* KROEBER AITEROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY PAPERS Nmber 3 LOST LAK A study of an agricultural coimunity established on reclaimed land Alan R. Beals and Thomas McCorkle This report was made possible through the cooperation of the ,i fi ed States Bureau of Reclamation ^taJ the University of Califorrnia - !Beokeley, Calif ornia December,. 1950 INFORMATION FO AUTHORS The Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers publishes articles in the general field of anthropology, including those which it is difficult, for various reasons, to publish elsewhere. In addition to articles of theoret- ical interest, the Papers will welcome descriptive studies putting factual information on record, bibliographies, linguistic texts and vocabularies, and historical documents of ethnological interest, The Society is particu- larly anxious to publish student research papers of high quality. Papers will be accepted from non-members although priority will be given to those by authors who are members of the society. Manuscripts must be typewritten, double-spaced on 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper, and on one side of the sheet only. Footnotes and the bibliography should be placed on separate sheets, also typed double-spaced and on one side of the sheet only. The bibliography must follow a standard form, as shonm in the examples below. Author's name, the title of the book or article, and serial titles should be written out in full as they appear on the title page of the work cited. For serial publications the place of publication, and for books and pamphlets the place of publication and pub- lisher, should be included in the bibliographic citation. For series: Skinner, Alanson 1909 "Lenape Indians of Staten Island." Anthrpoloical Papers of the American Museum of Ntural Histor, vbol3, pp.N3ew York. For books: Lawie, Robert H. 1948 Primitive Religion. Liveright Publishing Corporation, kNe YorW, (Revised edition; first published 1924.) Authors will receive three copies of the issue of the Papers in which their contribution appears. Reprints may be ordered at a price of one cent per page. A small extra charge will be made if illustrations must be repro- duced by photoliphography.Upon notification of acceptance of the manuscript, authors will be qperied on the number of reprints they desire. Address manuscripts to William So Evans (Publi.cation Director) Kroeber Anthropological Society c/o Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley 4, California Subscription to the Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers is by membership only, at three dollars per year. Additional copies may be ordered at the following prices: Uembers: Non-Mismbers:t NJo. 1 $ .65 1l.00 No. 2 1.00 1.50 NXo. 3 1.00 l.$0 ACKNOWLEDOEMENTS This report is the product of field work done in l949 as the result of a grant made available by the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamtion and the University of California. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance offered by the people of Lost Lake in making this study possible. The authors are also deeply Indebted to David G. Mandelbaum for his careful supervision of the field work and of the writing of this report; the staff members of the Bureau of Reclamation for their friendly co-oper- ation In assembling material about Lost Lake; John Goins and Harry Nelson for information gathered by them at Lost Lake in 1948; Patricia Marks for mterial gathered In 1950; and R. L. Adam,, Cheater 0. McCorkle, and Marie Jasny, whose published material on the Lost Lake community was of consid- erable use In preparing this report. The following persons aided with rvaluable advice and oomment: Richard Bachenheimer, Dorothy Beals, Ralph L. Beals, Leonard Broom, Charmian Crittenden, Walter R. Gold8chmidt, Robert H. Lowie, Margery McCorkle, Ronald L. Olson, John H. Rowe, Paul S. Taylor, and Mary Anne Whipple. Alan R. Beals Thomas MoCorkle 'The Kroeber Anthropological Society wishes to express its deep appreciation to all those whose effort and patience made this issue of the Papers possibleo Alan Beals Adra Long Jamees Bennyhoff Burton Lowrimore William Burd David Mandelbaum Jane Burton Shirley Marsh Patricia Cody Clement Meighan Charmian Crittenden Eugene Ogan Charlot Davis Dorothy Menzel Kay Ekman Marie Page Leroy Fischer Lauretta Rhoda Arthur Freed Francis Riddell Miary Frances Gray J ohn Rowe Gordon Grosscup Laetitia Mohr Shirley Gudmundson Ruth Shelley Mary Hall Pearl Silverman Michael Harner Ray Smith Alta Mae Harris Robert Squier WTilliam Hohenthal Clara Stern Jean Hawarct Sheilagh Thompson Lee Hubbard Adan Treganza Donald Lathrap Mary Anne 7Y[hipple Susanne Leppman Nona Wfilloughby Dorothy Libby Burdett Zellimer Williams S. Evans, Publications Director, for the Executive Committee Richard Bachenheimer, Editor C~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C 6~~~~~~~~~~ W-a cc~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' rKb C 0 N T E N T S Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I - HISTORY 5 Founding of Lost Lake Town 7 The Years of Prosperity 9 CHAETER II - lMIN;'G A LIVING 11 The Community 11 The Farnm 12 Economic Groups 21 CHAPTER III - SOCIAL STRUCTURE 27 Family 27 Soc.al Class 28 Social Miobility 33 CHAPTER IV - SOCIAL STRUCTURE 35 Patterns of Co-operation 36 Loafing Groups and Places 36 For.mal Organizations 37 Schools 41 Churches 46 CHAPTER V - THE NEW HOMdWSTEADERS 49 The Settlers 49 Problems of the First Settlers 51 Settlement in 1947 and 1948 57 CHlAPTER VI - SOCIAL ADJUST1E.INT 60 Social Structure 60 The New Homesteaders and the Lost Lake Comnunity 62 Attitudes and Goals 64 Probable Fate of the New Homesteaders 65 CHAPTER VII - GENERAL CONCLUSICOS 70 Lost Lake as a Reclamation Community 70 Assistance to Settlers 74 Ethnological Value 74 APPENDIX A - The 1949 Questionnaire 78 APPENDIX B - Settler Sels ction 88 T A B LES Page 1: Farm Units Opened 6 2: Economic Growth of Lost Lake 8 3: Killing Frosts at Lost Lake; 1933-1947 16 4: Barley: Calendar of Operations 18 5: Potatoes: Calendar of Operations 19 6: Occupations in Town 24 7: Businesses in Town 25 8: Functions of Lost Lake Organizations 38 9: High School Graduates 43 10: Cars in front of Churches on a Sunday 47 11: Predicted Failure: New Homesteaders 67 12: Settler Failure: 1927 and 1937 Groups 68 TABLES Al to A13 will be found at the end of Appendix A, Pages 79 to 89 MA PS 1: Lost Lakie and Vicinity frontispiece 2: Settlement by Year 13 3: Geographical Neighborhoods 14 4: Road and Visiting Groups 69 5: Present and Predicted Communities 63 INTRODUCTION To most people, the reclamtion of land means the building of dams and ditches, the watering of deserts and the draining of swamps. These problems of engineering construction are such dramatic features of re- clamation projects that the equally important social and cultural prob- lems associated with land reclamation are often unnoticed. These prob- lems revolve around the fact that even the very best land will not produce crops unless it Is properly farmed, and even properly farmed land does not reach its full development until functioning communities which contribute socially and economically to the welfare of the nation are est.blished upon It. In short, the fundamental social and cultural problem Inherent In any reclPamtion project is that of selecting settlers and establishing commnunities. Although no single study can be expected to solve this problem, a thorouh examintion of a specific example of land reclamation may answer the following questions: 1. What is the government trying to accomplish when it reclalms land? 2. What is actually accomplished and how is it accomplished? 3. How could the methods used by the government be improved by the further application of scientific methods in the development of reclamation communities? Unfortunately, only a brief answer can be given to the first question as neither Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, nor interested religious or political groups seem to have contributed many ideas as to what a reclamation community should be. The consensus seems to be that a successful community should consist of small farmers operating on a relatively small scale and attaining a level ol living approximating that of the urban middle class (1). The existence of these small farm- ers and "family-size"tI farms is expected to lead to the development of an educated, progressive farm population which will use its human and economic resources to improve the land and the community. Those who have expressed their views on the subject are generally of the opinion that the alternative to these small farms is the develop- ment of a type of large-scale or corporate farming which will ruin the land and leave In its wake a sort of agricultural slum district. These fears are best expressed by Professor Walter R. Goldschmidt in his re- port to the Senate Committee on Small Business, in whIch he presents evidence that In areas where large farm operations predominate, much of the population is dependent upon wages rather than entrepreneurial pro- fit. Correlated with this are relatively poor living conditions, low stability of population, poor physircal appearance of houses, streets, and buildings, little community loyalty, few small business establish- ments, and a low volume of retail trade (2). In attempting to achieve ouch goals as the family-sized farm, the Bureau of Reclamation relies largely upon the 160 acre limitation. This regulation forbids delivery of reclamation water to farms larger than 1 160 acres in size. In establishing reclamation communities, the Bureau takes the position that, If properly selected homesteaders are located in partially reclaimed areas, they will complete development of the land and bulld communities which are successful from the point of view of the settlers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and Congress. In general, the basis of this selection is that settlers are required to be war veterans, to have two thousand dollars in liquid assets, to submit letters of recom- mendation, and to have one or two years of farm experience. Lost Lake To find out how the goals and methods of the Bureau of Reclamation work in practice, the authors lived for three months In a community which will be called Lost Lake.* The reason Lost Lake makes a particu- larly useful example of the Bureau's goals, methods, and results is that it is generally regarded as a successful comunity. Reclamation offi- cials. national magazines, and newspapers have described the comunity or the history of its settlers in such terms as: "...a fantastic suc- cess story." "Homasteaders...have reaped an unprecedented and perhaps never to be duplicated reward for their efforts." "Practically all of the settlers have made good." Other factors which make Lost Lake an excellent community for study are: Settlers camo in definite waves as additional acreages were developed and in each wave different methods of settler selection were used. Originally homesteaders were veterans of World War I, but after 1946 all were veterans of World War II. Different groupe of homesteaders were of different average ages and settled at-different periods In the economic and social development of the comity. Early homesteaders settled in an undeveloped area, while later homesteaders foumd many mod- ern conveniences available. These varied situations provide an opportu- nity to find out how Bureau of Reclamation methods work under differing conditions. Of particular interest Is the post-World War II settlement of Lost Lake. This process was still going on at the time the present study was being made. Thus it was possible to observe how-a new group of home- steaders was received by the established community and how the individual homesteaders solved the problems of becoming members of a new community. This study of Lost Lake is organized as follows: First, the devel- opment of the community will be described -- what the area looked like before it was settled and what sort of problems faced the community dur- ing the twenty-seven years of its history. Second, the results of this historical process will be described -- what the modern community is * All geographical names included in this report., except such general ones as "West Coast," are ficetiti ous . The authors wil l be glad to fulrnish names of places and references to other studies of this community to any properly qualified student. like, how the people earn a living, and what kind of a life they lead. Finally, having set the stage, a deacription will be given of what hap- pened to this community when the Bureau of Reclamation made vast acreages nearby available to veterans of World War II. 14thod The field work for this study of Lost Lake was done during the sum- mer of 1949. The approach used Involved participation In the social life of the commnity, interviewing individuals believed to possess special- lzed knowledge, and the use of questionnaires to obtain data concerning roughly ten percent of the farm families in the area. The authors vis- lted dances, picnics, meetings, and parties, gaining the friendship of many members of the community and observing the behavior of Lostlakers in everyday situations. Because time did not permit a thorough study of all aspects of community life, It was decided that the emphasis should be upon the group of people who were making direct use of Lost Lake land, the farm dweller group. Although migratory laborers are of considerable importance in Lost Lake, less emphasis is placed on this group than on the farm owners because the latter live in the community over long pe- riods of time while many migratory laborers spend no more than two weeks in the community. The authors participated regularly in the activities of two farm owner groups and of three organizations during the three months spent in Lost Lake. The members of one group were middle-aged, while the second group was made up of people in their late twentioes. Both centered near Lost Lake town., but consisted largely of farm owners or their sons and daughters. The three organizations were the American Legion, the Twenty- Thirty Club, and a square-dancing club in a neighboring community which had many members from Lost Lake. Naturally, meetings of other organiza- tions and of churches were attended whenever possible, but regular attendance was difficult. Partly to offset the prejudices which might be acquired as a result of participating In the affairs of particular groups of people, and in the hope of gathering useful statistical ma- terial concerning the farm dwellers, a queetionnaire, which will be re- ferred to as the 1949 Questionnaire,, was administered to the residents of every tenth farm unit. This is more fully described in Appendix A. Full use was also mde of such docuientary evidence as was avail- able. Files of the weekly Lost Lake Herald were exanmlned, but, although there was a mountain of material dating from 1935, most of it was either trivial or would have required long and detailed analysis before it be- cam. meaningful. Extensive Bureau of Reclamation records were also available, but their historical value was somewhat limited because the kinds of data collected each year varied and the zeal with which material was collected altered with changes in personnel. Some use has been made of economic data provided by Bureau of Reclamation crop census reports, but these reports are collected for specific purposes and do not contain much useful information. There are two published works concerning Lost Lake. One deals with settler selection and was written in 1936. Although the material given in it is highly specialized and the arguments are in- volved, this report contalned some useful ideas and some useful statis- tical material. The other publication was written by a specialist in agricultural economics and describes some of the eoonomic problems asso- ciated with raising crops at Lost Lake. Footnotes (1) Congressional Record. July 21. 1947 Miller, Hon. George P., "Extension of Remarks of... "Statement by Reverend William J. Gibbons, S.J., mem- ber of the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, before the Subcommlttee on Irri- gation and Reclamation Projects, Senate Commlttee on Public Lands, May 12, 1947. Congressional Record. July 26. 1947 Miller, Hon. George P., "Extension of Remrks of... "Statement of Dr. Carleton R. Ball representing the Legislative Committee, Council for Social Action, Con- gressional Christian Churches. Submitted to the Sub- committee on Irrigation and Reclamation Projects, Senate Committee on Public Lands, May 12, 1947. Sbad, Elwood 1926 Federal Reclamation -- What It Should Include. Govern- ment Printing Office, Washington. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 1946 Landownership Survey on Federal Reclamation Projects. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. There is an excellent history of opinion on the "family-sEized" farm, pp. 66-93. U.S. Department of Interior 1943 Federal Reclamation Laws Annotated. Government Printing Off ice, Washington. U.S. Department of Interior 1942 Reclamation Handbook. Government Printing Office, Washington, pp. 19-28 and 35-49. (2) U.S. Senate, Seventy-ninth Congress 1946 Report of the Special Committee to Study Problems of American Small Business. Goldschmidt, Walter, Small Business and the Co=lun Government Printing Office, Washington. 