CATASTROPHE: Greener Pastures

To the White House last week John Farmer of the Midwest looked for help from the drought. After months of dry, parching weather 270,000 families of him and his like were so “bad off” that the President of the U. S. had taken notice and was trying to do something.

Plight. The White House seemed a long way from John Farmer’s withered little acres but he was hopeful. His corn was gone. His well was dry. His pasture was a tinder box. His cows were hungry. His vegetable patch was a mass of brown weeds. His supply of cash was dangerously low. He already owed the county bank more than he could pay this year or next. Typhoid fever had broken out nearby. John Farmer faced a bad winter.

Parley. With high hope John Farmer watched the Governor of his State start for Washington to see the President. At the White House they assembled: Governors Caulfield of Missouri, Emmerson of Illinois. Leslie of Indiana, Cooper of Ohio, Conley of West Virginia, Pollard of Virginia, Weaver of Nebraska, Hammill of Iowa, Reed of Kansas, Erickson of Montana. Republican Governor Flem Sampson of Kentucky wanted to attend but did not dare leave his state lest Lieutenant Governor James E Breathitt. a Democrat, exercise executive authority to make political appointments. Governor Sampson sent Republican Senator John Robsion as his proxy. Governors Horton of Tennessee and Parnell of Arkansas also were represented by proxy.

Proposals. The President opened the conference in the Cabinet room. For three hours they talked. Most of the governors had come to Washington with the idea of securing Federal funds for drought relief. Governor Leslie wanted to borrow a million dollars from the Federal Reserve bank. Senator Robsion proposed that the U. S. underwrite farm tax payments in Kentucky. Governor Cooper asked for a million from any source he could get it. But President Hoover had no Federal cash to give the states. He explained that the Red Cross had made $5,000,000 available for emergency suffering, that the Farm Loan Board might supply $700,000 in credits, but that states and local banks would have to shoulder the major burden of relief for themselves. Some Governors were disappointed but said nothing. President Hoover himself announced the conference results:

Plans. “There are at least 250 counties most acutely affected where some degree of relief must be provided. . . . The burden of effective organization to meet the situation rests primarily upon the counties and states themselves. . . . The objective of such relief is:

“a) To assist families over the winter who are deprived of means of support through failure of their crops.

“b) To prevent unnecessary sacrifice of live stock.

“c) Protection of public health. This is to be accomplished by:

“a) Placing loans privately or where necessary with assistance of state or national agencies.

“b) Red Cross assistance.

“c) Employment.

“d) Reduced rail rates.”

Each Governor, the President explained, was to set up a state relief committee of farm officials, bankers. Red Cross agents, railmen. The state committees, in turn, would organize local committees in each drought-stricken county to deal directly with John Farmer and pass on his claims for relief. The President promised to create a national committee to coordinate the activities of the state committees. It would be up to the state committees to wangle what money they could from Federal agencies.

Secretary of Agriculture Hyde, on the President’s order, as a means of providing employment, made available four months in advance of the regular date $121,875,000 of Federal funds to be apportioned among the states for highway construction. Each state, however, must match its U. S. apportionment dollar for dollar before the cash is released to it. The 13 drought states would have to raise $39,740,718 before they could secure that sum—their share—from the U. S. for emergency road work.

What John Could Do. John Farmer studied these relief plans. He tried to figure how they could be carried out when nobody seemed to have the ready cash to finance them. He finally calculated he could do four things: 1) Join a special cooperative, if and when it was formed in his community, to get feed for his cows on credit from the Federal Farm Board.

2) Go to a county agent for a certificate that he was hard hit by the drought and on the strength of that certificate the local freight agent would give him a 50% rate reduction on feed and hay to be shipped in to him or on his livestock to be shipped out to greener pastures.

3) Apply for work as a day laborer on the roads being built with Federal funds and let his farm go to pot.

4) Go to the Red Cross, say he and his family were starving and get some cash for food.

Best Thing. While John Farmer was wondering which of these things to do, the best thing possible for him (and for his Governor and President) happened. It rained a little. This watered John Farmer’s stock but could not give him back his lost crops. The Weather Bureau at Washington hesitated to say that the week’s showers marked the end of the drought.