DOCSLIB.ORG

Agricultural Investment and the Interwar Business Cycle

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Agricultural Investment and the Interwar Business Cycle Working Paper Series¤ Department of Economics Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics University of Delaware Working Paper No. 2003-10 Agricultural Investment and the Interwar Business Cycley James L. Butkiewicz and Matthew A. Martin October 2003 ¤http://www.be.udel.edu/economics/workingpaper.htm y°c 2003 by author(s). All rights reserved. Agricultural Investment and the Interwar Business Cycle James L. Butkiewicz Department of Economics University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 [email protected] Matthew A. Martin Economy.Com, Inc. 600 Willowbrook Lane West Chester, PA 19382 [email protected] October 2003 This paper is based on sections of Matthew Martin’s Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Delaware. The authors acknowledge helpful comments and suggestions from Farley Grubb and Toni Whited. Responsibility for errors is ours. Abstract During the interwar period, the agricultural sector was a much larger component of the United States economy than at present. Thus, changes in agricultural fortunes had a larger impact on macroeconomic events than is the case today. The Great Depression and concomitant collapse of commodity prices adversely affected the farming sector, as did the drought that distressed many farming regions during this period. Farmers’ income plummeted, sharply curtailing investment in farm equipment. One key goal of the New Deal agricultural policies was to reverse the fortunes of the agricultural sector. Price supports and production control programs attempted to increase farmers’ incomes, enabling them to reverse the dramatic drop in equipment investment that occurred during the contraction period. This paper investigates the macroeconomic impact of investment in agricultural equipment on the aggregate economy. Results obtained support the hypothesis that increased expenditures for agricultural equipment contributed to the strength of the recovery, especially during the crucial early years of the recovery. JEL Classification: N, E3 “Purchasing power placed in the hands of the people on the farm is certain to be used. Like a blood transfusion for a dying man, it circulates through the arteries of our economic body and brings a new vitality.” (George Peek in Nourse, Davis, and Black, 1937, p.422.) “The tractors came over the roads and into the fields… Snub-nosed monsters, raising the dust and sticking their snouts into it, straight down the country, across the country, through fences, through dooryards, in and out of gullies in straight lines.” (John Steinbeck, 1984, p.36.) 1. Introduction During the interwar period (1919-1939), the agricultural sector experienced three independent and distinguishable events. The first was the broad adoption of new technologies, including the tractor and related machinery. The second was repeated and severe drought throughout the Midwest growing regions. The third was unprecedented government aid programs, including inaugural measures to limit agricultural production. In this paper, we examine the macroeconomic impact of these developments for the U.S. economy and provide evidence that government aid to farmers in the 1930s led to increased equipment expenditures, and furthermore, the increase in farm expenditures in the 1930s aided the general recovery, despite several years of repeated and severe drought. Table 1 lists the annual purchases of tractors and related equipment. As a testimony to the surge in agricultural equipment investment in the 1930s, consider the fact that more tractors were purchased in the 1930s (1,107,000) than in the 1920s (1,077,000), even though the 1930s includes nearly five years of economic contraction and several years of severe drought. Table 1 also shows that the annual purchases of other farm machinery increased substantially in the 1930s. The simultaneous increase in farm equipment expenditures and occurrence of drought seems counterintuitive at first. However, several important New Deal farm policies were introduced in 1 1933, particularly the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which provided farmers with additional forms of income, much of which was spent on new machinery. To understand the relationship of these events to the aggregate economy, the remainder of the paper is arranged in the following way: the next section summarizes the important developments for agriculture in the interwar period; the third section examines the transmission of agricultural shocks to the broader economy. The fourth section discusses the empirical methods, while the fifth presents the empirical results. The final section offers some conclusions. 