4 CHAPTER I - HISTORY In 1903, the Bureau of Reclamation surveyed the Lost Lake Basin and began preparations for converting two-thirds of Its ninety thousand water covered acres to lrrilated farm lands. By 1920, thirty-five thousand acres of land had been drained and a Public Notice was issued announcing the availability of 174 farm units for settlement. At this time the reclaimed portion of Lost L ake was a treeless plain oovered with weeds and dotted with patohos of st6rile, alkali soil. There were no schools, no electricity., and no transportation facilities. Each settler or family of settlers was to receive a forty or fifty acre home- stead. Settlers were to be charged nlnety dollars an aore for construction work done by the Bureau of Reclamation, but there was a twenty year period in which to pay. Public interest in the windswept lands of the Lost Lake Basin was so low that only 65 applications were received for 174 farm units. The 65 families that did take up homesteads were mostly Bohemians from the nearby community of Marina., and sheep ranchers of Irish extraction whose flocks grazed upon the desert and mountain regions in the vicinity during the summer months. At first, these settlers retained economic interests in the two nearby towns ofMorton and Marina and exhibited almost no tendency to form a separate community at Lost Lake. The first sign of community development was the constructlon of a grammar school, but this did not take place until two years after the land had been settled. Although few of Lost Lake's early settlers could be interviewed in 1949, such evidence as could be collected indicated that these first years of the Lost Lake project were a period of poverty and misery for most of the settlers. The 1922 homesteaders regard themselves as "real pioneers" who lived in one-room shacks, worked long hours, and enjoyed almost no luxuries. The Bureau of Reclamation attempted to alleviate the economic misery of the settlers by giving them preferential leasing privileges on nearby pasture lande. Nevertheless, the economic position of the settlers continued to deteriorate and the Bureau felt compelled to add ten or twenty aores to each homestead, using for this purpose land which had not been homesteaded previously or which had been abandoned by discouraged homesteaders. Throughout the 1920's and the depression years of the early 'thirties, economic conditions in the Basin continued to be unfavQrable, and the five land openings held between 1927 and 1931 attracted only a few more than enough applicants to occupy the available land (Table 1). A homesteader who settled In 1929 said that settlers came for two reasons: To take ad- vantage of the excellent hunting and fishing, and to raise sheep. The sel man reported that alfalfa sold for $4.00 per ton'. yielding the grower $2.00 per acre, as compared with $44.0oo in 1947, and that he ate so much venison during the depression that he still couldn't stand the taste of it in 1949. 5 TAB3LE! 1 Farm Units Opened, Applications for Homesteads Received, and Acreages ade. Available for Private Settlement at Lost Lake from 1922 to 1938 Year New Farm Applications Acreage Units Opened Received Distributed Old Homesteaders 1922.... 65* 65 3,227 1927.... 145 145 8,062 1928.... 9 9 573 1929.... 28 94 1,887 1930.... 24 162 1,624 1931.... 68 189 4,752 1937.... 69 1,308 5,100 Totals 408 1,972 25,225 New Home steaders 1946.... 86 2,150 7,528 1947.... 44 4,o66 3,522 1948.... 86 5,132 8,283 Totals 216 11,348 19,333 Source: Bureau of Reclamation Records *174 units were listed in the original opening, but only 65 candidates gppeared. The other 109 units were closed and not re-opened until 1927, 6 Founding of Lost Lake Town In 1931, the Bureau of Reclamation began auctioning small pieces of land at the present site of Lost Lake Town. The first businesses to be established were two grocery stores, a lumber yard, a garage,, and two speakeasles. Almost immediately, Lost Lake acquired the reputation of being a "rouSh" town. Bar-room brawlE were common and a harvest season rarely passed without half a dozen homicides. One respondent said that the decent folks all went home from dances at eleven o 'clock, and a businessman claims to have "slept with a shotgun" during this period. The nearest law enforcement officers were located at the county seats of Timber and Lost counties, about sixty and seventy miles away. Legend has it that these officials were completely uninterested in Lost Lake. Yany individuals remember the burning of the Pioneer Tavern and tell the following story about it: Citizens rushed into the burning building and rescued innumerable cases of whiskey and other alcoholic beverages, but were unable to save the building. During the course of the rescue work, large quantities of alcohol were oonsumed by the populace. Even- tually, one of Lost Lake's soberer citizens concluded that a riot was in progress and hastily telephoned the sheriff of Timber County for assistance. The sheriff said, "All right, I'll be over first thing in the morning." In the early thirties, two factions struggled for control of the Lost Lake commauity. One was led by the American Legion, which included most of the homesteaders and those townspeople who wanted the town cleaned up. According to several farm residents who consider the American Legion to be their organization, the Legion Hall was, for years, the commnity's only meeting place. It was "the center of everything.," "the whole town," "from 'twenty-eight to 'thirty-six it was the only organization." The Legion Hall served as a meeting place for the Boy Scouts, for users of Irrigation water, and for any other group that wanted to meet. It also served as a commnity club, as a schoolhouse, and as a church. One homesteader claimed that the Legion Hall had to be used as a schoolhouse because county officials felt it would be only a matter of time before the dikes confining Lost Lake broke and the entire area became submerged; they therefore refused to build schools in such a place. Opposed to the Legion was a group of gamblers, tavern owners, and townspeople known as the "liquor element." 1bmbers of this group opposed incorporation of the town and wanted It to develop into a gambling resort and "hunters paradise." In 1937, however, the Lost Lake Herald featured such headlines as: "Lost Lake Has A Right To Mainage Its Own Affairs" and "Clean Up Town And Keep Out Red Light District And Additional Saloons." Citizens voted eighty-seven to eight in favor of incorporation. This vote did not result in the extinction Qf the liquor element, but it did mark the beginning of serious attempts on the part of Lostlakers to control this group. The importance of the liquor element and the American Legion in the early 'thirties is illustrated by the experience of a family that moved 7 into Lost Lake to open a retail business in 1932. As the wife describes it: Legion people kept coming into our place and telling us if we wanted their business weld better "play ball with the Legion and have nothing to do with the liquor people." Then the -other side would aome in and say just the opposite. We dldn 't want to take sides with either of them and for a while we were unpopular. We didn't do much- drinking, which was contrary to polite etiquette, and I guess some people thought I was stuck up because I didn't wear Levis [copper-riveted, blue denim trousers] to work in. I never did wear pants in town; I was brought up to be a ladyir After a while mJy husband joined the Legion. One day some women came Into the store and one of them said to me, l`Gimme four bits.". I did, and she said, "Congratulations. You've just-.joined the Legion Auxillary." On the first anniversary of the day we started in business, we decided to give a little party. We set up a gallon of whiskey and a gallon of gin on the counter and invited everyone who passed by to come in and have a drink. After that we got along- a lot better with people. Myt husband was Commnder of the Legion, and I've been Comnder of the Auxiliary. After 1933, economic conditions at Lost Lake began to improve (Table 2). By this time, there were two railroads and a highway through the Basin. Potatoes and barley became important cash crops guaranteeing a profitable return on the farmer's investment of time and money. TABLE2 2 The Economic Growth of the Homesteaded Area of Lost Lake* Year Acreage Cultivated Gross Value of Crops 1921 .... 0 $ 0 1930.... 12,960 381,100 1936.... 18,527 2,382,500 1940.... 26,682 2,052,400 1944.... 24,125 4,669,400 1947 .... 31,574 6, 168,4oo 1948.... 35,579 4,557,300 Source: Bureau of Reolamtion records. *Does not include produce grown on government lease lands, nor value of livestock6 and their products. 8 Increasing prosperity had a stimulating offect upon the growth of Lost Lake Town. The Lost Lake Herald vas founded In December,, 1935; a year later it reported that the populiation of the town had doubled. Corres- ponding to this increase In population was an increase in the number of clubs and associations of ?ommunity members. Previously the American Legion had been almost the only formal,organization; now, in the words of one respondent, "Disgruntled groups were allowed to branch out from the Legion." New organization inoluded a 'Masonio Lodge, a rifle club, a Twenty-Thirty Club, four Girl Scout Patrols, and a dairymen's association. The Years of Prosperity Word of Lost Lake's prosperity spread and the lands opened for settlement in 1937 attraoted a large naumber of applicants. Previous openings had rarely attracted more than a smll excess of applicants over available farms. In 1937, more than one thousand individuals applied for the sixty-nine available farm units. For the first time, the Bureau of Reclamation was able to seolect settlers systematically. Applicants were screened by an examining board composed of local residents and selected on the basis of farm experience, status as a war veteran, financial assets, and letters of recommndation. Since there were many competitors for a small number of farms, successful applicants had to make almost perfect scores In each category. Among other things this meant that almost all 1937 settlers ca to Lost Lake with liquid assets of $10,000 or more. When these newcomers moved onto their lands in 1938, many of the older residents in the community expressed resentment, saying that they had made the land valuable and deserved the use of it, or that homesteads should be given to poor people and 1937 homesteaders had too much :money. The county line between Timber and Lost counties, which bisects the Lost Lake Basin, also played a part in the generation of friction between the 1937 homesteaders and their predecessors, because most of the early settlers were located in Timber County while the area settled in 1937 lay in Lost County. For a time, 1937 homesteaders threatened to establish a separate community and there was talk about separating the American Legion Post into Timber County and Lost County branches. This move was quashed by the parent organization. Conflict between these two groups of homesteaders appears to have died out almost as soon as the 1937 homesteaders had harvested their first crops. The sixty-nine new families were not, after all, much different in background from their neighbors. Both groups consisted almost entirely of veterans of World War I, favored the same organizations, and held the same opinions and beliefa. With no real differences between the two groups, social tensions soon disappeared and the new settlers joined the established organizations and entered into informl social interaction with their neighbors. 9 The coming of World War II produced a profound effect upon the commnity of Lost Lake. Unprecedented prosperity combined with a shortage of labor made it possible and imperative that labor-saving devices be used in farming. As a result, a pattern of mechanized agriculture, which had already gained much ground, diffused with such rapidity and completeness that plough horss, mules, and old-fashioned farm implements vanished from the Basin within a few years. Another result of the war was the establishment of a camp for "disloyal" enemy aliens on a former peninsula in the southeast corner of the Basin. At first, community attitudes towards this concentration camp were hostile. Businessmen put up placards stating, "Trade of aliens not wanted." Some farm owners felt that the establishment of a camp might be of economic benefit to the community, but most regarded Lost Lake as "white man' countryt and asserted that It should be kept that way. A poll taken by the Lost Lake Herald showed that ninety percent of the citizens opposed the establishment of the camp, while ten percent favored It. However. when establishment of the camp appeared to be inevitable, the wife of a man who had homesteaded in the 'twenties wrote in the newspaper, "`The enemy alien camp for Lost Lake was just one of those things that are inevitable in wartime. It is being accoepted in the Lost Lake spirit." A few days later an editorial in the same paper entitled "Goodbye Provincialism" said, "...if we want the word 'American' to be synonymous with 'kind, tolerant, reasonable,' now is the time to make it so by our attitude toward a foreign people, with whose government our goverrment is at war." Although the foregoing history is incomplete, it does serve to illustrate the phern.omenall.y rapid growth which the Lost Lake community has undergone. This growth has involved a sharp increase in population., a corresponding elaboration of the social structure as many clubs were founded and the town and country segments of the community became separated, and, finally, a dramatic increase in the wealth and material possessions of the community. The present day commnity of Lost Lake is an outgrowth and a part of the historical process which has just been described. What the community looks like today, its economy, and its social structure can now be described in their proper context, a context of rapid growth and change. 10 CHAPTER II - MAKING A LIVING The Community Lost Lake is located on a mountain plateau four to five thousand feet above sea level. This plateau, which will be called the Clark Plateau, is surrounded on all sides by eparsely inhabited mountain and desert regions. At the south end of the Plateau lies the Lost Lake Basin ( Map 1 ). This Basin is a depression in the Clark Plateau, almost completely surrounded by rugged cliffs of black lava. In the southeast corner of the Basin, an area has been set aside as the Lost Lake Restricted Sump. Here, the marshy remnants of a lake., which once filled all but the northern part of the Basin, provide a refuge for ducks, geese, and muskrats. Entering the Basin along the narrow strip of arable land which leads down from the Clark Plateau, are two railroads and a paved highway which traverse the Basin and continue into the volcanic desert to the south. The map shows three communities in Lost Lake Basin. In the northwest corner is the community of Morton with a population of about 1000. It was settled in the latter part of the nineteenth century by sheep and cattle ranchers of English, Scotch, and Irish origin. Marina, a community of about 800 people, was settled in 19Q9 by a group of Bohemian immigrants. It is located in the extreme northeastern corner of the Basin. The major portion of the reclaimed bed of the lake is occupied by the community of Lost Lake which has a population of 2100. The Lost Lake Basin is a distinct geographical unit, and the members of all three communities have many common problems and form a social and economic group. This social and geographical unity is, unfortunately, not discernable in the political boundaries which split up the Basin. Morton and Marina are separated from Lost Lake by state and county lines, ancl the Lost Lake community Is halved by the county line separating Timber County and Lost County. Timber City and Perdido, the county seats of Timber and Lost counties, are small towns, both more than sixty miles from Lost Lake. These two counties consist largely of national forests and other non- agricultural lands. Consequently, county officials take little interest in the mechanized Irrigation farming which forms the economic basis of the Lost Lake communnty, and most of Lost Lake's social and economic interests center in Clark County, where Clark City, Morton, and Marina are located. Clark County derives most of its income from irrigation farming and Clark City merchants profit from trade brought In by Lostlakers. As a result, Clark County officials are ready and willing to provide Lost Lake with agricultural advice and other services. 11 Of the 2100 people who live in Lost Lake, 900 live on farms and 1200 live in town. These figures are not precise because the population of the community varies during different seasons of the year as trans- ient laborers leave and enter the Basin. During the harvest months, the population of the oommnity almost doubles. Censuses or statements made by county officials do not ordinarily give the population figures for the Lost Lake community as a whole; they usually omit those portions of the community which lie outside the particular county involved. Several estimates of the population of Lost Lake Town were available, but most were not recent enough to be accurate. Up to date figures on the population of the town were obtained from town officials, and figures on the population of the farm area were obtained from the 1949 Questionnaire (Appendix A, Table A2). In discussing the economic and social structures of the Lost Lake community, emphasts will be placed upon the 900 farm dwellers and their problems, and to a lesser extent upon the 1200 individuals who live in town. Migratory laborers, although they are important and necessary to the survival of the community, are not actually community members, and the majority of them live in Lost Lake only during the harvest season. The problems of migratory labor are important, but they are not particu- larly relevant to the present discussion. The 650 New Homesteaders who have recently settled in the vicinity of the Lost Lake commnity are discussed In Chapters V and VI. For the purposes of the present study, then, the community will be regarded as that group of permanent residents who live in Lost Lake Town or in the surrounding countryside and who buy their groceries, attend meet-: ings, and find their friends in or near Lost Lake. Geographically. the community is included in the Lost Lake Irrigation District, and if a small group of farmers on the northern fringes of the Irrigation District who belong to the communities of Morton and Mrina are excepted, the two areas are practically identical. As a result, Lostlakers subdivide the community in two ways: in terms of the areas settled by different groups of homesteaders In different years (Map 2), and the various geographical neighborhoods (Map 3). The Farm Lost Lake's natural resources are limited to its ferttle soil and to such tourist attractions as wild game and impressive scenery. Agriculture is, of course, the mainstay of Lost Lake's economy and only a few of the businesmen in town derive any considerable portion of their income from the tourist trade. Lost Lake's agriculture ti of the type described by Walter C. McKain and others as "specialty crop" agriculture(l). This means that the farmer, instead of raising many different kinds of products, specializes in the raising of one or two orops. A Lost Lake farm is operated like a small business and its yearly income is used for the purchase of tools, household furnishings, clothing, and food. Little pro- duce is grown for home consumption; about half of the farmers evren buy such things as eggs and milk at the grocery store. 