17,394
edits
Changes
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (view source)
Revision as of 08:59, August 31, 2009
, 08:59, August 31, 2009add details and cite
The '''Agricultural Adjustment Administration''' (AAA) was the largest of many farm programs under the [[New Deal]]. The goal was to increase the flow of income to farmers. The first AAA lasted 1933-35; the second one 1935-42.
The '''Agricultural Adjustment Administration''' (AAA) was the largest of many farm programs under the [[New Deal]]. The goal was to increase the flow of income to farmers. The first AAA lasted 1933-35; the second one 1938-41.
Both versions of AAA was designed primarily to solve the economic crisis in rural America--farmers had too little money because they produced too much and the prices they received were very low.
The AAA was led by George Peek and Chester Davis, under the general supervision of Secretary [[Henry C. Wallace]]. When leftwing elements in the AAA tried to slip through provisions to build a political base among sharecroppers, they were immediately fired by Davis, with the explicit approval of Wallace and President Roosevelt.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) (P.L. 73-10 of May 12, 1933) restricted production by reducing crop acreage and animal production. The first AAA used the "domestic allotment" system to tell farmers how many acres to use. Producers of corn, cotton, dairy products, hogs, rice, tobacco, and wheat would decide on production limits for their output. Every farmer was told how much of their land to use. Farmers rented their unused their land directly to the government and were paid for that. They were not allowed to grow crops on this rented land, and if any had started in spring 1933 they had to be plowed over. A farmer could refuse to participate, but then would have a 50% tax on his sales. They all participated. Processors had to pay a new tax to the federal government, which was used for the rental payments to farmers. The rental income was new cash into rural America. More important, the farm output was lower so the prices of crops and animals increased, thus solving the problem of very low crop prices.
The AAA implemented a provision for crop reductions known as the "domestic allotment" system of the act. Under this system producers of corn, cotton, dairy products, hogs, rice, tobacco, and wheat would decide on production limits for their crops. The AAA would then pay land owners subsidies for leaving some of their land idle with funds provided by a new tax on food processing. Farm prices were to be subsidized up to the point of "parity". "Parity" was the relationship between urban and rural costs that prevailed in 1910, in the "golden age" of farming. Some crops were ordered to be destroyed and some livestock slaughtered to maintain prices. The idea was that the less produced, the higher the price, and the farmer would benefit.
The AAA was led by George Peek and Chester Davis, under the general supervision of Agriculture Secretary [[Henry C. Wallace]]. When left-wing elements in the AAA tried to slip through provisions to build a political base among sharecroppers, they were immediately fired by Davis, with the explicit approval of Wallace and President Roosevelt.
The goal was to increase farm prices up to the point of "parity". "Parity" was the relationship between urban and rural costs that prevailed in 1910-14, in the "golden age" of farming.
Farm incomes increased significantly in the first three years of the New Deal. Consumers paid higher prices than in 1932-33, but food was still 25% lower in price than in the 1920-31 period. A Gallup Poll revealed that a majority of the American public opposed the AAA, but the majorities existed in Congress to pass it. The AAA established an important and long-lasting federal role in the planning on the entire agricultural sector of the economy.
===Sharecroppers===
One criticism from the left was that in the South the AAA favored rich landowners over the impoverished tenant farmers and sharecroppers. The allegation was false but was widely spread in history books. (The AAA required land owners to maintain the same number of tenants and croppers as before.) There were other New Deal programs focused on the needs of tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
One criticism from the left was that in the South the AAA favored rich landowners over the impoverished tenant farmers and sharecroppers. The allegation was false but was widely spread in history books. (The AAA required land owners to maintain the same number of tenants and croppers as before.) There were other New Deal programs focused on the needs of tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
In 1933-35 there was a group of leftist lawyers in the Agriculture department, led by Jerome Frank. They were on the far left and several were secret Communists or fellow travelers.<ref>One who later became infamous as a Soviet spy was [[Alger Hiss]].</ref> They wanted to use the New Deal farm program to redistribute income and power AMONG farmers--they favored the tenant farmers and sharecroppers as opposed to the farm owners. (The "conservatives" wanted to redistribute wealth away from the cities to the farmers, meaning farm owners.) The AAA head was Chester Davis, a "conservative" who strongly distrusted the leftists. The "conservative" position was that (in cotton) a landowner had to keep the "same number" of croppers. The red position was the landowner had to keep the same number ''and the same people'' as croppers. The radical solution would have the effect of locking the croppers to a piece of land--something like serfdom did in old regime Europe. The radicals wanted that so they could eventually build a stable base of voters among the croppers (who otherwise moved so often they seldom could be mobilized.)
One day in early 1935 Davis was on a trip and the legal office got the acting head to send out a ruling (written by Hiss) that protected tenant farmers in cotton. Davis was outraged as were southern farm owners, the Farm Bureau (the main national organization of farmers) and politicians. Davis got approval from Wallace and in Feb. 1935 fired the main leaders. The leftists appealed to Wallace and FDR but they approved the purge. <ref> Lawrence J. Nelson, "The Art of the Possible: Another Look at the 'Purge' of the AAA Liberals in 1935.' ''Agricultural History'' 1983 57(4): 416-435. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3742633 in JSTOR]</ref>
The radical plan failed in the AAA because of the 1935 purge, but then Tugwell, forced out of the AAA, and other leftists tried to mobilize the croppers and tenants through two new agencies, the "Resettlement Administration" (RA) and the "[[Farm Security Administration]]" (FSA). Their efforts failed because the tenants wanted money to buy land and become landowners and the reds saw that meant losing the proletariat. During World War II most of the sharecroppers and tenants (white and black) left farming and moved to town for much better paying jobs.
==Goals==
==Goals==