Collection Dates: 1927 -- 1959
(Bulk Dates: 1933)
3 linear ft.
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University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
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Posted to Internet: March 2000
Acquisition
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Series
Table of Contents
Biographical
note
Scope
and contents
Box 1 Articles and speeches by Milo Reno - Correspondence, March 1933
Box 2 Correspondence, April 1933 -- June 1933
Box 3 Correspondence, July 1933 -- November 7, 1933
Box 4 Correspondence, November 8, 1933 -- 1939
Box 5 Correspondence, 1940 -- Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union
of America
Box 6 Food Distributors Association of Illinois -- Whitney, Alexander
F.
Related Collections
STOVER, FRED W., 1898-1990. Papers of Fred Stover, 13.5 ft.
Hampton, Iowa farm advocate and activist for progressive causes, former head of the Iowa Farmers Union and president of the U.S. Farmers Association. Correspondence, writings, and organizational materials, together with miscellaneous material, documenting his 40 years of political and social activism. MsC 165 (Finding Aid).
Milo Reno was born on January 5, 1866, on the family farm in Wapello County, Iowa. He was the twelfth of thirteen children born to John and Elizabeth Reno. He attended rural schools, a Quaker academy, and Oskaloosa College. While in college he married Christine Good. They were to have three children, only one of whom lived to maturity.
In the 1880s Reno campaigned for the Union Labor Party and the Farmers' Alliance. In 1921, he became president of the Iowa Farmers' Union and served in that capacity for nine years. During that period he also served as president of the Farmers' Union Life Insurance Company and the Farmers' Mutual Automobile Association. In the early 1930s, Reno organized the National Farmers' Holiday Association and as its president campaigned for suitable prices for farm products - prices which would cover production costs and afford a reasonable profit. In August of 1932, he called for the first "farm holiday" which was in reality a strike for higher prices. After somewhat limited success, especially in the midwestern states, the movement collapsed. Later that year Reno's organization proclaimed a moratorium on tax and mortgage payments which ultimately highlighted the plight of the farmer and which prompted Congressional action for legislative solutions to the problem.
Reno at first
supported the Roosevelt administration, but soon became disenchanted.
He found fault with the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) and the crop
stabilization program. He was a vocal critic of the Secretary of Agriculture
and fellow Iowan, Henry A. Wallace. In his later years, Reno championed
a third party. Milo Reno died of influenza on May 5, 1936.
Scope
and Contents
The papers of Milo Reno consist of three linear feet of manuscripts, dating from 1927 to 1959, and document his farm activism. Arranged alphabetically, these subject files include typescripts of speeches, articles, newspaper clippings, and other materials relating primarily to the activities of the National Farmers' Holiday Association and to state Farmers' Holiday associations. There are thirty-six folders of correspondence which include letters from: John H. Bosch, Richard Bosch, Smith Wildman Brookhart, Usher Burdick, Cassius E. Carnahan, F.C. Crocker, John C. Erp, William H. Green, Walter Groth, Alvin Handrich, Page Hawthorne, Clyde L. Herring, William Hirth, Thomas Horsford, George D. Iverson, Edward E. Kennedy, Norman W. Lermond, Emil Loriks, L.M. Peet, Herb Plambeck, Roy L. Rickerd, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John G. Scott, Jesse D. Sickler, John A. Simpson, Walter Singler, Art Smith, Edwin A. Stinson, Donald Van Vleet, Leon Vanderlyn, George Wharam, Alexander F. Whitney, and Howard Williams.
A microfilm
copy of this collection is available for use in the repository, for interlibrary
loan, and for purchase.
Box List
Biographical material about Milo Reno.
Bord, Roy B. "Information in Re Oil Code." Article.
Correspondence
Box 21927 -- 1932. Including letters from: F.C. Crocker, John Chalmers, and Jesse D. Sickler.
January 1 -- 19, 1933. Including letters from: Jesse D. Sickler, F.C. Crocker, and William Hirth.
January 20 -- 31, 1933. Including letters from: F.C. Crocker, John C.Erp, Usher L. Burdick, Emil Loriks, Walter M. Singler, R.K. Bliss, and John H. Bosch.
February 1 -- 10, 1933. Including letters from: John H. Bosch, Frank Eliason, Walter M. Singler, and Lem Harris.
February 11 -- 19, 1933. Including letters from: John C. Erp, William Hirth, F.C. Crocker, Usher L. Burdick, Jesse D. Sickler, and John Baer.
February 20 -- 28 and undated, 1933. Including letters from: Jesse D. Sickler, Arthur F. Newman, John A. Simpson, B.H. Shearer, F.C. Crocker, and William Hirth.
March 1 -- 8, 1933. Including letters from: Lynn J. Frazier, Walter M. Singler, Smith W. Brookhart, Daniel W. Hoan, George D. Iverson, Jr., William Hirth, and Jesse D. Sickler.
March 9 -- 19, 1933. Including letters from: William Hirth, E.E. Kennedy, and Smith W. Brookhart.
March 20 -- 31 and undated, 1933. Including letters from: William Hirth, John A. Simpson, F.C. Crocker, John H. Bosch, Jesse D. Sickler, John Baer, and A.F. Whitney.
Correspondence, continued
April 15 -- 20, 1933. Including letters from: F.C. Crocker, L.J. Dickinson, Edward C. Eicher, Fred C. Gilchrist, Bernhard M. Jacobsen, Louis Murphy, Walter M. Singler, Lloyd Thurston, Guy M. Gillette, William Hirth, E.E. Kennedy, John A. Simpson, Fred Biermann, Frank Eliason, and Otha D. Wearin.