12 1922 ~ ~ ~ ~~-12 MAI' 2 SETTlEMENT 13Y YEARt ( SIM i'LIF IED) i'ANHANDLE- MAWT 3 <5EOGRiA'H IC Al NE iGHI13ORIHOODS Crops. The nature of the crops grown at Lost Lake is determined largely by the climate. Distance from the coast, high altitude, and poor air drainage produce climatic conditions which can only be described as capricious. Temperatures varying from 30 below zero to 95 above zero are not unknown. The mean monthly temperatures for January and July are 29.3 degrees and 65.5 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively. Killing frosts may occur on almost any night in the asumr months when the sky Is clear and no breezes prevent the settllng of cold air on the floor of the Basin (Table 3). There Is a local Iainsg to the effect that farmers expect late spring frosts until July 4 and early fall frosts after July 4. Rainfall averages 8.83 Inches per year, buit,most of the precipitation occurs in the winter months when no crops can be grown. Another factor which Influences the kinds of crops which can be grown is distance from markets. Because the nearest metropolis is 300 miles away, it is difficult to dispose of such perishable crops as celery and carrots; the short growing season makes it impossible to raise these crops during periods when they are in limited supply. Instead, the crops ripen just at the time when there is a surplus of celery and carrots in areas considerably closer to urban centers. At the present time, then, the Lost Lake farmer usually raises such crops as barley or potatoes which can be stored for long periods without deterioration. Crop rotation praotices require the raising of leguminous crops, which add nitrogen to the soil. These include alfalfa, peas, and clover. Unfortunately, there are not many farm animals in the Basin and there is usually a surplus of animal feed. This means Lostlalers must either sell their surpluses at distant markets or raise livestock. Most farmers believe " you can make more money by passing your hay through an animal." Nevertheless, few farmers raise livestock because it involves working during the winter months and spending a good deal of time at home milking and feeding the livestock or caring for sick animals. To some farmers who do not care for hunting and fishing or travel, this prospect is not too bleak. Others are unwilling to sacrifice leisure and freedom for the sake of a few extra dollars. Because of the inconveniences attached to the raising of livestock, barley and potatoes have become tthe major money-making crops. Most of the barley is a brewing barley of the Haanohen variety which buyers consider to be equalled only by that grown In certain parts of Poland. Barley growing requires a relatively small.. part of the operator's time and effort, and relatively little capital. Because of its high quality, the barley crop can usually be sold easily and at a considerable profit. The raising of potatoes presents an altogether different set of problems. Although a successful crop will bring the farmer a comparatively large profit, there is more effort and considerable risk attached to potato growing. The farm operator must invest a larger amount of time and money in the planting`of his crop; he must employ and supervise labor to weed it; he must oversee irrigation with skill, because too much or too little water will cause his potatoes to rot or assume odd shapes; he must expose his crop to the risk of early frosts for a month or mor after the barley crop has been harvested and sold; he must hire large crews of 15 TABLE 3 Killing Frosts Recorded at the Town of Lost Lake 1933 -1947* Ye ar Last Before JulY 15 First After JulY'15 1933.... June iS 'August 5 1934.... June 25 July 31 19355.... June 30 August 16 1936.... June 28 September 13 1957.... June 23 August 1 1958.... May 22 August 23 1959... June 18 August 29, 1940.... June 8 September 5 a1941.... June 7 August 28 1942.... Juno 11 August 30 1943.... no record no record 1944.... d b naaJune 13 Septomber 19 1945.c.. no record no record 1946.... July 9 September 7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~y 9tme 1947... June 28 August 25 Source: Report prepared by the DepartmeDnt of Agricultural Economics, University of Calif ornia, Berkeley. *There is no absolute temperature which can be said. to constitute a killing frost.' At'Lost Lake a'kil i ngl frosat means' a f rost that does substantial damage to the Basini'sa barley arxl, potato crops. transient laborers during the harvest; and finally, he must store hie crop, sometimes from September until May before it can be sold at an optimulm price.* The raising of potatoes, then, requires the full attention of a farm operator who is a skilled agriculturalist and a good businessman. Sugar beets and onions are also raised at Lost Lake by a few farmers. These crops present many of the sa diffficulties involved In the raising of potatoes. A goodc many farmers and their wives cultivate small flower and vegetable gardens. These are usually regarded as a luxury since it is believed that more money could be mde by "plowing right up to the front door." The presence of the economlally useless custom of raising f lower and vegetable gardens can be attributed to two factors -- the belief that farmers should be self-sufficient, and the diffusion of suburban concepts of recreation. Some farmers conceive of vegetable gardening as a means of learning to grow different types of crops. Facilities. Although preference for one type of agriculture or one type o crop exerts considerable Influence upon the layout or plan of the farm unit and the type of machinery purchased and used, a general pattern may be observed. Farm units are usually rectangular, and in the areas homesteaded between 1922 and 1937, average about sixty-five acres in size. A lot of about two acres is set apart for a house, vegetable garden, flower garden, lawn, and farm buildings. These usually include a machinery shed, a barn, and less frequently, a chicken house or potato cellar. Until recently, potato cellars were always long, rectangular wooden buildings which were covered with earth and had floors set several feet below ground level. Most potato cellars now being built are more like conventional barns In appearance; they are neither earthcovered nor semi-subterranean, but are insulated with rock wool or some other modern insulating material. Many of these cellars were designed by a singie local innovator. The use of modern building materials, such as sheet aluminum, and of new concepts of design is also evident In the construction of machinery sheds and barns. * This contrast between barley and potato raliing Is illustrated by the Calendars of Operations (Tables 4 and 5) which were prepared by a speoialist from the Univereity of California Department of Agricultural Economice during the summer of 1948. The figures given are for an exceptional year, but they lndioate satisfactorily the type of agri- culture and the kind of profits that occur at Lost Lake. Several lacunae and apparent inaccuracies occur In the tables quoted. In the source for Table 4, for example, the c)st of production has been figured at $1.84 per cwt. when It should be $1.97, resulting in a corrected net profit to the operator of $6913. The authors will furnish the name of the economist in question and the title of his publication to any qualified student who has queries or doubts con- cerning the form or content of the material presented. 17 m 1 0 0 0 I 0 O 0 , a S b IA IA I0 0 CO I I n U e d * ~* * * . *.4 .-44 4 0 e~~~~~I 1 1) r~ 1 ^ r'r C 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 Ot' 009 0 U e ' 0 o o e4) *# *\5 I I I (' C ' I I I 04) @ f 11 t I I C oS~~~~~~~~0 11 0 4) C 0 0 0 0 O 0 I O O I 0 4.) @0 H w 0 IAO cSc 0 0X H O I ||U S w 11 1 P~~"4 .0 .. .-1F * Ie J ~~.4 0 ~~~~~4) r 4 , A 11 1 4 0. d J m (a ~ ?l CO Od -C m- m rs! < _4] O 0 Sz ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ k o3- .o' 0 I I 1 0 __0 0 (D 0 +) 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 00I .9 ,4 +) -p 4I 4 S 04) 4) 0 ~~~~~~0 0 0 0 0O t VU CM CV m - h Ow P-4 *0 ?4 M4 M w Y S MS * 0 0~~ 0~~~~~~ ~~~~~) 0 C'-IC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J 43~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4)~~P5 ________ 0 *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ CH 04) 0~~~~~00 Id f- 0 O4 >bP4L 02 0~~~~~o 4' : 4c 0 220 00 15 Hr-I0 4 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 0 -4 IA ~~~~P4 4) 0 H~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ g4 02~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~N CO0 0 c+ C# 4. 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H ct (DB t 0 S C O o)4j3-I-b~ @s '-S a O o\ I IHHHH H I >o 11 t- C) ., - p 00 0 0 o 4 o 0 O H't H ~ ~ 0 Ha b0 0'-5 m P 0 t0 ~~ 0 0 J ~ C+ t e__ .0.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ H) 0 H 0 5DU H 0 W m hi, H OH -o co o) CV CX o c ci- Ct * _ _o * C+ 0C * 02 J -JOOOO 0 000 0 o '-.& p 44b4" * P. > Just as traditional designs for farm buildirngs have been abandoned by Lost Lake farmers, so have tradltional farm implements. At the present time there are no draught animals used for plowing, cultivating, or hauling. Such work is now done by machinery and the only horses to be seen are riding animals. Farm machinery generally incluces a small or medium sized rubber- tired or caterpillar type tractor, a drill, a ditcher, a baler, a culti- vator, and perhaps a combine. Potatoes, sugar beets, onions, and other truck crops require specialized types of machinery. If a farmer wants to be completely independent and own all the necessary machinery, he must spend at least fifteen thousand dollars. In preference to making such a large capital outlay, most farmers rent or borrow machinery from neighbors as needed. Houses. In most neighborhoods settled before 1940, houses tend to be small wooden buildings with wood or asbestos shingle roofs. These were often built by the farm owner himself when he tired of the pre-fabricated, one-room "homesteader's cottage" sold him by a Clark City lumber company. These homesteader's cottages now serve as tool sheds or chicken houses. The more prosperous of the 1937 homasteaders have built "modern" or "ranch-style" houses with picture windows and almost flat roofs. Most of these houses, regardless of the financial condition of the owner) are small, since large houses are considered ostentatious and families are small. A few of the 1937 homesteaders and a number of the residents of the Westside neighborhood have built houses in various pseudo-English, pseudo-New England, and pseudo-Southern colonial styles. Houses in town are usually one story frame structures, although there is considerable variation. One section of town, near the high school, is devoted almoat entirely to expensive looking pumice-brick houses with landscaped yards. Another section of town, which businessmen and professional people often refer to as a bad neighborhood, contains houses which are small and of relatively poor construction although none could be cls5ified as "shantiea." The typical house for both town and country is a five-room, white- painted structure with a shingle roof. It is surrounded by a large yard which includes a lawn and is generally carefully tended and rather for- mally landscaped. The interior furnishings of such houses conform to the requirements of comfort and informality in the living room and of stream- lined efficiency in the kitchen. Kitchens are furnished with metal or wooden cabinets, a modern electric refrigerator, and an equally modern electric stove. There is usually a chromium-legged breakfast table with matching chairs in one corner of the kitchen, and the sinkboards are usually trimmed with matching or harmonizing linoleum. No wallpaper is used in the kitchen, but transfers In floral designs or depicting stereotyped Nbxicans in sombreros are frequently glued to stove, refrig- erator, and cupboard doors. In many houses the dining room is a recent addition with the kitche n situated between the dining room and the living room. Dilnin room fur- niture is likely to be of inexpensivelyr veneered wood, but it usually 20 lookke new. The living room is the most obviously lived-in room In the house. Magazines and paper-backed books often litter the coffee tables and magazine racks which are placed near large, comfortable armchairs. Floors, in the less prooperous days of the community, were generally covered with linoleum. Living room floors and occasionally those of other rooms now have inexpenalve broadloom carpets with large floral designs. Walls are decorated with wallpaper exhibiting similar designs, and on them hang decorated calendare and framed pictures of sons and daughters. Windows are generally a1ll and curtains are usually ruffled and bright in color. In the center of the living room is the squat oil heater which most Lostlakers conslder ugly but necessary. Econolic Groups. The Small Farmer. The predominant pattern of Lost Lake agriculture ls that of the small farmer who cultivates 50 to 160 acres, borrows or rents some machinery from his neighbors, raises barley as his principal .orop, and does much of his own farm work. Figures taken from the 1949 Questionnaire Indicate that slightly more than half of the farm residents fall Into this category (Table A6). Such an operator hacl a net income after taxes of between $3000 and $15,000 in 1948. A Bureau of Reclamation stwly which used 1939-1944 figures as a base, tentatively suggests that a net farm income of about $3150 after taxes would be a more reasonable figure for an eighty acre farm uit planted in about equal parts of barley, potatoes, alfalfa, clover, and pasture. However, prices and farm incomes have been high in recent years and most of Lost Lake's farmers do not "epeot.a drop back to 1939-1944 levels. La -scale Operators. In contrast to this smal] farm pattern are the lrge-scale operators who lease tracts of land from the Bureau of awo,Lamtion or, operating as family groups, obtain ownership of tracts of land.exceeding 160 acres in slie. No rellablq estimate of the amount of r=mlnd owned by such large operators could be obtained, but one man and his relatives are known to own between ten and fifteen units with each unit registered in the name of a different member of the family. 'y-z'al other families control more than fi ve units each. Perhaps a dozen viduals or corporations own or lease more than 500 acres each in the - -Lake Basin and some of these have large farm holdings in adjacent -ard elsewhere in the stato. Goldschmidt, in his Small Business and i~ nnLt (2), has 1given an account of the effects of such large- C,operations upon neighboring smll communities. Conditions like f.ound by Goldschmidt at Arvin, where farming Is of the large-scale t, are not apparent at Lost .'Lake, where smaller operations still ?ato (Table A6). Furthermore, a good many Lostlakers manifest }k of the large-scale farming. Results of the 1949 Questionnaire sate that 58% of all Lost Lake farm residents favored the continuation .160 acre limitation, while 27% "didn't know" or withheld opinion, 7l 15% openly disapproved the limitation on acreage to which tion water can be delivered. 21 Hired Hands and Farm Mianagere. Hired hands are generally recruited from the ranks of transient laborere and are given housing and hourly wages by the individual operator. When a hired hand is not needed by his regular employer he my work -for otiers. During the winter most hired hands cannot find employment and must leave the Basin. Hired hands and their farmilies frequently travel six hundred miles or more in attempting to fird work in distant localities. Many families return to the same employer every summer. In many cases a hired hand and his family become increasingly attached to the community and make increasingly abitious attempts to find work in the Basin during the winter months. If he persists, he may become well known to community members and my succeed in establishing himself as a marginal member of the community, making useful acquaintances, and supporting his family during the cold winter months. Particularly ambitious, hard working, and agreeable hired hands may be loaned money by their regular employers or others, and my succeed in leasing a few acres of farm land, In other cases a hired hand my be given employment as farm manager by an operator who wishes to retire or by those who lease large acreages of government land. Hired hands represent a relatively small proportion of those engaged in agrioultural labor and differ from other agricultural laborers in that they have steady employment, at least during the crop season, and are in most cases improving their economic status. Migratory Labor. Two kinds of migratory workers appear at Lost Lake -- specialized operators of machinery, and "unskilled" potato pickers. The machine operators are relatively well off. Some of them own atid operate combines and other expensive machinery and follow the grain harvests. These men actually usurp some of the functions, such as that of harvesting, which are traditionally ascribed to the farm proprietor. Their role in American agriculture has been described by Paul S. Taylor (3). The second, and much larger group includes "Okies" not unlike those described by John Steinbeck in The Graps of Wrath, as well as many Negroes, Indians, Filipinos, and Nbxicans. About 1503 of these potato pickers visit Lost Lake Basin in October and November of each year. Arrangements for hiring labor for the potato harvest ar generally made through the Lost Lake Growers' Association, a group representing most of the farmers in the Basin. Officials of the association meet with labor contractors and determile how many laborers are to be brought in and how much they are to be paid. Contractors are bonded In order to guarantee the harvest of a given acreage of potatoes within a given time and to protect growers in case the contractor should default on wages, leaving the farmer to settle with his disappointed employees. Lost Lake farmers have a low opinion of these labor contractors and are unanimous in the belief that contractors do not pay potato pickers a fair share of the profits made. In the fall of 1949., one of the three contractors who brought labor to the Basin was arrosted in a raid on New Town by stato and Lost County officials and, aAording to the Lost lake Herald, ?harged with offenses that included gambling, illegal liquor sales, and prostitution. 