Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2006 Harvest of hazards the farm safety movement, 1940-1975 Derek S. Oden Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Agricultural Education Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Oden, Derek S., "Harvest of hazards the farm safety movement, 1940-1975 " (2006). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 3092. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/3092 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Harvest of hazards the farm safety movement, 1940-1975 by Derek S. Oden A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Agricultural History and Rural Studies Program of Study Committee: Hamilton Cravens, Major Professor Pamela Riney-Kehrberg Amy Bix James Andrews James McCormick Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2006 Copyright © Derek S. Oden, 2006. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 3243574 UMI Microform 3243574 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my parents who have nurtured me since birth and to my ancestors who braved southern Iowa farms and coal mines, some of whom were killed or injured while attempting to provide for their families. Most importantly, this work is dedicated to my wife, Jennifer, and to my son, Luke, to whom all my labors are devoted. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv CHAPTER 1 The Farm Safety Movement: The History of 1 Transforming Tragedy into a Network of Collective Action CHAPTER 2 Igniting the Movement: The Farm Safety Network 11 Emerges Amidst the National Emergency of the Second World War CHAPTER 3 The Uniqueness of Farmstead Safety: Old Hazards 54 and New Dangers Converge in the Countryside CHAPTER 4 Safety and Mechanization: New Machines, New 90 Buildings, and New Hazards CHAPTER 5 The Chemical Revolution and Safety: Fertilizers, 130 Pesticides, Livestock Treatments, and Herbicides CHAPTER 6 Raising Safety Awareness: Farm Safety Advocates 171 Educate in Response to a Complex and Ever- Evolving Issue CHAPTER 7 An Ideal Fit: 4-H, FFA, and the Farm Safety 210 Movement CHAPTER 8 Lawsuits, Institutional Struggles, and Legislation: A 243 More Contentious Environment Characterized the Farm Safety Movement CHAPTER 9 Conclusion 275 REFERENCES CITED 285 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would have been impossible without the support of many people. I would first like to thank many current and former faculty members of the ISU History Department whose personal support and scholarly instruction made immeasurable contributions to my development. The faculty’s professional excellence and commitment to their profession was immediately apparent and brought forth the best in me throughout my years at ISU. I owe special gratitude to Dr. Hamilton Cravens who consistently guided and nurtured me to the successful completion of a doctorate degree. His devoted assistance in my academic training, early teaching experiences, and first publications made success at every stage possible. He also encouraged my pursuance of this topic and provided invaluable advice until its completion. I would also like to thank Dr. Pamela Riney-Kehrberg whose insightful questioning and perceptive suggestions greatly improved my understanding of farm safety and many other agricultural issues. I would have been unable to pursue or complete this project without the prompt and enthusiastic aid of the members of ISU’s Special Collections Department. They were consistently friendly and helpful throughout the long months of researching this topic. I would also like to thank the many fellow graduate students with whom I shared my years at ISU. Their encouragement, humor, and love of the discipline added immeasurable meaning to my journey. Finally, success would have been impossible without my wife; her emotional support and willingness to sacrifice remained intact throughout my graduate training. She also never wavered in helping me to overcome any computer or other technical problems which presented themselves while completing this project. 1 CHAPTER ONE The Farm Safety Movement: The History of Transforming Tragedy into a Network of Collective Action Darrel and Marilyn Adams’ family expected October 15, 1986 to be a typical fall day on their farm near Earlham, Iowa; however, it proved to be one that would change their lives forever. They had decided to allow their son, Keith, to miss school so he could assist his step-father with the corn harvest. In her book, Rhythm of the Seasons: A Journey Beyond Loss, Marilyn recalled the incident. She stated that her son had operated the auger that day, a device which dumps the harvested corn into the grain bin’s top, while her husband drove the combine and emptied the grain into the wagon. Following this process, Keith “would shut off the power, and stand on the wagon’s ladder, watching and waiting for the next load.”1 Tragically while Darrell was harvesting more corn, the youth fell inside the wagon. Adams described the accident and her husband’s futile attempt to save their son. She stated, “Darrell had turned into the barnyard and sensed trouble immediately. Keith wasn’t standing on the ladder rung waiting. The auger was running but corn was only trickling out of the wagon’s side door. Something was blocking the flow. Even before he saw Keith’s leg in the side door, Darrell knew.” Keith had fallen into the wagon and was pulled to the bottom where he suffocated beneath thousands of pounds of grain.2 During the months that followed, Marilyn was almost overwhelmed by her despair. This personal trial involved the numbness of the funeral service and the tortuous 1 Marilyn Adams with Mary Kay Shanley, Rhythm of the Seasons: A Journey Beyond Loss, Marshalltown, Iowa: Sta-Kris, Inc., 1997):12-13. 2 Ibid., 12-13. 2 months of mourning with its many agonizing and unpredictable turns. Marilyn’s depression became so severe that at times she even considered ending her own life as a way to escape her pain. However, even these feelings brought little relief, resulting in only more grief. She stated, “I’d stop the car on the railroad tracks and wait for the train. But what if I only got injured? They’d say I was insane and take my kids away. I’d leave the car running in the garage. But what if the girls found me? I couldn’t do that to them.” Adams also summarized that “[i]t would be a long time, many seasons, before the pieces of my life would come back together, before I would feel whole again.”3 Nevertheless, she did find the inner strength; sadly, others who have encountered such heartbreak have been less fortunate. Decades prior to the Adams’ personal loss, Elmer G. Power, an Iowa farmer, described an incident in which a young man was unable to survive his brother’s accidental death. In his diary, Power commented, “Another tragedy. Two brothers working together about their farm work and one accidentally backing a tractor over and killing the other, then the next day the one who had driven the tractor shot and killed himself.” Powers prophetically added that, “[t]he greatly increased use of tractors will result in more injuries I am afraid.”4 Such stories reveal both the farm accident problem’s seriousness as well as its persistence throughout the twentieth century. Fortunately, Marilyn was not overtaken by her despair, but eventually transformed her sadness into a personal crusade to raise farm safety awareness by establishing the Farm Safety 4 Just Kids organization. By 2003, Marilyn Adams and thousands of other dedicated individuals had created a national organization with an 3 Ibid., 33. 4 H. Roger Grant and L. Edward Purcell ed., Years of Struggle: The Farm Diary of Elmer G. Powers, 1931-1936, Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1976, 100. 3 annual budget of approximately $800,000. The organization’s membership reaches around 50,000 children annually by conducting a variety of creative educational programs. Farm Safety 4 Just Kids’ chapters instruct farm youth throughout the nation about the importance of safety, publish a wide variety of safety materials, and continually evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. The rapid rise of this organization represents one of the more recent developments in a farm safety movement which has existed for over sixty years. An intra-organizational effort, the movement focused more on education than legislation or engineering improvements, particularly in its early decades. Farm Safety 4 Just Kids shares much with the previous efforts of other non-profit organizations which attempted to prevent farm accidents. Such organizations as the National Safety Council, 4-H, Future Farmers of America, as well as many other groups cooperated in mounting a vigorous and cooperative educational effort to inform farm families about the many dangers of the agricultural lifestyle. Farm safety activists enthusiastically joined such efforts and passionately labored to improve farm families’ living and working conditions. Similar to Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, its predecessors depended upon the private sector’s financial contributions to fund their educational effort. Thus, the organization symbolizes how voluntary education efforts played a crucial role in meeting the challenge of improving farm safety throughout the twentieth century.5 I will explore this aspect of the story by investigating and analyzing the educational efforts of safety activists between 1940 and 1970.