Land: A Report By Chet Huntley Part II (1962)

on January 27th 1962 Nebraska tenant farmer George pows gave up economically exhausted he turned his back on the farm to seek his future in town [Applause] [Music] this is a scene played out to its sad climax 170,000 times in this country last year as older Farmers retired or died as tenants were displaced by machines or as young Farmers simply gave up most of these 170,000 times departure from the land contained The Bitter admission of failure and a host of Shattered Dreams of sparkling green fields of a comfortable Farmhouse a magnificent Barn most of these times it meant that a dream of Plenty had been routed out by the reality of want [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is reedo Montana where my parents now live its population total 65 I first saw this town in 1923 when it had a population of about 400 the town's boom period began in 1913 it prospered until the late 20s when highways and the depression spell disaster it sent its Sons to war in the 40s and declined throughout the 50s as Farmers leave the land the little towns suffer contract and even disappear weed choked empty lots are the cemeteries of prosperous yesterdays and even the grave markers the old foundations and basements are filled in and overgrown 50 years ago more than half our people lived on the farm today only one in eight remains we have become a nation of City dwellers but we are reluctant to acknowledge it there is something about country lanes and burgeoning fields and the scent of new hay and bolic 160 Acres which are a part of our folklore by this dearly held mythology we are blinded to a vast agrarian upheaval as common to the South the east or the Midwest as it is to this little Montana town this is Lexington Georgia in the decade from 1950 to 1960 its population dwindled from 514 to 376 while our national population increased by 28 million [Music] people in 1950 Graford Texas had a population of 655 10 years later it was down to 448 in the same span the population of Texas mushroomed 24% in California the town of Nyland was cut down before it Incorporated it shrank in 10 years from 700 people to about 200 while the state's population exploded 48% Farmington Washington had 341 people 10 years ago now it has 176 these these towns have this in common with thousands of others they are small they are agricultural and they are dying this is Dunlap Kansas not as it is today but as it was around 1915 when the population was 650 and growing the Main Street lined with buggies today the main street of Dunlap lies virtually deserted the empty buildings stand there dried up relics of a past that slipped away so recently and so unobtrusively we can scarcely believe it's gone Dunlap is an agricultural ghost town there are hundreds like it across the country here they buil a city hall of stone for a future that never materialized it was cut short first by the automobile that carried Farmers pass Dunlap to bigger stores in larger towns then by a gradual consolidation of farms that drained away the surrounding population the city hall robbed of its purpose fell into disrepair and then into ruin [Music] in 1916 a 6-year-old boy posed with his sisters for a picture in front of their Dunlap home today the house is empty but Fred Bernard in middle age remembers the neighborhood as it was the hey day this street and this these houses was probably 40 50 years ago back about 1910 1920 uh these houses were built before then by people who lived here to work in the various stores and industries in town and uh were later taken over by retiring Farmers as they moved to town after making their Fortune which they most always did now most of the houses in Dunlap are [Music] empty dlap probably started to going downhill as much as 40 years ago but not noticeably we always thought it was was just a little slump you know in those days wouldn't face the facts and of course in the depression days of the dirty 30s why all the young folks that weren't well established all came back to Mom and Dad's table all the stores were lit up on a Saturday night and the streets were all filled with cars children running around playing hide and seek and so forth but that didn't last long because the Young Folks soon got out from underneath the dad's table again and back on their feet since then it has been rather rapid at one time there were two banks in Dunlap now there are none the guarantee State Bank lasted until 1959 when it paid off its depositors and locked its doors leaving behind a tableau of its final [Music] day Banker Charlie Hy who started out here in 1918 said if I made a mistake it was settling in too small a [Music] town farming today is Big Business the small country bank with its limited reserves has been crowded out [Music] the bank is gone so are a dozen other businesses all that remain are a feed store a post office and a filling station on the edge of town of the 134 people who remain in Dunlap most are waiting out the inflexible arithmetic of mortality and watching grass grow in the gutter of the city hall [Music] coupled to the decline of the small agricultural Community is the decline and perhaps approaching extinction of the small farmer we have cherished him since the days of Lexington and conqur as a national symbol of our virtue and our strength virtuous he still may be but strong he is not in terms of cold statistics the lower 53% of our Farms account for only 8% of our total Farm production these Farms the small marginal Farms could