22 In addition to contract laborers, there are those who do not work under contract and are hired Individually by each farmer. Such laborers are often unable to get housing andl are sometimes stranded In the Basin when the harvest is over. This is a serious problem, considering the low temperatures at the time of tile potato harvest, and several Lost Lake or- ganizations make it their business to provide transportation for laborers who are stranded. Potatoes are generally harvested after frost hae killed the vines and hardened the outer skin of the tubers making long-term storage pos- slble. The crop is then "dug" by mechanical means and left on top of the ground. Those whose task it is to plok up the potatoes are given belte with large hooks attached. Burlap sacks are hung from these hooks and carried into the field. One sack is drag&gd between the legs of the plck- er and filled as he works his way along an assigned row. Pickers are paid for the number of "stubbies" (sixty pound half-sacks) filled. As flelds are often covered with a mixture of frost and mud and the posi- tion assumed in picking potatoes Is extremely uncomfortable, those who are willing to accept Jobs as potato pickers are generally those who can- not find work elsewhere. Farmers complain that potato pickers in order to get paid for work not done often hide empty sacke, fill saoks with clods, or fail to fill sacks to the top. In addition, pickers are described as alcoholic, im- provident, and unreliable. It Is said that the only way to get a crop harvested Is to have one crew fired -and on the way out the gate, one crew hired and on the way In the gate, and one crew working. In 1949, the Lost Lake Herald quoted one local resident as saying: Last year the problem was terrible; this year it's better but still intolerable; the point is how long do we have to wait before we can stop turning over the whole town for three months every year to a bunch of bum and cut-throats? In general, Lost Lake's farmers, probably because most of them have been poor, are sympathetic to the problems of individual migratory labor- ers and are willing to help out Individuals who are in trouble. However, when It comes to doing something to assist migratory laborers ae a group, farmers are hesitant to do anything that might force them to pay higher wages and are unable to find ways in which to change conditions which are unsatisfactory to both employee and employer. At present, the use of mi- -gratory labor for the potato harvrest is regarded as a necessary evil, but farmers look forward to the day when a satisfactory machine can be con- structed which will eliminate the need for a clasE of underpaid, under- educated, and unsatisfactory potato pickers. The Townspeople. Agriculture Is baslc to the economy of Lost Lake, abut many town dwellers are engaged in such non-agricultural pursuits as te providing Of food, clothing, fuel, and equipment for Basin residents. ot of those not employed directly- in agriculture are the ownsers or em- ployees of small businesses hiri;ng not more than three or four individ- 1;- ~~~~~~~~23 uals. Tables 6 and 7 were assembled with the aid of a respondent who knew the names and occupations of all permanent residents, but whose data was probably weighted in favor of proprietors and other well known indi- viduals. Even allowing for this, there appears to be a high proportion of owners of businesses. The only other group of comparable size and homogeneity is that of the farm laborere, who were not well known to the respondent and. a number of whom do not appear in Table 7 because they lived in hotels or apartments on a week-to-week basis. Both town and farm depend on the successful sale of crops for their economic well-being. Townspeople and farmers, in general, have similar attitudes -.nd similar interests. One exception to this rule is related to the historical differences between the farmer-Legionnaires and the group which many farmers call the liquor interests. The farmer wants to hire sober, hard working harvest hands who will behave fairly decorously, save their money, and depart as soon as the harvest season is ended, while the liquor interests derive a part of their revenue from furnishing liq- uor and sometimes gambling facilities to migrant workers. There is no great struggle over this conflict of interests and the only organized op- position to the liquor interests is in the hands of a relatively small group which one farmer calls the "church people." TABLE 6 Occupations of Town Family Heads; July, 1949 Occupation Sub-total Total Occupation Total Proprietors 78 Skilled labor 51 Business 50 (i.e. carpenter, plumber, Farm 17 butcIler, mechanic, beauty Farm and business 8 operator, cook, card deal- Leaseholder 3 er, bartender, farm ma- chine operator) Professional 43 Dentist 2 Semi-skilled labor 11 Doctor 2 (i.e. janitor, pumlce Government employee 14 brick worke lumber Manager of business 15 worker,, utility man) Manager of farm 1 Minister 4 Transient farm laborer ** 19 Schoolteacher* 5 Clerical 12 (i.e. clerk, bookkeeper, secretary, bank employee) Source: A respondent who knew all permanent residents indicated location of all houses in town on a map andl noted occupations of family heads. * Additional teachers in residence during school session. ** Represents only those living in private homes and known to respondent. 24 TABLE 7 Businesses In the Town of Lost Laks, July 1949 Business Looal Absentee Business Local Absentee Owner Owner Owner Owner Bank 1 Jeweler 1 - Barber Shop 1 - Laundry 3 - Bar-rooms Lumber yard 2 - w/ gambling 5 w/o gambling 2 - Moving-picture Beauty shop 1 - theater 1 Bottled water 1 - Newspaper 1 - Cabinet shop 2 - Cement and Plumbing 3 _ pumie brick 3 - Public accountant 2 Clothing store 1 2 Cigar store 1 - Radio shop 1 - Real estate 2 - Drug store 1 - Restaurant 8 Electric shop 2 _ Sheetmstal shop 1 - Shoemker - Farm Machinery 6 - Supermnrket* 1 - Feed, fertilizers 2 - Florist 1 - Taxicab service 1 - Garage or Utilities (fuel) service station 8 6 power, telephone) 4 kGrooery store 2 - Warehouse or Hardware 3 _ sorting shed 13 2 Hotel, apartment bnuee 11 - Insurance 3 _ Totals 102 11 BSource: Lost Lake Chamber of Commrce. * Included grocerles, vegetables, meats, drugs, magazines, a soda fountain. One of the beauty shops, one of the acoountants, and a potato buyer wre located on the mezzanine floor. ,F. .t... ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 2 Economic groups in town coincide with those of farm residents. The town's wealthier businessmen earn about as much as do large-scale farm operators; the highest paid professional men and the average town busi- nessman do about as well as the average farmer; and wage earners in town are little better off than farm maragers and farm machinery specialists. Social class in Lost Lake is discussed in the next chapter. Footnotes (1) McKain, Walter C. 1949 "The Wrestern Specialty-Crop Areas." in Rural Life in the United States by Carl C. Taylor,.et al. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Raper, Arthur F. and Carl C. Taylor 1949 "Rural Culture." in Rural Life in the United States by Carl C. Taylor, et al. Alfired A. Knopf, Nlew York (2) U.S. Senate, Seventy-ninth Congress 1946 Report of the Special Commttee to Study Problems of American Small Business. Goldschmidt, Walter, Smll BusI5 ness and the Commu'n4. Government Printing Office, Washington. (3) Taylor, Paul S. 1937 "Power Farming and Labor Displacement in the Cotton Bolt." Monthly Labor Review, March and April, 1938, pp. 1 ff. 1941 "Goodbye to the Homestead Farm, The Machine Advances in the Corn Belt." Harper' z Mavy, 1941, pp. 596 ff. 26 CHAPTER III -SOCIAL STRUCTURE: FAMILY AND CLASS The Family Because the family appears to be basic to the social structure of Lost Lake, the following discussion will begin with an analysis of the family as it exists at Lost Lake. Once the family structure is under- stood it will be possible to proceed to a discussion of neighborhoods, groups of friends, oranizations, and social classes. Families are usually small and. usually have few near relatives living in the Basin. According to the 1949 Questicoqaire the average size of twenty-nine farm families living In the areas settled between 1922 and 1937 was three and one-third individuals. Naturally, it is difficult to find any specific cause whioh produces small families in Lost Lake, but it seems likely that the widespread knowledge of birth control techniques combined with certain economlc factors directly affects family size. Lost Lake was settled under harsh conditions which included poor housing and low incomes. Even In the early days of the community, there was no need for a large family of boys to help with the farm work and young children were economic liabilities who had to be warmly clothed, fed on purchase groceries, and sent to school. Prob- ably, even if children could be made to do a part of the farm work, social pressures -- compulsory education laws, community disapproval, and the necessity of keeping up with the Joneses -- would inhibit the development of large families at Lost Lake. Lost Lake farm people have children because they want them and can afford to support them at a relatively high level of living. There are few, if any, unwanted children in the farm proprietor group. The fact that two out of twenty-nine famllies chosen at random from the 1922-1937 area had adopted or were planning to adopt children supports this belief. The children of the average farm owner receive considerable parental attention and affection. Fwrthermore, most of Lost Lake's farm owners are economically secure ,and husband and wife are not faced with many conflicting situations in their daily lives. The child rarely sees his parents worry or quarrel, and parents are able to give the child conalstent care and training. Parental taboos on the child are usually limited to such things as swearing, bed-wetting, and getting too close to irrigation ditches. Most of a school-age child's decisions are his own to make; there is a large range of behavior within vhLoh he has freedom to formulate his own patterns and a relatively .narrow ran-e 'within which the parents expect strict and unyielding obedience and conformity. Another considerable Influence upon the development of the child Is that Lost Lake families spend a good deal of time together. Parents do most of their work at home or in the very near vicinity, and parents and children frequently take long automobile trips together during the winter months. The socialization of the child is accelerated byr the ease with which he can understand.the occupations of his parents. The father does not 27 disappear at eight o'clock to a mysterioue office. He is more likely to be a quarter of a mile away irrigating potatoes. Since the mother devotes most of her time to gardening or to housekeeping, her activities are also easily understood. A child not old enough to walk was seen helping its mother in the garden. Although this help conelited`of pulling up pansies, both mother and child considered this a sincere effort to assist In the opera- tion. Parents often plan some kind of agricultural activity In which the child can participate. Boys and girls over the age of six are frequently given rabbits, chickens, or calves, and are put in complete charge of the animals and the profits derived from their sale. Relationships between individual members of the family groups are relatively free of tension and of subordination-domination relationships between parents and children or between siblings; contact with strangers is friendly and non-apprehensive. Members of the family are equals, and parents rarely undertake to "orler. children around." In general, the family situation produces children who admire their parents,and who tend to pursue the sa occupation as their parents (Table 9) and to share the same Ideals. Social Class Social classes at Lost Lake are not relatively rigid and crystallized structures, such as might be found in mediaeval Italy or even in a modern community such as Yankee City (1). Instead, they are fluid and indefinite structures which are not consciously or clearly defined in the minds of more than a few community members, even though the class system influences the behavlor of every member of Lost Lake society. Community members prefer to deal in terms of the more specific groups which exist as parts of the social classes. The migrant labor group Is divided into "good people who have seen better days," "winos," "Okies," "Negroes" "Hopi Indians," "Mexicans,"9 "wet-backs," (Mexicans who have recently and illegally entered the country and therefore will work for lower wages) and "farmers from the next county who need a little extra money to make ends meet." Never- theless, there is a distinct class of migratory laborers and members of all but two of the groups listed above axrb uniformly regarded with distrust and suspicion by community members. With the exception of "good people" and "farmers from the next countg," transient laborers are expected to be unreliable, dishonest, and lazy, although many of them are none of these things. "Good people" and "farmers from the next county" are expected to be reliable, honest and hard working. They are entitled to better jobs and have some chance of obtaining occupations which are more stable and secure than those of a transient laborer. Social class is particularly noticeable to an Individual who moves into the communlty and begins to participate ln the affairs of the farm owner group. Such a newcomer soon discovers that there are neigh- borhood groups and cliques to which he should belong and others to 28 which he should not belong. There are stores where he should buy goods and services, and restaurants and bars he should patronize. If he wants to go to a movie, he should drive to Clark City, for friends tell him that the local movie house is "too hot and crowded" and "you never know who will sit by you." There are dances it is proper to attend and others which it is not proper to attend. In short, every time the individual finds himself a part of a situation in which he is related to other Individuals, he must be constantly aware of the forms of behavior which are proper and improper for one in his particular social class. As a result of the applicaton of techniques of social participation, observation, and interviewing over a three month period in 1949, it was possible to learn something of the nature of the class system at Lost Lake and of the criteria used by local people to determine the class positions of various members of the community. These inter-related criteria include stability, behavior, occupation, education, and wealth and possessions. Stability is a combination of all other criteria. Those who are highly ranked stable members of the community usually have a high opinion of the commlnity, have Influential. friends in the community, are wealthy enough and conservative enough so that they are not likely to "go broke," and are not employed by another person or corporation. Actually even if a highly ranked member of the community does lose his farm or business and is in danger of financial ruin, his friends are likely to help him maintain his social position by giving himn economic assistance. The case of a man who will be called Clark will serve as an illustration: Clark is a respected and popular proprietor of town and farm property. During the depression, financial reverses forced him to close his business. Friends and fellow lodge-members bought several town lots in a favorable location and held them for Clark until, with the financial aid of other friends. he was able to build and open a new store and recover his economic position. Some of the factors that assured Clark of a high social position were that he was born nearby, was the son of a pioneer family, knew and loved the community, and had made many friends during the long period he had lived in the area. If stability is the most important critericn of social class at Lost Lake, it can be expected that the greatest class difference will separate tranaient laborers and those who are permanelt .reid.ents of the community. Goldschmidt, In his study of Wasco, California (2), found that the most important class difference was between two groups which he called the "nuclear group* and the "outsider group." At Wasoo, a good many people who lived permanently in the community were -considered members of the "outaider group." There are very few _permannt outsiders at Lost Lake. From the point of view of Lost Lake ,,the transient laborer group impinges upon the community from the OQutElde world. If the following discussion of social classes at Lost Laike is to be limited to the community proper, there is little reason for includling an extensive discussion of the transient laborer group. 29 The concept of social class, as applied to their own community, is foreign and distasteful to most Lostlakers. One woman who had lived in the community for almost twenty years visualized Lost Lake as a sort of perfect democracy where everyone was treated just like everyone else: "There are no social classes here." A few weeks later, while still claiming that there were no social classes at Lost Lake, she conceded that there were different kinds of people living in the Basin and drew a diagram differentiating "Westsiders, " "Eastaiders," "townspeople, " "the liquor element," and, after much arguing, "people who work in potato cellars." "But don't get me wrong -- you meet a lot of nice people down there [workinrg in potato cellars)," It is noteworthy that in the scheme described above, transient laborers were not even constdered worthy of inclusion. "People who work in potato cellars" are permanent residerits of the community. There is little apparent. basis for the differentiation of the Westside from other geographical neighborhoods, yet most Lostlakers set it off with sone such remarks as, "That's where, I guess you might call'em, our four hundred live" or "Those are the people who think they're better than anyone else." It is true that houses in this neighborhood are larger and m ore pretentious than those in other rural neighborhoods and that a number of the owners and leasers of large tracts of farm land live here. Part of the area w?as settled in 1922, and some of its residents were among the first in tne Basin to achieve financial success. In the early 'thirties, the unbridged Lazy River separated the Westaide from the rest of the present Lost Lake community, dnd Westsiders had a tendency to cling to the community of Morton and do most of their business there. One respondent claimed that Westsiders had vigorously protested the construction of a bridge over the Lazy River because they did not wish to be connected with the drinking and gambling which characterized Lost Lake Town.. The !;Vtstside Welfare Club (basically a parent-teachers' organization) is mentioned with pride by Westaiders, and many of them feel that this is an elite group. The Ranchers. The relatively large group of wealthy farmers living on the Westside, combinod with a few of the more important of the town's businessmen and some of the wealthier farmers living in other parts of the comunity, make a far more unified social class than do the residents of the Westside alone. Members of this grotup generally live in "ranch-type" houses and think of themselves as ranchers. The furnishings of these houses include hardwood floors, solid color carpets, drapes instead of curtains, large windows, and concealed heating devices instead of oil heaters. Simplicity of design is stressed-and such thlngs as floral patterns and ruffles are avoided. Such houses resemble in design and. in furnishings the ranch-style houses depicted in the Sunday supplement of any large Western newspaper. Some of the older houses built by members of this group represent the ideas of Clark City architects and interlor decorators concerning New England colonial, Southern colonial, and English styles of architecture. 