Farmer, It Is Time!: Translation of A.J. Meijer's "Boer, Het Is Tijd!"

This is an ongoing translation of the tract. The last lines are the last bits translated.


The farmer is always the man who suffers the blows. And that especially goes for the democratic times in which we live.

The farmer class [boerenstand] is being sacrificed to the democratic politics of the big capitalists and the party politics of irresponsible demagogues. But men cannot go on disrupting the nature of things with impunity. When the ground shakes, everything threatens to fall apart.

In the Netherlands, [waanzinnege] rulers have abandoned the right order, the farmer class [boerenstand] is torn apart and city dwellers suffer poverty along with the farmer class.

The workers see their labor power paralyzed, [hun rechtspositie tot een paskwil gemaakt].

The middle class finds no purchasing power with the population, and behind the outward appearance of prosperity, suffers very bitter prosperity.

The idea of the all-good Mother Earth exists no more. The soil yields fruits in abundance, but millions suffer want from the lush excess of Mother Earth.

The farmer sees, with his sound insight, how the land's rulers maintain an irresponsible agricultural policy. He cannot reason as learnedly as these honorable gentlemen, who are supposed to be his representatives, but he feels that he is being deceived.

The farmer is called stubborn. But he has a reason to be stubborn. Too often under fine excuses, under hypocritical talk, he becomes the child of the bill. And so the farmer of our time braces himself across from the government.

He lets himself get fooled no more by the looks of the so-called support laws, which are hatched from self interest out of the Hague.

All those support laws must give the impression that the farmer is helped and that it is therefore a duty to fall on one's knees in rapture before its representatives.

If men were to rely on words spoken on behalf of the farmer in the Second Chamber [Tweede Kamer, or the House of Representatives], men will rush to believe that that 90 of the 100 members [today, the Second Chamber has 150 seats in total] feel called upon to protect and defend nothing more than the interests of the farmers.

However, all of this is only motivated by fear in voters, not because people are convinced with their heart and soul that the farmer class [boerenstand] is the backbone of society.

But, members of Parliament, you will not be able to play your inferior game permanently. The farmers do not want temporary solutions, half measures, economically unsustainable policies, which will ultimately bring our country to complete ruin.

The farmer is loyal to the fatherland. But Your Most Honorable Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, the farmer is beginning to understand that you no longer serve the fatherland, but the party interests and your personal self-interest.

The farmer obeys easily, but on the other hand the farmer goes to extremes when he finds himself being deceived again and again. Then the farmer becomes rebellious, revolutionary. And that is his right. You have to look after the country's interests. If you don't, then you have to go. If you don't go willingly, we will kick you away. Under the etiquette of agricultural policy, a series of experiments, local laws, have been prepared for us by Mister Bureau, which are not based on any well-defined principle.

In the guise of helping farmers, for instance, a crisis cattle central [center] was established and S. Zwanenberg [untranslated: "Directeur van Zwanenberg's Fabrieken en Slachterijen te Oss"].

Who was here that benefited in the first place? Not the livestock farmer, but a few great meat factories of the Zwanenberg company.

[ ... ]

Join us, you who wish to establish a state on orderly foundations.

We want to win over the people, so that it lives [opdat het leve].

We want to win over the farming population, in the first place. An ancient teacher known as Socrates said, "When agriculture thrives, all other industries flourish; but when the earth is forced to lie desolate, all other industries, both on land and at sea, decline in a short time.

We in modern times [have] a similar view. Agricultural products are the foundation of economic life. Agriculture provides for the basic needs of the people and must therefore occupy a high and important place in the national economy.

A government which leads the [agricultural population: translated from 'landbouwbewolking'] to downfall is [digging: translated from 'graaft'] its own downfall.

Let every farmer collaborate with the fascist movement. [untranslated: "Eerst na de volledige vernietiging van het huidige, wanordelijke gezag en de stichting van den Nederlandschen fascistischen Volksstaat is een nieuwe bloei voor Nederland mogelijk."]

Farmers, your true interest can only be served by joining us.

Together, we want to build the state of the Dutch people's fascism, in which everyone can and wants to live according to their own nature and abilities.

The Black Front!