873518574
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Published: 2012-02-15T06:59:17+00:00

Grant County farmers among the marchers to the state capitol, 1935 (George E. Luxton)

Early in August 1932, a spontaneous strike that was started by dairy farmers around Sioux City, Iowa, resulted in the blockading of highways, picketing, and violence. There were similar incidents near Omaha and Des Moines, and in Minnesota highways were blocked around Worthington. An effort to prevent farm produce from entering the Twin Cities petered out quickly, but in November more than a thousand farmers shut down the Swift Company packing plant in Marshall.

Elsewhere a few deaths and many injuries occurred, but in Minnesota no one was hurt during the farm strikes of 1932 and later in 1933. Bosch was an admirer of India’s Mohandas Gandhi, and he recognized that violence only weakened the farmers’ cause. His restraint was reinforced by the cooperative attitude of the governor. Bosch recalled that “Here in Minnesota we were doing a pretty good job…at least 50 percent of the paid-up membership of the national Farm Holiday Association came from Minnesota…Floyd Olson did everything and anything he could, as did [Governor] Bill Langer of North Dakota. None of the rest of the governors had the guts…But it didn’t take long to see that we were getting nowhere with the strike.”

Action by farmers was more successful in stopping foreclosure sales, whether simply by threats of violence or by the charade of “penny sales,” where the community would unite to buy the property at auction for a token amount and return it to the owner. Bosch told of one foreclosure incident in Montevideo:

A U.S. marshal was there, and I bet I had about 1,000 farmers…I told him that I could convince him that he should not proceed with the sale. “Well,” he said, “it doesn’t make any difference how much I agree with you, I must proceed”…Out in the hall where you couldn’t identify [anyone], somebody would holler, “Let the son of a bitch out here and we’ll cut a hole in the ice and push him down twice and pull him up once”…This type of thing, and he was white as a sheet. Well, it’s a fact—we never hurt anybody. Finally, he called the U.S. district attorney, and I asked him if I could talk, and I said…“If you call it off, fine, but if you want us to manhandle him, if we have to, we have to. But there’s going to be no sale.” So they called it off. Not long after that I got a call from Floyd Olson…and he said, “John, you can’t buck the federal government.” Well, I said, “Floyd, we did.” And he said “You’re going to spend the rest of your life in the pen.” And I said, “Now, Floyd, up to now we’ve hurt no one…but if you want a civil war, if that’s what you’re aiming for, that’s the way to get it.”

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