was sold to the highest bidder. There were two bids placed which constituted a sale and so it went with every item offered for sale. When the sale was over, the Farm Holiday Association members presented and donated the total of the bids, about $100.00, to the clerk to be paid to the creditor bank in full payment of its claim. The property was left on the premises as it had been bought for the debtor. No attempt for a deficiency judgment was made. Another like instance in the same area a few days later the total of the sale was $7.10.

On November 7, 1932, a crowd of farmers held up a tax sale of farm property at the court house at Madison, then took legal steps to secure a restraining order against the issuance of tax certificates.

The January 19, 1933, issue of a Loup City newspaper had in it an article that "Holiday" crowds had stopped foreclosure proceedings on two Sherman County farms the previous week. Sherman County had (with newspaper support and publicity) become the center of the Holiday movement. It was that group which led the fight in the legislature for enactment of a foreclosure moratorium law. A law was passed by the legislature after about 5,000 farmers marched on the capitol to let their demands be known. Governor Bryan signed the bill on March 2, 1933 "to promote public convenience as well as general welfare and prosperity." District Judges, however, had the power to determine the length of the mortgage stay or if one was justified. The bill did not abrogate normal foreclosure proceedings and was finally declared unconstitutional.

Immediately after the moratorium law was passed, a lawless element came into the state to interfere with orderly process of foreclosure. Tear gas was needed in some instances to break up the crowds of outstate hoodlums. Some of the leaders were put under arrest and jailed for "inciting a riot."

A three day convention of the Farm Holiday Association was scheduled for June 29, 30 and July 1, 1933, in Loup City. Announcement of the forthcoming convention in a newspaper listed several names of those who would attend the convention. Not one of those listed were from Nebraska. Farmers recognized the radical element which had taken over their organization and therefore went about their business in their own good way. Some of the county organizations had a committee which would serve as a board of arbitration between a debtor and creditor to settle their differences in a sane and orderly manner.

From an article by Wm. D. Rowley in the September, 1966, issue of Nebraska History, we take a sample of public statement made by the radical, communist element which had taken over the Holiday movement and it illustrates how far to the left the organization had been drawn:

"We demand for every farmer the full measure of civil rights, freedom of speech, freedom of press, and the right of assembly guaranteed by the constitution of the United States and State of Nebraska. We demand that

182

Next Page

Last Page

Return to Madison Page

Table of Contents