PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOUTHERN RECLAMATION CONFERENCE, DECEMBER 14–15, 1927

The conference convened in the auditorium of the Department of the Interior at 10.30 a. m., Dr. Elwood Mead, Commissioner of Reclamation, presiding.

Doctor MEAD. This is the second conference of those engaged in a study of southern conditions with a view to the creation there of a better ordered rural life. It considered, as you know, the problems of reclamation, but its main feature is rural planning.

I have the privilege this morning of presenting Hon. Hubert Work, the Secretary of the Interior, the head of this investigation, who will extend to you a welcome. [Prolonged applause.]

ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY SECRETARY WORK

Doctor Mead, gentlemen of the conference: When Doctor Mead proposed this conference to me I was a little skeptical about the probable success of it and I asked him if there was enough interest being taken in this project to insure a reasonable attendance. He assured me there would be. This meeting this morning is the best evidence of his judgment in that connection. It is a great pleasure to see so many of you here, having come from so far away.

I am intensely interested in this, a feature of our home-making scheme and I am sure that this conference will result in attracting wide-spread attention to this project which we need more than anything else at this time.

The Department of the Interior welcomes you to the second conference on southern reclamation. The investigations indicate that an opportunity exists in the South for the creation of prosperous farming communities on lands now unused or only partly used. We appreciate the public spirit shown by State officials and private citizens who have cooperated with us in these investigations. I hope a constructive program may be devised to enable Southern agriculture to keep pace with the material advancement of our country along industrial and agricultural lines.

Congress has intrusted this department with these investigations in the South because of its extended and intensive experience in dealing with the man of little capital, often of little experience, in

establishing himself on the land, and in doing the things that are necessary to change raw land into profitable farms. This experience, it is true, has been gained in the West, but the same principles may be adapted to the South to aid in eradicating conditions which may become an economic and social menace.

In the West, irrigation works are the important engineering factor, whereas in the South the construction work will take the form of road making, drainage, and the clearing of land. Taken by themselves, these engineering operations accomplish little, no matter in what locality they may be performed. There is plenty of room for education gained by research and experience in doing whatever will result in improvement of methods and reduction of costs, yet the construction features of reclamation are only a means to an end. If there does not go with these a practical settlement program which will enable the farmer to improve and equip his farm, then reclamation may work injury and wrong to those who follow it, and become a national loss instead of gain. Along with plans and estimates for engineering works there should go studies and plans which will enable the farmer to determine in advance the suitability of soil, climate, the kind of farming he wishes to practice and the kind of life he desires to live. This is one of the methods now being supplied by the Bureau of Reclamation in bringing a new era to irrigation farmers in the West.

The officials of the Bureau of Reclamation believe that the way is open in the South for the creation of communities which will have an attractive rural life, and a production different from and better than the one displaced. The purpose to be served by the proposed development is not primarily to bring more land into cultivation but to produce better farming, better business, and better living conditions in these communities than could be achieved in any other way.

The present conference is called primarily to consider and correlate the results obtained in the last year and to determine the direction of future activities. I hope that unity of purpose and a definite working plan may result from your meeting together so that, in reporting to Congress, this department may offer a straightforward, constructive program for the development of the rural South.

It may not be known to all of you that when this department was established the title to the organic act referred to it as the "Home Department." That term has gone out of use, but home making was primarily the purpose of the creation of the Department of the Interior. In reclamation when we think of home making we naturally think of developing land by reclamation, by the application of water, but that has only been a part of the activities of the department in home making and came later.

The second oldest bureau in this department is the Bureau of Indian Affairs and it took it a long time to realize its possibilities in home making, but within the last several years the Indian Bureau has discovered that the Indian tribe can survive only through better living conditions. That suggested better home conditions, of course, so the tepee began to give way to the bungalow and the shack in turn is giving way to modern little homes. I just saw, a moment before I came in, views of Klamath and others from reservations in Oklahoma, showing old board houses, in a dilapidated condition, giving way to new four-room bungalows for homes for Indians. Most of that has been done with Indian money. It is only more evidence of what must be done if we are going to improve social conditions not only on the arid land in the West, but on Indian reservations.

Some movement is on the way for our native Alaskans, to be accomplished through the Bureau of Education. It is fundamental in order to establish self-respect and independence, and indirectly industry will be benefited because industry must necessarily follow these developments if they are going to be maintained and continued.

In the reclamation projects we began in a primitive way on the prairie. That is true of the Indian Service still. It is equally true in the South. The mentality of the people in the poor communities has gone down with the living conditions. We must begin at the bottom to build up. Any social condition of any enterprise must begin at the ground. Everything we eat comes from the soil and we must eat enough or we will develop very poor physical conditions and without good physical conditions there can be no good mentality.

