EQUITY, JUSTICE, AND THE GOLDEN RULE --A Brief Pageant on a Small Stage
THE SETTING
This pageant takes place in a room where Farmers Union members meet . The set consists of stage risers to the left or
right of the convention platform. The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union audience sees a side view of the meeting room in which about
15
chairs set in rows. The front of the meeting room is at the sid.e of the set naarest the head. table of the convention, and consists of a chair and a small table where the meetingchairman sits. (See drawing.)
Two standing microphones will be provided. for the meeting
hall -- one for the chairman, and one for the members and speakers. Each should have a standing lectern on which scriuts can be laid • so that speakers will not have to memorize their word.s. All
speakers, includ.ing the chairman, will stand when talking.
It will be necessary to test each lectern for lighting to be sure that speakers will be able to see their scripts.
The set should be curtained, and. if possible a drawn curtain should be across the front. If the set cannot be curtained, then light and dark can be used to create the illusion.
The narrator stands at the speakers microphone on the
convention d.ais, and does not leave that position , al though from time to time, he will converse with people on the set. When
the narrator speaks, a spotlight should be on him. Others seated at the head. table during the banquet will probably want to go
down in the audience to see the production, and possibly to be in a better position to participate in the production.
At the opening, the microphone to be provided for use of members and speakers, will be outside the curtain at the end
of the stage set nearest the narrator. It is from there that the doorman will speak. When the doorman finally "admits" the
narrator to the meeting (and symbolically, the entire audience), he will carry the microphone to its position at the lectern to be used by members and speakers. For the exchange with the narrator, the doorman can simply hold his script in his hand.
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INTaODUCTION
NARRATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, d.elegates, brothers and sisters, distinguished guests, and others. We are going to see a pageant now in which we try for a few minutes to recapture some of our past.
The first local of what was to become the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union was formed by a small group who met in 1907 in
Teller County, west of Colorado Springs. The National Farmers Union had been fonned by a small group of 10 men in Texas five years
earlier. The new organization had grown rapidly across the South. Now in five short years, it had moved north to this frontier land of Colorado. Teddy Roosevelt was president of the United States. In those years, as during most of the history of the nation, farmers led difficult lives. Roosevelt formed a Country Life Commission to look into the problems. Charles Simon Barrett, that great farm
leader Who was the first president of the National Fanners Union, was a member of that Commission, and Teddy Roosevelt was a member of the Farmers Union.
After that first little group organized in Teller County, others in Colorado met also, and on April 17, 1908, the Colorado Farmers Educat&onal and Cooperative Union was formed.
out of meetings around the state, of course. one of those meetings. Let's try.
The organization grew I wish we could attend
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(SpotlightScene I THE PASSWORD
shines on man standing at the side of the stage set. He is the d.oorkeeper.)
NARRATOR: I understand a meeting of the Farmers Union is being held here tonight, sir. May I come in?
DOORKEEPER: You will have to give the password. NARRATOR: The password?
DOORKEEPER: Yes. What is the password?
NARRATOR: I don't remember the password. I was at the last meeting, and I recall that a password. was mentioned. But I don't remember what it was.
DOORKEEPER: Well, you will have to give the password before I can let you in.
NARRATOR: I simply don't remember it. But I know why the meeting is being held. It is being held because we want to secure equity for farmers and ranchers. I know that. We want to secure equity. DOORKEEPER: You must give the password, mister.
NARRATOR: I know that the meeting is being held to establish justice. Not just for farmers, but for all people. I know that. Shouldn't you let me in to help establish justice?
DOORKEEPER: You must give the password, mister. It is my job to insist on that.
NARRATOR: But how can you secure equity and establish justice if
you won't let me in? I would let you in under the same circumstances. I think every man insid.e would agree. They would agree to apply
the golden rule -- do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
NARRATOR: The golden rule. All men should. apply the golden rule. DOORKEEPER: Sir, you have just given the password.
