The Constitutional, National, Environmental and State Context for Understanding Mississippi’s History

in the 1930s

Mississippi in the Great Depression

Goals1. To understand Mississippi’s BAWI Act

within the context of historic federal efforts to develop the American economy

2. To understand Mississippi’s BAWI Act within the context of the economic crisis of the Great Depression and the recovery programs of the New Deal

3. To understand Mississippi’s BAWI Act within the context of state efforts to foster economic recovery and growth

Federal Government and Economic Development

U.S. Constitution as an economic document

CurrencyTaxationTreatiesCourts: protection of

contractsDisposal of national

land holdingsIndian Removal

Antebellum Debates overEconomic Development

National Bank

Tariffs

Transportation

Homesteading

SlaveryEconomic debates were framed in the language of democracy, but the outcome of those debates determined who would gain and who would lose.

Post-Civil War Economic Issues

Greenback PartyLaborAgrarian Uprising

Patrons of Husbandry

Agricultural WheelFarmers’ AlliancePeople’s Party

Agricultural and labor organizations complained that government policies supported industrial development at the expense of farmers and workers.

Progressive Era LegislationFederal Income Tax Amendment

Farm Credit Act

Smith-Lever Act

Regulation of railroads

Anti-monopoly

Federal Reserve System

Economic Legislation by States during Progressive Era

Child Labor lawsBanking regulationsHealth regulationsInsurance regulationRoad constructionStandardization of

commodity marketsIndustrial safety

Summary of Federal Economic Role

U.S. government had been crucial to economic development from the beginning of the republic.

Public debates over government and the economy were often framed in the rhetoric of democracy.

The nature of federal (and state) legislation favored economic opportunity for some over others—generally capital over labor—and increasingly industry over agriculture.

Over time, as the U.S. became more urban and industrial, economic legislation increased, and regulation of economic activities became more pervasive.

Mississippi, the Great Depression,

and the New Deal

Food line

Mississippi Sharecropper

Natural and Economic Disasters

Soil erosion caused by cotton production

Collapse of the timber industry

Collapse of the Gulf Coast Boom

Flood of 1927

Flood of 1927

Mississippi as Others Saw It“The Cotton Belt. . .is the least advanced part of the

United States, and of all the Cotton States, Mississippi is the most unfortunate, for it lacks the coal and iron of Alabama, the trading opportunities of Louisiana, and the manufactures of Georgia and the Carolinas. In the midst of its hordes of barbaric peasants, there is native stock of excellent blood. But the young men of this stock, finding few opportunities at home, have to go elsewhere. Altogether, it seems to be without serious rival to the lamentable preeminence of the Worst American State.” Charles Angoff and H.L. Mencken, “The Worst American State,” American Mercury, XXIV (1931), 1-16, 175-88, 355-71.

Statistics of Mencken’s Evaluation

84% Rural2/3 Population

farmers72% tenancy

rate:50% white and 90% black

60 acres average farm size (national average: 157 acres)

Average farm valued at $1,800 (national average $7,600)

Loading cotton in Natchez

Per capita income in Mississippi was $173; in the Southeast $183; nationally $366 (1930); fell to $117 in 1933

20% Mississippi farm families owned an automobile or truck

10% farm families had a telephone

5% farm families had indoor plumbing

Plowing with a mule

Illiteracy rate in Mississippi was 13.1%; it was 4.3% nationally

7/100 black children attended high school in Mississippi; 66/100 white children attended (1933)

Plan for Rosenwald School

1,165 plants closed 52,000

manufacturing jobs in 1929 shrank to 28,000 in 1933

State income revenues dropped from $1,600,000 in 1929 to $300,000 in 1931

Natchez Street in 1930s

Summary of Mississippi in the Great Depression

History of cotton and race limited the state’s potential for economic growth

A series of economic and natural disasters in the 1920s undermined the state’s economy

Despite cultural beliefs in the superiority of rural life during hard times, Mississippi government and individual Mississippians experienced enormous loss during the Great Depression.

New Deal in Mississippi

75% congressional support for New Deal in the first 100 days

$400,000,000 in New Deal Programs for Mississippi by 1939

AAA; TVA; CCC; WPA to raise cotton prices, provide electricity, restore eroded lands, and build roads, schools, courthouses, and postoffices

Hugh Lawson White and BAWI Legislation

State Planning Commission

State Advertising Commission

Industrial Commission made up of one-full time and 2 part-time members

Governor Hugh White

Political Divisions on BAWIExpectations of

Political Support:Urban Industrial Hill Counties with

large white populations

Attorneys, businessmen, educators

Actual SupportUrban (75%)Manufacturing (67%)Attorneys (69%)Businessmen (49%)Medical Professionals

(86%)Educators (39%)Farmers and

ministers (46%)Hill Counties (48%)Black Majority

Counties (69%)

BAWI RequirementsIndustrial Commission empowered to issue

certificates of public convenience and necessityCertificates issued when 20% of the registered

voters petitionedMust demonstrate sufficient labor suppy to

provide 150% of the workers neededBonds could not represent more than 10% of the

total assessed valuation of the property of the taxing unit

Majority of the community’s registered voters had to vote in the election

2/3 of the voters must support the proposal

Challenge to BAWIBill drafted by Blue

Ribbon panel to circumvent the intent of 1890 Constitution

Claimed to uphold the “general welfare” clause of U.S. Constitution

Albritton v. City of Winona

Mississippi Supreme Court upheld BAWI as constitutional under the general welfare clause

While the justices recognized the act departed from traditional concepts of state power, they dismissed concerns that the program represented a “step toward socialism” and noted that “every intervention in the economic and social life of the citizen has been so branded.”Albritton v. City of Winona, 180 Mississippi 100, 178 So. 799

BAWI Plants CreatedIngalls ShipyardJackson County MillsW.G. Avery Body

CompanyGrenada IndustriesArmstrong Tire and

Rubber CompanyLebanon Shirt CompanyWinona Bedspread Co.Real Silk Hosiery MillEllisville HosieryHattiesburg Hosiery Co.I.B.X. Manufacturing

BAWI in PracticeMost of the industries

that were certified under BAWI were low wage processing industries—textiles and many were fleeing union complaints in other states.

Two exceptions were Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company in Natchez and Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula.

Map of BAWI plant locations

Labor and BAWIReal Silk Co. as an

example of low-wage, speed-up, anti-union company

Training wages and full-time employment

Failure to implement a workman’s compensation law

Ads for “friendly, native, Anglo-Saxon labor”

Anti-labor support in contracts

Summary of BAWI New BAWI plants improved

Mississippi’s economic outlook in the 1930s by attracting additional investment

State assumed responsibility for economic growth and development

Mississippi did not advance labor rights

Although blacks were generally excluded from the direct benefits of BAWI, economic changes facilitated social changes

However, the long-term legacy of BAWI may be a perpetuation of low wage, unskilled, no-benefits employment that has left the state at the bottom of the economic ladder

Poster produced by Advertising Commission

Conclusion The Balance Agriculture With Industry Acts fit within the

American political and constitutional system in which governments had played an important role in economic development

Despite its rural economy, the Great Depression was felt personally by individual Mississippians and collectively in local communities and throughout state government

New Deal investment in infrastructure, environmental reconstruction, and education had positive effects on the state’s ability to attract industry and improve the agricultural outlook

The Balance Agriculture With Industry Acts represented the most significant effort by the State of Mississippi to accept responsibility for the economic welfare of its citizens

Despite its progressive effort to improve the economy, Mississippi did not advance the rights of labor—and in this failure contributed to future economic problems for citizens of the state