2. Historical Summary1 Agriculture in the 1920s can be summarized as a period of overproduction and low farm prices in the aftermath of World War I. Figure 1 shows how grain prices fell in the early 1920s. Nevertheless, as technological improvements in the early 1920s made the tractor and other farm machinery more efficient and cost effective, purchases of these items increased. Table 1 shows that tractor purchases reached a pre-depression peak of 140,000 in 1920, but purchases averaged only 104,000 annually for the remainder of the decade. Part of the reason for the lower average stems from the number of farm failures due to low agricultural prices and related debt repayment problems. The farm foreclosure rate increased to 10.7 per thousand in the 1920s, up from 3.2 per thousand the previous decade (Alston, 1983). During the Great Contraction, farmers received little government assistance even though agricultural prices fell more quickly than the price level.2 The Roosevelt administration, however, placed priority on agricultural assistance and on May 12, 1933, the Agricultural Adjustment Act became law.3 By the fall of 1933, the AAA announced the first programs for future crop reduction. These programs varied by crop, but all programs presented farmers with some sort of “adjustment payment” in return for agreeing to limit acreage under cultivation. Farmers could then decide if they wished to participate. Once an individual farmer signed a contract, part of the adjustment payment 2 was often reserved until compliance was assured. In the end, a majority of farmers growing corn, wheat, and cotton agreed to sign production control contracts.4 Production control programs also existed for tobacco, rice, sugar, and peanuts, and a variety of smaller crops. In addition to the production control programs of the AAA, the New Deal assisted farmers through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and the Farm Credit Administration (FCA). The first of these programs put cash into the hands of farmers by loaning them money based on a fixed price per bushel times the number of bushels placed into storage. If the market price of the crop climbed above the loan price, farmers could sell the crop, pay off the loan and pocket the difference. CCC loans were no recourse loans, so repayment was not required if market prices remained below the loan price. The FCA enabled farmers to borrow new funds and refinance existing debt. Thus, farmers were able to reduce the burden of the debt accumulated in the previous decade at the same time that they received some security regarding their cash receipts in the near future. The sign up for the 1934 production control programs had been largely completed when it became clear that the weather was going to affect certain crops. The winter wheat crop, which had been planted the previous fall, gave the first indication that the rest of the wheat crop would be partially destroyed by drought. Since the drought seemed likely to accomplish crop reduction without a government program, Secretary Wallace removed many of the planting restrictions that contract signers had agreed to earlier. However, farmers still received the benefit payments promised by the government. A similar production control program was in force through 1935. In 1936, the Supreme Court declared the AAA to be unconstitutional, but the program continued under the auspices of soil conservation. That same year was also one of severe drought. From 1933 to 1936, the AAA distributed $1.8 billion as benefit payments to farmers under the production control programs. The wheat and corn-hog programs alone received over 3 $800 million (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1942, p. 749). Additional payments were made in the following years under the soil conservation program. The FCA was credited with helping half a million farmers keep their homes (Saloutos, 1982). Additionally, CCC commodity loans totaled nearly a billion and a half dollars for the years 1933 through 1939. Rucker and Alston (1987) estimate that farm credit programs prevented 77 thousand farm failures, while all forms of government aid are estimated to have prevented 186 thousand failures. Perhaps more important than the actual dollar amounts received by farmers was the fact that, beginning in the latter part of 1933, most farmers had a portion of their income secured by government assistance that allowed many to withstand the ravages of drought of the 1930s. Farm foreclosures peaked in 1933, then fell quickly so that by 1935 the rate was similar to that of the late 1920s (Alston, 1983). As farmers began to receive cash income and other assistance through government programs, the number of tractors purchased annually increased substantially. Table 1 shows that tractors purchases were at an interwar period low of 25,000 in 1933, but increased to a record 221,000 by 1937. Similarly, the purchase of other farm implements, especially those pulled by tractors, increased dramatically. Only 15,000 tractor drawn cultivators were purchased in 1931, a figure that increased to 127,000 by 1937. 1937 was also a record year for the purchase of tractor plows and cultivators, while 1938 was a record year for corn picker and combine purchases (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1941, p. 565). 3. Transmission of Agricultural Shocks The transmission of sectoral shocks to the macro economy has long been a part of economic theory. In the early part of the twentieth century, business cycle research included several mechanisms through which agricultural shocks could affect the aggregate economy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Agricultural Policy and the Fate of a Gulf South Oilseed Industry, 1902-1969
