Machine Guns

Henry Cantwell Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, is supposed to be concerned more with plows, harrows, reapers and thrashing machines than with machine guns and other armaments. Nevertheless, it happened that while the Secretary was in Alaska with the President, his subordinates found themselves with a small war on their hands.

The Bureau of Animal Industry, a subdivision of the Department of Agriculture, provides cattle dipping vats in regions which are infested with what is known as the "fever-tick." To prevent spread of the disease cattle-raisers are required to "dip" their stock. The penalty for failure to do so is arrest and a fine. In parts of the South cattlemen object to this regulation. Rounding up cattle to have them dipped is a nuisance. The stockmen also claim that some of their cattle are injured by plunging through the vats and others by swallowing the disinfectant.

As a form of protest, the stockmen blew up 48 vats in Amite County, Miss., during the past few weeks. As a counterprotest the Bureau sent armed guards, and finally machine guns, to the spot. The only casualty so far was the killing of one cattleman as he was about to dynamite one of the vats. The Department of Agriculture is determined to bring about safe and sane cattle-raising, even at the point of the gun.