Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-29
GREAT DROUGHT LEAVES
BIG NATIONAL PROBLEM
Secretary Hyde Tells How Confidence
Is Being Revived Among the
Stricken Farmers.
Continued From Third Page.l

with the eye. 1t is need readily ap-
parent, for instance, to a member OF
our drought relief organization who
drove a week or two ago from one
Arkansas community to another, to
make available in every one the means
for rehabilitation supplied by the Fed
eral Government. He stopped his car
to pick up and carry on his way man
who, as he quantity expressed 1t, was
''thumbing" his way to point about
100 miles distant-the "thumbing" re-
ferring to the wayfarer's method Of in
dicating to passing motorists that he
would like to be carried on.
The man picked up was farmer
going to the bedside of his dying father.
The son had only small farm. from
which all vestige of a crop had disap-
borrowed from the bank in a nearby
community, giving a lien on the crop,
which failed to materialize, and on his
farm equipment, including mules. When
the bank failed, like many others in the
drought-stricken country, there was no
place to obtain money or credit. The
storekeepers were unable to extend fur
ther credit for food, for seed, for fer
tilizer, for anything needed TO make
another crop and keep the farmers
family alive. Their own capital was all
bank which had failed. The farmer
was able to get some work from time to
time at low hourly rate on road and
bridge construction, and the Red Cross
had come to his aid with money for
food and clothing for his family.
The farmer was worried about his
fathers illness, but he was even more
worried about his familys future. He
explained that he had worked hard and
had done the utmost possible to make
O crop the previous Summer. He told
of a neighbor, 20 years old, who had
operated farm for more than so years,
and who for the first time in all that
period had not even been able to raise
enough corn and other feed to take care
of his own live stock. There were
plenty of others in the neighborhood
who, like himself, didn't know how or
where they could raise enough money
or credit for seed, for fertilizer. for
necessary tools and repair parts, for
chinery, for feed for the mules, horses,
chickens and cows that were absolutely
essential to farm operation and the
family's subsistence.
Owners without Resources.
The man told Of a number Of tenant
farmers, owning nothing themselves, but
willing and able to raise a crop this
year If they could get a stake" for ex-
penSeS until garden truck and cash
crops, like Strawberries, came in. In
previous years they had been financed
by the owners Of the land, but the own
ers themselves were without resources
because Of the bank failures.
To this man the chance meeting with
the representative of the Governments
drought relief organization was nothing
less than q God-send for he was given
assurance that cash loan would be
made available to him Immediately
upon his return from his fathers home.
He said that he had nothing to Dor
row on; everything's mortgaged"-and
was informed that the Government in
this case simply would require lien on
the new crop, the loan to be paid out
Of the money realized from the 1881
crop. Almost as surprising to the farmer
as the fact that he was eligible to OBJ
tain loan was the information that 1t
would be available in cash, for actual
money in the neighborhood had been
almost as scarce as the proverbial hens
teeth since the closing of the banks
The farmer had been taking eggs to the
merchants in town and receiving as
little as is cents a dozen, not in cash,
but in credit for the purchase of canned
The whole spirit of the chance pas
senger changed when he found that
within 10 days or two weeks he would
have the means TO make another crop
1t was as II q towering mountain that
had blocked his path had been removed
suddenly. He began TO talk Of what
he would plant, how he intended to Gull
tiVate his crop this year, what he would
put IN the garden patch, and what
needed fixing" and how he would make
the repairs
This is not an Isolated case, nor an
unusual one. In nearly 80 States there
has been acute distress, either locally or
generally, because of an unprecedented
weather condition. The drought pre-
sented national problem such as has
not been encountered previously in this
country. Droughts there had been,
when whole States and even groups Of
several States were disastrously affected
and large numbers of their people re-
duced almost to the verge of starvation.
But never before had the lack of rain
covered such period or such a vast
expanse Of normally moist and produc-
tive agricultural territory.
Temperatures AbnormaIy High.
In l6 States during the growing sea-
son from June to August-including
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West
Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio,
Michigan, Indiana. Illinois, Missouri,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana
and Mississippi-the average precipita-
ton was only 81 per cent Of normal.
Not even one State east of the Rocky
Mountains had as much as normal
rainfall for this period of the three
principal growing months, and half a
-
much rain as normally fell Further
more. there were abnormally high tenn
peratures. which virtually burned up
the crops. Even in States and areas
where there was rain in any quantity
It managed to fall at the wrong time!
And the drought hung on and on,
even beyond the growing season, drying
out the subsoil, leaving wells mere dusty
pits, making hillsides useless for the
grazing Of cattle and other live stock.
Ohio affords a fair sample Of conditions
which existed up to February / In an
area which had continued dry for many
months. In that State rainfall had
been deficient for IL consecutive months,
with the total for the period being only
So per cent Of normal, and ending with
January Of this year the driest on
record. Another example Of the extreme
degree Of the drought is afforded by the
local record at st. Louis. where the
rainfall for December and January
established a new low record for nearly
100 years, or since records began in
1887.
This was not the only exceptional
weather situation that created an I'M
precedented agricultural problem for
the National Government A large area
affected by the drought had been almost
Ilry he ID 1SFy
floods. In the South a group Of States
was struggling toward economic re-
covery from previous storms and foods
which had destroyed lives, homes, crops
and live stock.
Relief a ThankIesS Job.
The task of affording relief 70 the
-