Bronte Sone

Annotated Bib

Kara McLuckie

March 7, 2013

Annotated Bibliography

“Address on Agricultural Adjustment Act, 1933.” American Experience. Franklin D.

Roosevelt. PBS, n. date. PBS.org. Web. 20 Mar. 2013

This source is a transcript of the address given by FDR on May 14, 1935. FDR claims that the Agricultural Adjustment Act has proven extremely effective in improving the position of American Farmers, despite what was being distributed through the news at that time. According to FDR, the Agricultural Adjustment Act was simply “adjusting” the amount of crops produced so there was no waste. FDR explains that adjusting how much is produced limits the amount that is either carried over to the next year or makes sure there is enough produced to satisfy the needs of Americans. In the year 1933, there was a huge carryover of crops which made prices for those crops to plummet. This caused farmers to struggle to make ends meet since they were not getting paid enough to make up for the amount they spent to produce the crops.

This source was published on the Public Broadcasting Station website, which is a reliable source. It is also a primary source of that time, especially since it is a word for word transcript of what the President had to say. It is also biased in favor of the Agricultural Adjustment Act because of that, since the President signed the bill and was of course in favor of the Act and what it did. This is useful to my research because it gives primary information about what the purpose of the act was, and also how it was supposedly effective in accomplishing this purpose.

“Agricultural Adjustment Act Of 1933.” Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (2009): 1.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

This is a copy of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. Since it is a copy of the act itself, found on the Academic Search Complete database, it is reliable. It is also exact information about the Act and the purpose of it. This is helpful to me because I can check what other sources say about the act with what the act actually says.

Barry, Richard. Theme Song 1936. Bridgeport: Braunworth & Company, Inc, 1936. Print

Richard Barry is writing this book back in 1936 as a response to the issues with farming, the farm bill, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Barry argues that the Farm Problem is a grave issue that was not only a problem in the past but will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future. First he gives some background to the politics behind the Triple A and then focuses on what the Triple A is both the first time it was passed through congress and the second time after some adjustments had been made. According to Barry the purpose of the bill was simply political and it was only made to secure the farm vote.

He is very obviously biased and the press with which the book is published, is not a university press so the text is not scholarly. However, it was written at the time the AAA was being passed and all of these issues were current. That means that it most likely has truth to it and is relatively accurate, besides the biased tone.

This source is relevant to my paper because it gives background to the AAA and also delves into the issues with it. It gives dates that the bill was going through congress, as well as names of people who were prominent figures at the time. In the back of the book is an appendix which gives all the dates related to this issue. This source also is relevant because it was written in the time period, and so gives a viewpoint of people who were living during that time.

Lambert, Roger C. “The Illusion of Participatory Democracy: the AAA organizes the

Corn-Hog Producers.” Annals of Iowa. Print.

This article discusses the part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act that dealt with low hog and corn prices. According to the article, corn and hogs were put into one category because an increase in corn production would mean an increase in hogs, and if this happened the price of the hog would continue to decrease. During the Great Depression the AAA attempted to pay farmers to produce less in order to raise prices, which is made clear in this source. If the AAA could limit the amount of corn being produced then not as many hogs would be born since there would be a scarcity of food. This would result in higher prices for hogs because the demand would be high and the supply low.

This article was produced with the help of the Arkansas State University. It is also property of the State of Iowa, which suggests it is a reliable and credible source. It is relevant to my topic because it gives specifics about one section of the AAA that influenced corn and hog production. I am researching the effects of the AAA and this article makes clear the effects it had on those farmers and prices of corn and hogs.

Manthorne, Jason. “The View from the Cotton: Reconsidering the Southern Tenant

Farmers’ Union.” The Agricultural History Society. 20-45. Print.

This article gives the viewpoint of farmers who were evicted from their land after policies from the AAA were put into place. Those farmers made up what was called the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union. The article states that although the creation of the AAA was meant to help struggling farmers by increasing the prices of the products they produced, it instead served to impede farmers even more. The AAA resulted in displacement of farmers because of the restrictions placed on the amount of land they could cultivate. This left the deserted farms in control to local AAA officials, which led to further instability.

This article was published by the Agricultural History Society, and was written by Jason Manthorne who is a student in history at the University of Georgia. His article won the Everett E. Edwards Award in 2008. The article is relevant because it gives another view of how the AAA was affecting the population of farmers. It also makes a clear argument that there was clear miscommunication about what the AAA was, and also that there the money promised by the AAA was not reaching the intended population.

McCoy, Donald R. “George S. McGill of Kansas and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of

1938.” Historian 45.2 (1983): 186-205. Print.

According to the author, Donald R McCoy, The AAA was one of the most disappointing legislative acts made in American History of farming. The article says that the main problem with the AAA originated with the issues solidarity of farmers and also in Congress, along with problems in the Roosevelt administration. This article also stresses that it was assumed that farmers would side with politicians who had been part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act’s production, however this was a false assumption. A statement from the McGill, a politician from Kansas, was that the Agricultural Adjustment Act “was designed to provide short-term and long-range assistance and stability to America’s farmers.” However, this was not able to be successful due to a lack in communication and understanding between farmers and politicians.

This article is relevant because it highlights some of the issues with the AAA and why it was not successful. Since my focus is on the way the AAA affected farmers during the 1930s, this is helpful because it explains some of those effects. It is also a reliable source since it is a scholarly journal, published on behalf of the history honor society. The author Donald R. McCoy is also a responsible source, since he was a University Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Kansas.

Saloutos, Theodore. “New Deal Agricultural Policy: An Evaluation.” Agriculture During

the Great Depression. Melvyn Dubofsky and Stephen Burwood. New York:

Garland Publishing, Inc, 1990. 210-232. Print.

The essay titled New Deal Agricultural Policy is an essay on the details of the AAA and the various phases it went through. The Supreme Court later found the first “phase” unconstitutional, and so the administrators on the board of the AAA came up with a new bill. The author emphasizes that the AAA was part of the New Deal, and it was meant to control production rates. However, this did not succeed and the AAA actually caused improvements in the production methods, so production went up even with all the restrictions. The author also argues that although the New Deal and the AAA did little to help the tenant farmers, and laborers, it did lead to great innovations in the history of American agriculture.

This Journal article is useful to me because it gives detailed information about the AAA and how it was intertwined with the New Deal. There are numbers and other logistics about agricultural production and farmer income, within the article. This is all helpful to me because I am attempting to write a research paper on the effectiveness of the Agricultural Adjustment Act.

Woofter Jr, T.J, and Ellen Winston. Seven Lean years. Kingsport: The University of

North Carolina Press, 1939. Print

Seven Lean Years is published by a University Press which means that it is a credible source. This book gives information about the years 1931 to 1937, focusing specifically on farmers and the trials they faced. This is piece of literature centered on the public population experience. In the forward the author states that the goal was to bring light to the “rural problems in terms of human elements as well as in terms of production, prices, and markets.” (Woofter v) The book also centers in on the aspects of the Agricultural Adjustment Act and how they affected farmers during the 1930.

This book is useful to me because it gives a clearer picture of what the people were going through, with less about the politics side of it. It also has a large index in the back that makes it easy to find a topic I am looking for. It gives a broader view of the issue rather than just focusing on the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Seven Lean Years gives information on what farmers were receiving from the government, and the actual benefits they received from the AAA, which is my focus for my research paper.