THE NEW DEAL, RURAL POVERTY, and the SOUTH by CHARLES
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THE NEW DEAL, RURAL POVERTY, AND THE SOUTH by CHARLES KENNETH ROBERTS KARI FREDERICKSON, COMMITTEE CHAIR GEORGE C. RABLE LISA LINDQUIST DORR ANDREW J. HUEBNER PETE DANIEL A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2012 Copyright Charles Kenneth Roberts 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the political and administrative history of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and its predecessors, the New Deal agency most directly associated with eliminating rural poverty. In addition, it studies and describes the efforts to remedy rural poverty, with an emphasis on farm security efforts (particularly rural rehabilitation) in the South, by looking at how the FSA’s actual operating programs (rural rehabilitation, tenant-purchase, and resettlement) functioned. This dissertation demonstrates that it is impossible to understand either element of the FSA’s history – its political and administrative history or the successes and failures of its operating programs – without understanding the other. The important sources include archival collections, congressional records, newspapers, and published reports. This dissertation demonstrates that New Deal liberal thought (and action) about how to best address rural poverty evolved considerably throughout the 1930s. Starting with a wide variety of tactics (including resettlement, community creation, land use reform, and more), by 1937, the New Deal’s approach to rural poverty had settled on the idea of rural rehabilitation, a system of supervised credit and associated ideas that came to profoundly influence the entire FSA program. This proved to be the only significant effort in the New Deal to solve the problems of rural poverty. The FSA proved to be modestly successful as an anti-poverty program; it ameliorated the suffering of the rural poor and generally improved the lives of its clients. It did not prove to be successful as a political institution, succumbing to political attacks during World War II. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS To make footnotes a bit easier to read, citations for the following frequently-cited sources and collections have been shortened throughout this dissertation. Full documentation of these sources is available in the bibliography. Government Documents The yearly reports of the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration between 1936 and 1946 are listed in full in the bibliography under the authors “Resettlement Administration,” “United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Security Administration,” and “United States Department of Agriculture, War Food Administration.” They are cited by title throughout the footnotes. The titles of the annual agricultural appropriations bills and hearings have been shortened and are listed by house of Congress and year, with the year the hearings were held or the bills passed in parenthesis. “Byrd Committee Hearings” is the shortened citation for U. S. Congress. Joint Committee on Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures. Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures, Part II. 77th Cong., 1st-2nd sess., December 1, 1941, January 23, 1942, and February 3, 1942; and U. S. Congress. Joint Committee on Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures. Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures, Part III. 77th Cong., 2nd sess., February 6, 10, 13, and 27, 1942. iii “FDR, PPA” is the shortened citation for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, vols. 1-13. Edited by Samuel I. Rosenman. New York: Random House, 1938-1950. “House, Activities of the FSA” is the shortened citation for U.S. Congress. House. Activities of the Farm Security Administration, Report of Select Committee of the House Committee On Agriculture to Investigate the Activities of the Farm Security Administration. 78th Cong., 2nd sess., 1944. H.R. 1430. “House, Farm Labor Program, 1943” is the shortened citation for U.S. Congress. House. Farm Labor Program, 1943, Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, on the Appropriation for the Farm Labor Program, Calendar Year 1943. 78th Cong., 1st sess., 1943. “House, Farm Security Hearings” is the shortened citation for U.S. Congress. House. Hearings Before the Select Committee of the House Committee on Agriculture, to Investigate the Activities of the Farm Security Administration. 78th Cong., 1st sess., 1943-1944. “House, Farm Tenancy Hearing” is the shortened citation for U.S. Congress. House. Farm Tenancy, Hearing before the Committee on Agriculture on H.R. 8. 