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“Reform” Social Darwinists and Measuring Levels of Living on American Farms, 1920–1926

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Harry C. McDean
Harry C. McDean
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182
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Abstract

The first measurements in the 1920s of living standards of American farmers were not outgrowths of mere curiosity. As implemented by a new breed of social scientist in the USDA's Bureau of Agricultural Economics, especially Ellis Kirkpatrick, they were instruments of social Darwinism: keep the “higher” or “cerebral” type of farmer down on the farm by paying him parity prices.

Type
Papers Presented at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 79 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1983

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References

1 Taylor, Henry C., An Introduction to the Study of Agricultural Economics (New York, 1920), preface and pp.1'12 102'Galpin, Charles Josiah, Rural Life (New York, 1918), pp. 30–35.Google Scholar

2 Ibid. For a complete statement of this composed by the nation's leading economists, see “Committee called for consideration and discussion of the subject of Farm Life Studies …,” report to Honorable D. F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture, May 3, 1919, Record Group 83, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (henceforth NA RG 83).

3 More on this may be found in McDean, Harry C., “Professionalism, Policy, and Farm Economists in the Early Bureau of Agricultural Economics,” Agricultural History, 57 (01 1983).Google Scholar

4 “Prices and Parity,” files in O. C. Stine, Division of Statistical and Historical Research, Bureau of Agricultural Research, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

5 Conference held in office of Mr. Taylor, Oct. 17, 1921, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

6 Kirkpatrick's, study was published as “The Standard of Life in a Typical Section of Diversified Farming,” New York Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 423 (Ithaca, 1923).Google Scholar

For the historical evolution of farm family living studies, see Williams, Faith, “History of Studies of Family Living,” in USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 223 (Washington, D.C., 12. 1935), pp. 6“13.Google Scholar

7 U.S. Department of Agiculture, Burean of Agricultural Research. “The Division of Farm Population and Rural Life: an outline of its establishment, staff, cooperative policy, research problems, publications,” mimeo, June 1, 1924, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

8 See note 6. For the long-term significance of Kirkpatrick's scale, see Duncan, Otis D., “Contemporary Sociological Research in Farm Family Living,” Rural Sociology, 6 (1941), 11“14.Google Scholar

9 U.S. Department of Agriculture, “The Division of Farm Population.” Charles J. Galpin, memorandum to Mr. Schoenfeld, March 26, 1924, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

10 Ibid.;Conference held in office of Mr. Taylor,Oct. 17, 1921, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

11 U.S. Department of Agriculture, press release, Oct. 26, 1922, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

12 Galpin, C. J., “Farm People and Rural Institutions,” NA RG 83; U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Villages Found Unattractive in Study by Government,” press release, Feb. 11, 1925, NA RG 83; Farm Population and Rural Life, reports of projects underway: “Movements of Population to and from Farms,” 1919 and 1923, mimeo, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

13 Taylor, H. C., memorandum for the Secretary, June 1, 1923, NA RG 83; C. J. Galpin, memorandum to Dr. Taylor, Oct. 4, 1922, NA RG 83;Google ScholarKirkpatrick, Ellis Lore, The Farmer's Standard of Living (New York, 1929), pp. 47–49;Google ScholarKirkpatrick, E. L. to Mr. Olsen, 09 9, 1926, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

14 Wilson, M. L. to Cresap, D. R., Dec. 29, 1923, Milburn Lincoln Wilson Papers, Montana State University Library, Bozeman, Montana. Remarks by Dr. Taylor, undated typescripts; M. L. Wilson to Dr. George Wehrwein, June 4, 1924; and Wilson to H. C. Taylor, Feb. 25, 1924, all in Fairway Farms Papers, Montana State University Library.Google Scholar

15 “The Farmer's Standard of Living: Suggestive Project Proposed as Meeting the Terms of the Purnell Act,” and accompanying field schedules, NA RG 83.Google Scholar

16 Kirkpatrick, E. L., “The Farmer's Standard of Living: A Socio-Economic Study of 2,886 White Farm Families of Selected Localities in 11 States,” USDA Bulletin No. 1466 (Washington, D.C., 1926);Google Scholar“The Relation Between the Ability to Pay and the Standard of Living Among Farmers; A Socio-Economic Study of 861 Farm Families of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas,” USDA Bulletin No. 1382 (Washington, D.C., 1926).Google Scholar

17 For further reading on this, see McDean, Harry C., “The ‘Okie’ Migration as a Socio-Economic Necessity in Oklahoma,” Red River Valley Historical Review, 3 (Winter 1978), 77–92.Google Scholaridem, , “Federal Farm Policy and the Dust Bowl: The Half-Right Solution,” North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains, 40 (Summer 1980), 21–31;Google Scholar and idem, , “Social Scientists and Canadian and American Policy Toward Chronic Farm Poverty in the Great Plains,” Great Plains Quarterly, 3 (Winter 1983), 279–91.Google Scholar