Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 35, number 1, autumn, 1951

              here's some lively history by a well known wisconsin author whether you are a believer or a skeptic you can't afford to miss what mr jacobs has prepared for you the wisconsin milk strikes by herbert jacobs the economists of which i am not one take a comforting view of strikes they call them a product and an indicator of good times when production and profits are high that's when the worker decides to hit for his share of the gains the boss can afford to give a little rather than have his plant tied up at a time when everybody wants to buy his product and the workers know it but i don't think the economists were thinking about milk strikes when they laid down that rule about strikes being an indi cator of prosperity rather i think the wis consin milk strikes concentrated in the year 1933 were a product of desperation they climaxed a dozen years of falling farm prices when the farmer saw the prices of the things he sold going down steadily while the prices of the things he needed to buy remained the same or increased the strikes preceded the economic upsurge of the new deal when an expanding economy gobbled up dairy prod ucts at rising prices this was followed by the booming war years when practically any body could make money at farming the dairy farmer still had plenty of troubles pre ceding and during the war years but they were not tough enough to make him think of strikes any more it was a time of ferment and turmoil look ing back at it now it seems almost as if we were close to revolution and perhaps we were milk the kind that went to cheese and butter factories and condenseries brought the farmer about 75 to 85 cents a hundred pounds or slightly over a cent and a half a quart in some regions the farmer only got 60 cents out of which also came hauling charges the kings in the business were the farmers who supplied the fluid market — bot tled milk for the cities they got a whole dollar and a half for a hundred pounds since most wisconsin milk goes into manu factured products like cheese butter and ice cream mix these kings were less than 10 percent of the farmers i'm not certain that the crisis hour calls forth the right man to cope with it but anyway three colorful and dynamic figures were on hand to translate farm unrest into farm revolt i think there would have been some sort of milk strike even if these three men had not appeared but they certainly didn't tend to quiet things down all around wisconsin in the dozen months preceding 1933 the middle west was aflame with a seething farm violence milk strikes dumping of milk livestock embargoes clashes between farmers and law officers were the order of the day from new york state through all of the midwest the only wonder is that wisconsin didn't join the procession earlier many wisconsin farmers took a hand in trying to keep livestock from being shipped to iowa when the farm holiday association there called a meat animal strike and they watched and read about the rural turmoil in illinois indiana and other states wisconsin farmers were spoiling for a fight and three men were on hand to lead them to it one of them was arnold gilberts a dunn county man who headed the wisconsin farm holiday association a gentle angular and good-natured man he gave an appearance of great sincerity and earnestness but he was capable under stress of firebrand state ments that surprised his audiences and pos sibly himself for instance at a mass meeting of some 5,000 or more farmers at marshfield on september 2 1932 gilberts was quoted 30