    Mississippi State University Scholars Junction Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2013 Tung Tried: Agricultural Policy and the Fate of a Gulf South Oilseed Industry, 1902-1969 Whitney Adrienne Snow Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td Recommended Citation Snow, Whitney Adrienne, "Tung Tried: Agricultural Policy and the Fate of a Gulf South Oilseed Industry, 1902-1969" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 4795. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/4795 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Scholars Junction. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Junction. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Automated Template B: Created by James Nail 2011V2.01 Tung tried: agricultural policy and the fate of a Gulf South oilseed industry, 1902-1969 By Whitney Adrienne Snow A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Department of History Mississippi State, Mississippi May 2013 Copyright by Whitney Adrienne Snow 2013 Tung tried: agricultural policy and the fate of a Gulf South oilseed industry, 1902-1969 By Whitney Adrienne Snow Approved: _________________________________ _________________________________ Mark D. Hersey Alison Collis Greene Associate Professor of History Assistant Professor of History (Director of Dissertation) (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Stephen C. Brain Alan I Marcus Assistant Professor of History Professor of History (Committee Member) (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Sterling Evans Peter C. Messer Committee Participant of History Associate Professor of History (Committee Member) (Graduate Coordinator) _________________________________ R.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating Farm Foundation 47 Chapter 4: Hiring Henry C
    © 2007 by Farm Foundation This book was published by Farm Foundation for nonprofit educational purposes. Farm Foundation is a non-profit organization working to improve the economic and social well being of U.S. agriculture, the food system and rural communities by serving as a catalyst to assist private- and public-sector decision makers in identifying and understanding forces that will shape the future. ISBN: 978-0-615-17375-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007940452 Cover design by Howard Vitek Page design by Patricia Frey No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher: Farm Foundation 1301 West 22nd Street, Suite 615 Oak Brook, Illinois 60523 Web site: www.farmfoundation.org First edition. Published 2007 Table of Contents R.J. Hildreth – A Tribute v Prologue vii Chapter 1: Legge and Lowden 1 Chapter 2: Events Leading to the Founding of Farm Foundation 29 Chapter 3: Creating Farm Foundation 47 Chapter 4: Hiring Henry C. Taylor 63 Chapter 5: The Taylor Years 69 Chapter 6: The Birth and Growth of Committees 89 Chapter 7: National Public Policy Education Committee 107 Chapter 8: Farm Foundation Programming in the 1950s and 1960s 133 Chapter 9: Farm Foundation Round Table 141 Chapter 10: The Hildreth Legacy: Farm Foundation Programming in the 1970s and 1980s 153 Chapter 11: The Armbruster Era: Strategic Planning and Programming 1991-2007 169 Chapter 12: Farm Foundation’s Financial History 181 Chapter 13: The Future 197 Acknowledgments 205 Endnotes 207 Appendix 223 About the Authors 237 R.J.
    [Show full text]
  • 7112629.PDF (6.880Mb)
    71- 12,629 WILLIAMS, Charles Fredrick, 1943- WILLIAM M. JARDINE AND THE DEVELOPMENT DE REPUBLICAN FARM POLICY, 1925-1929. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1970 History, modern University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by Charles Predrich Williams 1971 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE UNIVERSITY OP OKIilHOM GRADUATE COLLEGE WILLIAM M. JARDINE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OP REPUBLICAN PARM POLICY, 1925-1929 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE COLLEGE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY CHARLES PREDRIOE WILLIAMS Norman, Oklahoma 1970 WILLIAM M. JAHDINE AND THE DEVELOPMENT CE REPUBLIOAN PAEM POLICY, 1925-1929 DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments are due Dr. Bill 6. Reid who first introduced me to this subject, and Dr. Gilbert C. Fite who directed this study. Special appreciation is also extended to Dr. Donald G. Berthrong, Dr. A. M. Gibson, Dr, Dougald Calhoun, and Dr. Victor Elconin, all of whom read the manuscript. iii TABLE OP ODUTEETS Chapter Page I . THE REPUBLIOAN PARM DILEMMA............... 1 II. THE ROAD TO WASHINGTON .................... 33 III. THE NEW SECRETARY'S PARM PORMULA........... 65 17. THE SEARCH POR A PARM POLICY: PHASE I ..... 94 7. THE SEARCH POR A PARM POLICY: PHASE II 138 71. PARM POLICY CHALLENGED:MCNARY-HAUGENI8M ... 16? 711. PARM POLICY POUND: THE JARDINE P L A N ..... 190 7III. PARM POLICY DEPENDED: THE 1928 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN......... 215 IX. CONCLUSION ....... 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................. 250 It WILLIAM M. JARDINE AND THE development OP REPUBLIOAN PARM POLICY, 1925-1929 CHAPTER I THE REPUBLIOAN PARM DILEMMA When Warren G. Harding finished his inaugural oath on March 4, 1921, he inherited one of the most perplexing farm problems ever faced by an American President.
