5 J 4 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



been afforded to all certified applicants who were in towns and who were 

 able to work. Farm Security Administration grants and loans, Agricultural 

 Adjustment Administration benefit payments, Farm Credit Administration 

 loans, and other types of aid have been extended to farmers. 



Though the activities noted have attained their special objectives and have 

 minimized suffering, they have not contributed to the permanent rehabilita- 

 tion of the area to the degree that now seems possible through coordinated 

 effort. For example, some farmers have been enabled to stay on their farms and 

 to continue cultivating land suited only to grazing. Relief labor, naturally, has 

 been used chiefly for such projects as roads and schools. The people would be 

 little better equipped on the whole to cope with a serious drought next year 

 than they were in 1930. To the greatest degree possible, relief should here- 

 after promote permanent rehabilitation. 



Many families perhaps 20,000 in all have given up the fight during the 

 recent years of distress and have left the Region. Most of the farmers hang on 

 tenaciously with Federal aid, hoping that conditions will improve. Many have 

 moved to the villages and the few cities, where, with Federal assistance, they 

 await opportunities in other regions or the wet year that would enable them 

 to return to their farms and produce a big crop. 



Large-scale evacuation of the Northern Plains, were it practicable, would 

 not solve the basic problems of the Region. Cheap land, the chance for specula- 

 tive gain, the false promise of a few wet years, all these and more would lure 

 new settlers likely to repeat the mistakes of earlier years with similar conse- 

 quences. So far as can be foreseen, the economic and social life of the Region 

 must always depend on agriculture. A type of agriculture suited to the climate, 

 topography, soils, and natural vegetation, involving, in general, larger operat- 

 ing, units, a judicious combination of grazing and feed-crop production, and 

 so far as practicable, supplemental irrigation, should replace the cash-grain and 

 small-scale stock rearing type of agricultural development in the many areas 

 where the latter has failed and cannot succeed. Locally, irrigation projects of 

 considerable size are possible. In short, rehabilitation and stabilization can come 

 only through fundamental readjustments in land utilization. Immediate action 

 for rehabilitation is essential; continued action through years will be needed. 



The committee conceded that what progress had been made in the area 

 had been of limited extent and slow of execution, and expressed the fear 

 that a prolonged European war would undo what progress had been 

 made. "A sharp rise in the price of wheat, accompanied perhaps by the 

 false promise of a series of generous rains, might tempt the Plainsmen 

 again to overcultivate in the hope of speculative gain. Constant vigilance 



