John Buchkoski – Theodore Roosevelt and America’s Agricultural Future

Originally posted to the TR Center blog on November 6, 2019.

As the United States rapidly industrialized at the end of the nineteenth century, workers faced increasingly dire conditions. Like many Presidents before him – such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln – Theodore Roosevelt believed that agriculture was the antidote to the ill effects of urbanization, and in his particular case industrialization. The many problems plaguing cities—overpopulation, lack of sanitation, and political graft—could all be ameliorated in the West, where the honest work of agriculture could create ideal American citizens. However, in his attempts to keep farmers on the land, Roosevelt and Congress passed legislation that in fact made it more difficult for struggling farmers to afford to live off the land. Although the historical record demonstrates that Roosevelt was supportive of the American farmer, did his policies ultimately hurt or help?

According to the 1890 census, the West was quickly ceasing to be the “safety-valve” of Roosevelt’s imagination. The superintendent of the census declared that “there can hardly be said to be a frontier line.” This proclamation sent shockwaves throughout the United States, as Americans realized that they no longer had vast swaths of “virgin land” where they could place their surplus laborers. Fluctuating global prices, high interest rates, and arid conditions in the American West made life challenging and risky for farmers. The precarious future of the American farmer led to his being celebrated, and incited increasing interest in protecting agricultural labor.

This celebration of American agriculture was embodied in everything from postcards to magazines. This postcard advertises the economic specialty of the United States, whose products were primarily agricultural. Many Americans believed that agriculture would also protect American interests in the global market. In its 1911 issue, Puck presented an image titled “America’s Knight, the World’s Challenger.”

A knight wearing corn armor and a wheat plume in his helmet symbolized how America’s crops would keep it relevant in the global market. As every other nation developed industry, nothing could compare to America’s ability to become the world’s breadbasket. During the early twentieth century, the United States had the ability to compete in the world economy because of its crops and what it could grow.

President Roosevelt sought to improve agricultural science to aid farmers and not just their crops. He promoted the idea of free rural deliveries and the laying down of telephone wires to make sure that the rural sector had as many comforts as urban areas. Roosevelt hoped by doing this that he could prevent the “more active and restless young men and women from the farms” from leaving for cities, who in the past “rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship” in rural areas. President Roosevelt also advocated for agricultural labor in multiple speeches. He declared, “No nation has ever achieved permanent greatness unless this greatness was based on the wellbeing of the great farmer class, the men who live on the soil.” In a speech at Woonsocket, South Dakota, he praised the state for its land and mines but said “they would not be worth anything by themselves. You have got the men to make full use of those advantages.” Thus, in Roosevelt’s opinion, a nation devolves if its people leave the land for the comforts and security of urban living. Roosevelt took pride in soil scientists and encouraged them and other agriculturalists to make farming profitable and fulfilling.

Roosevelt and his Cabinet also sought to improve the quality of western land. To do so, they and Congress worked to pass the Reclamation Act of 1902. This piece of legislation created dams all throughout the western United States to harness water and use it to irrigate land. Scientists investigated which cereal grains would grow best in arid conditions and concluded that macaroni wheats were well suited for dry conditions. Congress during President Roosevelt’s tenure similarly helped ranchers by investing in quarantining practices and serums to protect herds of animals from being wiped out by disease. All of these measures illustrated how important agriculture, and in particular western agriculture, was to Roosevelt. 

Despite Roosevelt’s efforts to support farmers, many agriculturalists believed he was making their lives more difficult. In a speech to South Dakotans, Roosevelt proclaimed, “In every section of our country [the Department of Agriculture] aids farmers in their constantly increasing search for a better agricultural education. It helps not only them, but all the Nation, in seeing that our exports of meats have clean bills of health.” The quality of beef is always important for protecting consumers and maintaining a good reputation among the international marketplace. However, not everyone felt that this notion of clean food was beneficial to them. Rather, farmers would have to work harder to make sure that all their crops reached a certain standard, and ranchers needed to ensure that their cattle met a set of standards. Before this government oversight of the agricultural industry, farmers had barely made ends meet. With this new legislation, they needed to work harder and spend more or lose more of their herd and crop to regulatory agencies. As a result, small family farms struggled to survive and larger farms gobbled them up in the process.

Roosevelt and his administration had the best intentions when it came to protecting farmers. They wanted to protect consumers and keep farmers on their family farms. Roosevelt took one of the most traditional careers, that of being a farmer, and combined it with modern ideas, with research and scientists examining every aspect of agriculture. Ultimately, however, Roosevelt’s policies and regulations met with only mixed success. While Roosevelt’s support of agricultural science and the expansion of services to farmers helped the United States become one of the most powerful agricultural exporters in the world, the increase in food-safety regulations placed more demands on already-beleaguered farmers. Industrialization and mechanization acted to simultaneously increase the number of jobs in the cities and decrease the number of rural jobs—as a small number of landowners consolidated great tracts of land—and Roosevelt was unable to staunch the flow of people from farms to the life of the city.