    [Show full text]
  • Vendor Performance Tracking Report
    Vendor Performance Tracking Report Printed: 3/1/2010 2:00:38AM Vendor Name FEIN Overall Performance to Invoicing Delivery Customer Actual Potential Rating Specification Rating Rating Service Rating Rating Rating Rating Submissions Submissions 1 Hour Signs, Inc. XXXXXX1644 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 1 1 1 Nation Technology Corporation XXXXXX8612 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1 1 1001 USES UTILITY BUILDINGS, INC. XXXXXX7932 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1 1 1st Choice Contracting Services LLC XXXXXX8131 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1 2 2-1-1 Big Bend, Incorporated XXXXXX1771 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1 1 21st century research and evaluation, inc.XXXXXX7292 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5 8 3D Tirec Company, Inc XXXXXX2943 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 2 2 3M Company XXXXXX4178 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4 4 3M Company XXXXXX7775 3.91 3.91 3.91 3.91 3.91 11 11 4-H Clubs & Affiliated 4-H XXXXXX0229 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 2 2 4imprint XXXXXX7105 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 4 7 77 hardware & supply XXXXXX2015 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 1 1 7-Dippity, Inc. XXXXXX2610 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 2 2 835 GLEM INC. XXXXXX5686 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 1 1 A & A Drainage XXXXXX1530 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 1 1 A & A Roofing Company, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Agricultural Philosophies and Policies in the New Deal Harold F
    University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 1984 Agricultural Philosophies and Policies in the New Deal Harold F. Breimyer Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Breimyer, Harold F., "Agricultural Philosophies and Policies in the New Deal" (1984). Minnesota Law Review. 1430. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/1430 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Agricultural Philosophies and Policies in the New Deal Harold F. Breimyer* INTRODUCTION In the frequently innovative social-program atmosphere of the New Deal 1930s, agriculture was not a bystander or even an incidental happenstance participant. Although agricultural pro- grams ranged from crude improvisation to sophisticated social design, they were very much a part of the New Deal activity and, perhaps surprisingly, attracted some of the brightest minds in the New Deal constellation. Agriculture's participation in New Deal programs began immediately. Agriculture was a major concern of initial New Deal programs-the Roosevelt administration enacted a new farm law in its famous first one hundred days.' Unrest in the countryside, including instances of violence, partially explained Roosevelt's and Congress's prompt atten- tion to agricultural problems. Equally significant was the era's political arithmetic-agriculture comprised a larger fraction of the economy in the 1930s than it does today,2 and numerous in- fluential senators and representatives promoted agricultural concerns.
    [Show full text]
  • Peek, George N. (1873-1943), Papers, 1900-1947 (C2270)
    C Peek, George N. (1873-1943), Papers, 1900-1947 2270 34.6 linear feet This collection is available at The State Historical Society of Missouri. If you would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]. INTRODUCTION Personal and public papers. Emphasis is on John Deere and Company, agricultural problems and legislation in the 1920s and 1930s, and foreign trade policies of the New Deal. Also material concerning America First, Republican Party politics, and Peek’s post-World War I reconstruction activities. DONOR INFORMATION The George Peek Papers were donated to the University of Missouri by Burton F. Peek on 16 January 1947 and 26 August 1948 (Accession No. 2885). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH George Nelson Peek—industrialist, agricultural economist, and foreign trade advisor—was born in Polo, Illinois, 19 November 1873, to Henry Clay and Adeline Chase Peek. He attended Oregon High School, Oregon, Illinois, and graduated in 1891. He was a student in 1892 at Northwestern University. Peek married Georgia Lindsey, daughter of Zachary T. Lindsey, president of Interstate Rubber Company, 22 December 1903. They had no children. Peek worked with Deere and Webber Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1893- 1901; was vice-president and general manager of John Deere Plow Company, Omaha, Nebraska, 1901-1911; and vice-president, Deere and Company, Moline, Illinois, 1911- 1919. Leaving Deere and Company, Peek was appointed commissioner of the Finished Products Section, War Industries Board, 1918, and served as president of the Industrial Board under the Department of Commerce, 1919. He was president and general manager of the Moline Plow Company, Moline, Illinois, 1919-1923.