30 Ranchers usually have incomes over $15,000 per year, drive expensive oars, read books rather than magazines, and send their children to large Western universities. Although some ranchers are exceedingly wealthy, and all live very comfortably,-there Is a definite ceiling upon.the degree of ostentatious living which community members will tolerate. For example, there Is nothing wrong with hiring a woman to come in and help with the housework once or twice a week, but to hire a full.time maid is taboo. Mrs. Davis, the young and attractive wife of one of the largest operators among the rancher group, employed a full-time maid in the early suimmr of 1949. She imediately becam an object of ridicule among her friends who did not hesitate to "tell her off." After about six weeks she discharged the maid and began doing her own housework again. Many ranchers continue to do part of their own farm work since a man who "thinks he's too good to do his own work" is apt to be ridiculed by those who remember when "he was a shanty Irishman" or when "he didn"t amount to much." The Oldtimers. There is no hard and fast distinction between ranchers and oldtimers. Oldtimers are usually original ]omesteaders or persons who have been active community members over a relatively long period of time, perhaps ten to twenty-five years. They operate one or two farm units and occasionally engage in sall-scale leasing of government or private lands. Their incomes range from $3,000 to $15,000 ger year and they drive new 'but not expenslve automobiles. About half of the farm families living in the areas settled between 1922 and 1937 belong to this class (Table 5). Oldtimers' houses, unlike those of the ranchers, are not designed by architects. Usually the owner has done a good deal of the construction work himself, and frequently one or two rooms have been added recently. Houses and furnishings of the oldtimer group resemble those previously described as typical of Lost Lake. Few members of this group own sufficlent farm equipment to operate without the aid of borrowed or rented machinery. While ranchers are somewhat lax in attending meetings of organi- zations and "doing things for our community," oldtimers provide the backbone of.many organizations and are the most active social class when it comes to-initiating changes in the community. Oldtimers read magazines in preference to books and, although they want their children to be educated, are seldom able to give them sufficient incentive to do good work in school. Probably lese than half of the children of oldtimers reach college while nearly all the rancher children attend college for at least a few semesters. The ciLdtimer group also includes most of the businessmen in town and those pro'fessional men who are relatively well paid and have lived in the community for several years. Because farmers, businessmen, and 31 professional men have somewhat different goals and orientations, members of each group often consider themselves as slightly superior to members of the other groups. Several business and professional men asserted that most of the farmers had obtained their money too easily and didn't know how to spend it on "really worthwhile" things, while farmers arnd business- men looked with some disdain upon those professional workers who were government employees and ehowed no desire to "go into business on their own. One member of the professional group wrote: My husband and I are both college graduates, off-spring of well-fixed families, and I was-reared in a city, blut we are "in the doghouse" with the citizens of this community more often than any other two people in town. Like other professional people this woman felt that her education., family, and city upbringing entitled her to more respect than she was given by the community's businessmen and farmers. These she considered uneducated and interested only in the material side of life. This woman who has lived in the Basin for less than ten years, is socially active and could be said to be a social success' since she has headed several organizations. Nevertheless, she does not feel that sae has achieved real membership In the community. The oldtimers combined with the ranchers make up the nuclear group of the Lost Lake community. They are the largest group and, for all practical purposes, control the community. The Transitional Group. This group consists, for the most part, of "people who work for other people." Because they are relatively recent arrivals in the Basin and because they are not proprietors but employees, they are marginal to, and economically dependent upon, the nuclear group. They include most of the people in the clerical and skilled labor categories in town, as well as farm managers and small lease-holders in the rural district. There are also in this group some businessmen who operate very small or low prestige businesses. Transitional group members live in rented houses or apartments which are inadequately furnished by nuclear group standards, and drive automobiles which are neither new o~r expensive. A large proportion of this group, perhaps three-guarters, are from the South or from the Prairie States, while moot of the nuclear group come from the Pacific Coast or the Rocky Mountain Region. As a result of this difference in origin, there is a slight difference in culture between the two groups which seems very important to members of the nuclear group. Most of the transitional group have lived in the community long enough to have adjusted most of their speech and behavior habits to those of the nuclear group, but traces of this cultural difference remain. Nevertheless, some members of the tranLsitional group participate in nuclear group organizations and a member of the tranlsitional group may become an olditmer by acquiring town orw, preferably, farm property, or a stable, well-paying Job. 32 Social Mo4bility As might be expected in a community which is new and rapidly expanding, social classes are vague and uncrystallized. Social mobility is a part of the history of almost every meaber of the community and those In the nuclear group do not hesitate to "help out" members of the outsider group or, more frequently, of the transitional group who appear to possess ability and ambition to enter the nuclear group. The greatest factor affecting social mobility is age. Middle-aged or older individuals have little chance of becoming members of the nuclear group, while young men have a relatively good chance of becoming oldtimers or even ranchers. Social mobility from the outsider to the transitional group can be accomplished, so local tradition has it,"through working hard and saving your money.` More commonly, such a rise in the social scale results from the friendship or patronage of a member of the nuclear group. A transient laborer who appears ambitious, honest, and willing to learn may be given a place to live and paid by the hour for helping the farm owner during the summer months. A transient employed as a hired hand usually works for other farmers when his employer does not need his services. In the winter months, when work Is scarce at Lost Lake, he and his family may travel to other parts of the state in search of em- ployment. In April, May, or June he returns to the same employer. As he works in the fields with his employer or as his wlfe helps his om- ployer's wife in the kitchen, the transient and his family gradually learn what kind of behavior characterizes a member of the nuclear group. By a series of slow steps, a fortunate transient laborer is able to become a permanent member of the community. When he has made the ac- quaintance of several members of the nuclear group, he finds it increasing- ly easy to obtain work at Lost Lake during the winter and eventually is able to take up permanent residence, either in quarters furnished him by a farm employer or in rented quarters in town. If the laborer manages to save a fairly large sum of money over a period of years, he can sometimes lease a small piece of land and risk his entire capital to "make a crop." Other arrangements which give a laborer a chance to earn money include farming on shares, going into partnership with a farm owner and doing all of the farm work, or borrowing investment capital from his employer or some other member of the nuclear group. Such opportunities for social mobility as those described above are given only to individuals who have been able to adjust their behavior to the standards required by the nuclear 6roup. Those who cling to culture patterns learned in the Dust Bowl continue to be regarded as "foreigners." Negro and Mexican transient laborers evidently find it Impossible to change their social position, as there are no Negroes or Mexicans in the Lost Lake nuclear group. Another form of social mobility, and one which meets the hearty disapproval of members of the nuclear group, is movement out of the community. Perhaps five percent of the present population consists of 33 individuals who live in Lost Lake only because they consider it a good place to make money. While mmbers of the. nuclear group say that their neighbors are what they. like-beat ab.out. Lost Lake, members of this group, which might be called the speculator group, say that what they like beet is the rich soil. Members of the speculator group have no hesitation in stating that they do not like the community, the people in it, the schools, the dust, or the climate, and that they are planning to leave as soon as they make enough money to retire or start a business elsewhere. Many members of the speculator group have already, to all intents and pur- poses, left the community. Their social participation is with people living in Clark City or in some other community dozens or hundreds of miles away; they visit Lost Lake.only when business compels them to do so. Footnotes (1) Warner, W. Lloyd and Paul S. Lunt 1941 Social Life of a Modern COmmunity. Yale University Press, New Hlaven. vol. 2. (2) Goldschmidt, Walter R, 1947 As You Sow. Harcourt, Brace and Co. chap. 3. New York0 314 CHPTER IV - SOCIAL STRUCTURE: INFORMAL AND FORMAL GROUPS Neighbors and Friends Between the social class system, which divides the community into large categories, and the family and the individual, are hundreds of formal and informal associations. They provide the contexts within which the social interaction of community members takes place. These inter- actions rage from the casual encounters of neighbors and friends to the behavior of fellow members In the formalized situation provided by lodge or club meetings. The most informl and least storeotyped form of social interaction to be found at Lost Lake occurs in neighborhood groups, groups of friends, and in loafing groups. Geographically the Lost Lake Basin is divided into five large sections: Westside,MdCoy,Eastaide,Junction, and a section sur- rounding the town. Probably the New Homsteaders will be grouped into three or four additional sections, including Copper Bay and the Panhandle (Map 3). These large geographioal saetIons usually include all of the individuals with whom frequent social interaction is possible. Within these large sections there are small neighborhood groups composed of individuals living along the same roads or whose farm units adjoin one another. As a rule, these groups consist of two or three families who co-operate. in lending machinery, taking children to school, feeding animals when one of the other members of the group is away, and performing other reciprocal services. Near neighbors also exchange mag- azines and reading material, play pinochle, and invite each other to dinner. The amount and kind of social interaction with near neighbors depends upon their congeniality and their social status. If a man and wife have no children and a large income, they tend to. have little social contact with their neighbors. Instead, their friends frequently live in other geograph- ical sections and sometimes as much as twenty or thirty miles away. A family consisting of man, wife, and two or three children and having an annual income of $3-4000 would probably tend to interact largely with one or two near neighbors. They would have few friends outside this group, saying," lWe dorn't get out much." A milddle-aged, childless couple, living on the Eastside and earning $5-6000 annually, had, in 1949, really friendly relatione with only one neighbor. Most of their friende lived in town or in other parts of the Eastside or Junction areas. A single woman, living with her children, was friendly with only one neighbor. Of the others, one was de;cribed as "stuck up," one was an "Okie," and the other was a "stubborn foreigner." This woman bought groceries in Morton, went to social gatherings in Morton and Marina, and had several friends living in town. Of two other friends and clique-mates, one lived on the Eastaide, the other beyornd Morton. 35. Most Lostlakers also have unfriendly relationships with one or two near neighbors who are referred to as "stinkers." Complaints against these neighbors may be that they are social climbers, that they are either too good or not good enough to be neighborly, or that they consistently borrow, mutilate, and/or fail to return machinery. Patterns of Co-operation Arising out of neighborhood groups is a specialized form of co- operative work-and-loafing group composed of farmers who exchange labor, machinery, advice, and gossip. Borrowing machinery or owning mchinery in partnership is a common and necessary pattern among Lost Lake farmers. There are many types of machinery, such as ditchers and balers, which are needed by an individual operator only a few days a year (Tables 4 and 5 ). Co-operative groups also provide assistance to members of the group who are sick or in trouble. If a man falls ill during the plowing season, neigh- bors usually plow his field for him. If his house burns down, neighbors are active in securing the aid of local organizations and of other com- munity members. To a farmer who is comparatively secure and who earns perhaps $7000 per year, these neighborhood groups have less economic Importance because the farmer no longer requires such assistance as these groups provide. In the Westside, where incomes are higher and individual holdings larger, neighborhood groups have almost disappeared and there are many complaints about individuals who "climb over the fence and hire another man's crew for higher wages," or commit other unneighborly acts. In the Eastaide area more machinery is owned In partnership; there are fewer large holdings, and neighborhood groups are relatively important. Loaf lng Groups and Loafing Places Many of those people who live near town or visit town often spend an hour or more a day gossiping, exchanging advice, and discussing the news. Although small groups of men sometimes meet In local cafes, at gas stations, or on the sidewalk; Saml' Supermarket has become almost an official loafing place. Sam's is a large grocery and drug store housed in a two-story concrete and glass building. It is by no means an old- fashioned general store, for it includes an ice-house with 600 private storage lockers, a outting room, and a vegetable rocm, as well as a large main room where vegetables, meats, groceries, druig, mgazines, and toys are sold. The principal attraction Is the "W" shaped soda fountain which Is occupied daily by both farmers and tpwnspeople who buy five-cent root- beers or ooffee and talk about such things as the woman who allowed her child to fall out of the window on Its head., a local man who broke his arm trying to grab a train that was moving too fast, a recent homicide, the price of barley or potatoes, last night's "unseasonable" frost, and other matters of current interest. Sam's Supermarket Is considered a community center and Lostlaers frsequently make such remrks as :"If you want to learn anyrthing about the commnunity, Just go and sit at the soda fountain in Sam's." "That's the great information ce3nter." "If 36 you're looking for someone and can't find him, just go and wait at Sam's. He'll come in." When a wife wants to communicate with her husband in town, she leaves a message at Sam's. The prominence of Sam's Supermarket as a loafing place can be attri- buted to several factors. The store has a friendly atmosphere and the clerks know almost every customer by name. The soda fountain is large and its peculiar "W" shape makes it possible for five or six persons to sit facing one another. Most inportant of all, Sam's is almost the only place in town that everyone can enter without feeling uncomfortable or out of place. Sny people would feel out of place in a church while others would feel uneasy in a bar&rtom. Most other places do not provide comfortable facilities for loafing and talking. Although many Lostlakers regard the loafing and gossiping that go on at Sam's Supermarket with considerable disdain ("You don't get any potatoes irrigated drinking coffee at Sam's."), the soda fountain serves as an in- stitution for forming and crystall:izing community opinion. When a farmer wants to know if crops will be good and whether he will make a profit, Sam's is the place where he can find out what other community members think of the economic situation. If a man wants to try out a new crop, he can ask at Sam's to discover what happened when somebody else tried the same crop. Formal Organizations Although the family, the neighborhood, groups of friends, or stereo- typed employee-employer or customer-seller relationships provide the con- texts within which the bulk of social interaction between community mem- bers takes place, these are not sufficient to give most Lostlakers a sense of belonging to the community. Clubs and societies which provide the indi- vidual with an opportunity to join other community members in co-operative efforts, usually devoted to the fulfillment of such goals as "community betterment," apparently have as their major function the task of welding the commulity together and giving it a capacity for unified action. which would otherwise be lacking. Before examining the functions of organizations at length, however, it will be useful to consider the size and structure of Lost Lakets organizations. There are between twenty-five and thirty organizations which adult Lostlakers may join and about ten organizations for jlive-rAlLes (Table 8). These thirty-five or