75th Cong., 1st sess., 1937. “House, Payments in Lieu of Taxes on Resettlement Projects” is the shortened citation for U.S. Congress. House. Payments in Lieu of Taxes on Resettlement Projects, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means. 74th Cong., 2nd sess., 1936. “Senate, Resettlement Administration Program” is the shortened citation for U.S. Congress. Senate. Resettlement Administration Program. 74th Cong., 2nd sess., 1936. Doc. 213. iv Archival Sources “Alabama Relief Administration Papers” is the shortened citation for Alabama Relief Administration, State Publications, 1932-1935, SG014348, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama. “Bankhead Papers” is the shortened citation for John H. Bankhead, Jr., Papers, LPR53, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama. NAL refers to documents and publications currently housed at the National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland. Many of these documents, such as reports and brochures, lack other clear information regarding publication and source. Farmers Home Administration Records, National Archives at College Park, Maryland The following collections from the Records of the Farmers Home Administration, Record Group 96, held at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, have been shortened in the footnotes (the current archival entry number for each collection is in parenthesis). “FSA Historical Records, RG 96, NACP” refers to Records Relating to the History of the Farm Security Administration (Entry 19). “General Administrative Records, RG 96, NACP” refers to General Administrative Records, 1943-56 (Entry 48). “General Correspondence, Washington Office, RG 96, NACP” refers General Correspondence Maintained in the Washington Office, 1935-38 (Entry 1). “Project Records, RG 96, NACP” refers to Project Records, 1935-1940 (Entry 71). “Rural Rehabilitation, General Correspondence, RG 96, NACP” refers to Rural Rehabilitation Division, General Correspondence, 1935-38 (Entry 5). v Farmers Home Administration Records, National Archives Southeast, Morrow, Georgia The following collections from the Records of the Farmers Home Administration, Record Group 96, held at the National Archives Southeast Region at Morrow, Georgia, have been shortened in the footnotes (the current archival entry number for each collection is in parenthesis): “Farm Ownership Files, RG 96, NARASE” refers to Records of the Rural Rehabilitation Division, Region 5, Montgomery, Alabama, Farm Ownership Case Files, 1938-1946 (Entry 94). “Office of the Director, General Correspondence, RG 96, NARASE” is the shortened citation for Records of the Office of the Director, General Correspondence, 1934-1942 (Entry 93). “Project Construction Files, RG 96, NARASE” refers to Project Construction Files, 1938-1941 (Entry 97). Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, National Archives at College Park, Maryland The following collections from the Records of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, Record Group 16, held at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, have been shortened in the footnotes (the current archival entry number for each collection is in parenthesis): “Office of the Secretary, General Correspondence, RG 16, NACP” refers to Office of the Secretary, General Correspondence, 1906-1975 (Entry 17). “Office of the Solicitor, Resettlement Cases, RG 16, NACP” refers to Records of the Office of the Solicitor, Records of Resettlement Administration Cases, 1935-1937 (Entry 113). “Office of the Solicitor, Rural Rehabilitation, RG 16, NACP” refers to Records of the Office of the Solicitor, Records of Rural Rehabilitation Cases, 1937-1943 (Entry 101). vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would have been impossible to complete this dissertation without the help of a number of people. Dr. Kari Frederickson has been an advisor, mentor, sounding board, teacher, and everything else a graduate student would need while tackling a dissertation. I also would like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Andrew Huebner, Dr. Lisa Lindquist-Dorr, Dr. George Rable, and Dr. Pete Daniel for their questions, feedback, and for getting through a manuscript that turned out much too long. I would additionally thank Dr, Frederickson, Dr. Huebner, Dr. Rable, Dr. Lawrence F. Kohl, and Dr. Paul Hagenloh for everything I learned while working for them as a teaching assistant and grader. I must thank Dr. Luke Niiler, who taught me to be a better teacher and a better writer during my time as a Writing Center Fellow. Dr. Jess Gilbert looked at a portion of this manuscript in its early stages, and I appreciate him helping me to sharpen my thinking when just getting started. The University of Alabama provided me with the financial support necessary to complete this dissertation. My time as the Assistant Editor and Editor of the Southern