Stories from the Golden Age Blog

The Crossroads was originally published in 1941, shortly after L. Ron Hubbard went to serve as a Lieutenant in the Navy in the North Pacific during World War II. The tale, which may be surprising to some of you young sprouts out there, is based on real events that happened in the 1930s.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was not only longer and harder than any other in American history because of the stock market fallout on Wall Street, but it was exacerbated by one of the longest droughts on record, that by 1934 covered almost 80 percent of the United States. 

Without rain, farmers couldn't grow crops, and without crops, bare soil was blown high into the air creating dust storms (canceling school in some cases). 

This economic train wreck actually started during World War I. Agriculture was severely disrupted in Europe by the war, and farmers in America dramatically increased production and were therefore able to export surplus food to European countries. By the 1920s European agriculture had recovered and many American farmers continued to produce more food than could be consumed, making prices fall, causing many farmers difficulty in paying their mortgages.

In an (some might say misdirected) effort to balance out the economy in the midst of the Great Depression and the drought, President Roosevelt had Congress enact legislation that brought about the AAA, the Agricultural Adjustment Act. This was the first time that Congress declared that it was their duty to balance supply and demand for farm commodities so that prices would support a decent purchasing power for farmers. 

AAA controlled the supply of corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanut, tobacco and milk—by paying farmers not to plant some of their land.The AAA also paid farmers to destroy some of their crops and farm animals. In 1933 alone, $100 million was paid out to cotton farmers to plough their crops back into the ground. 

In 1937, the Supreme Court ruled that the AAA was unconstitutional, but the basic program was rewritten again and passed into law, and the legislation has remained the basis for all farm programs over the past seven decades. 

"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most rigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interest by the most lasting bonds." —Thomas Jefferson, 1785