more organizations have many resemblances to each other. Nearly all have a definite meeting time, a set of rules or consti- tution, "the good of the community" as a goal, officers elected annually by the membership, affiliations with national organizations, and, on the surface at least, voluntary membership. There is a ritual for opening and closing the formal part of each *meeting, ind informal activities, such as card-games o? the serving of refreshments, usually follow the formal business meting. Most organizations consist of a central group composed of individ- .ulsa1 who take a great interest in the aims of the organization and hold most of the elective offices, and a larger group of indivilduals who have joined 37 TABLE 8 The Functions of Lostlake Organizations Organizations " |O| r~~4 C)4 _______ j; Growers Association x x x Newell Homesteaders x x x X Farm Bureau x x x American Legion x x X - VFW x x X X 20-30 x x x Rotary x x x X Kiwanis z X x Chamber of Commerce x x Business and Professional Women x x ..Elks* z Masons x Order Eastern Star x Grange X x Odd Fellows* x Moose* x Bohemlan Association* x Daughters of the Nile* X Altar Society x x x Communlty Guild x x x Homestead Community Club x x Martners x x x Red Cross x x Winema Welfare Club x X 4-H Club xx Future Farmers of America x x Rainbow Girls X x De Molay x Boy Scouts x Bridge or Pinochle Clubs o Garden Club x x SPBQ$** " Square Dange Groupx Ri5fle Club . x Shuffleboard Teamns jx *Consist predominantly Of4 members of other oommuities. **Sooiety for the Preservation of Barbershop Quartet Sing3ing. because friends belong and because they have a desire to Improve the cora- munity. It Is the elected officere who orlginate such "community-better- nent" projects as planting trees, putting a sidewalk In front of the church, holding a fair, or putting up street signs. In additlon, it is their duty to persuade people to contribute money or work to these projects. Itny of the organizations have only male or only female members, al- though a large proportion of the mettls organizations have auxillarie to which women may belong. The separatlon of mle and femle club members is not, regardless of the formal separation of the sexes required by national organizations, particularly common at Lost Lake. The American Legion, for instance, is supposed to consist of a veterans' organization and a separate auxiliary composed of the wives and children of veterans. During the sum- mer of 1949, there were four Legion meetings, but men and women were segre- gated at only one meeting and thls only for a brief period. Wives of mem- bere were present at about one-third of the Twenty-Thirty Club meetings, although there was no organizte)d womenrrs auxlliary. Organizations may Include indivlduals from neighboring communities and have as many as 600 or ae few as 10 members. Farmer's organizations, or organizations whose mmbership consists largely of farmers, usually have from 20 to 100 members, the average size being about 35. Neighborhood, church oriented, and school oriented groups usually have memberships of about 30, while recreational groups, such as the square-dance group, shuffleboard teams, or bridge clubs, average about 20 members per group. The Garden Club, whose ,members have high prestige in the community, has about 75 members and the Rifle Club may have 50 members, but few bridge or pinochle clubs have more than 15 or 20 members. Juvenile clubs usually have about 15.members, although In 1949 the Boy Scouts had 90 members. The importance of organizations as devices for binding the community t6gether or integrating the various parte of the community can be demon- strated by examining what happens when an individual joins the community. The-first contacts of a newcomer are usually with his employer and his landlord. He meets other community members when he buys such things as gasoline or groceries. Eventually the newcomer meets someone who shares some interests with him and the two "get to talking." Such a conversation often ends with the suggstion that the newcomer "come to the meeting tonight and meet some of the boys." If the newcomer goes to a meeting of the Kiwwis, for Instance, he is introduced to the membership by his acquaintance and, later In the evening, he meets various indlviduals In an informl way. After the newcomer hae attended one or two meetings, community rmbers begin to greet him on the street saying, "I saw you at the meeting last night." Eventually, If he is "okay" the newcomer becomes "one of the boys." Once this status has been achieved, the newcomer soon becomes, from the community point of view, "one of us." The process of becomlng a community member is, by no means this simple, nor are organizations the only groups which have such integratie iunctions. Nevertheles organi- zations are the principal route used by newcomers in establishing tieswith the community. The above example illustrates the integration of an individual and a group. Organizations have the additional function of integrating various segments of the community. Naturally, recreational groups, such as shuffle- board or baseball teams, or other groups having specialized functions, such as the Growers' Association or school and neighborhood groups, contribute relatively little in this re3pect. The organizations which do serve to inte- grate large and divergent groups of community members into a functioning whole are those which consist of a large and relatively representative group of individuals drawn from many smaller groups, or those which consist of a small group of individuals who havee such high prestige in the community that they are, in a very real sense, community leaders. Such veterans' organizations at the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars have large memberships drawn from both the nuclear and tran- sitional groups, have varying functions, and enjoy high prestige inside and outside the community boundary. This enables them to play an important role as the community's representative in the outside world. The historical importance of the American Legion was mentioned in Chapter I; it continues to serve as something very close to the community's political representative. The town government, on the other hand, Is. neither highly respected in the community nor is it representative of the whole community, since farm dwel.- lers have no vote. Although the Legion is still sufficiently important that Biureau of Reclamation officials who know the community well feel it neces- sary to present plans for future program at Legion meetings, the importance of the Legion is gradually waning. Apparently as the population of the Basin iceroased arid the interests of the various segments of the comunity divrerged more and more, the need for a different type of organization was felt. As a result relatively small groups composed of community leaders, such as the Rotary Club, have partially supplanted large membership organi- zations as community integrative forces. Consisting of sixty of the wealthiest and most public spirited business- men and. farmers, the Rotary Club is the organization that seves m=re than any other etngle organization to unite the separate parts of the community aril to enable the community to act as a whole. The role of this group of men inr making community action possible is illustrated by the following episode: In the past years, many different Lost Lake organizations have attempted to establdsh various types of annual festivals at Lost Lake. All such attempts have failed. In the ICall of 1949, the Rotary Club initiated a series of annual fairs and livestock shows. Although many people remarked that social events wera never successful in Lost Lake and that other organizations had tried such things and failed, the 1949 Rbtary Club Fair was considered very s3Ucesesful and attracted over two thousand visitors. This success was entirely due to the high prestige of the Rotary Club. While neither the V.F.W. nor the Gommunity Church was capable of mobiliz- ing community opinion suffii - ently to maL e such an affair succes - ful, the Rotary Club could not only get a favorable response from community members, but was able to get the active assistance of other orgnizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and the T'wenty- Thirty-Club . When the overall picture of the functioning and inter-relationships of Lost Lake's organizations and clubs is considered, a certain pattern can be observed. Most organizations are composed of groups of tndividuals interacting for a particular purpose. These organizations are ranked by public opinion in accordance with the social standing of their members and are loosely connected to each other by their common aims and by virtue of the fact that most Lostlakers belong to two or three different organizations. Certain organizations, as a reault of their size, their value in the eyes of the community, or the prestige attached to their members, play an important part in co-ordinating the activities of the other organizations and in making it possible for the community to function as a whole. Schools There are three elementary schools at Lost Lake, one located in the Junction neighborhood, one in the Westaide nbighborhood, and one in town. There is a high school in town near the elementary school. The two ele- mentary schools located in the country usually have less than 100 pupils and the elementary school in town usually has about 150. In part, Lost Lake's schools bring influences into the community from outside of the comnity boundaries. Schools must live up to certain state and county requirements and can employ no teachers who do not fulfill requirements as to training and character which are set by state officials. The elementary schools show a far greater tendency to be dominated by the community than does the high school. The Westside School, for instance, with an enrollment of about 80, has as Its principal the wife of a local farmer. This woman is not in a position to be dominated by county offlcials and her hand is strengthened by the fact that a few years ago, according to sereral Lostlakers, members of the Wbetaide Welfare Club told.county ..loficials to "keep their hands off our school." The policy of the West- 'side School is to hire as teachers middle-aged women who are the *ives of -iocal people. It is felt that young teachere would not want to teach at the Westside School and that if young teachers were hired it would be 6ifficult to get good ones. Nearly all Lostlakers feel that it Is impossi- -ble to obtain good teachers for their schools, and believe that the local schools are poor. In the 1949 Questionnaire parents were asked what they thought was wrong with the community; the most frequent responses were that the drinking water tasted bad, that It was too dusty, and that the schools were bad. No one:.thought the schools were good. Parente tend to explain -the shortage of good teachers by saying that teachera prefer to teach in the city, that the best teachers were unwilling to put up with such hazards 'o dust, poor tasting tap-water, the confusion of harvest and hunting sea- sons, and the difficulty of finding suitable recreation in town. Complaints of teachers were somewhat different in tenor. Teachers quoted community members as saying, "If you can't do, teach." And one teacher remarked, "Around here a teacher rates just one grade below a potato picker."t Teachers feel that their education and their important role in providing guidance for Lost Lake's youth entitles them to resfpect and )J31 high status. But Lostlakers regard teachers as an unstable group and are scornful of anyone who is willing to devote his life to working for someone else. Furthermore, Lostlakers hesitate to give teachers tenure since they fear it will make it impossible for them to influence teachers. It is not, then, low teacher pay and frontier conditions which make Lost Lake unattract- ive to teachers. It Is hostility between parents and teachers which is chiefly responsible for this situation. Such hostility is understandable since many parents have had little better than eighth grade education and since most parents believe that working for someone else is a sign of lack of ability and ambition. Several Lostlakers blamed poor schools upon the miebehavior of the children and the tolerant attitude of the parents towards such misbehavior. Most of this misbehavior occurs in the Lost Lake High School and that is the school which Lostlakers most frequently criticize. Consequently it might be useful to examine the high school situation in some detail. It is felt that recent changes in the high school curriculum and changes in the relationships between teachers arLnd students have improved conditions at the high school considerably. But as recently as 19146, a report written by a well-informed member of the community attributed the following types of behavior to some of the high school. students: nailing shut the door of the principal's office, hadging the trouaers of good students from the flag pole, haing fights with teachers and attempting to throw them out of the claceroom, bringing cases of beer into the school grounds during baseball games, throwing rocks through school windows, and staying overnight in hotels in unchaperoned mixed groups. This type of be- havior was by no means absent in 1949 although its frequency had been great- ly reduced. Lostlakers who have no children in the High School or whose children are good students tend to explain trouble at school as being due to the fact that "other parents and children do not have the right idea about money." Several parents remarked that other Lostlakers had too much "get-rich-guick money" and did not work hard enough in acquiring it. They also say that conduct of other parents is not what it should be, that children are not trained in "morals, ethics, and human conduct," and that children are ne- glected or spoiled. Parents of "bad children" were also accused of "back- ing up the child against the teacher." Actually, as has already been suggested, conditions in the home are quite different and few parents can justly be accused of neglecting or spoiling thair children. A better explanation of this adolescent misbe- havior is furnished by the fact that many of the high school students are already eguipped for adult life, or at least conceive of themselves as equipped for adult life when they enter high school. One of the town's leading examples of a "bad boy who made good," for instance, claimed that he earned several hundred dollars a month while he was In school by trapping muskrats. Furthermore, a recent cou-nty school suey indicated that 40 of Lost Lake's high school graduates since 1937 had entered farming as a life occupation . Table 9 indicates a greater percentage have become farmers . t ~~~~~~~~TABCLE 9 :Location and Occupation of Loet Lake HlSh School Graduates in 1949 Year of Graduation 1942 1943 1944 51942 1946* Totals S1le graoithW Live in Lost Lake Farming 13 11 9 13 6 52 Other occupations - 4. - 1 2 4 Live elsewhere 8 2 1 4 4 19 KIn college - 1 1 6 8 Female graduates Live In Lost Lake Farmers' wives 3 9 8 6 8 34 Not farmers' wives - 2 1 1 - 4 Live elsewhere 11 6 12 5 8 42 In college __ _ _3 3 Source: This table is based upon information given by a woman who was a student in the high school during thia period. She referred to high s-chool yearbooks and was able to name all graduates for these years. * One graduate is deceased. Others had entered other forms of local, hence farm oriented, enterprises. The chief characteristic of all these occupations is that training for any one of them could have been accomplished more rapidly outside of school, and the student would have been well paid for work accomplished while he was learning to do such things as farm, sell machinery, or do typographical work for the local newspaper. Considering the many attractions of life outside the schoolroom, it is easy to understand why Lost Lake's adolescents sometimes object to attending school. These objections are, in part, overcome by state laws requiring the school attendance of children under the age of eighteen, although many children, particularly those of trnsient laborers, violate these laws constantly. The principal reason most adolescents go to school, however, appears to be the -practically universal belief that education is a good thing. Community members, particularly those who have not had much formal education, tend to apologize for their lack of education and to genuflect in the direction of the supposed advantages of education. College graduates in the community feel considerable affinity and tend to associate, for the most part, with othter college graduates. Some ridicule uneducated Lostlakers in private, and emphasize the virtues which they have derived from their college educations. Naturally, children growing up in such an education-conlscious environ- ment feel that they should at least graduate from high school. It is to be noted that during the period of adolescence, parents do not make strong attempts at direct control of the child; they feel he is generally capable of making his own decisions. The belief that education is good and a need for community approval induces the adolescent to go to high school; and a realization that vocational training and other material taught by the high school are either inadequate or in sharp conflict with the goals and needs of Lost Lake culture creates an ambivalent attitude toward school. This conflict often results in violent rejection of the school. To a certain extent, the conflict of adoleecents with the school system is reinforced by the attitude of parents toward the school and toward schoolteachers. The hostllity existing between parents and school- teachers has already been described. That existing between parents and the school system is somewhat different and can be explained by the fact that the school represents a force impinging upon the community from the outside. The school adheres to certain state and county standards and schoolteachers are often from big cities or distant regions. As a result, the school sys- tem introduces patterns of behavior Into the community which differ sharply from community patterns of behavior. To the extent that community members resent these outside influences, there seems to be considerable hostility between the school and the community. This hostility has been greatly reduced in recent years as a result of certain changes in the school personnel and in the school curriculum. A new High School princiDal, in making these changes in the curriculum and in parent-teacher, teacher-student relationships, has, incidentally, pro- vided a considerable degree of validation for the foregoing speculations concerning the causes of trouble in the High