Public-Private Partnerships in Oklahoma

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Public-Private Partnerships in Oklahoma

The United States government bought the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, acquiring all or parts of what are now 15 states as well as land that extended into what are now the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This solved some problems for the US but created others, including a debate about whether the action was allowed under the US Constitution. What to do with all of this land became a long-term issue for the young country. Issues about the expansion of slavery were prominent in discussions.

Black white pic of a farmer standing at a fence row, looking toward an old farm house
This homestead is in South Dakota but doesn't look that different from Oklahoma homesteads.

The original title and other information for this picture from the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression of the 1930s are:

Title: A sod homestead built in 1900. Pennington County, South Dakota. Since 1900 this sod house has been standing to mark a farmer's effort to reap wealth from the Great Plains. At the time of its construction, there must have been skirmish after skirmish with the cattlemen as the fence of the homesteader narrowed down the range. Then wartime prosperity, with the price of wheat booming. Then the years of intermittent drought, up to the present, and instead of wealth, a bitter battle to achieve mere subsistence on the parched earth Creator(s): Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, photographer Date Created/Published: 1936 May-June. Medium: 1 negative: nitrate; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches or smaller. Reproduction Number: LC-USF34-004666-D (b&w film nitrate neg.) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs. Call Number: LC-USF34- 004666-D [P&P] Other Number: G 154 Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA.

The idea of making relatively small plots of land available to settlers at low or zero cost ('homesteading') was favored by many. But, opposition came from southerners who feared that this would work against plantation-style slave-holding agriculture, and from factory owners in the northeast who believed that cheap or free western lands would raise labor costs by giving more favorable opportunities to many low-cost workers. The secession of the southern states at the start of the US Civil War reduced opposition notably, and the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed soon thereafter. The Morrill Act allowed the creation of land-grant universities, which have provided so much valuable advice to homesteaders and others, and the act establishing the US National Academy of Sciences, which also has contributed greatly to the well-being of so many of these settlers, also passed about this time.

The Homestead Act offered 160 acres free to anyone who met certain requirements of living on and improving the land. Land was often distributed in a "land rush", in which a particular region was opened for settlement beginning at a certain time. 'Sooners' or 'moonlighters' (those who got in 'sooner' by the light of the moon) included some people, such as certain employees of the railroads or the government, who were legally allowed to go in sooner, but others who did so illegally. Complex and long-lasting court cases arose about land claimed by illegal Sooners. (Oklahoma is often called the 'Sooner State', a term that was viewed negatively a century ago because of the implication of cheating, but now is generally viewed positively.)

The homesteaders and their barbed-wire fences often came into conflict with ranchers or cowboys who used large tracts of land for cattle. In drier regions, 160 acres was really too small to make a productive and profitable farm, so in some sense, the government actions may have contributed to the great difficulties that arose when major droughts hit, as during the 'Dust Bowl' of the 1930s. Still, the settlement led to well-established, productive states where millions of people now live happily.

This history can be viewed, or 'spun', in many ways. An opponent of government actions might point to the unfairness of government and railroad employees having access to lands before others, and might point out that government meddling in the free market helped cause the economic and human tragedy of the Dust Bowl. A proponent of government actions might counter that 15 states and millions of people owe their existence to proactive government policies. The story is very different if viewed from the perspective of native Americans, cowboys, plantation owners, factory owners, homesteaders in relatively rainy places or near water sources, homesteaders in relatively dry places far from water sources, and many other groups. 

A few points relevant to this chapter are very clear, however. The main events were not controlled by the public, nor by private interests, but by diverse public and private groups and individuals interacting in various ways. The many different interacting groups were impacted by the main policy decisions in distinct ways, with greater or lesser benefit or harm. And, each policy decision built on a long history of earlier decisions that themselves had winners and losers; thus, changing paths is a policy choice with winners and losers, but keeping the same rules is also a policy choice with winners and losers. Because society tends to adapt to existing policies, a change always has short-term costs of switching these adaptations, no matter how beneficial the long-term outcome and this plus the political effort needed to make a change tend to favor continuation of existing policies. But, the choice to continue existing policies is still a policy choice with winners and losers.

A few of the many resources on this topic include: