It was a headline that appalled the residents of Sheridan County, Montana.

When the March 4, 1932 issue of the Producers News was published, much of the nation was gripped by dark events unfolding at home and abroad. The infant son of American icon Charles Lindbergh had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. The military forces of Imperial Japan were ravaging China. Meanwhile, fifteen million Americans were out of work as the nation’s economy teetered on the brink of collapse.

Remarkably, it was a local story in their hometown newspaper that inspired outrage among Sheridan County residents. Headlined, "Bolshevik Funeral for Valiant Young Pioneer,” the story was about fourteen-year-old Janis Salisbury, who had died from complications related to appendicitis. Instead of a church, Salisbury’s funeral was held in the local Farmer Labor Temple, and it featured speakers from the local branch of the United Farmers League, affiliated with the Communist Party, as well as members of the local Communist youth group. The editor of the Producers News, a member of the Communist Party, wrote a controversial account of the funeral, describing the service in detail.

This editorial decision would have profound consequences for the Communist farm movement in northeastern Montana, which, in the 1920s, had achieved stunning political success. The "reds” had occupied every elected county office and sent a covert Communist state senator to Helena. Local youths could attend camps where they were actively indoctrinated with Communist ideals, and the radicals’ newspaper was circulated nationwide. Janis Salisbury’s father, Rodney, was on the ballot in an attempt to become the nation’s first Communist governor. Sheridan County was, in the estimation of one historian, "one of the most class-conscious areas in the nation.”