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…