Evening star., 1935-03-26
TUGWELL T0PUSH
WEST DUST FIGHT.
Also Lays Plan to Spend
$50 Millions for Re-
habiIitation.

Dr. ReXford Guy Tugwell, Under
secretary of Agriculture, today took
charge of the administration fight
against the rayages of dust storm and
drought as the Soil Erosion Service
moved to his department from the
Department of Interior.
At once he launched plans for
spending the $350,00o. 900 for Western
farm area rehabilitation provided in
the pending works relief bill. There
were other reports that Tugwell might
direct the whole Government policy
for use of land.
Already under Tugwells lea the
Agriculture Departments Forest Serv-
Ice is combating the winds denudation
of the plains country.
H. c. Bennett, director Of the Soil
Erosion Service, who will work now
directly under Tugwell. prepared to
spend s4O,O0O,o00 a year to save the
wind-bared area.
F. E. r. A. Agencies to Aid.
The far-f1ung campaign will be
waged in close cooperation with the
Federal Emergency Relief Administra-
tion's submarginal land reclamation
and rural rehabilitation activities, on
which Harry L. Hopkins, relief ad-
ministrator. is spending $l0,000.00
throughout the country in every State.
Tugwell was seen also today as a
leading candidate for supervisor Of
the Mississippi Valley development
planned under the National Resources
Board last Fall at the request of
President Roosevelt.
Immediate action on this MiSSis-
sippi Valley plan, however, probably
will be delayed in order to concentrate
on the reclamation of the drought
stricken districts.
Two-Fold Plan Told.
Meanwhile, administration agencies
announced a two-fold plan for imme-
diate relief of the dust areas:
l. Lawrence Westbrook, deputy re-
lief administrator, assured Gov. ALT
M. Landon Of Kansas he would rec
ommend that Hopkins allot relief
funds to wage $750,000 campaign to
abate the recent dust storms which
have caused numerous deaths and
hurled topsoil from the Midwest to
the Atlantic.
2. The A. A. A. prepared to permit
farmers in excessively dry areas to
ignore wheat contract provisions re-
quiring planting. At the same time
it put limit on acreage increases to
be allowed to contract signers.
Representative Coffee, Democrat,
Nebraska, told Secretary Wallace soil
in Western Nebraska was so dry that
it would be waste of seed for farm
ers to try to plant Spring wheat.
Landon proposed listing now drift
ing soil into low barriers to break the
force of the winds which now blow
the topsoil helter-skelter.
Could Use 10000 Tractors.
He has in mind immediate concen-
tration of 10000 privately and pub
licly owned tractors in sections where
the loose soil is heaving and drifting
before the wind.
Although the Kansas Governor
spoke only for his own State, his plan
contemplates similar and simultaneous
action in the Panhandles of Texas and
Oklahoma, Eastern Colorado and
Nebraska. The broad area includes
7 500 900 acres.
With favorable report on his sug-
gestion from the Relief Administration,
Landon prepared to confer this after
noon with Tugwell on co-ordinating
work of the soil erosion bureau with
local governmental set-ups in all dust
and drought affected States.
Soil Erosion Service Chief Bennett
declared 800 young college graduates
are ready to drive his program in vari-
GUS parts of the West as soon as the
works relief money is assigned him
Bennett now has only enough money
from an original P. w. A. allotment to
last him to June 16, he said today.