NARRATOR: What?
DOORKEEPER: The golden rule. That is the password. And you may enter.
Scene II
A NEW MEMBER IS ADMITTED
(Lights come up on the meeting hall as the curtain parts showing six or eight men seated in chairs. They are talking to one
another. The doorkeeper carries the microphone around to the members and speakers lectern about midstage in front.)
CHAIRMAN: (Bangs gavel, calling meeting to order.) The meeting of the Crystola Local of the Colorado Farmers Educational
and Cooperative Union will come to order. Gentlemen, before calling for a reading of the minutes of the previous meeting, we will have as a first order of business the consideration of a new application for membership. He is Jacob Smith. He is being proposed for membership by one of our good members, Jonathan Mueller. Brother Mueller, will you please rise and tell us
something about Jacob Smith, and why he should be accepted as a member of our organization?
MUEIJ...ER: Well, Jacob Smith is my neighbor. I know him well. He came to Teller County from the east--Pennsylvania, I think. He came for the mining, but it didn't work out for him. He got this little plot of land. It was the land farmed by Harvey Brown, who died over a year ago. Jacob Smith married Brown's widow. He's a good man, I believe. He treats the Brown children as his own. He works hard, like the rest of us, but hardly makes a living, also like the rest of us. I recommend him for membership.
CHAIRMAN: Are there ·any questions? (silence.)
CHAIRMAN: There being no questions, we will vote by placing marbles in our ballot box. A white marble signifies "yes". A black marble signifies "no".
(Members file by the ballot box quickly, placing marbles in it.) CHAIRMAN: (After inspecting the results.) There being no black
balls dropped in the voting box, Jacob Smith is accepted for membership. You will so inform him, Brother Mueller.
MUELLER: I will.
(Lights go down on stage.)
Scene III
THE CAPPER-VOLSTEAD ACT
NARRATORS The first president of the Colorado Farmrs Union was
George B. Lang of Langdon, where that first local was organized. The town was undoubtedly named for him -- or for someone in his family. Lang was a farmer, as were most of those who were to follow hims Fred Gaylord of Rifle, Charles L. Wetzler of Fort Collins, J. M. Collins of Eaton, E. E. Cronquist of Haxton, Murray Bennett of Hotchkiss, and John Fehringer of Peetz. That
is a name still familiar to us all, of course. Fehringer had been elected secretary-treasurer at the time his predecessor, ' Murray Bennett, was elected president. When Mr. Bennett died. of
cancer less than a year after taking office, John Fehringer became the president.
The 1920s were trying times for farmers, starting with a full-scale farm depression in 1921. By comparison, the decade
q
from 1910 to 1920 seemed good. It was in that period when Colorado farmers had organized
#
so many cooperatives, some of which exist to this day.Let's listen in on a meeting late in the year of 1922.
(Lights up on meeting room. Members are talking among themselves.) CHAIRMAN: (Bangs gavel repeatedly calling for order.) We will have
a report from our honored guest tonight, the president of the Colorado Farmers Union, J. M. Collins. Brother Collins ••••
COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to say what a delight it is to me to be back home in Weld County tonight, meeting all
of my friends in my home local of the Farmers Union. Since becoming president of your state organization six years ago, my duties have
made it necessary for me to be away from home much of the time. But it has been worth it, I think.
I want to thank you -- each and every one of you -- again for your support in my campaign for governor. We came close, you know. As so often happens in politics, it was our friends who were trying to help us who did. us in. We are told that the
endorsement of the Non-Partisan League hurt more than it helped. Meanwhile, we've been busy in the Farmers Union. In the
/0
last 10 y;ears we have formed many cooperatives, not only in Colorado, but all across the Great Plains to the east and to the north of
us. And eight years ago, you know we here in Colorad.o formed our own mutual insurance company. I am pleased to tell you it is growing. I believe it -- and many of the cooperatives we have formed -- will outlive most of us in this meeting room.