School. The principal de- scribed his first actions thusly: At the beginning of last school year, I used "policeman pun- ishment methods" in discipline. All major infractions of school rules were punished immediately and severely. I recommended to many of the boys (who had been trouble makers previously) that since they were not changing their attitudes and habits, they should join the armed services. Those who did not enlist but who were still trouble makers found that they could not "get away" with anything and found that the pressure was toc great, so they conformed or gult school. This policy was necessary in order to convince parents and students that the High School staff could not be Intimidated by parents' threats of political pressure. One parent is reported to have said, "I would like to see the principal suspend my boy. I will fix him. I can buy out any officer In the county." In advising students to join the armed services or quit school, the principal reoognized the fact that they did not require high school training. Later, the discipline was relaxed and the curriculum was changed in order to acoommodate what the principal called a "super-recreatlonal" pro- gram. Games, music, and hunting were encouraged. School was closed for all athletic contests, and students and teachers were excused from classes on the opening days of'deer, duck, and pheasant seasons. "We maneuvered so that teachers went with students in- many ca8es, just as persons who had | a mutual interest with them." In describing the process of changing the recreational patterne of the students the High School principal wrote: I would personally start playing these games (such as volley- ball or pingpong) with someone. Students would sometimes watch and they would start to try out these games. If we hadc forced them to play these games, they would have disliked these games,, as they had been doing in previous years. However, since they started to play them of their own free will, they liked the activities and the games spread like wildfire. In short, the school situation was made more and more like the home situation. Teachers became less and less authoritarian and began to operate on a plane of equality with the students. The students were given increasing responsib- ility and a greater opportunity to play relatively adult roles, for which their families had prepared them. Although from the viewpoint of all parties concerned, the high school situation is greatly improved, there is still an area of disagreement be- tween the school and the community. The question of whether the school is going to change the community or the community is going to change the school is stisll unanswered. Until this conflict is resolved, the conduct of Lost Lake's adolescents may be expected to continue to displease school author- lties. Churches There are five churches at Lost Lake: Presbyterian, Christian, Church of the Latter-day Saints, Full Gospel, and Catholic. However, Lost Lako 's by no means a rural town full of "old-time religion." Though not in financial difficulties, the churches have low attendance. The general feeling of community members is dither, "I am not an atheist, but..." or, "Children oxght to go to church because it's such an important part of everyo-ne's life." Church-goors are generally women of late middle age, and school age children. Other sex and age groupe are ropresented in relatively small numbers. These comments are based cn observations made in church during the summer of 1949. The Community ',hurch, which is Presbyterian, was built in the early 'thirties as a result of community effort and was formerly attended by individuals of all denominations Including Catholic. Driving to this church at 11 o'clock Sunday morning, the stranger soes a group of child- ren and adults leaving Sunday School for home while another group of about equal size waits inside and outside the church for the servicos to bogin. Entering the church, which has a rather plain wooden exterior, he is surprised at the modern etyling of its interior. Paws, with a minimum of under-pinning, seem to float above the highly polished floor. White walls a;nd a white ceiling with dark brown beams stretch up to a steoply pitched roof. White light diffuses through glass brick and frosted glass apertures, and sprays of white lilies from yesterday's wedding heighten the drama of the architecture. Seated in the pews are thirty or forty expersively but conserrva- tively dressed worshippers, mostly women. The sermon is usually designed to bring pleasure to the listeners. It approves of their way of life and subtly points out how much worse off everyone else is. Unpleaisant facts, such as that the congregation allows the minister to do most of the singing when hymns are sung, or that he has to run to the rear of the church in order to get to the door before the congregation leaves, or that the world is not perfect, are rarely brought up. The Community Church possesses high prestige in the community. To some it is "where the Oldtiners go to show off their pretty clothes." And, "Those who attend are a bunch of hypocrites." But, to the Old- timers it is "the church." It would be unthinkable to go to any other. (Some idea of the economic status of Community Church meaibers can be gathered from Table 10.) The Full Gospel Church is in sharp contrast to the Community Church. This is the home of as much of "that old-time religion" as one is apt to find in Lost Lake. When a revival is being held there, the sound of voices uplifted in song or in prayer thunders out of the frosted windows of the plain pumice brick church building. Passers-by shake their heads and env-y or disdain the thick emotional quality of the worship. The Full Gospel Church appeals to a group of people who occupy a subordinate role in the social structure, but who tend to disown the TABLE 10 Number of Cars of Varioue Ages Parked in Front of Four Churches on One Sunday Morning Year Model Presbyterian Chrlstian Full Gospel Latter-day Saints 1949 5 2 1 0 194741948 7 2 7 1 1940-1941 5 4 3 2 1938-1940 1 0 4 1 193641938 0 0 4 2 Pre-1936 0 0 2 2 Pick-up Truck 0 1 2 3 social structure and place their faith in God and the Afterlife. In church, their thoughts dwell upon the day of destruction, upon the Mecca and hell-hole that is "Los Anteles," upon the suffoerings of Christ and the blood running down his face, upon how a man in "Los Angeles" killed eight people and drank their blood, (this incident is supposed to have occurred in .London. not in Los Angeles8), upon Satan and the things he will do to those who are not eaved, and upon the Glorious Afterlife that awaits the faithful. The machine is condemned: "Ah've gotta little old Ford, but Ah don't de3pend on it. If it broke down, Ah'd push it to the next town and carry on In the Service of the Lord. Hallelujah!" Speaking in short, bite-sized paragraphs, the team of revivalists boosts the emotions of their audience to the highest pitch. As more and more individuals succumb to the excitement of their words, they move up to the mourner's bench to be saved. While the excitement Is at its highest, the preacher moves among those who have not been saved and tactfully suggests they leave the church. His words hint that maybe next time they will succeed In casting Satan out of their souls. Ordinary services are said to be "toned down" to suit the wishes of a wealthy homesteader who patronizes this church and contributes a great deal to its support. These are the two extremes of church life at Lost Lake., the unemo- tional worship of the community leaders, and the intenso religion of those at the bottom of the social scale. The five churches at Lost Lake are sometimes ranked in accordance with the type of people who go there and with the type and quality of the religious services. The Church of the Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church are not generally ranked. The Catholic Church includes a number of wealthy and respected indivi- duals as well as some of the poorer people. The Church of the Latter-day Saints Is made up of a group of newcomers and not much Is known about it, although the fact that they are Westerners is a point in their favor In the opinion of many Lostlakers. The three Protestant churches are quite defilnitely ranked. The Community Church is the church of the elite, of the oL.dtimers, while the Full Gospel Church is associated with transients and poor people. This church, despite the fact that it appeals to a low economic class, is given considerable credit for a religion which, if it is sometimes not dignified, is at least sincere. The third Protestant Church, the Christian Church, is an attempt to compromise between the sincerity of the lower class church and the dignity of the upper class church. Its members want to be earnestly and sincerely religious with- out "dressing fancy" and without "shouting and making fools of ourselves." Since this church is new and has a small congregation, some people do not aesign a rank to it, but it muet fall somewhere betwoen the first two Protestant churches. Like the other Protestant churches, it is sup- ported largely through the efforts of a wealthy patron. CHRAP V - TE NEW HOES?tADERS The Settlers The New Homesteaders settled in an aaea that lies to the east and southeast of the Lost Lake community ( Mips 2 and 5). It is n treeless plain edged by barren hills, crossed at half-mile Intervals by dirt roads and irrigation ditches, and dotted with the tar-paper covered "barracks houses" which provide temporary shelter for the New Homesteaders. This area contains one-third of the Irrigable acreage on the Lost Lake project, solle being about equally divided between Class One -- "excellent for all local crops," and Class Two -- "very good for all local crops." In addition, many farms are situated along the former shore of the lake or along the high land near New Town and oontain some non-Irrigable land. Area 1948-A consists of 2500 acres In the northern part of the Basin. Farms In this area are on "black alkali soil" and are described in Bureau of Reolamation literature as "re- quiring as additional development period of three to six years, at the conclusion of which they may be expected to test as equal to Class 2 or even Class 1 land. " Farm unit size In the New Homesteader area ranges from 60 to 140 acres and averages 90 acres. Unit size was determined by a Bureau of Reclamation specialist who was intructed to demarcate farms which could be expected to pay operating expenses and yield about $3000 a year net profit to the ope.rator. Although profits have considerably exceeded this $3000 estimate, the 1949 Questionnaire ehows that Lost- lakers believe 80 acres to be sufficient land to support a family of four. This lndicatos that they are in substantial agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation as to how much land is required for each family of New Homesteaders. The three groups of people who settled this area In 1946,1947, and 1948, are all veterane of World War II who, shortly after receiving their discharge papers, heard from friends and neighbors that the governnnt was making large acreages of land available for home- steading. These New Homesteaders then applied for homesteads in Lost Lake and, after a complicated process of selection, were each awarded one of the 216 farm units which were available. Although homosteadere on different projects, and even in different years at the same project, wore eelected In widely varying ways, the requirements made in 1948 at Lost Lake can be considered fairly typical of Bureau of Reclamation standards for the selection of settlers. In 1948, applicants for homesteads were required to have a certificate of honorable discharge; a letter from a bank stating that the applicant had two thousand dollars In asets readily convertible to cash; signed state- ments certifying that the applicant had had two years of farm experience after the age of fifteen; and a signed certificate from a doctor indicating that the applicant was physically fIt. Once these requiremente wore ful- fItlle, a lottery was held and suaccssful applicants were selected on the basis of numbered capsules which were drawn from a pickle Jar at a public ceremony. In 1946,1947, and 1948, one year before each group of 149 New Homesteaders moved onto the land, examining boards composed of promi. nent local citizens supervised the process of settler selection. Because these examining boards differed In their policies, there were variations from year to year In the standards demanded of applicants. In 1946, one-third of the applicants for farm units were disqualified before the lottery was held, while in 1947 no one who submitted a complete appli- cation was disqualified before the drawing took place. In 1948, all whose numbers wore drawn from the pickle jar were interviewed, but only three were disqualified. In spite of these differences in the methods of selection, the three groups of New Homesteaders appear to be quite homogeneous. Prob- ably, the most significant factors which operated in settler selection in these years were not Bureau of Reclamation attempts to select home- steaders, but uncontrolled factors such as whether the individual heard about the land openings, whether he believed he was capable of winning a homestead, or whether or not he filled out his application form cor- rectly. Those people who v.ere selected and became the New Homesteaders are veterans of all branches of- service except the Coast Guard. Three are women. The length of service ranged from eight months to nine years, averaging about two and one-half years. About 75% were high school grad- uates and 10% were college graduates. 50% had been farmers, farm managers, farm laborers, or were the children of farm operators. Some of the New Homesteaders acquired all of their farming experience as a part time activity while attending school. Claimed farm experience ranged from one to twenty-one yeare, but at least one man intimatedc in conversation that he had no previous farm experience that was useful. About 15% of the New Homesteaders had previous experience in the Lost Lake typo of agriculture, and about the same peroentage owned Bsom farm land previous to winning homesteads at Lost Lake. Non-farming vocations which had been followed by New Hemesteaders included: craftsman (carpenter, electrician, machinist, salesman, clerk, truckdriver, professlonal or semi-professional worker, laborer, proprietor or manager, government employee, and student. In most casea, these non- farm vocations were followed for periods of lese than five years. About one-third of the New Homesteaders wera unmarried when they applied for farm units, but many have married since acquiring land. In 1949, family size in the new area ranged from one to six individuals. When they moved onto the land, New Homesteaders were from 20 to 54 years old, three-quar- ters falling between the ages of 26 and 36. The 216 Now Homesteaders and their families had come to Lost Lake from 17 states west of the Mississippi River. The average New Homesteader, in 1949, was about thirty years old, married, with one young child. He and his wife had:.bQth graduated from high school. The huisbtici had worked ror tvio years dnd servad in the armed forces for an equivalent period. At some tmLe during his l'fe, he;.had spent several years on a farm.~ The dec,ree of variation from this nxorm is-not large 50 Nlew Homesateaders also bear a considerable resemblance to their neighbors in the Old Homesteader areas. There are two exceptions to this: New RonmDteaders are a generation younger and have had three years more for- ial education than the average Old Home-steader (Tables A8, A9, A10, and All). Problems of the First Settlers An Oldltimer gives the followlng aooount of how one New Homesteader, Sho will be called "Abe," took possession of his farm and dealt with the UInitial problems of homesteadcng: Now you take Abe. He's from out of state and he didn't show up until after his name was drawn. After that he didn't waste any time. He came rolling into town In a cloud of dust, walked Into the office where the examining board was, andc laid a stack of bills on the counter. Three thousand dollars - caeh. "Here I am," says Abe to the board, "and here's my financial assets. I've come to take- up my farm. "Wait a minute," says the board. "We don't want to see your cash. We want a bank statement that saye you're solvent. You might owe most of this." Abe pointed out the window and there was his wife, sitting on the front seat of a truck that was piled with household goods. "I'm solvent right here," he says, "and I'm not going clear back home [a midwestern state] to get somebody that knows me to prove it. And I'm also not spending no money in no hotel. I want to move onto my place right now - today. So gimme my land' Well, the examining board scratched their heads and they talk- ed it over. They asked him a few more queetions. Finally, they decided to make an exception in his case and fixed up the papers *'' and said he could take possesslon of his farm. As soon as this was done, Abe got hold of the contractor that hauls the barracks from the enemy alien camp and then went on out to his new place. The truck and crane came and hauled his barracks for him. He pulled out his bankroll and paid the contractor in cash. The tract- or salesmen came around. He tried out two or three tractors, picked out a small caterpillar, and paid for that in cash, too. A lot of people were standing around, watching to see what the new boys would do. Well, Abe jumped onto his new tractor and said to the people, "Now the rest of you can get to hell off of my land - I'm gonna go to farming." By the end of the week he had his well drilled and half hie land plowed. He'll make it' The above anecdote indicates something of the personal character of the relationship between the examinlng board and the New Homesteaders, and of the interest felt by community members in the new settlers and their problems. Not every newcomer was so colorful a "character" as Abe, and a good many were not so energetic. Bult every New Homesteader began his career at Lost Lake wLth the problems of procuring a house, digging a well, and putting.the plow to his land. Although there wae excellent land, abundant irrigation water, and adequate temporary housing, certain other necessities were totally or partly lacking. Few had adequate operating capital or sufficient exper- ience in the Lost Lake type of agrlculture;. most farm units lacked elec- tricity and good side roads. The average New Homesteader arrived on the land with about $5000 in liquid assets. Local and state agricultural experts believe he will need about $12,000 to cover expenses during his first two years on the project. This includ-es such items as rebuilding barracks houses to make a farmhouse and buildings ($2000), purchasing machinery ($3500), expences of the first crop ($4000), and living ex- penses ($2600).