Cryts 9 a farming celebrity
The name Wayne Crysts doesn’t
mpan much to the typical
(jA'spaper reader here in the
urbanized east. But in farm
country, he’s a celebrity. His daily
activities are chronicled in
newspapers, and on television and
radio. He signs autographs
wherever he goes, and letters pour
into his southeast Missouri farm
home by the hundreds many of
them stuffed with money. He’s in
demand for speeches all across the
country and he’s a frequent talk
show guest. All of this because he
took a stand for what he believed
was right.
Cryts’ notoriety began back in
1981 when he defied the federal
government and raided a bankrupt
grain elevator. In some people’s
minds, that was a terrible tiling to
do. He defied the federal govern
ment and took something the
government said didn’t belong to'
him. But there’s another side to the
story because as he sees it, he was
back what was rightfully
his. ' Around that point have
developed all kinds of problems for
the young Missouri farmer, in-
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R.D. #3, Muddy Creek Road
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Jerry Webb
eluding a jail term, a $278,000 legal
judgment, a $1,500 a day fine, and
his own 35 million dollar lawsuit.
Prior to the Great Soybean Raid
of 1981, Wayne Cryts was just
another Missouri farmer. He grew
soybeans on the Stoddard County
farm that had been in the family
for well over 100 years. He
belonged to the American'
Agriculture Movement and went
on the tractorcade to Washington
in 1979, but other than that had
done very little to draw attention to
himself or his beliefs.
Then a grain elevator went
bankrupt an elevator that just
happened to be holding a year’s
worth of Cryts’ soybeans. As part
of the bankruptcy process, the
elevator was padlocked, which
meant his crop would stay there
and become part of the bankruptcy
proceedings. He still owned the
.beans, they just happened to be in
the wrong place at the wrong time
stored in that elevator that
declared bankruptcy. Be federal
law that meant they were part of
the problem and would remain
there until the bankruptcy mess
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was sorted out and all creditors
dealt with.
But Cryts didn’t see it that way.
He saw it as a year’s worth of work
for him and his family. He saw it as
income that he needed
something that was his that was
simply stored at an elevator that
had gone out of business. This
mild-mannered Missourian
decided it was time to take a stand.
And so, gathering up a few
neighbors and a few farm trucks,
they went to the elevator and took
what was his. Defying federal
marshalls he went in, broke the
locks, and unloaded 32,000 bushels
of soybeans.
They were his beans, there’s no
question about that. He had
receipts to prove that he had stored
32,000 bushels of soybeans at that
particular elevator. But the
bankruptcy laws say that
everything on the property at the
time bankruptcy is declared
becomes a part of the bankruptcy
process, and theoretically could be
used to settle the judgment against
the elevator. That could mean a
farmer who stored there would just
be out of luck.
It happens all the time. Grain
elevators go broke. An owner
simply padlocks the door and
leaves town, and by the time
fanners' realize what has hap
pened, bankruptcy proceedings
have been filed, the federal
government is involved, and
they’ve lost everything that was
stored there.
But Cryts decided that wasn’t
going to happen. He took a stand
and he’s paid a pretty heavy price,
and it’s not over yet. So far, the
courts have ruled against him on
several occasions. He was jailed
for a month for failing to tell the
courts who helped him remove the
soybeans. He’s had a $278,000
judgment leveled against him for
taking back his own soybeans, and
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he’s now being fined $1,500 a day
because he refuses to pay the
judgment. He’s spend $75,000 in
legal fees and has been under
unbearable pressure over these
many months because of his ac
tions.
Cryts is convinced that he will
win eventually, and supporters
around the country feel that way
also. Each day the mail brings
messages and prayers from those
who stand with him, and money
upwards of $lOO,OOO from those
willing 1 to share the financial
burden of his stand.
What was he thinking when he
risked his future, the farm that has
been in his family for generations,
the security and well-being of his
wife and children over a few
thousand bushels of soybeans?
“I couldn’t live with letting a
bunch of lawyers take the
soybeans that represent a year of
my family’s hard work,” he told a
reporter. “On the other hand, I can
live with the penalties for my
actions.”
Cryts is a family man who has
spent his entire life on the land he
now farms. He attended a one
room school, joined the Masons
when he was 21, and was con-
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 13,1982—D19
What kind of a man is Wayne
Cryts? Joe Dan Boyd of Farm
Journal magazine describes him
this way: “Wear and worry have
combined to etch a single deep
crevice between the eyebrows. A
ruggedly handsome face reflects
daily battle with 35 years of wind
and sun. His deep voice is both
sincere and commanding, softened
only by the gentle brown eyes of
the family man who seems so in
touch with himself. A robust 190-
pounder, he stands an inch or two
under six feet, in brown cowboy
boots and tooled leather belt that
dramatize jeans and western cut
shirt.”
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sidered a loner.
As he puts it, “I farmed my
crops, loved my wife and two kids,
honored my parents, worshiped
God, paid my taxes, and voted for
people to represent me in gover
nment. I thought that being correct
would assure right on my side.”
Until the soybean raid, he was
just another farmer. But now,
despite his own wishes he’s a folk
hero to thousands of farmers who
identify with his problem. He’s an
average citizen who finally drew
the line and said that’s enough. He
stood up to the government
because he believed he was right
and he’s willing to suffer the
consequences.
Where this saga will end is
anybody’s guess. I can’t help
feeling that the rightness of his
position will eventually win out and
he will be exonerated. In fact, the
laws will probably be changed to
prevent this from happening
again. After all, why should a
farmer lose his property simply
because it’s being stored in an
elevator that goes bankrupt?
Besides exoneration, and
perhaps a change in the law, what
will be Cryts’ reward for all this
effort, for the unbearable
pressure, for the months of stress,
the legal expenses and all the rest?
Who knows? There’s talk about a
movie or a TV documentary, and
no doubt he can spend a lot of time
and make some money on the
agricultural banquet circuit over
the next several months.
And then there’s the lawsuit. He
recently filed his own 35 million
dollar suit just in case things don't
work out too well lor him. That will
still have to be unravelled.
It’s a continuing story one
that’s a long way from ending.
Hopefully, it will serve some good
purpose.
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