Farmer's Holiday Movement: Iowa Time Machine February 13, 1933

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On February 13, 1933, a Plymouth County court announced a suspension of foreclosures on farms while a movement called “The Farmer’s Holiday” continued to build. The pause in foreclosures represented a crack in the dam holding back rural rage, a temporary measure that could not contain the flood of anger building across northwest Iowa. Within weeks, that rage would explode in a courthouse assault that made Le Mars synonymous with farm rebellion.

The Great Depression devastated Iowa agriculture with ruthless efficiency. Between 1926 and 1931, one out of every seven Iowa farmers lost their land, a staggering hemorrhage of family farms that transformed the rural landscape. Average land values had dropped from their 1920 high of $254 on average to $68 per acre in 1932, leaving most farm mortgages underwater and farmers owing more than their land was worth. The mathematics of survival became intractable. It cost farmers 92 cents to grow a bushel of corn, yet they could only sell it for 32 cents.

The Farmers' Holiday Association organized protests and road blockades starting in August 1932, attempting to withhold products from the market to raise prices. The strategy failed spectacularly. Banks and insurance companies from New York to Chicago cared nothing for the suffering of Iowa farmers and continued demanding payment on loans that could never be repaid. The threat of violence finally grabbed the attention of elected officials in early February 1933. On February 8, the Iowa legislature passed a mortgage moratorium act designed to slow the tide of foreclosures sweeping across the state. Governor Clyde Herring went further, requesting that mortgage and insurance companies voluntarily postpone their foreclosure actions. The February 13 deadline represented a line in the sand, a moment when Plymouth County authorities hoped tensions would ease.

Plymouth County farmers had already demonstrated their willingness to use force. On January 4, 1933, an estimated 1000 farmers showed up to protest the foreclosure of a farm owned by John A. Johnson, preventing the sale through sheer numbers and intimidation. The temporary suspension bought time but solved nothing. The Durband family faced eviction from their farm, and court-ordered foreclosures continued despite the moratorium. The April 27, 1933, attack on Judge Charles Bradley in Le Mars by a mob of angry Iowa farmers who nearly lynched him when he refused to stop signing foreclosure orders persuaded Governor Clyde Herring to declare martial law in the northwest Iowa town. The incident made international headlines and transformed the farm crisis from an economic story into a story about the breakdown of civil order. #Iowa #OTD #History #Farm #Agriculture