Hugh Hammond Bennett and the creation of the Soil Conservation Service

Excerpt

This article is a continuation of the historical developments discussed in “Hugh Hammond Bennett and the creation of the Soil Erosion Service,” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Volume 64, Number 2, pages 68A-74A.

The article discusses the events of September 19, 1933, to April 27, 1935, during which time Hugh Hammond Bennett and colleagues in the Soil Erosion Service (SES) established demonstration projects. The young agency weathered questions about their authority to work on private lands. The USDA and state agricultural institutions argued that this work belonged in USDA. Throughout the controversies, the cadre of soil conservationists won approval in the countryside and thereby built support in Congress for expansion of the soil conservation work on a permanent basis. The pending expiration of SES's emergency employment funding in June 1935 gave an air of urgency to legislation for a permanent agency. Finally, drought in the Great Plains and dust clouds sweeping eastward to the federal city dramatically demonstrated the need for soil conservation.

Hugh Hammond Bennett's appointment as director of the Soil Erosion Service (SES) became effective September 19, 1933, and he moved to the US Department of the Interior (USDI) offices in the Winder Building, 600 17th St…