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.
"The farmer obeys easily, but ... the farmer goes to extremes when he finds himself being deceived again and again. Then the farmer becomes rebellious, revolutionary."
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, a mockery made of their legal position.
The middle class finds no purchasing power with the population, and behind the outward appearance of prosperity suffers very bitter poverty.
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 against 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 voter fear [kiezersvrees], not because people are thoroughly convinced 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 was appointed as its leader [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.
This Mr. Zwanenberg not only earns a high salary, but also receives the necessary additional revenues, bonuses, and dividends due to his close ties with the meat factories. And we haven't even mentioned the further elaborate fraud that such government measures necessarily provoke, such as the smuggling of inferior foreign cattle to offer to the crisis cattle central [center], facilitating the buying up of the cattle by merchants with sufficient capital and pocketing the profits, etc.
In the guise of helping farmers, for instance, a crisis cattle central [center] was established and S. Zwanenberg was appointed as its leader [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.
This Mr. Zwanenberg not only earns a high salary, but also receives the necessary additional revenues, bonuses, and dividends due to his close ties with the meat factories. And we haven't even mentioned the further elaborate fraud that such government measures necessarily provoke, such as the smuggling of inferior foreign cattle to offer to the crisis cattle central [center], facilitating the buying up of the cattle by merchants with sufficient capital and pocketing the profits, etc.
That's how it is with all of the so-called support measures for farmers. They know this best. Every farmer can cite serious examples of corruption from their own circle. Everyone knows how completely incompetent people are called upon for all sorts of positions.
All kinds of people are assigned positions because they happen to be friends of a member of Parliament [or something like that].
"The tears that members of parliament shed for the farmers are nothing but crocodile tears."A small example. Mr. Boole van Hensbroek, who has absolutely no knowledge of the dairy industry, was appointed Director of the Dairy Inspection Service in The Hague. He appointed other gentlemen who also know nothing about it, such as Mr. O. Senier, who, having been repatriated from the Indies, had no connection to the dairy industry and has now been appointed national dairy inspector. Another gentleman (Sorge), who had traded in cars, was appointed chief inspector of district three.
Mr. E. W. de Boer, a sugar merchant from the Dutch East Indies, is appointed chief inspector of district four and, after six months, already knows so much about dairy products that he now handles everything by car, receiving a government allowance of 7 cents per kilometer.
The government's support measures are merely stopgap measures that will ultimately destroy our nation as a whole - farmers and non-farmers alike. The tears that members of parliament shed for the farmers are nothing but crocodile tears. They are only seeking their own interests, not the true interests of the farming community.
The farming business [boerenbedrijf] is not profitable. It is not an easy, happy life that drives the farmer's population [boerenbevolking] to the city, but the inability to earn a decent living for their wives and children in the countryside.
Until recently, it was said that farmers were bored in the countryside and therefore sought refuge in the city. But that can no longer be true. The radio is available everywhere. Films are available everywhere, while on the other hand, transportation is so extensive that one can quickly reach a city where entertainment abounds.
When the farmer leaves the land, it is not for that reason, but because he does not know how to earn a decent living. Why work all day, from early morning to late evening, why constantly expose himself to rain and the hot sun, when at the end of the year he must still conclude that his income cannot cover the necessary expenses?
A young farmer can no longer think of starting a farm, and if he does, it is because, not knowing any other way out, he takes a chance.
This applies first and foremost to the many small farmers, and then also to those who own their own farms. Due to high taxes, which seem to be a premium on carelessness and a punishment for frugality, farmers who have some property from home cannot maintain it. They are forced to take out large mortgages on their farms, and the misery of this is now beyond words.
The farmers have nothing to expect from the current liberal government, no matter how much this Ministry likes to see itself as national.
We consider the Colijn government's [Meijer is referring to Hendrikus Colijn, a market liberal] attitude toward the people criminal. [In its view] The oil interests of a few gentlemen must be protected at the expense of the entire population!
Only a complete reversal of the present disorder towards the fascist order will mean salvation for the farmer.
Fascism carries out principles that are wholly consistent with the proper and just course of events. So it is no coincidence that the leading figures of every fascist movement regard agriculture as the center of the people.
It is moving to hear how Mussolini continually speaks about and in favor of the farmer class [boerenstenad]. He has consistently declared that when the farmer class [boerenstand] is healthy, the entire people [volk] benefits.
Fascism carries out principles that are wholly consistent with the proper and just course of events. So it is no coincidence that the leading figures of every fascist movement regard agriculture as the center of the people.
It is moving to hear how Mussolini continually speaks about and in favor of the farmer class [boerenstenad]. He has consistently declared that when the farmer class [boerenstand] is healthy, the entire people [volk] benefits.
And so Hitler also says in more than one place that "the preservation of a healthy farmer class [boerenstand], as the foundation of the entire people [volk], can never be overestimated."
[The] Dutch people's fascism [Nederlandse Volksfascisme] holds the same view and regards the farming class as the pivot [de spil] of society.
The life of the farmer can be depicted in a very pleasant way, as poets do, but that is to ignore the hard work of the farmers.
Those who see farm life [boerenleven] like this should try to make sail. [trans. note: I am told that this is an expression to convey incredulity. As in, those who see farm life as idyllic and utopian should try to "make the sail" themselves.]
