Kansas in the Great Depression: Work Relief, the Dole, and Rehabilitation (review)

Kansas in the Great Depression is a detailed study of state and federal programs during the economic crisis of the 1930s. The New Deal agencies serve as the main focus in this investigation, but Fearon pays particular attention to the efforts of state and local administrators as well.

In the familiar territory of the Great Depression and the New Deal, Kansas has never emerged as a major player. Yet Fearon demonstrates how the state devised a workable welfare system while it attracted federal funding to cover the costs of direct aid and work relief. As he emphasizes, one key to the success of the New Deal in Kansas was the use of professionals to administer programs. Another prime factor was the leadership of John G. Stutz, executive secretary of the Kansas Relief Committee. Fearon provides pertinent information about Stutz’s background and his long career as a public servant in Kansas, crediting him with the ability to direct the state and, later, federal relief systems. According to Fearon, Stutz insisted that professionals serve at the local level to determine relief needs and to provide training to create efficient and competent social workers. This study is valuable in recognizing the challenges that social workers faced in the 1930s.

Fearon begins with a brief history of Kansas, its population characteristics, and its employment statistics, supplementing the narrative with a plethora of charts, tables, and statistics. Fearon culled much of this information, such as the number of industrial workers and the amount of land under cultivation, from extensive research in a variety of depositories and archives. Economists and sociologists interested in the impact of the Great Depression will find the numerical data valuable, though others may find it a distraction from the larger picture.

The emphasis on statistics, however, has a more troubling effect; it shortchanges the human side of the story. Rarely does Fearon provide a glimpse of how unemployment affected Kansans, or what the Dust Bowl did to the agricultural side of the economy through loss of the tax base and destruction of the land. He includes an analysis of the building projects directed by the Works Progress Administration (wpa), but he fails to mention the employment of such professionals as writers, artists, and musicians. These concerns, which have been addressed elsewhere, are not the primary focus of Fearon’s study, but their inclusion would have added depth to his portrait of Kansas during the 1930s.

Despite these flaws, Kansas in the Great Depression serves as a resource for specific information regarding work relief in Kansas. It may not be the easiest book to read, but it does promote a better understanding of what the people in Kansas endured during the economic crisis.