The Nation: Plowshares into Swords

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Despite these varied and growing efforts, can the farmers (and their wives) really pull off a nationwide strike? Similar efforts in the past have foundered on the farmers' craggy individualism. Already, 80% of the winter wheat has been planted—a sign that farmers are not exactly slowing down. Says Farmer Harold Klein, who is active in the North Dakota wheat pool, an organization set up to eliminate the middleman in handling exports: "The farmers talk about strikes but go ahead and plant anyway, hoping that their neighbors will do the striking."

But harsh times may have persuaded farmers, if not to love their neighbor, at least to work with him to regain the prosperity that was so suddenly and cruelly snatched from them.