The conditions for North Dakota farmers in the early 1930s could be summed up in one word: dismal. Farmers were receiving less for their crops than it cost to produce them. They were on a wild economic roller coaster from the early twentieth century until World War Two.
Wholesale prices increased dramatically with World War One and peaked shortly after it ended. But as European farmers resumed production after the war, prices plummeted. Wheat that sold for two dollars and forty-five cents a bushel in 1920 sold for just thirty-eight cents in 1933. Farmers were unable to pay their taxes or their mortgages. They couldn’t buy new equipment or pay off the debt on what they already had. It was a recipe for disaster.
President Franklin Roosevelt recognized that American agriculture was in trouble. He included farmers in his first efforts to relieve the financial pain of the Great Depression. The Agricultural Adjustment Act was part of the first programs in Roosevelt’s New Deal. Using the government’s authority to tax and spend, the act regulated agricultural production. The AAA provided financial incentives to limit crop production, reducing surpluses and raising prices.
Roosevelt didn’t stop there. He sent a delegation to a world economic conference in London. On this date in 1933, North Dakotans learned that Australia was leaning toward supporting American efforts to reduce the worldwide surplus of agricultural products. Canada, Argentina, and Russia had already agreed to the American plan.
The Bismarck Tribune noted that if Australia did sign on, “It will be a cause for celebration.” Several smaller countries had not yet agreed, but the newspaper believed they would follow the lead of the five largest wheat producers.
The AAA was not entirely successful. Farmers reduced acreage in 1933, but still produced more than they had the previous year. Farm prices rose fifty-two percent by 1935, but still lagged behind the rest of the economy. In 1936, the Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional because of a processing tax they deemed invalid. Congress later passed a revised version that eliminated the tax.
The AAA was just one of many ways the federal government worked to provide relief during the Depression.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- The Atlantic. “The Case History of Wheat.” https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/archives/1940/05/165-5/132469091.pdf Accessed 5/26/2025.
- The Bismarck Tribune. “Americans Worry About Australia’s Position on Wheat.” Bismarck ND. 5/24/1933. Page 1.
- Digital History. “The Farmer and the Depression.” https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/lesson_plans/pdfs/unit9_12.pdf Accessed 5/26/2025.
- US History. “Wheat Prices.” https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1532.html Accessed 5/26/2025.
- GovInfo. “The Agricultural Adjustment Act.” https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-10254/pdf/COMPS-10254.pdf Accessed 5/26/2025.
- Center for the Study of Federalism. “The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933.” https://federalism.org/encyclopedia/no-topic/agricultural-adjustment-act-of-1933/ Accessed 5/26/2025.
