Agricultural Adjustment Act
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The United States Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) (P.L. 73-10 of May 12, 1933) restricted production during the New Deal by paying farmers to reduce crop area. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus so as to effectively raise the value of crops, thereby giving farmers relative stability again. The farmers were paid subsidies by the federal government for leaving some of their land idle. The Act created a new agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies.
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Agricultural Adjustment Administration
By the time the AAA began its operations, the agricultural season was already under way. In effect, the agency oversaw a large-scale destruction of existing crops and livestock in an attempt to reduce surpluses. For example, six million pigs and 220,000 sows were slaughtered in the AAA's effort to raise prices. Even some cotton farmers plowed under a quarter of their crop in accordance with the AAA's plans (Brinkley, 1999 "p. 879"). Due to the nature of the Great Depression, many United States citizens saw the AAA as cruel: while they were often hungering, the federal government was destroying crops and livestock. Adlai Stevenson and Telford Taylor worked in the AAA.
The AAA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the case United States v. Butler et al. (297 U.S. 1, January 6, 1936) because it taxed one group to pay another. Congress then achieved part of the original Act's goals with the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 until the enactment of a second AAA (P.L. 75-430) on February 16, 1938. This second AAA was funded from general taxation, and therefore acceptable to the Supreme Court.
Communist influence
The Soviet espionage ring commonly referred to as the Ware group originated among government employees in the AAA. Alger Hiss began his government career with the AAA. Charles Kramer worked the AAA consumer council. Leonora Fuller, an associate of Hiss from 1933 to 1935 stated that Hiss, Lee Pressman, Gardner Jackson, Frank Shea and others interpreted the Agricultural Adjustment Act not in the spirit of the law but in manner which would suit their own beliefs and private purposes. Hiss and the others brought into the government employees of their choosing who they intended to fall in line with their social and economic agenda. Fuller stated it was the definite purpose of this group to change the form of government of the United States, regardless of its democratic and constitutional underpinings, and to use the instrumentality of the offices of the Department of Agriculture to further their purpose. Instead of administering the law as it was intended, they deliberately used the government's time and money for unionization efforts.
References
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