5 10 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



aid was coordinated, so it was said, with other parts of the farm program 

 such as soil conservation, crop loans, surplus-disposing facilities, and mar- 

 keting agreements to make it possible for "the neediest, most handicapped 

 farm families [to] get a new start toward self-support." Instead of the 

 government's making grants of food or money to these people, as it was 

 compelled to do in the earlier days of the New Deal, it would lend them 

 the tools and livestock they needed, and thus help put into operation a 

 system which, in the long run, would be cheaper economically and 

 socially. 



In 1935 the Resettlement Administration was set up to help the low- 

 income farmers. The operations of this agency were expanded until in 

 1937 it was absorbed by the Farm Security Administration, which de- 

 veloped a major rehabilitation program in the face of bitter opposition 

 to fight rural poverty. 19 But no matter how much was attempted or how 

 good the intentions were, what was accomplished was a far cry from the 

 actual needs of this distressed lot. 



When a farmer applied to the Farm Security Administration for help, 

 the first step taken by the local authorities was to find out why the farmer 

 was in difficulties. Inevitably, this would lead into matters that not too 

 many years back the average farmer would have considered no one else's 

 business but his own. The F.S.A. would probe into such matters as whether 

 the farmer had a satisfactory long-term lease, whether he was protecting 

 his soil properly, whether he was faced with ruin because of one-crop 

 farming, whether he had the tools and livestock that he needed, whether 

 he was keeping his expenses down by raising his own food, whether his 

 wife was canning enough vegetables to feed the family during the winter 

 months, whether some neglected illness was keeping him from doing 

 his best work, whether he needed more acreage in order to make a living, 

 and whether he was making the best use of the land that he farmed. 

 Once the answers to these questions had been found, the F.S.A. super- 

 visors would sit down with the farmer and his wife and work out a plan 

 to help the individual farm family out of its difficulties. No two cases 

 were alike, because every low-income family had a different set of 

 problems. 20 



19. U. S. Dept. Agri., Farm Security Administration, Farm Security Adminis- 

 tration (Washington, 1941), pp. 9-10. 



20. Ibid., p. 10; for a typical criticism and liberal defense of F.S.A. activities in 