But I would be remiss if I suggested to you that all of the problems of farmers and. ranchers could be solved. by our insurance company or our cooperatives . For one thing, we have learned that the big companies, as well as many powerful individuals, who take ad.vantage of the farmer and rancher, do not take kind.ly to the
cooperative way of doing business. So we have found ourselves under attack. They want to tax us as they would. any other business.
And they charge us with violations of anti-trust laws. It has been necessary to go to the government in Washington, D.C. in
search of protection.
I am proud to tell you tonight that we have found help. Some of you have already heard the news. We have passed a new law
the Capper-Volstead Act. I believe it will be the savior of our cooperatives. Our great national president, Charles Simon Barrett,
calls it the "Magna Charta" of cooperatives. It will guarantee us the right to buy and sell our goods through our cooperatives,
exempting us from the anti-trust laws. (Applause).
I think it is well to consid.er how we got this law. First, it was because we had friends in Washington. Senator Capper is a member of the Kansas Farmers Union . But equally important, we
succeeded in getting farmers from all across the nation to work for passage of this law. It was not just the Famtners Union alone, but the Grange and other groups that helped.
I believe there is a lesson here. We must find ways to bring farm groups together. We must work in the Colorado Federation of Farm Organizations for greater unity. And we must do the same all across the land. (Applause).
(Lights down on meeting room.)
Scene IV JIM PATTON
(V
NARRATOR: If the Depression of 1921 and the d.ecade of the 1920s seemed difficult to farmers, they were to look back on them as good years in the decade that fol~owed. . For the 19J0s were the time of the
most devastating depression in American history. Not only depression, but drouth. But it was a time of great accomplishment for the
Farmers Union. Members in Colorad.o were doing their best to stay ahead by buying their supplies in bulk -- carloads of flour, coal, fertilizer, and other farm inputs.
And Farmers Union members were talking everywhere about bringing electricity to farms. Their talk led to action -- the passage of
national legislation and the formation of rural electric cooperatives. One of the important developments was the growing importance
of women in the Farmers Union.
(Four or five women come from the convention audience to join the men on the stage.)
Women had finally won the right to vote in 1920. They were
coming to Farmers Union meetings, of course. And. they were beginning to speak out.
Difficult as the thirties were, a number of Colorado Farmers Union presidents provided outstanding lead.ership. The Denver Post referred to Joe Plummer of Anton who became president in 1930 as "the father of the state income tax law", which he sponsored in the House of Representatives.
The next president, John Hicks of Brighton led the fight for, and secured the passage of, the first cooperative law in Colorado.
13
When Frank Safranek of Limon became president in 1933, the, organization was in such dire straits that it was necessary to suspend publication of the Colorado Union Farmer for several
months, and Safranek himself became the union's principal organizer. Walter J. Ott of Fort Morgan created the Youth Education
and Junior Camp program. This enlarged the role of women even further in the organization. And Ott was a key figure in the effort that transferred the Soil Conservation Service from jurisdiction of the Extension Service to the administration of farmer-elected committees.
But it was for Jim Patton to rise to the greatest heights--to international fame as one of the great farm leaders of all time.
I wonder how Jim Patton sounded to his fellow members. He
was legislative director and secretary before being elected president. (Lights come up in meeting hall. Members are talking to each other.) CHAIRMAN: (Bangs gavel calling meeting to order.) Ladies and gentlemen,
please come to order. If there is no objection, we will dispense with the reading of the minutes of our last meeting in order to hear our fiery young speaker, the legislative director of the Colorado Farmers Union, Jim Patton. Jim, we are delighted to have you. Welcome to Grand Junction. (Shakes hands and welcomes Patton to the stage.) PATTON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am delighted to be in Grand Junction
with you. I have come before you tonight to talk about the Safeway grocery chain. I come not to praise them, but to bury them. For they have declared war on the farmers of Colorado. As
you have read in the paper right here in Grand Junction a few days ago, a Safeway of ficial urged the Chamber of Commerce to join in the fight against farmer cooperatives. He said Safeway is helping to do away with cooperatives, and at the same time helping farmers by buying our surplus commodities.
