Poll: Farmers dislike administration’s waste, red tape
Reasons given for defection from party include coddling of labor and price-curb policy
By Dr. George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
Of all major groups in the voting population, farmers have shown some of the sharpest defection from the New Deal.
All signs indicate that if presidential election were held today, farmers outside the solid South would go Republican by a substantial majority.
Today’s survey attempts to answer the all-important question of why farmers have turned against the New Deal.
Interviewers’ reports reveal that farmers have three chief complaints at present against the Roosevelt administration.
- The farmers accuse the administration of wastefulness and extravagance in the spending of public funds for non-military projects. Many speak of:
…squandering money on every project… finances being handled on too loose a setup… not enough results for money spent… too many costly bureaus eating up salaries which the taxpayers have to pay.
- The farmers are critical of what they consider poor management of domestic affairs by the government and excessive regulation and red tape imposed on farmers by Washington.
Too much government control… too many irritating little rules… Washington bureaucrats try to dictate to us… Farmers don’t need to be told every little thing to do.
- There is strenuous farm objection to the administration’s labor policy. Objections are stated like this:
Roosevelt is coddling the unions… He can’t seem to stop strikes in wartime… He shouldn’t have given in to Lewis… Labor unions get a free hand while farmers are regimented.
The full list of farm criticisms follows:
Interviewing Date 11/25 – 12/1/43 Survey #307-K Question #2bFarmers were asked: What do you dislike most about the way the Roosevelt administration is handling things?
| Government extravagance | 20% |
| Incompetent and dictatorial management of home affairs, especially with farm problems | 15% |
| Coddling of labor | 13% |
| Farm programs not effective | 11% |
| Bad job of rationing | 6% |
| Failure to keep prices down | 2% |
| Miscellaneous | 13% |
| No complaint | 20% |
The farmers also have good things to say about Washington.
War policy liked
The results show that the handling of the war is placed at the top of the list.
Next in esteem comes the administration’s foreign policy. Next is the farm program. Other farmers commented favorably on the administration’s efforts to help poor people through Social Security and on attempts to bring about social democracy by giving underprivileged classes more consideration.
Midwest trend
The more rural areas of the country north of the Mason-Dixon Line, which began to turn Republican as early as 1936, are today showing an accelerated trend toward the GOP. A recent Institute study found that of the 1,058 counties in the great Midwest farm belt of America, no less than 925 now want a Republican victory in 1944. In 1936, only 236 went Republican, and in 1940, 763.
The shift in political sentiment can be seen from the following table:
MIDWEST FARMERS
| 1936 | 1940 | Today | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 56% | 45% | 40% |
| Republican | 44% | 55% | 60% |