Resettlement Administration

Resettlement Administration
en:Bernarda Bryson Shahn · Public domain · source
Name	Resettlement Administration
Formation	1935
Predecessor	Farm Security Administration
Successor	Farm Security Administration
Founder	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Type	Federal agency
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Leader title	Administrator
Leader name	Rexford G. Tugwell

Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration was a New Deal federal program created in 1935 to relocate struggling rural and urban families, establish planned communities, and implement conservation projects. It operated during the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and worked alongside agencies such as the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act programs. The Administration's activities intersected with initiatives by the Department of Agriculture, the Farm Credit Administration, and relief efforts linked to the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl migrations.

Background and Establishment

The agency emerged from policy debates among advisers including Rexford G. Tugwell, Harry Hopkins, Henry A. Wallace, and Harold L. Ickes about rural relief, land policy, and planned communities. It was influenced by earlier proposals from reformers such as Ruth Benedict and thinkers associated with the Progressive Movement, New Deal planners, and advocates from the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union. Legislative context included the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and precedents set by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration. Debates in Congress featured figures like Senator Robert F. Wagner and Representative John J. McSwain, and engaged economists such as John Maynard Keynes-linked advisers and critics like Alfred M. Landon.

Programs and Operations

The agency pursued resettlement, rehabilitation, and land-use planning through programs paralleling efforts by the Rural Electrification Administration, the Soil Conservation Service, and the Civil Works Administration. It administered loans, purchased submarginal land, and coordinated with state entities including the Tennessee Valley Authority and state agricultural extension services. Operational staff included planners trained in associations such as the American Institute of Planners and collaborated with architects associated with the American Institute of Architects for community design. The Administration's technical work drew on expertise from scholars linked to Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University.

Projects and Communities

Projects included model communities and rehabilitation farms that overlapped with sites managed by the Santee Cooperative, the Plymouth Colony-style planned developments, and cooperative experiments akin to work by the Rural Electrification Administration and the National Youth Administration. Notable undertakings involved rural greenbelt initiatives and urban planned towns similar in conception to projects influenced by Ebenezer Howard and practitioners like Patrick Geddes. The agency sponsored projects in states including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and worked near regions affected by the Dust Bowl migrations to California and Oklahoma.

Administration and Leadership

Leadership was dominated by Administrator Rexford G. Tugwell, backed by key staff drawn from institutions like the Brookings Institution and planning schools influenced by Lewis Mumford and Daniel Burnham traditions. Other officials and advisors included planners, economists, and activists who had worked with Harold L. Ickes at the Interior Department or with Harry Hopkins at the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Interagency coordination involved interactions with heads of the Farm Credit Administration, the Soil Conservation Service under Hugh Hammond Bennett, and Frances Perkins at the Department of Labor.

Criticisms and Controversies

Critics ranged from conservative politicians such as Alf Landon and Senator Robert Taft to agricultural interests represented by the American Farm Bureau Federation and private landowners in the South and Midwest. Opponents charged the agency with promoting collectivism and social engineering akin to accusations levied against other New Deal experiments involving planners influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright-era debates and European models like those of Le Corbusier and Tony Garnier. Legal and political pushback involved litigation and hearings in Congress where figures like Representative Martin Dies Jr. raised concerns about alleged subversive influences and administrative overreach. Tensions with state governments and local power structures, including sheriff departments and county commissions in places like Arkansas and Mississippi, complicated implementation.

Legacy and Impact

Although short-lived and reorganized into the Farm Security Administration in 1937, the agency influenced later federal housing, rural rehabilitation, and planning efforts tied to the Housing Act of 1937, the postwar Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, and the evolution of public housing policy shaped by agencies like the United States Housing Authority. Its work informed conservation policy advanced by the Soil Conservation Service and resettlement lessons used by planners affiliated with University of Pennsylvania and MIT planning programs. The agency's experiments fed into debates involving scholars such as Milton Friedman and practitioners in urban planning like Jane Jacobs in later decades, and left archives consulted by historians at institutions like the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Category:New Deal agencies