I ' d like to say this: With "friends" like Safeway, farmers don ' t need enemies !
I say that Safeway is our enemy. They are at war
.!'!.!.!h
farmers, not on our side. And I say that it is time that we d.eclare war on Safeway. (Applause).
Yes, they buy our commodities which are in surplus. And at what prices! So low that they can mark them up 20 percent and still sell them as~specials". Safeway gets . rich while farmers are
going broke. They try to mask their real intentions by attacking our cooperatives . We will not be deceived and neither will the American people! (Applause).
Scene V
THE NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY
NARRATOR1 Well, Safeway was taken aback, to say the least. They
said Jim Patton was the enemy of farmers. What did farmers think? They elected Patton as president of the National Farmers Unionl But while he was still president of the Colorado Farmers Union, he was doing more than fight Safeway. Many an impossible dream was born here in Colorado -- the unlikeliest of which may have been that of Jim Patton and
c.
E. Huff that a national life insurance company could be created by Farmers Union.(Lights up on stage -- revealing people waiting in line, while oN~ of them is at the front table with a blood pressure tester around one arm. A doctor and a nurse are giving the test.)
NARRATOR: Dr. James McKnight! Dr. McKnight, what is going on here? McRNIGHT1 (Walks to members microphone.) Well, sir, I don't think
you will believe me. NARRATOR: What do you mean?
McKNIGHTz Those two men, Jim Patton and
c.
E. Huff are crazy, I think. They have launched an effort to create a national life insurance company for the Farmers Union. They must persuade 500farmers to have health examinations and pay half a year's premium in advance. They persuaded me to take time away from my practice in Sterling to give the examinations. They have persuaded these people to come here. And they are out persuading more! It's
impossible, I tell you. They will never succeed. We will all have wasted our time.
McKNIGHT: It's amazing! We examined 72 at Peetz two days ago. When we have finished tonight here in Haxtun, it appears that we will examine over 60 more. Patton and Huff are crazy, I tell you. They have made me, and a lot of others, it seems, a little crazy, too.
(Lights down.)
Scene VI
THE SOLBERG YEARS
NARRATORz Crazy? Maybe. More than 600 people got examinations and paid premiums. The National Farmers Union Life Insurance
Company was created because of the faith of these members -- most of them in 22 locals in eastern Colorado.
Did our Farmers Union suffer at the loss of their great
leader, Jim Patton, to the National Farmers Union? Some, perhaps. But not much. For succeeding Patton was another d.ynamic leader, Harvey Solberg.
Solberg had been brought down from North Dakota by Patton to succeed him as legislative director. In North Dakota, Solberg had been the youngest legislator ever elected in that state. He was called one of the great "instinctive liberals" of his time meaning that just naturally, it seemed, when a question arose, he
knew at once where the interests of common people lay. And he had a talent for drawing. Instead of speeches, he delivered
"chalk talks"', making issues come alive with drawings and. cartoons. Solberg was to serve as president for 22 years -- until
1962,
longer than any other president of the organization. Theywere years of growth for the organization. Accomplishments under Solberg were almost too numerous to mention. He gave priority to bus trips to Washington, D.C. He led a famous Cattlemen's Caravan
to Washington in
1953·
He was chairman of the National Farmers Union executive committee and part of the Patton team thatextended the influence of the Farmers Union around the world in the International Federation of Agricultural Producers and the
) ~
United Nations.
It was during Solberg's administration when we became the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
surrounding states. In May, .
expanding our territory to include 1943, a Farmers Union local was organized in Torrington, Wyoming -- and thus began the addition of Wyoming to the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. It was not until 1964 that the next expansion of territory occurred -- New Mexico came in. They were with us for 10 years before going under national
jurisdiction to work toward their own independent state organization. Harvey Solberg had hardly taken office when World War II began. But very soon he was looking beyond it to the day when food would take the place of guns as an instrument to maintain peace.