    [Show full text]
  • Dissertation Final Draft
    UNITVERISTY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara The Price of Prosperity: Inflation and the Limits of the New Deal Order A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Samir Sonti Committee in charge: Professor Nelson Lichtenstein, Chair Professor Mary O. Furner Professor Alice O’Connor Professor Salim Yaqub Professor Kate McDonald March 2017 The dissertation of Samir Sonti is approved. __________________________________________ Kate McDonald __________________________________________ Salim Yaqub __________________________________________ Alice O’Connor __________________________________________ Mary Furner __________________________________________ Nelson Lichtenstein, Committee Chair September 2016 The Price of Prosperity: Inflation and the Limits of the New Deal Order Copyright © 2017 by Samir Sonti iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dedicated to Jayashree Sonti and Nagesh Sonti Writing a dissertation is at once a solitary and a collective process. Although only my name appears on the title page, and in spite of the countless hours I spent alone while producing draft after draft, I could not have accomplished this on my own. For one, this project would not have been possible without the generous support I received from a number of institutions: The Washington Center for Equitable Growth; the Dirksen Center; the UC Group in Economic History Research; UCSB History Associates; and the UCSB Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy all provided grants and fellowships that enabled me to travel to archives and complete the research on which this project is based. And the staff at those archives – too many to name all – deserve special recognition. Historians depend upon archives, and archives depend upon archivists. They are the unsung heroes without whom there would be no hope of recovering the past.
    [Show full text]
  • News Review of Current Events the World Over
    PAGE TWO. THE TRIBUNE, DILLON, MONT.; THURS., DEC. W,1933. T*\EATH came suddenly to Alezan-, der Legge¿ p resid en ti th^ Inter­ Sweet Clover to , News Review of Current national Harvester company and . one of the country’s leading Industrialists, In his suburban home near Qhlci _ New High Record Events the World OverHe was almost sixty-eight years or age and apparently had been .In j good health -Varieties and Strains for Mr. Legge was the first chairman of Almost Every Condition the federal farm board, under Presi­ National Prohibition Passes Out and Foreign Liquordent Hoover, giving up his $100.000 National-Topics Interpretec* and Purpose. Comes In— Johnson Put in Control of AAA Codes— post with the Harvester company In by William Bruckart ^Preparvd by th* Coll eg* of- Afrloultaro. the summer of. 1929 tp accept the $12- University of Illinois.—WNU Servlos. .Will Budget Director Douglas Resign? 000-a-year government position. For Illinois farmers already have adjust­ 20 months he devoted himsety to farm Washington.—When the Eighteenth As ,to the local option problem, ed their crop acreages to the point relief experiments, standing his ground amendment to the Federal Constltu Washington observers are “able only where, they are growing almost eight­ 1 tlon became a mat? By EDWARD W. PICKARD in the. face of 'Widespread ‘criticism, to guess that-there will be many heat­ een times as much sweet clover as Then he resigned and returned to his New Source ter of history the ed fights In numerous communities they were thirteen years ago, but this former place, throughout the country.
