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Until
1930, most agriculture workers, and especially the cattlemen, had
retained their independence from government help and interference.
However, the Crash of 1929 ushered in the beginnings of the Great
Depression. By 1931 severe drought set in all across the Great Plains
from Canada to Texas with annual rainfall
averages cut in half from normal.
By 1933, areas in the Southern Plains began to experience dust storms
that eventually grew into the Dust Bowl. Wind velocities often ranged
from thirty to sixty miles per hour, with Amarillo
experiencing 192 "dusters" between January 1933 and February 1936.
Commodity prices dropped approximately 50 percent by 1933 while
taxes and interest rates remained unchanged. A total collapse of
the agricultural industry threatened in spite of efforts by the
Hoover administration and numerous commodity marketing boards. The
situation became so desperate, massive federal action seemed to
be the only alternative for relief.
The inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated a number
of "New Deal" farm programs attending the problems of every phase
of agriculture and assuring everyone the government was aware of
their problems.
Roosevelt's Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933 ushered in voluntary
crop acreage reduction, allotments of crop acreage and extensive
education on changing farming practices. All 26 counties of the
upper Panhandle of
Texas required emergency aid in the form of crop loans in order
for farmers to continue. As the drought wore on, emergency livestock
feed was made available.
In June of 1934, almost as a last resort, Congress authorized a
Drought Relief Service for purchasing drought-stricken cattle. Depending
on weight and condition, the agency would pay $4 to $8 for calves,
$10 to $15 for yearlings, with cows, big steers and bulls bringing
$12 to $20. Those in the worst condition were killed immediately
and buried while others were sent to packing plants for slaughter.
Starting in
June of 1934, the program ran until late January of 1935 with the
government eventually purchasing almost 8.3 million head of livestock
providing $111 million in payments to the livestock owners and their
creditors. In spite of this help which basically saved the industry
from disaster, it refused to extend any cooperation in future government
programs.
I was born
in 1933 and these problems and eventual solutions all came before
my time. But I certainly remember the telling of the tales in later
years about the livestock slaughter program. My parents and grandparents
took their oldest milk cows and an older bull to the government
buying station to be sold and slaughtered. I recall the carcasses
were buried in a local caliche pit.
It is simply
not true that some purchased livestock were driven over cliffs for
slaughter, though tales still survive along that line. I doubt that
law officers were ever needed to control livestock owners at the
buying stations.
I do believe the hides and some meat were taken by families in distress.
At least one case noted people hired for carcass burial were indicted
for theft of meat which was sold for profit.
In review, it was a sad, hard time for all. The New Deal programs
worked, though they often were slow, always changing to meet the
newest crisis, cumbersome to operate and had government strings
attached that no one liked. Those who survived the times bore indelible
marks and memories from the sacrifices and suffering endured.
© Delbert Trew
"It's All Trew" February
7 , 2008 Column
E-mail: trewblue@centramedia.net.
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