disappear overnight without affecting our surpluses or the price of our groceries the problem of the small farmer is not that of a production line in trouble but of a human being in distress this is a small farm near buang Kansas the crop is grain sarum a livestock feed many farmers call Milo the farm is run by Robert Whitaker and his wife Velma we have a 160 Acre Farm uh our principal crops are alphalpha corn Milo wheat and sometimes we grow some oats uh we grow about U 20 acres of alphalpha about 10 acres of wheat about 10 acres of corn about 25 a mile the Whitakers don't own a truck they can't afford one they bring Milo from the field in a small trailer hooked to a car the car belongs to Robert's father the father 80-year-old Andrew Whitaker is bothered by arthritis but he helps with the Harvest whenever he can when the Milo is ripe everyone drops what he's doing to help bring it in since our budget is quite limited on the farm I try to do my part by Saving I uh can every year on the average I can about 150 quarts of fruit and around 70 to 80 quarts of vegetables and somewhere around 50 pints of jams jellies and pickles I helped with bringing in the grain when Harvest starts and in the fall I um I uh help bring in the Milo help ald off of the trailer which we use to haul it in with and help AET back into the [Music] van the family car a 1948 model also carries feed for the family's 50 cattle our main source of income comes from the sale of livestock we have a little from the sale of grain uh we net about $1,700 a year I think uh perhaps one year we made $2,200 it's been a few years back and I think perhaps one that was one of our better years the Whitakers net $1,700 a year out of sales that gross about $3,700 yet even with a taxable income of only $1,700 the Whitakers are no worse off than 60% of the farmers in the country today on their $1,700 they must raise three children and help take care of Robert's aged parents they do it for the most part by doing without this is Rodney Whitaker 12 years old he wants to follow in his Father's Footsteps his chance of succeeding on this Farm is almost non-existent [Music] we do not have the latest equipment uh it um some of it's just rather old in fact we have one old tractor my dad bought in 1928 and we still use it a little we have another tractor it's about 12 years old that we do most of our farm work with and so our equipment isn't the latest nor the [Music] best over and over in all possible variations three basic factors lie at the root of the trouble for these 53% of our farmers who produce only 8% of the food and Fiber One they are on marginal or worn out Land Two they have been unable able to grasp or afford the new Farm Technology three falling Farm prices low farm prices have seriously threatened even the ideal Farmer on good land for the less than ideal Farmer on less than ideal land low prices have meant disaster Robert whttiger scrimps patches does without with luck he may hold on sold out $16 buildings out here yeah we got these posts here and some buildings s a li sell this here all you in the Great Plains March 1st is the customary date for new landlords and tenants to take over so beginning in January the crisp air rings to The Cry of the auctioneer while the neighbors gather as much to visit as to bid this is the auction 20 m south of Lincoln Nebraska of a man who gave up trying to make a living on 320 Acres $ $16 $16 $16 $16 go $16 go 16 now put 16 want hit again at $16 want to go 16 all three all done sold out $15 all you want to hit it answer 41 go 10 I'm B 4 five go 10 410 41 where's my man go over there there go four five and now 10 go the farm machinery on sale here belongs to Lambert turmat a tenant farmer you all through at 4 and would you go 10 four five and out 10 go term lived here 15 years last March a steel company in Lincoln taught him how to weld and gave him a job now he's leaving the farm to become a full-time welder my wife I probably shouldn't say this but my wife cated most of my mile on corn this year you know I was working in Lincoln and it's really the handy little tractor drives car other words it really gets out there and does a job pull that 15t disc with it out there it's really a Snappy little thing and I'm bid three five would you go 10 would you go 10 you got four five a four five and would you go 10 41 410 I'm B 10 now 15 would you go to 15 would you go to 15 41 now 15 would you go to 15 41 now 15 you go to 15 hit him again 15 41 and now 15 you go to 15 14 10 and now 15 you go to 15 would you go to 15 would you go to 15 say 15 here 15 you go 15 15 we go 15 now 20 would you go 20 4 20 would you go 20 hit him again 4 20 would you go 20 at 4 20 would you go 20 would you go 20 4 15 now 20 4 15 now 20 would you go 20 would you hit it 20 say 20 would you 20 420 42 all through 420 fold out 415 these auctioneers have held 67 Farm sales in the past 2 years of the 67 who sold out 32 moved to town a farm sale is one of those emotionally charged dividing lines separating us from our past but change is not necessarily tragic Lambert turmat may make more money in town yet there Remains The Nostalgia of remembered voices echoing across vacant yards and empty rooms 7 hit again 72 372 37 for you all through 372 on the big CER that's heavy duty now fellas you got the hose in a coup to go with [Music] it each year up to a million people leave the land and migrate to the city 20 million since 1940 almost half the farm population [Music] the houses and barns rought in the Sun but the land