Farm Security Administration

Examples of Farm Security Administration in the following topics:

• Relief for the Unemployed

  • To Public Works Administration was established to finance major public works throughout the United States.
  • Major programs that addressed their needs included the Resettlement Administration (RA) and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).
  • The first 100 days of his presidency produced the Farm Security Act to raise farm incomes by raising the prices farmers received, which was achieved by reducing total farm output.
  • The act reflected the demands of leaders of major farm organizations and reflected debates among Roosevelt's farm advisers.
  • The Farm Tenancy Act was created, which in turn created the Farm Security Administration (FSA), replacing the Resettlement Administration.

• Agricultural Initiatives and Recovery

  • The demand and resulting prosperity encouraged bigger farms to invest in the most recent technological advances.
  • One of the main goals of Roosevelt's administration was to control (lower) agricultural production and increase prices.
  • The money for the subsidies were to be generated from tax imposed on companies that processed farm products.
  • Farm Security Administration (FSA, created originally as the Resettlement Administration in 1935): Aimed to combat poverty in the countryside.
  • It is estimated that REA increased the rate of farms with access to electricity from 10% to around 40%.

• Neglected Americans and the New Deal

  • Neither farm nor domestic labor, two sectors where African Americans constituted substantial labor force, were covered under NIRA.
  • Similarly, the original version (later amended) of the 1935 Social Security Act did not provide old-age pensions for farm and domestic workers.
  • Black workers participated in all the major programs that created employment, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration.  
  • The Farm Security Administration, the major New Deal agency established to combat rural poverty, reached out to a much more substantial number of black farmers, tens of thousands of whom received agricultural loans.
  • Even the 1935 Social Security Act (SSA) heavily discriminated against women.

• Relief and Conservation Programs

  • At that time, the federal government provided no safety net: there was no unemployment insurance, no Social Security, and no welfare.
  • The Roosevelt administration oversaw the creation of the Resettlement Administration (RA) and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).
  • In 1933, the Administration launched the Tennessee Valley Authority, a project involving dam construction on an unprecedented scale in order to curb flooding, generate electricity, and modernize the very poor farms in the Tennessee Valley region of the Southern United States.
  • The New Deal included some of the first national welfare programs, including Social Security, passed in August of 1935 and still in operation today.
  • The Social Security Act was an attempt to create a safety net against economic dangers such as old age, poverty, and unemployment.

• Launching the New Deal

  • The creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933).
  • Among many initiatives, AAA provided farm subsidies in exchange for curbed agricultural production (farmers would not cultivate all of the land on their farms) and manipulated farm product prices by buying and temporary withholding products from the market.
  • National Recovery Administration (1933) allowed industries to create codes that would regulate and curb unfair competition.
  • The Social Security Act (1935) established the welfare system by providing financial support for dependent minors, the disabled, and the elderly (old-age pensions).
  • A poster publicizing Social Security benefits, author unknown, late 1930s/early 1940s

• Government During the War

  • Prior to secession, the South had resisted policies that would hurt the plantation economy, including tariffs to promote industry and land grants for family farms.
  • Treasury securities.
  • Railroads were also encouraged to sell tracts for family farms at low prices with extended credit.
  • The 1862 Homestead Act opened up public-domain lands for family farms at no cost.
  • Congress addressed military concerns such as control of state militias, conscription and exemption, and economic and fiscal policy, and supported the Davis administration in foreign affairs and peace negotiations.

• Competing Solutions

  • The creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933).
  • Among many initiatives, AAA provided farm subsidies in exchange for curbed agricultural production (farmers would not cultivate all of the land on their farms) and manipulated farm product prices by buying and temporary withholding products from the market .
  • The program was replaced by the Works Progress Administration in 1935.
  • The Social Security Act (1935) established financial support for dependent minors, the disabled, and the elderly.
  • Photograph of Works Progress Administration Worker Receiving Paycheck, Records of the Work Projects Administration, National Archives

• Central America

  • The Carter administration dropped the future dictator from its payroll, but he was reinstated by the Reagan administration; his salary peaked in 1985 at $200,000.
  • On May 1, 1985, President Reagan announced that his administration perceived Nicaragua to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" and declared a "national emergency" and a trade embargo against Nicaragua.
  • During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of weapons to Iran, which at the time was the subject of an arms embargo.
  • Under the direction of the C.I.A., the largest Contra army, the Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense (FDN), attacked farms, cooperatives, schools, health clinics, and other civilian targets.
  • Official seal of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, also known as the School of the Americas

• Peacetime Politics

  • The act also created the CIA and the National Security Council.
  • The Truman administration did go considerably beyond the New Deal in the area of civil rights.
  • A Census report confirmed that gains in housing, education, living standards, and income under the Truman administration were unparalleled in American history.
  • Farm income, dividends, and corporate income were at all-time highs, and there had not been a failure of an insured bank in nearly nine years.
  • The minimum wage had also been increased while Social Security benefits had been doubled, and 8 million veterans had attended college by the end of the Truman administration as a result of the G.I.

• The Fair Deal

  • Because Congress was dominated by conservatives during the Truman administration, however, major Fair Deal initiatives did not become law.
  • However the Brannan Plan was defeated by strong conservative opposition in Congress and by his unrealistic confidence in the possibility uniting urban labor and farm owners who distrusted rural insurgency.
  • A Census report confirmed that gains in housing, education, living standards, and income under the Truman administration were unparalleled in American history.
  • Farm income, dividends, and corporate income were at all-time highs, and there had not been a failure of an insured bank in nearly nine years.
  • The minimum wage had also been increased while Social Security benefits had been doubled, and 8 million veterans had attended college by the end of the Truman administration as a result of the G.I.