MorphicOutFielder
12-07-2002, 08:25 PM
The Cow War
The "Cow War" was sparked by officials testing cattle for bovine tuberculosis. Farmers, hard pressed by the Great Depression, found the testing and subsequent condemnation of their cattle increasingly alarming. They began massing at testing sites, hoping their presence would discourage veterinarians from proceeding with their work.
In September 1932, two state veterinarians, backed by 65 law enforcement agents, arrived at a farm near Tipton, intent on testing the cattle. According to long-time political reporter George Mills, the 400 farmers who gathered at the farm "were in an ugly mood." They turned their wrath on the veteri-narians' car, filling it with mud, breaking the gas line, slashing the tires and smashing the windows. The veterinarians retreated and the next day Gov. Dan Turner declared martial law in Cedar County and called out the National Guard.
For all practical purposes, the incident at the farm ended the Cow War. The only casualty was a guardsman who accidentally shot himself in the foot.
Buttery roads
On May 2, 1932, unhappy farmers organized a farm strike intended to keep farm products off the market. Picketers barricaded roads, trying to convince farmers selling products to return home and support the strike. At one point, picketers stopped a truck carrying butter and strikers buttered a 200-yard section of Highway 75. Plymouth County resident Ralph Rippey remembered: "They smeared it all over the pavement. I came along in my car and went into the ditch. There were tubs of butter. É Every time you hit a slick place, off you would go, like that."
http://www.iastate.edu/IaStater/1996/may/cowwar.html
The "Cow War" was sparked by officials testing cattle for bovine tuberculosis. Farmers, hard pressed by the Great Depression, found the testing and subsequent condemnation of their cattle increasingly alarming. They began massing at testing sites, hoping their presence would discourage veterinarians from proceeding with their work.
In September 1932, two state veterinarians, backed by 65 law enforcement agents, arrived at a farm near Tipton, intent on testing the cattle. According to long-time political reporter George Mills, the 400 farmers who gathered at the farm "were in an ugly mood." They turned their wrath on the veteri-narians' car, filling it with mud, breaking the gas line, slashing the tires and smashing the windows. The veterinarians retreated and the next day Gov. Dan Turner declared martial law in Cedar County and called out the National Guard.
For all practical purposes, the incident at the farm ended the Cow War. The only casualty was a guardsman who accidentally shot himself in the foot.
Buttery roads
On May 2, 1932, unhappy farmers organized a farm strike intended to keep farm products off the market. Picketers barricaded roads, trying to convince farmers selling products to return home and support the strike. At one point, picketers stopped a truck carrying butter and strikers buttered a 200-yard section of Highway 75. Plymouth County resident Ralph Rippey remembered: "They smeared it all over the pavement. I came along in my car and went into the ditch. There were tubs of butter. É Every time you hit a slick place, off you would go, like that."
http://www.iastate.edu/IaStater/1996/may/cowwar.html