We ourselves spent some time, from early morning until late at night, doing all the farm work, and we can say from personal experience that it is extremely laborious work. It is very nice to add all sorts of poetry to it, but that does not change the fact that keeping energetic horses in check all day long, plowing the ground furrow after furrow, reaping the grain, the dusty threshing, and milking the cattle is hard and demanding work. And it doesn't last for eight hours, but as long as there's light in the sky. Farm work is healthy work, but it's the most strenuous and tiring.
And now it is a disgrace when such hard workers, with all their toil and worry, are still unable to support themselves and their families.
It is a consequence of the liberal spirit that prevails in our current state. In this cursed liberal-democratic system, it is not the man, the farmer, who is primary, but profitability.
It is a consequence of the liberal spirit that prevails in our current state. In this cursed liberal-democratic system, it is not the man, the farmer, who is primary, but profitability.
"The farm [boerderij] is no longer an object of speculation, but something sacrosanct..."
From this perspective, things were bound to go wrong. When the free market becomes the controlling factor for farmers [de boeren], then it soon becomes the case that the farmer [de boer] must incur debt and eventually be driven from his farm.
In the fascist state, it is not the fluctuating price that determines whether the farmer can live on his farm, but only the rights of the farmer [boerenrecht] that decide on this.
Only a separate farmer's right [boerenrecht] can preserve the farm community [boerenstand]. Then the farmer comes first, not the commodity. The farm [boerderij] is no longer an object of speculation, but something sacrosanct, as long as the farmer fulfills his duties.
When the farming community [boerenstand] does not recognize its own farming rights [boerenrechten], it falls into the hands of speculators.
For example, the lease of a piece of land is not the same as the rent of a house. A house is finished and is more or less consumed by its habitation, which is precisely the opposite of the case with a well-maintained farm. But in a democratic age [democratischen tijd], where people like to tar everyone with the same brush, this cannot be taken into account.
The farmer has nothing to expect from the current misrulers and party bosses. They view everything solely from the perspective of party interests and self-interest, which leads them to the most disastrous and foolish measures.
Whatever they call themselves - Freedom Leaguers, Roman Catholic State Party members, anti-revolutionaries or whatever these divisive elements of our people may be called - they are all imbued with democratic, and therefore liberal, ideas [liberale ideeën].
And nothing is more disadvantageous to the farmer. This manifests itself, for example, in a gold policy that is ruining the entire population and whose consequences are especially dire for the farmers. Their products, which, due to high foreign tariffs, cannot be sold at a decent profit, have simply become unsellable due to the rising value of the guilder. Partly as a result of the abnormally high guilder, they cannot possibly pay their rent and the interest on their mortgages. It is a disgrace that the farmer, after a life of hard work and toil, is forced to sell his farm and its contents as a result of foolish government policies.
Then the blood of farmers [boerenbloed] justifiably begins to revolt.
From voter fear [kiezersvrees], the misrulers are now trying to appease the farmers with quotas and absurd support measures. But this is merely a temporary solution.
From voter fear [kiezersvrees], the misrulers are now trying to appease the farmers with quotas and absurd support measures. But this is merely a temporary solution.
The liberal rabble [liberale zoodje] cannot be persuaded to make a real change and improve.
Gold is the idol before which everything must bow. Whether there is a glaring disproportion between gold and goods, between advancements and goods, leaves the misrulers completely indifferent. The liberal principle of freedom under the auspices of Dr. Colijn is not deviated from.
This kind of gold policy makes the farmer very poor [translated from doodarm, the literal but perhaps misplaced translation of which would be "dead poor"] and is the cause of all kinds of fraudulent practices [zwendelpractijken].
We fascists say that the value of money, measured in [material] goods, must be stable. And when this is no longer the case, the state should intervene to ensure that the guilder no longer has a factual [de facto] value of ƒ1.30, as it currently does, but that it remains stable, so that no gross injustices are committed, and the Netherlands is not led to the brink of the abyss.
An attempt is now being made to delay this downfall through the agricultural crisis fund. But every Dutchman, farmer or not farmer, must, upon reflection, understand that this cannot continue indefinitely.
An attempt is now being made to delay this downfall through the agricultural crisis fund. But every Dutchman, farmer or not farmer, must, upon reflection, understand that this cannot continue indefinitely.
The agricultural crisis fund for 1934 was set at 188,570,233 guilders; that is to say [translated from 'd.w.z.'], for our country, came to ƒ 24 [ƒ represents guilder; so, "24 guilders"] per head [person], so for a family of five persons but ƒ 120 ["120 guilders"].
A part of the agricultural crisis fund ends up in the hands of civil servants, who owe their very rise to the agricultural crisis.
Farmers, don't let yourselves be cheated any longer. Stand up and break the chains with which the current, delusional regime wants to keep you bound until your death. It is against the will of the creator that you continue to trust in these poor rulers, who themselves lead easy lives in gold-plated seats at the cost of your sweat.
Farmers, don't let yourselves be cheated any longer. Stand up and break the chains with which the current, delusional regime wants to keep you bound until your death. It is against the will of the creator that you continue to trust in these poor rulers, who themselves lead easy lives in gold-plated seats at the cost of your sweat.
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.
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!