    [Show full text]
  • The Governance of Agricultural Trade
    , ' ' y rrna+kanc+aran nx k . a., mcaras.,m xxas y-m s Agriculture and Trade Analysis Division Economic Research Service United States Department of Agriculture Staff Report # AGES9314 1993 The Environment, Government Policies, and International Trade: A Proceedings Shane, M.D., and H. von Witzke, eds. Proceedings of a Meeting of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium December, 1990, San Diego, CA )u a; a . .. y; _7i "a'S 7'. " " F: :if ' e a d66 ,asva-.~rx:u _. .. Chapter 11 The Governance of Agricultural Trade Perspectives from the 1940's David W. Skully* In many quarters the point was made that once you get started on a thing of this sort there is no end to it. Henry A. Wallace on the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (1934a) Introduction Opportunities to rewrite the rules of the game of international relations are rare. They occur most often in the wake of a decisive war, because the victor can dictate or negotiate with maximum leverage the terms of the peace. The process of rewriting and enforcing the rules of play is analyzed by scholars of international relations in terms of regimes and hegemons. Crudely summarized, regimes are the rules of the game and the hegemon is the leading power, generally the creator of the existing rules and the prime mover in their enforcement. In this framework, the history of international relations can be viewed as the succession of hegemons and the regimes they create and attempt to maintain (Gilpin, 1981 and 1987). * Agriculture and Trade Analysis Division, Economic Research Service, U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Sheepdogs and Ventriloquists: Government Lawyers in Two New Deal Agencies
    Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2021 Of Sheepdogs and Ventriloquists: Government Lawyers in Two New Deal Agencies Daniel R. Ernst Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1461 http://ssrn.com/abstract=2566750 Buffalo Law Review, Vol. 69, 2021, Pp. 17-28. This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Administrative Law Commons, Legal History Commons, and the Legal Profession Commons Buffalo Law Review VOLUME 69 JANUARY 2021 NUMBER 1 Of Sheepdogs and Ventriloquists: Government Lawyers in Two New Deal Agencies DANIEL R. ERNST† American Legal Realism and Empirical Social Science, John Henry Schlegel’s masterful study of how a circle of American law professors, seeking a professional identity within the modern university, tried on but then discarded the garb of social scientists, performs a very difficult historical feat: it presents its subjects’ thought with great depth and subtlety but also as a means to an end in a fully rendered social setting, the American law school in the first decades of the last century. For any legal historian trying to work out how to write about ideas not just “in the books” but also “in action,” to see them as part of professionals’ quest for authority, and to draw upon sociological theory without derailing a narrative throughline, the book has been an indispensable model. It certainly has been for me as I have studied the lawyers of the New Deal.
    [Show full text]
  • University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright By
    This dissertation has been 64—199 microfilmed exactly as received JOHNSON, William Rudolph, 1933- FARM POLICY IN TRANSITION: 1932, YEAR OF CRISIS. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1963 History, modem University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by WILLIAM RUDOLPH JOHNSON 1963 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE FARM POLICY IN TRANSITION: 1932, YEAR OF CRISIS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY \' WILLIAM R.' JOHNSON Norman, Oklahoma 1963 FARM POLICY IN TRANSITION: 1932, YEAR OF CRISIS APPROVED BY m^/Æ S DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express appreciation to Research Professor Gilbert C, Fite for his invaluable counsel and en­ couragement extended throughout the preparation of this dis­ sertation, A debt of gratitude is also owed to Professors W, Eugene Hoi Ion, Donald J, Berthrong, Kenneth I. Dailey, and Joseph C. Pray, who served on the doctoral committee. Miss Helen T, Finneran of the Agriculture and General Services Branch of the National Archives also provided aid in locating research materials. The author is further indebted to Mrs. Josephine Soukup for the excellent typing of the manuscript. I I I TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page FARMERS AND THE DEPRESSION, 1929-1932 ........................ 1 I I AGRICULTURAL CREDIT; THE CROP LOAN SYSTEM............... 25 I I I THE RELIEF OF AGRICULTURE: A NATIONAL PROBLEM............................................................................................. 53 IV CONGRESS AND FARM RELIEF ............................................ 82 V THE FARMER AS A RADICAL............................................................. 109 VI THE DOMESTIC ALLOTMENT PLAN................................................... 135 VI I FARM POLICY AND THE ELECTION OF 1932............................ 163 VI I I THE DOMESTIC ALLOTMENT PLAN AND THE SECOND SESSION OF THE SEVENTY-SECOND CONGRESS.................
    [Show full text]
  • The FDR Years (Presidential Profiles)
    PRESIDENTIAL PROFILES THE FDR YEARS William D. Pederson Presidential Profiles: The FDR Years Copyright © 2006 by William D. Pederson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record- ing, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pederson, William D., 1946– The FDR Years / William D. Pederson. p. cm. — (Presidential profiles) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5368-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Politicians—United States—Biography. 2. United States—Politics and government—1933–1945. 3. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882–1945—Friends and associates. 4. United States—History—1933–1945— Biography. 5. United States—Biography. I. Title. II. Presidential profiles (Facts on File, Inc.) E747.P43 2006 973.917—dc22 2005016260 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Mary Susan Ryan-Flynn Cover design by Nora Wertz Printed in the United States of America VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS w PREFACE iv INTRODUCTION v BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY A–Z1 APPENDICES Chronology 275 Principal U.S.
    [Show full text]