Scrap iron drives were held during the war, of course. And the Farmers Union at Peetz won first place in the entire nation for their efforts.
Things have seldom gone smoothly for farmers -- for very long, at least. The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union mounted a vigorous
tax protest in the early 1950s over a threat to tax cooperatives. One day in 1951, more than 700 Farmers Union members descended on Denver. It was the largest showing of farmers in the state capitol in the state's history.
But few of Solberg's actions during his administration will be remembered more joyously than his persuading Roald and Esther Harbo to come down from Montana. He was organization director and she was education director. They brought songs and dancing and
joy to the Farmers Union.
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Scene VII PALMER LAKE
NARRATOR: Succeeding Solberg was Lail Schmidt of Lamar. And following his four years as president, Roald Harbo was elevated to the presi-dency. Roald reaffirmed the committment and dedication to justice and equity in spite of severe financial problems in the organization.
When Charles Hanavan Jr. was elected in 1968, the foundation of the organization was solid. Charlie Hanavan brought the organ-ization into financial stability so its goals and objectives could be pursued with even more vigor.
And then we come to the present--for John Stencel was elected in 1970 and he has already served the second longest term of any-one in that position--second only to Harvey Solberg.
Although we have changed leaders many times, one thing has been constant in the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Large numbers of our members have had a direct hand in the formation of our policy. Policy didn't get formed only in our annual conventions, but in hundreds of other gatherings in local and county Farmers Unions. Also, policy got started informally around dining room tables in people's homes, and in cooperatives, restaurants and
other places where Farmers Union members came together. In addition, we've had many special events where members came together to talk problems, and to offer ideas and dreams of the future. Year in
and year out we've had more of these than any other farm organization. Back in the 1940s and '50s, we held a number of historic
talked about for years to come--we had our beloved Jim Patton, then Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan and President Truman's chief economic advisor, Leon Keyserling.
We should not miss an opportunity to listen in on the inspiring words of Jim Patton at that conference.
(Lights come up· on stage, showing Patton at the members microphone.) NARRATOR:
Jim--PATTON: These are not my words you will hear tonight, but those of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They were given in his famous Second Bill of Rights, and they should guide us in our discussions. President Roosevelt stated these rights in 1944:
"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
"The r:ight to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
"The right - o----:::f_e_v_e_r_y_ f=-a-rm_ e_r __ t_o_ r_a_i_s_e_ a_n_d--s e 11 his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
"The right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
"The right of every family to a decent home;
"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment;
"The right to a good education." NARRATOR: Thank you, Jim.
Scene VIII THE MEMBERS SPEAK
NARRATOR: Later, "Coffee With Clara" became an annual event in dozens of communities of Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. These were informal discussions in which our great secretary, Clara Price, was the discussion leader and chief listener. Let's drop in at one of her coffees and visit with her.
(Lights up on stage.)
PRICE: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Clara Price, Secretary of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and I'm here to visit with you about the need for you to be involved in the political process. In the 1950s -fhe.·M:. wo.s. O'\. lo+ o~ pol;~ic. C\. )
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oi / Ir\ OV.V' C..OIAY\+ry
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the targets. Out of that Turmoil • grew the knowledge that Farmers Union members need to be involved in the political arena.
Today we are faced with
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bl"otA3h+
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many
diuerse.
gr-ov.~~ o.ll+ryinr
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iY\+/tAeVlcc. O!Arl)otc.s.
And so once again, ladies andgentlemen, I ask you to open your minds and educate yourselves about politics. Become involved in the Farmers Union and become involved in the political party of your choice.
(Lights down on stage.)
