Supposedly the book to read on the subject is called “The Worst Hard Time” by Tim Egan for those that are interested (disclaimer: I have not read the book), however the documentary was narrated by Egan and it would seem he has harvested some solid facts.

As the History Channel started to draw more of my attention, my Austrian wheels began turn: How did the Dust Bowl came about? How did the Midwest become over cultivated? Why did so many people move to Western Kansas to farm? In the The Worst Hard Time Egan writes:

“Why did families settle in the and western half of the Great Plains–land described as ‘the flattest, driest, most wind-raked, least-arable part of the United States?’ The government and the media of the day undoubtedly played major roles in “selling” the land to unsuspecting settlers. Congress encouraged settlement of “the last frontier in public domain” and, in 1909, passed the Homestead Act, a desperate move offering inexpensive land and attractive incentives for settlement. Newspaper editors, bankers, politicians, and speculators distributed fliers, broadsides, and brochures advertising ‘the most alluring body of unoccupied land’ in the country, and the government termed it ‘the last frontier of agriculture’ Brochures described areas with paved, tree-lined streets, clean water, and railroads but, when the settlers arrived, they found only stakes in buffalo grass.”

Hmmm, the Homestead Act, sounds like another populist undertaking, where did this legislation originate and what’s it all about?

The Homestead Act of 1862 was passed by the U.S. Congress. It provided for the transfer of 160 acres (65 hectares) of unoccupied public land to each homesteader on payment of a nominal fee after five years of residence; land could also be acquired after six months of residence at $1.25 an acre. The government had previously sold land to settlers in the West for revenue. As the West became politically stronger, however, settlers increased pressure on Congress to guarantee free land. Several bills providing for free distribution of land were defeated in Congress; in 1860 a bill was passed in Congress but was vetoed by President Buchanan. With the ascendancy of the Republican party (which had committed itself to homestead legislation) and with the secession of the South (which had opposed free distribution of land), the Homestead Act, sponsored by Galusha A. Grow, became law.

This is what I would call one of Hazlitt’s half truths. In the short term the Homestead Act seemed like a great undertaking: revenues for the government and land for the people to farm, but what were the long term affects of the government providing land to the people for essentially nothing? What were the “whole truths” of the government legislation? One might ask, “How could they have possibly known what the “whole truth” was going to be? But that’s just it, no man, no group, no human….no government can provide us with whole truths. No one person can have that kind of foresight and that’s why doing nothing may be better than doing something. But then again doing nothing is not what gets you elected.