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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John’s Road. Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 BHR 7824618 WEBB,’ DAVID DEAN FARMERS, PROFESSORS AND MONEY: AGRICULTURE AND THE BATTLE FOR MANAGED MONEY# 1920.1941. THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA# PH.D.# 1978 UnKJniversiW Mkircxiirns Imemational s o o n z e e b r o a d , A N N a r b o r , m i 4S106 0 1978 DAVID DEAN WEBB ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE UNIVERSITY OF .OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE FARMERS, PROFESSORS AND MONEY: AGRICULTURE AND THE BATTLE FOR MANAGED MONEY, 1920-1941 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fu lfillm e n t of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY DAVID DEAN WEBB Norman, Oklahoma 1978 FARMERS, PROFESSORS AND MONEY: AGRICULTURE AND THE BAHLE FOR MANAGED MONEY, 1920-1941 APPR^VEÎ^ BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like the inflationists, this work has incurred a number of debts. Professor Gilbert C. Fite originally suggested the topic, encouraged me to pursue the subject and provided invaluable assistance on the firs t four chapters. Professor H. Wayne Morgan assumed direction of the dissertation at a crucial stage. His patience, criticism and styl is tic suggestions are largely responsible fo r whatever merit the study possesses. I also wish to thank my dissertation committee. Dr. Russell Buhite, Dr. Norman Crockett, Dr. A rrell M. Gibson and Dr. Jonathan W. Spurgeon, fo r th e ir suggestions. Preparation of this study was enhanced by the professionalism of a number of archivists and librarians. Elizabeth B. Drewry, Direc tor of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; Jack Haley of the Division of Manuscripts at the Univesrity of Oklahoma; Harry Graham, Legislative Representative of the National Grange, Washington, D. C .; W. E. Hamil ton, Director, Research and Commodities A ctivities Division, American Farm Bureau Federation, Chicago, Illin o is ; Elfrieda Lang, Curator of Manuscripts, Indiana University; Joy K. Lehman, Librarian, National Farmers Union, Denver, Colorado; Dorothea Ray, Librarian, Central State University; and Joseph W. Snell, Assistant State Archivist, Kansas State Historical Society, offered me their full cooperation. Special mention must be made of Miss Kathleen Jack!in. Associate Curator and Archivist, and Douglas A. Bakken, Associate Curator, i i i Collection of Regional History and University Archives, Cornell Univer s ity . Both extended themselves to arrange interviews and gather the appropriate manuscript material essential to this study. Appreciation must also be expressed to those who granted me permission to examine manuscript collections under th e ir control: C lifford Hope, fo r permission to review his papers at the Kansas State Historical Society; Mrs. Fanny Scott Rumely, fo r permission to use her husband's papers at Indiana University; Mrs. Frank Gannett, for per mission to examine the Frank Gannett Papers at Cornell University; and to Lester W. Martin, fo r approval to research the Dairymen's League Papers at Cornell University. I must acknowledge my gratitude to colleagues at Central State University and especially to Dr. Richard Peters, Chairman, Department of History, who permitted me to escape some departmental duties that might have interfered with the completion of this work. This manuscript also owes a debt to its exacting ty p ist, Mrs. Rita McGinnis. Finally, I must express appreciation to my family for their patience and loyalty throughout the duration of this project. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS PROLOGUE: THE AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION OF 1920 .................................... 1 Chapter I . THE CRIME OF 1920: THE FARMER AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE rnwcDTDArv m v tu q I I . UNCLE REUBEN IN WASHINGTON: THE FARMER LOBBY FOR EASY CREDIT. 1920 ....................................................................................... 48 I I I . FARMERS AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR EASY MONEY, 1 9 2 1 ......................... 63 IV. THE BAHLE FOR ACCOMMODATION: FARMERS AND MONETARY POLICY, 1922-1923 95 V. AGRICULTURE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MONETARY THEORY, 1920-1930 ............................................................................................. 127 VI. FARMERS AND THE DEMAND FOR INFLATION DURING THE HOOVER ADMINISTRATION ...................................................................... 159 V II. FROM NEW ERA TO NEW DEAL: FARMERS AND THE DRIVE FOR INFLATION DURING THE WINTER, 1932-1933 ......................................... 199 V III. INFLATION'S NEW DEAL: FARMERS, ROOSEVELT AND REFLATION, MARCH 4-JULY 27, 1933 ................................................................... 236 IX. INFLATION MIRAGE: FARMERS AND NEW DEAL MONETARY POLICY, JULY 1933 TO JUNE 1934 ................................................................... 272 X. INFLATIONISTS DEFLATED: FARMERS AND NEW DEAL MONETARY POLICY, 1934 AND 1935 ..................................................................... 317 XI. FROM THE BATTLE FOR INFLATION TO INFLATION BY WAR: FARMERS, THE NEW DEAL AND MONEY, 1936-1941 ................................... 376 EPILOGUE...................................................................................................................429 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY ..................................................................................... 432 PROLOGUE THE AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION OF 1920 “This cock-eyed world," a favorite expression of Americans a fte r world War I put into words th e ir general puzzlement with a world gone awry. Mark Sullivan, chronicler of the era, called the world of 1920 "unbalanced" and America "unhappy."^ New York banker Paul Warburg, sim ilarly disenchanted, observed in January 1922, "During the long months of the struggle, we often wondered how the world could finan cially and economically endure another year of the horrors and waste of the War. Since the Armistice we have often wondered how i t could p survive another year of this kind of peace." Indeed, few things worked out w ell—the war, the peace, the economy. No wonder "normalcy," with its nostalgia proved invincible in 1920. The economy seemed especially "cock-eyed" as the nation fretted over the high cost of post-war liv in g —an economic pain most newspapers abbreviated to "h.c.l." As consumers revolted against the more than 100 percent increase in the cost of living since 1914, "h.c.l." mani fested its e lf in buyers and renters strikes.^ Housewives paid 30# Mark Sullivan, Our Times: The United States, 1900-1925, Vol. VI: The Twenties (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935), pp. 2, 155. 2paul M. Warburg,.The Federal Reserve System: Its Origin and Development, Vol. I I (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930), p. 753. ^New York Times, 22 August 1920, I I , p. 2. 1 2 rather than lO i a pound fo r sugar, and shoes which before the war sold for $3 brought $10 to $12 in 1920.4 consumers resorted to almost s illy extremes in their demands that "profiteering" stop. In New York City, housewives staged a boycott to force down the price of meat, and the New York Times praised citizens for refusing to buy at "skyscraping" prices.5 Beginning in the South and spreading throughout the nation, men demonstrated th eir concern with a symbolic donning of cotton over alls instead of woolen suits. Frugality became fad as the "overalls brigade" invaded church services on Easter Sunday. Georgia Congressman W illie Upshaw even appeared in the new fashion on the flo or of Congress.G William Gibbs McAdoo, former Secretary of the Treasury, was photographed with suspiciously new-looking patches adorning his expen sive trousers.7 Not to be outdone. Governor Frank