Historical Context
". . . when the 1930s rolled in, so did strong winds, drought and clouds of dust that plagued nearly 75 percent of the United States between 1931 and 1939. The era became known as the legendary Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl brought ecological, economical and human misery to America during a time when it was already suffering under the Great Depression . . . Economic depression coupled with extended drought, unusually high temperatures, poor agricultural practices and the resulting wind erosion all contributed to making the Dust Bowl."
-PBS film The Dust Bowl
-PBS film The Dust Bowl
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"Since this community that I lived in was farming, many of the farmers suffered because they couldn’t get an adequate price for their goods, and the climate was such that it was very dry and the soil was interrupted so . . . much soil was blown across the land . . . and that soil was the nutritious topsoil that would normally raise corn. So, the farmers . . . many couldn’t succeed at farming." |
Recovery: Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
"...empathy and the ability to share and understand the feelings of another is something you must have within yourself and is ultimately what marks someone out as a true leader."
-William G. Pagonis, excerpted from High Level Leadership |
". . . [Roosevelt] had learned much about the cotton culture of the South and had developed an empathy for the region's poor sharecroppers and tenant farmers . . . this influenced this work with the AAA." |
Legacy
"Whatever its faults, the income [the AAA] provided to farmers enabled them to survive on the land in the 1930s."
-Anthony J. Badger, Professor of American History at Cambridge University
-Anthony J. Badger, Professor of American History at Cambridge University
"Last year the Nation suffered a drought of unparalleled intensity. If there had been no Government program, if the old order had obtained in 1933 and 1934, that drought on the cattle ranges of America would have resulted in the death of these animals on the range and on the farm . . . Our program -- we can prove it -- saved the jobs of millions of farmers and the lives of millions of head of livestock..."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt, May 14, 1935, Address on the AAA on its first anniversary |
Although the AAA was ruled unconstitutional in 1936 (see Criticism: Court Packing Plan), the AAA Act of 1938 continues to benefit U.S. farmers in a global marketplace.
". . . farming practices changed because of Roosevelt and his desire to institute some agricultural changes...many of them were able to succeed on the second chance and came out successful." |