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14. Crisis in Agriculture: The Great Migration, Boll Weevil Invasion, and Great Depression
- University of Georgia Press
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14 Crisis in Agriculture: The Great Migration, Boll Weevil Invasion, and GreatDepression As noted earlier, the collapse of farm prices generated in the 18908 a Populist revolt. In contrast, a stronger economy and more optimistic spirit accompanied the Progressive Era of the next two decades. Prices rose somewhat, and Georgia farmers expanded production. The peak of prosperity came with World War I. That conflict disrupted European agriculture and created a seemingly insatiable demand for cotton and other crops. The year after the war (1919) the cotton price reached an all-time high of about forty cents a pound. Nonetheless, the good times could not last. During the war, farmers greatly expanded their cultivated acreage. Afterward, the old evil of overproduction returned , with the cotton price dropping in 1920 to seventeen cents. Bythe end of the war a new problem had also surfaced:the arrival in Georgia of the boll weevil . This insect plagued Texas as earlyas 1892 and slowlyworked its wayeastward. 179 Its larvae hatched in the developing cotton bolls and destroyed them. Greene County, Georgia, offers one example of the impact of the pestilence. In 1919 this lower Piedmont county ginned 20,030 bales of cotton, in 1922 only 333!l Insecticides ultimately controlled the boll weevil, but Georgia's cotton production never again returned to pre-i92o levels. During World War I northern defense industries sent agents throughout the south to recruit black workers. Once the first wave of emigrants reported back on life in the north, many others followed. With the rural depression of the 19205, the movement reached tidal proportions. So many blacks left the farm that their departure was called the Great Migration. Some went to southern cities, but the ultimate destination of most was the industrial centers of the midwest and northeast. The magnitude of the African-American departure can be seen in these figures : in 1900 blacks made up 47 percent of Georgia's population, but by 1930 the percentage was down to 37 and by 1970 to only 26.2 Clearly, the central cause of the Great Migration was the dismal state of the southern economy and much more attractive opportunities elsewhere. The denial of civil rights and the reemergence in 1915 of the Ku Klux Klan were contributing factors.3 Reflecting back on the 19208, northerners often used terms such as "Jazz Age" and "Prosperity Decade." These appellations also had some validity for middleand upper-class Atlantans, who benefited from the Georgia capital's role as a center of transportation and trade. For city dwellers in most parts of the nation the economy seemed unusually vibrant until the stock market crash of 1929. In the southern mill villages of the 19205, however, life was about as uncertain as it was in the countryside. Facing competition from synthetic fibers, the cotton textile industry experienced the same problem as the farmer: overproduction. So Georgia's leading industry could offer little relief to suffering white agrarians and, of course, none at all to blacks. If the 19208 were bad, however, the 19305 were worse. As the Great Depression took hold, cotton dropped to five cents a pound, the lowest price since the 18905. On the federal level, the Hoover Administration (1929-33) made a few attempts to alleviate rural misery; but only with the New Deal's agricultural programs was there much hope of better days, and then primarily for the minority of farm operators who owned their land.4 Through committees elected by local farmers, the Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) provided benefits to those who curtailed production, on the assumption that a reduced supply would force up prices. The committees, however, tended to be dominated by the larger, more powerful planters, making it difficult for tenants and marginal owners to receive their fair share of subsidies. 1 8 0 ^ C O R N E R S T O N E S O F G E O R G I A H I S T O R Y [3.88.185.100] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:40 GMT) Moreover, crop allotments reduced the need for labor, forcing many poor sharecroppers and farmworkers off the land. With the unemployed in the cities underfed and underclothed, plans that limited farm production and uprooted tenants seemed perverse to many. A further criticism of Franklin Roosevelt's agricultural programs was that they undermined farmers' proverbial independence and accustomed them to look to Washington for assistance. The New Deal created a new form of paternalism in which...