NARRATOR: Then we had SOS Conferences in the 1970s. We like to think these grew into something bigger in 1982 when the National FarmeE Union held farm hearings in many Farmers Union states. These hearings were to gather information in the worst cash-flow crisis in American agricultural history. The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union participated, of course.
(Lights up on stage. People are lined up at the members microphone.) NARRATOR: Here is what -Roland Naibauer said.
NAIBAUER: Our interest bill last year was $9,000. And if we would cut that in half we could reduce our loss by $4,600.
NARRATOR: And Vernon Franke.
FRANKE: On my $70,000 loss, the largest factor was interest. The increase in interest rates in the last two years has cost me over $100,000. That's the interest added on the interest I would have been paying had the rate stayed the same.
NARRATOR: And Naioma Benson.
BENSON: In our farming operation, our interest payments increased by $4,684 from 179 to '80. The increase from 180 to '81 was
$8,955, nearly double. Within two years, our interest payments have increased by $13,640.
NARRATOR: And Kenneth Anderson.
ANDERSON: In 1972, I borrowed from the Farmers Home Administration for my finances. I was with the Farmers Home until 1978, when I went with the local bank. By 1979, I had outgrown the bank's
$50,000 limit on loans. I went back to Farmers Home. I have talked to a number of people in the San Luis Valley about Farmers Home. People feel intimidated when they walk into the office, not only by supervisors, but by secretaries.
NARRATOR: It was not just farmers who gave testimony on the problems of agriculture. Here is a banker, Lou Weed.
WEED: I've been in the banking business 23 years. In the last two years we have charged off more loans than we had in the previous 21 years. We have had to reclassify many loans as "doubtful".
WEED Continues: Another one of our big problems is that the majority of our money goes out of the community. The money goes to New York an<l we don't see any of it. For every $100,000 we can keep
here, we can loan back $75,000. We had a bank examiner tell us to
put $500,000 in our reserve for bad debts last year. There would be that much less to loan to people. We finally got him down to
$200,000.
NARRATOR: Ag~ related business was represented by Chuck Brown, an
implement dealer from Wheatland, Wyoming.
BROWN: We have lost a minimum of 20 percent of all dealerships nationally in less than five years. In Wyoming the percentage is higher.
There are broad spaces in Wyoming and many farmers and ranchers must travel in excess of 100 miles and in many cases 150 miles to acquire parts and mechanical services. It is discouraging to
invest a lifetime in a farm equipment dealership only to find that it is really not a saleable business.
NARRATOR: We also heard from rural electric cooperatives. Here is Jim NcNear.
MCNEAR: Highline Electric Association is a consumer and rural electric cooperative with headquarters in Holyoke, Colorado .•• Our plant investment in 1965 was only $6.7 million. Last year we passed
the $30 million mark. Our long term debt in 1965 was $3.9 million, and today it is $24.6 million.
consumers 2.15 cents in 1971.
Our average kilowatt hour cost
Last year we had to charge 5.9 cents per kilowatt hour. That's an increase of 174 percent in just the last ten ye·ars.
NARRATOR: The Farmers Union endures. Each experience leads to the next, it seems. We were touched by the words of many pastors in the national farm hearings. And so now, partly as a result, we are holding Farm-Church Conferences. We had one at Eastern
Wyoming College at Torrington last February, for example. Here are the words of Theologian Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, one of the Torrington speakers.
PALLMEYER: One of the problems we have to overcome in relation to the problems of hunger or soil erosion or paving over of farmland or
the stresses on family farm agriculture and ·our rural communities is that it is easier to deny the seriousness of the issues rather than to wrestle with them.
Land is a gift from God and we are the stewards of that gift. Land is close to many of you in this room; close to your lives and hearts and souls. In biblical times land was the principal wealth producing resource of society. The respect for the soil was the foundation of all life. Today we must remember that we are
responsible not just for today's families, nor for next month, but for future generations of families who will live on the land.
I have traveled to many rural communities and observed the closed business, the consolidated schools, the declins in church membership, the vacant parishes.
