Much of the slaughtered meat was diverted to feed the unemployed, by order of the President. This involvement of the Government in the handling of surplus commodities became the nucleus of the Federal School Lunch program.
Much of the slaughtered meat was diverted to feed the unemployed, by order of the President. This involvement of the Government in the handling of surplus commodities became the nucleus of the Federal School Lunch program.
The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armour of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. -- John Dos Passos
Dunno about that as I wasn't there.His description was they herded the animals into prepared ditches and shot them. Then they were burned and buried. I will mention there was a large "black leg" epidemic here in those days. But he stated all they saw were healthy animals. When I asked why, he simply said "to drive up the price of beef" and left it at that. I'm sure there were exceptions to everything. Especially in areas where transportation, etc., could be a bit problematic.
"on the town . . . . on the campus . . . . for leisure and pleasure, smoking a Kaywoodie Pipe is, more than ever, the badge of the modern masculine male" (Kaywoodie ad, circa 1960).
Some of the problem that led to the Dust Bowl. Prices were dropping so farmers tried planting more to make up the difference. "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan is a good read about the Dust Bowl.
Let people starve?Originally Posted by LizzieMaine
As pointed out above, much of the surplus commodities were taken over by the government and redistributed to the unemployed. The real failure in this situation was not in Government action, but in an unregulated system of commodity speculation which had the net effect of forcing farmers to sell their crops at less than the cost of production. The AAA was intended to -- and did, for the most part -- correct this imbalance. The alternative was a violent revolution against the system on the part of the farmers -- a revolution which was already beginning to smoulder by the time the AAA was implemented. In the Midwest, the Farmers Holiday Association committed numerous acts of terrorism in 1932-33, ranging from blowing up railroad tracks and derailing trains and blockading highways, to the attempted lynching of a judge. These men weren't fooling around, and had the AAA not been implemented much of farm country might very well have gone up in smoke. A lot more people would have starved had that happened.
"Let's hold a Farmer's Holiday!
A Holiday we'll hold!
We'll eat our wheat and ham and eggs
And let them eat their gold!"
-- Anthem of the Farmers' Holiday Association
Last edited by LizzieMaine; 04-03-2012 at 09:15 AM.
The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armour of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. -- John Dos Passos
That's a new one on me, thanks.
The wartime diary of Kriegsmarine Oberleutnant z.S. Max von Zatorski.
https://www.facebook.com/SeeklarDiaries
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