Summary of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee's Preliminary Report and Conclusions Submitted during Drought Inspection Trip.

Since January 1, 1933, Federal agencies alone have spent in the Great Plains region on works related to conservation of physical assets, about $140,000,000, not including grants, loans and relief disbursements amounting to approximately $335,000,000.

We offer a basic program at this time because we believe there is general agreement as to the main facts among those most familiar with the situation, and because we are convinced that activities for permanent rehabilitation and reconstruction already undertaken must be speeded up and expanded if the Great Plains area is to avoid a worse disaster than has yet befallen it.

A trip through the drought area, supplementing data already on record, makes it evident that we are not confronted with merely a short-term problem of relief, already being dealt with by several agencies of the Federal Government, but with a long-term problem of readjustment and reorganization.

The agricultural economy of the Great Plains will become increasingly unstable and unsafe, in view of the impossibility of permanent increase in the amount of rainfall, unless over-cropping and overgrazing and improper farm methods are prevented. The future of the region must depend on the degree to which farming practices conform to natural conditions. Because the situation has now passed out of the individual farmer's control, the reorganization of farming practices demands the cooperation of many agencies, including the local, State and Federal Governments.

Our proposals will look toward the greatest possible degree of stabilization of the region's economy, a higher and more secure income for each family, the spreading of the shock of inevitable droughts so that they will not be crushing in their effects, the conservation of land and water, a steadily diminishing dependence on public grants and subsidies, the restoration of credit of individuals and of local and State Governments, and a thoroughgoing consideration of how great a population, and in what areas, the Great Plains can support.

These objectives are not now attainable by individual action, but we believe they will restore an individual independence which has been lost.

The problem of the Great Plains is not the product of a single act of Nature, or of a single year or even a series of exceptionally bad years; it has come into being over a considerable period of time, and time will be required to deal with it.

The basic cause of the present Great Plains situation is an attempt to impose upon the region a system of agriculture to which the Plains are not adapted—to bring into a semi-arid region methods which are suitable, on the whole, only for a humid region.

Extreme instances can be found in which more than 90 percent of the entire net cash income of a wheat farm over twenty years was concentrated in a single year. Yet each year some or all of the wheat land was plowed and the soil exposed to the destructive forces of sun and wind.

Nature and the wheat market combined to make wheat farming highly speculative.

Although the dust storms of 1934 and 1935 have been visible evidence to nearly every American living east of the Rocky Mountains that something is seriously wrong, the extent of erosion on the Great Plains has not yet been accurately determined. It is safe to say that 80 percent is now in some stage of erosion and as much as 15 percent may already have been injured seriously and permanently.

The Federal Government must do its full share in remedying the damage caused by a mistaken homesteading policy, by the stimulation of war-time demands which led to over-cropping and over-grazing, and by encouragement of a system of agriculture which could not be both permanent and prosperous.

Arrest of the wastage of soil by erosion and efficient use of the water resources of the region are basic in any long-range program for the Great Plains Drought Area.

Accomplishment of these two objectives involves engineering, proper agricultural practices, financing and a revision of policies by all public agencies concerned.

The region should be divided into sub-areas and studies should be made to determine the kinds of agricultural practice and engineering treatment required to fit each portion to its indicated use.

Certain sub-marginal lands should be taken permanently out of commercial production.

Soil conserving practices should be followed on arable lands, such as re-grassing, contour plowing, listing, terracing, strip-cropping and the planting of trees. Grazing can often be benefited by contour furrowing and water spreading. Grazing and cropping should be carefully integrated.

Water should never be allowed needlessly to go to waste. In addition to the water conservation which is inherent in soil conserving practices, thousands of small but substantial dams should be constructed. These serve to hold back run-off for use in dry periods, provide a more adequate water supply for stock and help to insure a feed supply by making possible small irrigation systems for groups of families. In many places, flood irrigation by water-spreading is feasible. Some readjustment of water rights appears essential, since it is contrary to the principles of conservation to allow water to be diverted to poor lands when there is not enough to supply neighboring lands of better quality.

The work relief program, the program of major public works and action by farmers themselves, working in cooperating groups, can contribute to the carrying out of this program. Long-term credit must be made available to farmers attempting to help themselves. In addition, public acquisition of lands too seriously injured to warrant restoration by private enterprise should be continued if the change which is urgently needed in the land-use patterns of the region is to be accomplished. Federal, State and county governments should cooperate in this activity.

Land not too far depleted for restoration should be leased or optioned by the Government with the stipulation that the owners carry on an approved program of restoration to grass or forest.

City zoning ordinances should be studied for precedents for public action to protect land against uses held to be harmful to the public interest.

Wherever possible the cooperative principle should be invoked · and encouraged. The Taylor Grazing Act and the grazing regulations in the National Forests and on State lands should be administered with the definite aim of stimulating cooperative grazing associations. Assistance should be offered such grazing associations to prevent overgrazing of their lands.

Local committees should be encouraged, to insure that the wishes and interests of local people receive adequate expression. All governmental agencies should consult and cooperate with these local committees.

All of the proposed activities should be coordinated parts of a well-devised program envisaging the entire region. The emergency is a test of the democratic system which can be met without any exercise of arbitrary power by any agency.

We need to know approximately how many people the region should be expected to support under conditions of scientific agriculture. We need to know to what extent population could voluntarily be relocated with advantage to itself. Aimless intra-regional migrations should not be encouraged; yet in many cases a different grouping might produce happier and more prosperous communities. At present it cannot finally be said whether or not the region can support adequately the population now residing within its limits. In the long run a change from cropping to grazing would undeniably reduce the population of some areas. Nevertheless, it is possible that a sounder agricultural economy, with more opportunities for assured family incomes and higher living standards, might increase subsidiary opportunities for employment. The fundamental purpose of any worth-while program must be not to depopulate the region but to make it permanently habitable. The drift away from the Great Plains has already begun and is likely to continue unless remedial measures are taken without delay.

The regional agriculture must rest on the development of holdings which will actually support a family in independence and comfort. Undoubtedly these holdings must be larger than those now prevailing in many parts of the Plains, while in other parts farmers are attempting cultivation of too much land.

Since tenancy, imposing upon the tenant the necessity of "mining the land," is peculiarly unfitted to conditions now existing on the Great Plains, there would seem to be justification for the use of the public credit to enable competent tenants to purchase and operate their own farms.

We recommend thorough exploration of the possibilities of covering the unavoidable risks resulting from the irregular alternation of good years and bad by some form of insurance. A proposed solution, which studies by the Department of Agriculture indicate may be actuarially sound, calls for the collection of a portion of the surplus in bumper years with repayment in kind during years when crops fall below normal.

We are convinced that in many vital respects the initiative must be taken by the Federal Government. We suggest a study to determine what new Federal legislation, if any, may be necessary in order to permit the central Government to promote the transfer from crop to grass farming where necessary.

We recommend the establishment of a Board, representative of pertinent Federal and State agencies, to integrate and implement the lines of action suggested. The Board should suggest ways in which current relief activities may in considerable measure be made the first steps in the consummation of a long-range program. The various agencies at work in the field should have coterminous areas and the unit should be the county or district composed of several counties.

We endanger our Democracy if we allow the Great Plains or any other section of the country to become an economic desert.