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2 Depression Years and Transformation
- Minnesota Historical Society Press
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C H A P T E R 2 Depression Years and Transformation in 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, the American Beet Sugar Company abruptly changed its name to American Crystal Sugar Company (American Crystal). Perhaps nothing was more representative of the major restructuring taking place in the sugar beet industry during the decade of the 1930s. Identifying the company clearly with the purity associated with granulated sugar, the new corporate name signaled the growing strength of beet sugar in America’s sugar industry and acted as a symbol to entice more farmers to grow beets. The period between the stock market collapse in 1929 and the beginning of World War II witnessed significant transformations in the method of operations and the relationships among the company, its Red River Valley growers, and the Mexican migrant workforce. While the early 1930s were extremely trying for all concerned, New Deal legislation , especially the Jones-Costigan Act (1934) and the Sugar Act of 1937, reconfigured the sugar industry in the United States, while creating new opportunities and support for corporations, growers, and even betabeleros. More than just adopting a new name, American Crystal expanded its operation in the Red River Valley and into new regions. Receiving government subsidies for sugar production, valley growers invested more and more resources in mechanization and other technological advances. They also organized themselves into the RRVSBGA and, through that body, began their ascendancy as a major economic and political force in the area. Driven from the valley’s sugar beet fields by unemployed local whites in the early 1930s, Mexican workers began to return after 1935 and became the largest group within the labor force by the time the United States entered World War II. Jones-Costigan and the Sugar Act of 1937 guaranteed minimum wages for field work and helped initiate a noticeable decline in child labor in the beet fields. Moreover, betabeleros gained some control over who they worked for in and out of the valley. In essence, the sugar beet industry evolved 39 during this period into the basic shape it maintained for the next forty years. The advantage rested with the company and its growers, but by 1941, Mexican migrant workers had obtained some leverage in their employment and living conditions. Indeed, once the United States entered the war, the sugar beet industry became utterly dependent on Mexican migrant labor, and betabeleros asserted even more control over their work, despite resistance from growers and American Crystal . Thus, although the 1930s started on a di∞cult note for all three groups, by 1942 all had improved their situations in the valley. the first years of the great depression were di∞cult for all agriculturists in the Red River Valley. Farm prices tumbled to extremely low levels, thereby threatening the profitability of growers and American Crystal and leading to lower wages for field laborers. All of the crops valley growers had adopted in their e≠orts to diversify earlier in the century earned less money in the early 1930s. In 1932, at the depths of the economic crisis, wheat earned just thirty-six cents per bushel; barley and oats, less than fifteen cents; and potatoes declined to twenty-three cents. Sugar brought less than four dollars per hundred -pound bag, down from over six dollars in the late 1920s. Per capita income in North Dakota sank to $145 (nationwide $375). In such an economic environment, many farmers went broke; perhaps as many as one-third in the region left agriculture completely or found themselves reduced to farming as tenants.1 Environmental problems compounded the region’s economic woes. As in much of the Midwest, the Red River Valley experienced severe drought throughout the 1930s. Between 1929 and 1933, only in one year—1932—did the valley receive an average amount of moisture. In 1931, drought conditions were hit-and-miss in the sugar beet–growing areas, as some counties reported generally fair levels of rainfall, while others received virtually nothing. Heavy rain delayed planting in 1932, but drought prevailed throughout the valley by July. This pattern repeated itself the following year. Temperatures soared above normal levels, as well. J. B. Bingham, the new American Crystal manager for the region, described the summers of 1932 and 1933 as “extremely hot.” In 1934, the drought blanketed the valley “to an almost ruinous extent,” and hot windstorms raked the region during May and June, 40 / north for the harvest [3.236.19.251] Project...