New Deal Remedies
In the early years of the 1930's, the extent of the damage inflicted upon the southern Great Plains by drought and
dust storms was little noticed outside of the region. The nation, led by its
newly elected president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was desperately trying to pry
itself loose from the grip of the Great Depression. The plight of a band of
usually well-off farmers was beyond the immediate concern of most citizens.
Certain individuals within the Roosevelt administration, however, had realized
that the lot of the average American was closely tied to that of Dust Bowl
farmers. Hugh Hammond Bennett, who would come to be known as "the father of
soil conservation," had been leading a campaign to reform farming practices
with the intention of preserving the soil well before Roosevelt became
president. In the mid-1930's desperate Dust Bowl farmers took little solace in
hearing from Bennett that, "...Americans have been the greatest destroyers of
land of any race or people, barbaric or civilized." Further, he went on to call
for "a tremendous national awakening to the need for action in bettering our
agricultural practices." Despite such statements, Bennett was not insensitive
to hardships faced by Dust Bowl farmers. Rather, he urged a new approach to
farming in order to avoid similar catastrophes in the future.
In April 1935, Bennett was on his way to testify before a Congressional
committee when he learned of a dust storm blowing in from the western plains.
At last, he would be able to present tangible evidence of the results of
short-sighted farming practices. As a dusty gloom settled over the nation's
capital and blotted out the midday sun, Bennett exclaimed, "This, gentlemen, is
what I have been talking about." Congress responded by passing the Soil
Conservation Act of 1935. In turn, the Roosevelt administration put its full
weight and authority behind improving farming techniques.
Convincing farmers to approach the land in a new manner would take much effort
and a bit of old-fashioned bribery. The federal government paid out one dollar
per acre to farmers employing planting and plowing methods aimed at conserving
the soil. Two years earlier, in 1933, the government, under the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration, had begun to pay farmers to reduce their production
of surplus crops, such as wheat. Proud and defiant as they were, many farmers
nonetheless found themselves accepting the government's offer. From 1933 to
1937 such payments provided many Dust Bowl farmers with their only source of
income.
An array of New Deal programs and organizations was devised to meet the needs
of Dust Bowl residents: the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the
Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, the Works Progress Administration, the
Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Drought Relief Service, which purchased
cattle from destitute farmers. The cattle, poorly nourished and often sickly,
were almost all immediately destroyed. No better example existed of how
wrenching, but necessary, such government relief programs were to a people who
took great pride in their independence and self-sufficiency.
In his memoir "Farming the Dust Bowl," Lawrence Svobida eloquently conveys how
painful it was for scores of farmers to admit they needed assistance:
"It was not long until the Federal Government made funds available to farmers
who needed financial help to do the necessary work to check the blowing of
their fields. As usual, there was much red tape involved, and the conditions
attached were humiliating to many farmers who had long taken pride in their
independence. In order to obtain a share of the funds available for the work,
the farmer had to sign papers stating that he was a pauper, unable to borrow
the necessary money to purchase fuel and oil to list his land. Only then would
he be given a credit slip entitling him to the supplies he needed most."
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Wounded pride and all, most Dust Bowl farmers were immensely appreciative of
Roosevelt and his New Deal programs. For many, only infusions of federal aid
made it possible for them to wait out the blistering years of drought and dust.
When the rains finally came at the tail end of the decade and the Southern
Plains once again yielded a bountiful harvest, the relationship between the
farmer and the federal government remained entwined. Henceforth, a complex, and
sometimes controversial, system of price supports and subsidies emerged to form
the backbone of federal farm policy.
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