remains green tilled by someone else in the dust B days of the 30s Farmers fled because the land produced too little now they are forced out because it produces too much and drives crop prices down [Music] [Applause] [Music] not very many years ago in my lifetime this County had 15,000 population now then it's down to 12,000 that's 3,000 people 3,000 people less that's just as if the Earth had opened up and swallowed a town of 3,000 and in this part of the country a town of 3,000 would be a pretty big down that was Oliver doc mascal editor of the West Morland recorder a weekly paper in West Morland Kansas the town started as a watering stop on the Oregon Trail it grew into a farming community of 500 people in the past 10 years the average Farm in this County Grew From 300 to 390 Acres while the number of farms dropped from, 1600 to 1200 but West Marin remained relatively stable there are several reasons for Town existing it can be a industrial center it can be a shipping center it can be a dominant Trade Center or as in the case of West Morland it can be a county seat now when you're a county seat that means a lot of things particularly in this part of the country it means here that we have the courthouse and we have the courthous payroll we have the county shops and there it's payroll and we have the other government offices that U go with being a county seat then uh when people come to these offices when they come to the courthouse when they come to the ASC office to see about their business uh they go into the grocery store they buy few groceries they stop in at the hardware store and get some nails and if it wasn't for being a county seat West Morland just wouldn't be here at All West Morland has survived because it's the county seat of badami County but the people who live here are worried to attract new residents they have applied for urban renewal they have no sewers their gutters and sidewalks are falling apart but small town appeals for urban renewal get a mixed reception many sociologists feel small towns have outlived their function that rescue should be directed toward larger rural units Dwight Nesmith an expert in rural area development at Kansas State University there are 5 30 small towns in Kansas towns with less than 2500 population now if we assume that we're going to save all of these little towns as some people apparently want us to try to do let's take a look at the arithmetic that we get involved in these towns now have a total population of about 300,000 people an average population of 570 people this means that we would have to add 2,1 120,000 people to Kansas essentially double the population of the state of Kansas in order to bring them up to the minimum of 4,000 population a piece a minimum which I feel is realistic if these towns are going to provide the goods and services that people have a right to expect from their Community we can't do this Bas based on agricultural jobs these are declining all the time so we're going to have to depend on Industrial Development now one manufacturing job will support a population of about three people so that means we need 73,000 new manufacturing jobs in the state of Kansas or an increase of about six times as many as we have at the present time now another way to look at this we're going to put all our Industrial Development efforts in Kansas for a year into saving these small towns it turns out that the 100 plants with an average of 23 employees and an assumed mortality rate of about 50% would be just about enough to save one city and therefore in 530 years the job would be done it's all very well and it's probably logical for these sociologist to say well let Let's uh consolidate these towns let's there's no more need for these small towns let's pick up the people move them to a larger town but that just doesn't take in the human factor people are living in West Morland because they want to live in West Morland here we don't have everything the things that that we need we don't for here for example we don't have a sewer system there's other small towns around us that don't have a water system but there's other things maybe that are needed and it's hard to put into words um what they are but people are living in these small towns because they want to live there when they're gone they'll be people who will prefer to live in those town in these small towns um all all we want for West Morland is to make it a nice place to live West Morland Kansas and reedo Montana and all the thousands of other towns like them were once nice places to live some still are for the very few who can find a way to manage it what we have just seen is an example of the national social problem which happens to reside on the land it is made up of the 53% of the American farmers who produce only 8% of the crop of food and fiber they represent a social problem for various combinations of two basic causes one they're on land which should never have been tilled in the first place or two they've been too slow in becoming the expert agricultural Economist technician which characterizes the successful farmer nowhere else have Science and Technology been so intensively and extensively understood and applied as on the American Farm Farm the successful American Farmer is one of the Supreme technical Experts of all time but even he is in trouble and is going under because of his technical skill in making things grow even he is driving himself or being driven off the farm because he's producing too much running too fast to stand still