Low farm prices lead to the loss of family farms and ranches, decline of communities and personal family stresses. An ag policy must be developed to deal with those issues. It must allow for
PALI.MEYER continues: it should preserve the family base of agriculture and should be based on the understanding that a healthy agriculture means a healthy overall economy.
Let us pray. (bows head)
We pray to preserve these values .of integrity and faith, without which our material wealth would be meaningless. And to work as
a nation to end the depression which threatens all of America. Amen. (lights down on stage.)
Scene IX
GRESHAM RETURNS
NARRATOR: Well, we've come a long way since the Farmers Union was fonned back there in 1902 in Point, Texas. Ten men, it# is said, gathered in a schoolhouse. They were led by an itinerant newspaper editor and farmer, Newt Gresham. History has proven that whatever his other qualities were, he was a man of vision. I wond.er what he would think of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union today.
Mr. Gresham? Newt Gresham? Are you with us tonight? (Lights up on meeting~.)
GRESHAM: (Coming out of the convention aud.ience to the members microphone.) I am Newt Gresham, sir.
NARRATOR: Thank you, Mr. Gresham. Thank you for coming.
GRESHAM: I go to lots of meetings, sir. Not in the flesh, but in spirit, I suppose you would say. I am seldom asked to speak, however.
NARRATOR& Tell us, Mr. Gresham, what do you think of the rlocky Mountain Farmers Union, of what we have done, and what we are today?
GRESHAM& Well, I'm impressed. Have been for a long time. NARRATOR: Are we what you expected_?
GRESHAM: No, I can't rightly say that I could foresee the way the Farmers Union has turned out. I hoped for a truly national
organi:z:ation, of course. That was my dream. But in my lifetime, the Farmers Union was only in the South. We raised cotton down there, and. that was about all. Now the South has changed. and the whole nation has changed. The Farmers Union reflects all of that, and it is a much more diverse organization that I could have
foreseen. Every state is different. And the National Farmers Union is stronger for that diversity.
NARRATOR: What is special about the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union that you like, Mr. Gresham?
GRESHAM: Oh, that's a difficult question. There is so much that is special about the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union the
involvement of women in your affairs, for example. We never had that at all while I was alive. And. your fine youth program. That's extremely special -- and one of the keys to the strength of your organization.
NARRATOR: I'm waiting foryou to select the one most important characteristic.
GRESHAM: Well, sir, I believe I would say it is the eguilateral-ness of your triangle.
NARRATOR: What do you mean -- the eguilateral-ness of our triangle. I don't think I ever heard. that word before.
GRESHAM: I think I just made it up. Newspaper edito~s like to make
up words on occasion.
NARRATOR: I see. Please explain.
GRESHAM: I have thought for a long time that the tm most important symbol of the Farmers Union is its triangle -- with its three
sides representing ed.ucation, cooperation, and legSlslation. Thinking
that~ was genius, pure genius. The first thing one notices
about the Farmers Union triangle is that it is an equilateral triangle. That is, its three sides are exactly equal. Education is at the base, and one of the sides is cooperation and the other is legislation. And although the base is education -- and I think there is significance in that -- neither of the other sides is longer.
And that, it seems to me, describes the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. You have balance. Education is your base. But you are
equally strong in your great programs of action -- cooperation and legislation.
Your triangle is truly equilateral.
Your organization has lasted
75
years so far. I believe that it has another75
years ahead of it, at least. As long as you keep your symbol of the equilateral triangle sacred. (Applause.)(Lights down on stage, and lights on singing chorus.) SONG:
Scene X
SOLIDARITY FOREVER
(Lights up on stage, showing John Stencel at the members microphone.) STENCEL: We have just seen a brief pageaat on our small stage of
the history of the Rocky Mountain Fanners Union. There is a contradiction implicit in the very term -- brief pageant on a small stage. A pageant ought to be long and. it ought to be
spread across a vast stage in order to do justice to the importance and grandeur of its subject matter.
