Sunflower Justice by R. Alton Lee

Author:R. Alton Lee [R. Alton Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Law / Legal History
ISBN: 9780803248410
Publisher: Nebraska
Published: 2013-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

6.

The Devastating Depression

The Political Scene

The Great Depression created a new relationship between the state and its citizens in the form of direct government action, especially in the category of relief for families and businesses enduring economic hardship. Article VII of the Kansas Constitution requires that “the respective counties of the state shall provide as may be prescribed by law for those inhabitants who, by reason of age, infirmity, or other misfortune, may have claims upon the sympathy and aid of society.” So reads the poor law clause in the constitution, a statement that was implemented and reinterpreted over the next eight decades of statehood as economic circumstances evolved.

In 1862 the legislature tried to fulfill this obligation by copying poor laws of other states that, in turn, had their roots in the English Poor Law, which was designed to meet the requirements of the seventeenth century. The legislature, fortunately, failed to make family members legally responsible for keeping relatives off the poor law program, but this implication was always present prior to the Great Depression and even later in the minds of some taxpayers. An agrarian state, Kansas made counties responsible for this obligation, and, in turn, this sometimes became a principal function of the commissioners. They early provided for apprenticing boys who had been raised in an orphanage or in a home with no father or breadwinner to be “bound out” until age twenty-one, at which time each would receive a new Bible, two suits of clothing, and $10 for their years of work and learning a trade. In addition, counties often provided for “poor farms,” which were farmed out to the lowest bidder to care for the insane, the feeble-minded, and others in need.1

In 1872 the legislature authorized counties with more than thirty thousand population to appoint a commissioner of the poor for two-year terms. In 1891 the population minimum was raised to forty-five thousand, then lowered in 1901 to twenty-eight thousand and again in 1913 to twenty-two thousand, but the poor farm continued to be the most popular means of caring for indigents, especially in the eastern part of the state. This law was tested in the supreme court in 1875, with Justice Brewer writing for his brethren. The Osawkee Township voted $6,000 in funds for relief from a grasshopper plague. Two taxpayers brought suit to restrain the bond issue. Brewer noted that there were “poor” relative to “rich” and poor as in objects of charity. He pointed out that the statute made provisions for the destitute and grain for seed to farmers, not “food to the hungry, clothing to the naked or fuel for those suffering from the cold,” so the law could not be sustained. Instead, the legislature thereafter followed a policy of grants to private charities to sustain the destitute.2

Following the stock market crash in 1929, an unprecedented harsh depression settled over America. At this time, three-fourths of all production of wealth in Kansas still came from agriculture. By 1932 the price of wheat had plummeted to 20 cents, cattle sold at 5 cents per pound, and hogs sold at $2 per hundredweight.

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