April 21 -- 30, 1933. Including letters from: Cassius C. Dowell, Emil Loriks, Frank Eliason, William Hirth, John A. Simpson, E.E. Kennedy, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, and Art J. Smith.
May 1 -- 10, 1933. Including letters from: Smith W. Brookhart, Louis Murphy, Usher L. Burdick, and Art J. Smith.
May 11 -- 19, 1933. Including letters from: A.C. Townley, Floyd B. Olson, Walter Groth, Clyde L. Herring, George D. Iverson, Jr., F.C. Crocker, and John C. Erp.
May 20 -- 31 and undated, 1933. Including letters from: A.C. Townley, F.C. Crocker, John H. Bosch, Clyde L. Herring, Smith W. Brookhart, Walter Groth, George D. Iverson, Jr., and John C. Erp.
June 1 -- 12, 1933. Including letters from: Walter Groth, Usher L. Burdick, Roger Baldwin, Malcolm Cowley, Donald Henderson, John H. Bosch, Emil Loriks, and A.F. Whitney.
June 13 -- 30, 1933. Including letters from: Donald Henderson,William Hirth, Smith W. Brookhart, Peter Norbeck, and Wallace M. Short.
August 1933. Including letters from: John H. Bosch, Walter Groth, John A. Simpson, Emil Loriks, and Art J. Smith.
September 1933. Including letters from: E.E. Kennedy,Art J. Smith, George D. Iverson, Jr., A.F. Whitney, Usher L. Burdick, and Ernest
Lundeen.
October 1 -- 16, 1933. Including letters from: Usher L.Burdick, F.C. Crocker, John A. Simpson, E.E. Kennedy, John H. Bosch, William
Hirth, Walter M. Singler, Clyde L. Herring, and A.F. Whitney.
October 17 -- 24, 1933. Including letters from: Usher L. Burdick, William Langer, E.E. Kennedy, Tom Berry, F.C. Crocker, A.F. Whitney, Charles W. Bryan, John C. Erp, A.J. Muste, Thomas R. Amlie, Emil Loriks, and Walter M. Singler.
October 25 -- 31 and undated, 1933. Including letters from Glenn B. Miller and George D. Iverson, Jr.
November 1 -- 7, 1933. Including letters from: William Hirth, A.F. Whitney, William H. Smyth, and John A. Simpson.
Correspondence, continued
November 17 -- 30, 1933. Including letters from: Edwin A. Stinson, F.C. Crocker, and Usher L. Burdick.
December 1 -- 15, 1933. Including letters from: Emil Loriks, William Hirth, and John A. Simpson.
December 16 -- 31 and undated, 1933. Including letters from: William Hirth, Edwin A. Stinson, and E.E.Kennedy.
1934 -- 1935. Including a letter from Usher L. Burdick.
1936. Including letters from: William Lemke, Charles E. Coughlin, William Hirth, and H.R. Gross.
1936. Letters of condolence at the time of Milo Reno's death, including letters from: E.E. Kennedy, Louis Murphy, L.J. Dickinson, B.H. Shearer, William Lemke, John H. Bosch, and George D. Iverson, Jr. A eulogy and photograph are also included.
1938. Including letters from: Vincent F. Harrington, E.E. Kennedy, and Page L. Hawthorne.
1939. Including letters from: E.E. Kennedy, William Lemke, Page L. Hawthorne, Paul Steele, Herbert Plambeck, Roland A. White, Burton K. Wheeler, and Donald R. Murphy.
1941. Including letters from: James G. Patton, Paul Steele, M.W. Thatcher, Page L. Hawthorne, Herbert Plambeck, Gladys Talbot Edwards, George A. Wilson, and Glenn J. Talbott.
Undated. Including letters from: F.C. Crocker, Page L. Hawthorne, Jesse D. Sickler, and Walter M. Singler.
1940 -- 1941.
Undated.
Editorials
by Milo Reno, 1933 and undated.
Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America:
Iowa Division. Councillors' meeting minutes, resolutions, etc.,
1937 -- 1941.
Iowa Division. 13th annual convention, 1929.
National Union. 31st annual convention, 1935.
Food
Distributors Association of Illinois. Brochures.
Foreign Crops and Markets, Nov. 19, 1934 and May 6, 1935.
Meyne, Walter W. Vice President's Discussion on the Farmers' Guild,
March 29, 1939.
Miscellaneous, 1930, 1932, and primarily undated.
Mother Earth, 1933.
National By-Laws and Resolutions of the National Farmers' Holiday Association,
1934.
Nebraska Farmers' Holiday Association, 1933 and undated.
Newspaper clippings, 1983.
Newspaper clippings regarding Milo Reno and the farm movement, 1928 -- 1959
and undated.
Obituaries and tributes to Milo Reno, 1936 -- 1937.
Radio speeches by Milo Reno:
1935.
Undated.
Resolutions
of the Farmers' Holiday Association of the States of Minnesota, Iowa, North
Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, June 20, 1935.
Scrapbooks
Kept by Mr. and Mrs. Milo Reno, 1932 -- 1934. [photocopy of the original]
Speeches
by Page L. Hawthorne, 1939 -- 1941 and undated.
3.2 Per Cent, vol. 1, no. 5, May 1933.
Trish, George. "The Cause of the Present Agricultural Depression in the
United States." Article.
Whitney, Alexander F. Speech before the Farmers' Holiday Association, May
3, 1933.