W
But we sought in thisproduction to work within the constraints of time and. space imposed by our convention.
In this mini-pageant, we have heard the names -- and some of the words -- of the men and women who have gone before us in ~ this organization. I hope that it has brought an awareness
in all of us of how much they are a part of us, and. how much we are a part of them. For, regardless of how innovative we may
try to be, despite all the pressures of the problems in our rapidly changing world, we do not, indeed we cannot, escape from our past. We are ins~parable and inextricably linked to our history, to
those who preceded us. May I ask for a moment of silence. Let us listen once more to the echoes of their voices, their names, their
dreams, their troubles, their ambitions. (Fifteen seconds of silence.) They are with us tonight. And we are with them ••••
Thirteen years ago you gave me the high honor and privilege of being your president. #But this Farmers Union today is not
John Stencel's Fanners Union, of course. For I am only one of many who lead this organization. But take all of us who lead today all of you, and all of those who cannot be with us tonight __ it is
not our organization. It is also Jim Patton's Fanners Union. It is Tony Dechant's. It is Newt Gresham's. It is George D. Lang's -- the first president here in Colorado.
But it is ours in this sense. It is up to us to decide what the Fanners Union will be in the future •••
God bless you. God bless
I
you all.(Lights up on singing chorus. Stencel and chorus start the song "Solidarity Forever". Lights up on entire convention, and the audience is signalled to rise and. join the singing.)
THE END.
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EQUITY, JUSTICE AND THE GOLDEN RULE -A Brief Pageant on a Small
Stage-75th Diamond Jubilee Convention Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
December 4, 1983 NARRATOR: DOORKEEPER: GEORGE B. LANG: JONATHAN MUELLER: J.M. COLLINS: JAMES PATTON: DR. JAMES MCKNIGHT: NURSE: CLARA PRICE: ROLAND NAIBAUER: VERNON FRANKE: NATOMA BENSON: KENNETH ANDERSON: LOU WEED: CHUCK BROWN: JIM MCNEAR: JACK NELSON-PALLMEYER: NEWT GRESHAM:
JOHN STENCEL, III: WOMEN:
CHILDREN: PIANIST: CHORUS:
Bob Eisenach, Morgan County Maurice Parker, Morgan County
Charles Hanavan, Jr., Cheyenne County Dick Wisdom, Yuma County
Tim Erickson, Weld County Kipp Parker, Cheyenne County John Sullivan, Phillips County Patty Murray, Adams County Sally Harms, Weld County Roland Naibauer, Weld County Vernon Franke, Washington County Naioma Benson, Logan County
flo. uid S"pr-°'-gue; Pl-.1
l/ips
Co1.u,ty
Kent Stiles, Denver
Carl Otto, Goshen County .c\;\1Ac.K
Bropby)
yumet
CotAn+yJohn Wade, San Luis Valley Joe Starbuck, Chaffee County John Stencel, III, Weld County
Alma Murphy, Edna Buchanan, Betty Klaseen from the audience
Carla Jo DuPriest
Solidarity
10
(Tune: Battle Hvmn of the Republic)RALPH CHAPLIN
Stately march
t. Wh1'{1 th.. I.Jn - io n'." in - spir - a - ti on Thru the
2 . It i~ w,. who plowed the prai-ries Built th e
Farm - ers blood s hall run, There shall ci t - ies wtwre they tradP, Dug tht>
no
and built the work - shops End - less pow - er gr .. at - er An - y - whne milt's
what on earth is weak- er than the fe e - bl e strength or one stand out-cas t and starv-ing 'Mid th e won-der w e have made
be-nPath the sun;
of rail -roads laid ; Now For __ w ..
But the Un-ion makPs us strong . But tbe Un-ion makes us strong.
Sol i -dar - - ty for - ev - er I
ev er I for the Un - loo makes us strong!