You men have begun at the soil to make better citizens and better homes. I am sure you have the right idea which was evolved, so far as our department is concerned, by Doctor Mead. It is not for the purpose of bringing more land under cultivation to compete, as the farm bloc complains. The object sought to be achieved is home making, restoring homes and fostering the individual unit and community. If the unit is strengthened, the total, which means the Nation, will be correspondingly improved. [Prolonged applause.] Doctor MEAD. You have heard the Secretary's own point of view. We are fortunate in having the South interpreted in a response by one of its leaders and prophets, Dr. W. W. Long, director of extension service, of South Carolina.

RESPONSE BY DOCTOR LONG

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen of the conference: I shall use my manuscript because I want to be logical and I want to be brief. There are occasions when to reply to an address of welcome is of little interest. There are other occasions when to reply to an address

of welcome is a great pleasure and privilege. Such is this occasion, Mr. Secretary. First, because it gives me the opportunity as an humble representative of the South, a part of our common country, to express our appreciation of your interest in our agricultural development. We are not unmindful, sir, that you are the first Secretary of the Interior to advocate that the reclamation policy of the country should be national rather than sectional. [Applause.] The intelligent solution of reclamation in the South, briefly speaking, is in part, taking water off the lands, whereas in parts of the West it is in placing water on the lands. Therefore the welfare of the country is closely identified with the constructive solution of this question. It was the statesmanship, sir, of yourself and your able commissioner, Dr. Elwood Mead, for whom the South entertains a warm affection, that envisioned the interdependence of engineering, agriculture, and the human factor.

The statesmanship that takes original lines frequently brings upon itself criticism growing out of ignorance and misunderstanding. You, sir, and your honored commissioner have suffered this fate. The criticism of this movement you have organized in the South is that it is a movement to settle cut-over and swampy lands and thereby increase the farming population of our country. This criticism was emphasized in a resolution recently passed (without naming you or your department) by that distinguished body of scientists and educators of the agricultural colleges at their meetings in Chicago. Likewise this idea prevails among many of the agricultural workers of the United States Department of Agriculture. Familiarity and close contact with this movement since its inception have convinced me that it was your purpose to aid in developing a few communities in the South where every phase of community life could be demonstrated, such as community creameries, community abbatoirs, community hatcheries, community cotton gins, community seed improvement, community schools, community libraries, and such other community activities as will best serve the people.

Fortunately for the South, 25 or more years ago, Dr. Seaman A. Knapp came from the West with a great vision to aid Southern agriculture. His idea was to teach the individual farmer on his farm by practical demonstrations better cultural methods, the use of better seed, soil improvement, more and better livestock, and likewise to teach through demonstration methods the rural boy and the farm woman in her home. Criticism came to him from the same sources as are visiting it upon you, Mr. Secretary, and your able commissioner. Fortunately Doctor Knapp lived to see his critics shamed and the entire South rise up and call him blessed. [Applause.]

And now you come from the West, sir, with a vision to demonstrate organized community life. If the people are given the opportunity

to catch your vision, demonstrated through your community developments, your critics will be shamed and you, too, will be hailed as one of the South's greatest benefactors. [Applause.]

We are told on all sides how necessary it is for the farmers to organize, how our surpluses and other factors pertaining to the welfare of the farmer can be controlled through organizations; but I have yet to see one line that suggests the character of organization that the farmer should perfect other than cooperative marketing. which is simply one phase of organized agriculture-an important one, I admit. What is the unit of this proposed organization? If it be the State, it is doomed to failure; if it be the county, success is doubtful, but if it is the community its success is assured. [Applause.] This, sir, as I understand it, is your conception of the first step in organized agriculture.

Then follows a federation of the communities in each county; likewise in the State. With such an organization in each State reaching down to the individual community, there would be little difficulty on the part of our legislators and agricultural leaders to understand readily the needs of the rural class. With good roads prevailing throughout the country, with rapid and better transportation because of the automobile, the farmer could reach his community center as readily as the business man can reach his chamber of commerce or the laborer his union.

It is claimed that this is a stupendous task. I grant it. To organize the farmer by communities is a stupendous task, but the foundation is already laid in the South. Many communities are groping in the dark, but these demonstrations would be the beacon light to definitely point the way. It must be remembered that farmers show their greatest interest in organizations in which they play a personal part and are constantly coming in contact with the beneficial effect of their organizations. An organized agricultural community is a little world somewhat to itself, but with every man, woman, and child cooperating not only in producing the best possible from the individual farms for living at home but contributing in like manner to the nonproducer of food while living under the best rural conditions with modern facilities for comfortable living.

The standard of what we call to-day civilization is a city standard and only through organized rural communities can we break down the differentiation between the country woman and the city woman, between the country boy and girl and the city boy and girl.

The organized rural community brings to the country home the city advantages. Nothing less will keep the intelligent, ambitious rural boys and girls in the country districts.

85467-S. Doc. 45, 70-1-2