The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s was absolutely horrible. Hundreds, if not thousands, died from lung complications from breathing the dust, which was inescapable. It was so dry and full of dust that all the coyotes died, which kept the jack rabbits under control. Rabbits could easily survive in that dry, dusty situation and they multiplied till there were 7,000 per acre and were swarming everywhere. The birds all died or left, which brought on billions of grasshoppers which ate everything…even shovel handles some say. 200,000 farms were lost to foreclosure, some for a few cents each, but no one had any money or had any use for them. 450 million tons of topsoil were blown away. The static electricity created by blowing sand on metal fences or metal equipment could reach to 1,000 volts and could electrocute someone.
People were starving, homeless, out of work, and sick. There was no Social Security, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, FEMA, or any bureaucracy which helped out, and still people made it. They worked, slaved, coughed up dust, moved to non-dust bowl states, prayed, and made it. No government help. Government made it happen. How?
The dust bowl states had dry soil anyway, but that soil was covered by grasses with deep roots, and that kept the soil in place. The deep roots could survive dry spells, and not blow away. Mother Nature took acre of herself for thousands of years in Oklahoma and the mid west, where the dust bowl was, in all its fury. How did it happen then? It happened because there were thousands of people who fled the great depression, got out of the big cities, and tried to farm to earn a living. Why? Because of dumb government, that’s why.
Dumb government caused the Great Depression, but that’s another column. After the depression got going, the bureaucracy really got into gear, making it all worse. The first thing that FDR and his loony Democrats did was to start a fresh bureaucracy called the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The Supremes declared it to be unconstitutional in 1936, but the damage had been done by then, and millions of tons of topsoil had blown away and a million were sick, desperate, and homeless. Why did they try to farm? Because the prices of wheat were ’supported’ by government, and even though dry land farming with wheat doesn’t work well, even in times of plenty of rain, and there was a drought going on, people were desperate and did it anyway, because of a guarantee by government of a price.
Check out these bureaucracies which were formed before the whole thing was declared unconstitutional. (1) Federal Surplus Relief Corporation. (2) International Wheat Agreement. (3) Domestic Allotment Plan. (4) Commodity Credit Corporation. (5) National Industrial Recovery Act. And I am certain there were others. It is not far fetched to realize that when something wrong happens, government is usually at fault. Without government caused depression, people wouldn’t have dreamed of farming, except they were guaranteed a price for what they grew, whether it sold or was needed or not. Newcomers wouldn’t have moved and plowed under all the deep rooted native grasses, which caused the dust bowl.
Was New Orleans flooded because of Katrina? Absolutely not. Katrina blew in as a #3 hurricane, which weather bureau facts will bear out if you are in doubt. I watched on TV the flood in New Orleans occur when a Corps or Engineers levee broke and trillions of gallons of water flooded New Orleans. Then, frantically, helicopters rushed in with huge boulders, rocks, and fill of any and all kinds to patch up the canal bank. It was too late, of course, but now, after the horse had left the barn, the door was closed. The broken canal bank is now fixed as it should have been with money appropriated, before the levee broke. As I said in a previous column when it happened, the Corps had been given over 700 million dollars to repair the banks, but it was spent elsewhere.. I watched, horrified, as all that water gushed onto the 9th ward, and then flooded most of New Orleans. It was dumb government, not Katrina. Katrina was indeed bad, and was responsible for much damage at other places, including Mobile, and even New Orleans, but the flood itself was purely dumb government. Roofs blowing off and trees down? Sure, that was Katrina, but not that hideous flood which cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
In 1962, by a literal act of Congress, (the apotheosis of dumb government), the ultra modern, streamlined, no overhead wire, streetcar system in Washington D.C. was ordered ripped up. The silent, smooth, streamlined “PCC” cars were sold or cut up. I have slides of it, and it was criminal. O. Roy Chalk owned an airline and lots of real estate. He was rich, and bought the D.C. Transit system for $13.5 million, which had 750 busses and 450 streetcars. As a condition of Congress ’allowing’ him to purchase the system, (Congress has virtual complete control of Washington D.C.), he had to agree to abandon the streetcars and substitute busses by 1963. He fought that part valiantly, and thousands of letters were received by newspapers and Congress begging not to tear up the pollution free, modern, silent streetcars. The various lines were gradually abandoned, and the last cars ran on January 28, 1962. I rode on the final runs, and it brought tears to everyone’s eyes. Google “PCC Streetcars,” and you’ll see what they looked like. Dumb government at its ultra stupidest. Oh yes, now Google ’D.C. Streetcar’ and note that the system is now going to be rebuilt, with overhead wires this time, and at a cost of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars eventually. Beginning with the same routes that were destroyed. Naturally! This time, it will be run by government at a loss of millions a year, rather than by a private operator who makes a profit.
P.S. as an additional show of disrespect for the Constitution, Obama now says, “We don’t have time to wait for Congress, so we’ll do it by ourselves.” The ’we’ being probably an executive order telling Fanny and Freddie to lower mortgage rates for home owners who are under water. Congress, controlled by Republicans, has been desperately trying to help with housing and the economy, only to be met with vetoes by the White House. Will lies never cease?