Following graduation, with financial help from his father he bought a grain and dairy farm near
Arden, a small town near
Philadelphia, where he learned farming firsthand. Ware and his family stayed with the CLP throughout its permutations, merging into the
United Communist Party in 1920, into the
Communist Party of America in 1921, and into the "aboveground"
Workers Party of America in 1922, and eventually the
Communist Party of the USA in 1929. Almost immediately after the Party launched, federal and state authorities moved against the fledgling communist movement, forcing its adherents to make use of pseudonyms and to conduct their activities in secret. During the so-called "underground period" of the party, the agriculturally-oriented Ware used the pseudonym "H.R. Harrow," publishing under that
by-line in the communist press. (The pseudonym seems to have been a
pun on his real given name, "Harold.") (November 1921) In 1921, eager to study the plight of migrant farm workers firsthand with a view to organizing them for the Communist Party, Ware took a six-month trip around the United States, working harvests from the South to the Midwest, Northwest and then East again through the Upper Midwest. Ware was not typically a member of the Communist Party's top committees; he preferred to work in the agricultural sector rather than to engage in
factional party politics.
Soviet collective farming (cover by
Lydia Gibson) Ware helped come up with the idea of using funds raised by the
Friends of Soviet Russia organization to construct a model collective farm in
Soviet Russia. His farm would serve as a model to help to alleviate the
great Russian famine through production of grain plus firsthand demonstration of modern agricultural technique. An appropriation of $75,000 was granted for the project, with Ware's half-brother,
Carl Reeve, traveling around the U.S., showing a motion picture depicting horrific conditions in Russia to help raise funds. Funding in hand, Ware went to the
J.I. Case Farm Implement Co. and brokered a deal for 24 tractors and related equipment. In May 1922, Hal and Cris Ware left his three children in America for Soviet Russia along with their tractors, implements, a complete medical unit, and several tons of food supplies. Also making the voyage was a doctor who spoke Russian and a group of American farmers to operate the machinery. The group had been assigned land in the village of
Toikino in
Perm guberniia, a substantial distance from any centers of population. They taught local peasants the basics of machine operation and plowed of land. Shortages of fuel, hauled by peasant wagons some from the nearest train station, severely hampered their efforts. At season's end, the American crew left for Moscow, whence they went home to America with thanks. The next year, Soviet authorities were eager to expand the Toikino experiment of 1922. The Soviet
People's Commissariat of Agriculture offered a large tract of fertile land in the
Kuban region, just north of the
Black Sea for a second model farm. Working again with the
Friends of Soviet Russia organization, Ware organized a party of 40 to make the trip, including agricultural specialists, a doctor, and a nurse. He arrived in Soviet Russia to inspect the land designated for the project, only to be told by Soviet officials that the deal was off because local peasants had begun to allocate the land among themselves. A hasty search commenced for yet another site, in the
North Caucasus, but the project was delayed. Ware spent most of 1925 raising funds for his Soviet farming venture. This farm was organized as a Russian-American joint venture, with Ware as its American Director and then director of the
state farm for three years. The project took over four flour mills and profitably operated them; they began to electrify the countryside. During winter 1928-29, Ware returned to the United States, where he attempted to interest American agricultural equipment manufacturers in the Soviet market. He convinced some companies to send test tractors and implements along with mechanics to assemble them. He stayed in the Soviet through the
collectivization campaign of 1929-30.
Return to America (opened by
Al Capone) in Depression-era Chicago (1931) In Spring 1931, Ware set out to organizing farmers and farm-workers in America. In the company of
Lem Harris, another Communist Party agricultural expert, he made a year-long survey of American agriculture, echoing his research of 1921. The pair travelled by car around the United States, visiting nearly every state in the union, studying the sometimes desperate conditions which resulted from the collapse of agricultural prices associated with the
Great Depression. {{cite web Shortly after completion of this task, Ware established a research center in Washington, DC called
Farm Research, Inc. and recruited personnel to run it. The institute, funded by the Communist Party, published a newspaper called
The Farmers National Weekly continuously throughout the Great Depression. Fellow Communist Party member Herbert Joseph Putz (Erik Bert) (1904-1981) edited the newspaper (1934-1936) {{cite web {{cite book {{cite book In 1932, Ware was active in the
Farmers Holiday Association on behalf of the Communist Party. ==Soviet espionage: Ware Group==