* New Homesteaders obtained the necessary capital in many different ways. Some borrowed money from banks or credit associations. Others leased all or part of their farm units to more experienced operators. One new settler leased hie seventy-five acre homestead for $4000 in 1947. Another obtained $1200 for the use of 18 acres to be planted to potatoes in 1949. Some New. Homesteaders took experienced operators into partnership and farmed on shares. One respondent reported that he wae offered, but turned down, a lease plus a salary of. $200 per month for managing his land. Smaller amounts, not useful as capital but adequate to support the New Homesteader family, could be obtained by working for other farmers or by taking a job as a laborer for the Bureau of Reclamation. By enroll- ing in the G. I. agricultural school at Lost Lake Town, a World War II veteran could receive certain G. I. benefits. A few fortunate New Homesteaders "inherited" valuable crops sown by the lease operators who were their immediate predecessors on the land. This was particu- larly the case with the group who obtained homesteads in 1946, for the following year some legume crops, especially seed clover, yielded very high returns. One respondent told the authors that his brother netted $13,000 from about 60 acres of seed clover, merely by harvesting the crop that was already growing when he came on the land. The bumper crops and high prices of 1947 (Tables 2, 4, and 5) solved most of the financial problems of those 1946 entrymen who were in a position to take advantage of them. An agricultural2 economist from the state university estimated that 80 acres planted to barley ehould have netted the operator $7224 in that year (Table 4 and Foot- note, p. 17). A Bureau of Reclamation employee writing in the Reclam- ation Era reported that one new operator grossed between $16,000 and ;1,000 on his own place plus a share of $25,000 from operations on a goverrnment lease which he had entered with two partners, also New Homesteaders. The Reclamation Era article continued with the remark that, `Obviously, nobody starved.Ti 52 Experience'. Very few of the New Homesteaders had adequate exper- ience In the Lost Lake type of agriculture and about 84% were strangers to Lost Lake. It is hard to determine precisely the importance of agricultural experience to men starting to farm a new area, for farm experience is very difficult to quantify in objective terms. As one Old Homesteader, a former member of an examining board, said: You can't tell much about a boy's experience from what he writes down. Suppose he has tfared wlth his father and his father Is a successful farmr. It etlll depends on how the old man operates. If he just says to his boy, "We'll irrigate tomorrow," or "Start cultivating the potatoes this afternoon," the boy will be going through the motions, but he won't learn how to operate a place In a hundred years . He has to know w things are done and how you know when it's time for each operation. That elapsed time alone is an unsatisfaotory method of assessing farm experienoe is illustrated well by the two following cases: Bob, now over forty, has worked around farms and ranches all his life, He had had twenty years experience in the Lost Lake type of agriculture when he won a homestead in one of the postwar drawings. Yet both neighbors and agricultural experts described Bob as a "poor manager," and Bob himself expresses some fear that he may fail to make good on his very excellent Lost Lake homestead. Cal, a partially disabled veteran in his thirties, had no farm experience.whatever, when, in the same year as Bob, he too acquired a homestead. A city boy, Cal had never performed any agricultural work previous to that time. Yet Cal has made very good crops, hae won the praise of both agricultural experts and of neighbors., and appears to be a permanent member of the Lost Lake community. Other New Homesteaders range, in length of farm experience, all the way from Bob's twenty-odd years to Cal's none. Most give the impression of being much nearer to Cal in thle respect, an impression strengthened by Cal's own observation that some of his supposedly experienced neigh- bore have come to him asking whether he thought they should "irrigate now, or go ahead and drill?" A social scientist who observed Lost Lake in the mid-thirties wrote: Farm experience Is Important. In a new area it is replace- able by general education, Antelligence, business ability, willing- ness to read and observe; especially when some highly intelligent men are interspersed with some experienced ones. Mental alert- ness ougt to be counted in [in selecting settlers). If conditions at Lost Laie- had been more diffloult or if prices had been lees favorable In the first post-war years, it might be Bob who would have scraped through somehow while Cal might have become discouraged by meager returns on his investment in time and labor. Of course, neither Bob nor, Cal., nor any other farmer,, relies entirely upon his own ability and experience; all share an agricultural tradition and all have access to varied sources of agricultural information. The pool of agricultural information and advice at Lost Lake Includes literature published by the Bureau of Reclamation, the services of agri- cultural agents employed by Clark, Timber and Lost counties; farm jour- nals, a state university experimental station at Lost Lake Town, the High School agriculture teacher, and the knowledge and experience accum- ulated by members of the Old Homesteader group. All these resources are employed by members of the New Homesteader group, each according to his own Interests and experienco, but the one resource which seems to be universal is that of the advice or experiences of frier-ds and neighbors. People living along the same road exchange tools and agricultural inform- ation with one another. Somtimes a New Homesteader becomes friendly with an Old Homesteader, with the new man getting most of the material benefits from the relationship and the older operator presumably deriv- ing some psychological satisfaction from "lending a hand to a new, young fellow trying to make a start." Roads and Power. In obtaining roads and power, New Hobsteadere were obliged to engage in some political activity. This was accomplished through the assistance of a Settlement Specialist and the New Homesteader's Club. To pilot this group of New Homesteaders through their first months on the Lost Lake project, the Bureau of Reclamation assigned as "Settlement Specialist," a man who believed that ore good way of meet- ing common problems was to organlze the group in such a way that it would be capable of acting as a unit. He accordingly suggested to individual New Homesteaders that it might be well to organize a club, even going so far as to suggest that two or three of the new man in particular looked as though thoy would make capable and willing officers for such an organization. Tha "New Homesteader's Club" was soon founded and began meeting at New Town, in a building which had been part of the enemy alien camp. This club became an effective integrating force and soon developed into a strong influence in the hands of the aggressive leadership of the New Homesteader group. Among the first activities of the New Homesteaders' Club was syetem- atic agitation for the extension of power lines to their farms. Their officers conferredc with the private power company and with government officials in charge of the allocation of still-scarce materials. As a result of this pressure, powor lines were installed in time to-be used during the first winter on the project. At the same time as they were working their farms, rebuilding barracks, and negotiating for electric power, the New Homesteaders ware trying to persuade Lost County officials to improve roads. Lost County has a small population, most of whom are engaged in activities other than irrigation farming, and it is not a wealthy county. County ;offlcials located at the county seat, seventy miles from Lost L.ake, were not disposed to pay much attention to a small and presumably impotent group of settlers who wrere not yet even on the tax rolls. There was a period of petitioning for Improvements on the part of the homesteaders, matched by stalling on the part of the county Supervisors. An anonymous letter gave New Homsteaders specific information on the financial condition of the county governmnt. When it became apparent that nothing immediate was going to be done about Lost Lake roads, New Homesteader Club officials rounded up an automobile caravan of about 150 people a.nd descended upon a meeting of the Board of Supervisors. New Homesteaders filled the courthouse. Their spokesman obtained the floor at the meeting. When the Supervisors said that there were no available funds for road work at Lost Lake, the homesteader spokes- man was able to describe the nature and even the amounts of funds which were available. The Supervisors capitulated. This victory over the county government, coming on the heels of the successful negotiations for electric pewer, solidly established the New Homesteaders' Club as an agency for the realization of the aims of the new settlers. lWithin the space cf a year, the group was transformed from eighty-six individual young homesteaders into a well- Integrated group which was able to go on to further accomplishments. In the summer of 1948, a New Homesteader became Commnder of the Lost Lake post of the American Legion. Later in the same year, New Homesteaders captured all of the offices in the Basin unit of the Lost County Farm Bureau. And, in the summr of 1950, a New Homesteader was electod to the Lost County Board of Supervisors. He carried the Basin by a margin of 3 to 1 and the whole district by 5 to 4, ousting, in the words of the Lost Lak HeraldY "a politically wise incumbent." Other ecessities. At Lost Lake, the material necessities of life are considered to include a house somewhat more attractive than the tarpaper covered "Barracks houees,'" a lawn, some trees, a radio, an .eleotric washing machine, an electric refrigerator, a d.eep-freeze unit, a passenger automobile, in addition to the necessary picktup truck, and .a telephone. Nearly all New Homesteaders now have, or are on the way to acquiring, many of these refinements. The following sketches indicate the progress which some have made in this direction: Don, a Lost Lake boy, made money by farming with his father before the war; also, by working a government lease after his discharge from the armed forces and before winning his homestead In 1946. Scorning the utilitarian btut ugly barracks which he could have hadl for the price of transportation ($60), he hired a carpenter ;and, with this aid, built a neat, modern home of the local pumice brick, costing about $7500. By 1949, Dofi had a nice lawn, a number of young shade trees, a large shedc filled with well-kept farm equipment which he owned outright. His house had hot and cold running water, a radio, an indoor toilet, a washing machine, and an electric refrigerator.. He rente a freezer compartment at the supermarket and plans to build a deep freezer unit for himself this year. He sold his automobile recently, but will probably buy another which will be a new model. He has no telephone, saying,- good-humoredly, "If.Iwant to talk to anyone., I can go see him." Ed came from another state and had under $5000 in liquid as- sets when he acquired his Lost Lake Homestead. Like Don, he has a radio, indoor toilet., hot and cold running water, a washing ma- chine, and an electric refrigerator, but the refrigerator is a small one bought second hand, and these appliances are installed in a converted. barracks. Ed is a good carpenter and has. made the inside of this house quite attractive. His child's bedroom is papered with a popular nursery design and his wife, with ordinary household enamel, has decorated the plain grey linoleum that cam with the barracks with an attractive and unusual design. Ed says that the total cash cost of converting his house was around $150. Some of his neighbors have spent $3000 to $4000 on their barracks, but Ed prefers to apply the surplus he is now accumulating to the erection of a "real house." He was pouring the foundations for this aouse in the summer of 1949 and he will probably build it by himself. Ed has made money since acquiring his homestead, partly by raising profitable crops, partly by working for members of the Old Homesteader group. A goodly percentage of the refinaments acquired by Ed. have been the immediate products of his own labor. With a few exceptions, the first 86 post-World War II homesteaders had organized themselves into a group that was capable of fulfilling many of their needs by means of united action. Most of them were ade- quately housed, well-fed, had money in the bank, and were starting new families. Their standard of living was approaching that set by the Old Homesteader group. Not all of the New Homesteaders are interested in these refinements however, and while perhaps eighty percent are like Ed and another five to ten percent resemble Don, there is also a small group whose farmsteads may be characterized as resembling that of Frank: Grain grows right up to Frank's door. His house is an un- adorned barracks, both inside and out. He has running water, but it runs into a battered zinc sink that he salvaged from the enemy *alien camp. The other furniture looks like odds and ends which might have come from a corner of his father's barn. Frank says that the only thing he bought was the second handl electric stovre. Frank does have electric light and power and he does have running water. He does not have a ref rigerator nor even a homemade cooler. There are no curtains, and there Is no rug on the floor. He is unmarried, but this is not to say that all bachelor homesteaders resemble Frank. He is not, as amtter of fact inadequately housed, for his building i ,tieht- and he has a good stove, but his establishment definitely-does not come up to the standard for Lost Lake. Settlement In 1947 and 1948 Forty-four new farm units were homesteaded in 1947. In age, eduxca- tion, and experience these new settlers were quite similar to the 1946 group, but the social and economic situation at Lost Lake had altered somewhat by the time they took possession of their lands, early in 1948. Most of the 1947 homesteaders Joined. the New Homesteaders Club, but, since the organization was already well established and had passed through its early crises, they did not beoom" very active members. Where some Old Homesteaders refer to the 1946 group as "a bunch of smarties" (mean- im that they are unduly obstreperous), the 1947 entrymen are described as "a good little bunch." For the 1947 homesteaders, the economic situa- tion at Lost Lake was much less favorable during their first season than it had been during the preceeding year. Summer frosts damaged the barley crop and such grain as was harvested brought a much lower price ($2.75 per cwt. as against $4.85 in 1947). Expecting a repetition of the golden harvest of 1947, the newest entrymen were disappointed. A few did well financially, especially those who had grown some potatoes, but some found themselves in real financial straits: Gus, who had no great experience in the Lost Lake type of agriculture, "went shares" with a man who, as it turned out, did not irrigate their barley soon enough, then harvested late and during a strong wind in such a way that a considerable part of the crop blew away. Gus cleared only $850 for the year on his new farm arid found it necessary to seek winter employment in order to support himself and his 'family. In many rural areas of the United States, $850 would be considered a respectable return for the first year on a new farm, especially when the farm is known to be a good one and already has a habitable house on it. But in contrast to the net returns of $5000 to $'00,000 made on sim- ilar places in the previous year, such a return was d.La,oluragJ.ng, One 1947 homesteader reported that thirty-five of the group of forty-four "went home" for the winter. Several of the nine who remained found it necessary, as Gus did, to find winter jobs when they would have liked to have spent the tlme improving their houses. Eighty-six additional New Homesteaders acquired farms in 1948 and occupied them in the spring of 1949. At the time of this study, these entrymen, sometimes called v49ers,t had been on the land for periods of only two weeks to four months; thus very little can be said about the final success of their adjustment to the new environment at Lost Lake. They are aware of the disappointing experiences of the 1947 group and this is doubtless of some advantage; they do not expect too much. All of those interviewed ceemed confident of eventual success, even though they think the richest post-war years have already passed. Twenty-three of these "49ers' are settled on farm units in the black alkali area, in the northeast corner of the Basin and not far from the town of Marina (Map 2, area 1948-A). This alkali land Is considered marginal or useless by many Lostlakers, and It may be well to give some consideration to the special problems involved in the settlement of such lands. The twenty-three farm units in the black alkali area are larger than the average new homesteads, ranging from 88 to 136 acres in size. An effort was made to give each homesteader thirty or forty acres of good land in addition to alkali land. The official who computed the repayment capacity of these units thought that their 1949 income might run as low as $1803 per unit, which, if the estimate that about $12,000 is needed to carry the New Homesteader through his first two years is correct, would result in a considerable deficit. These alkali units require speclal'treatment in the form of gouging or blasting holes in the sub-surface hardpan to allow the alkali to drain off, neither a rapid nor a cheap procedure. To offset this disadvantage, an effort was made to reduce the rental prices on lands in the fertile Frog Pond area for those persons taking up alkali homesteads. Competitive bidding, however, sent rental prices on this land so high that only two of the men taking up land in the alkali area were able to secure theae leases. It seems likely that these two men were not those most in need of finan- cial aid. It is not easy to estimato the value of these black alkali farms, still less easy to guess what will be the fate of those entrymen who have been bold enotugh to try their fortunes on them. However, some notion of the real situation in this area can be obtained by examining some of the history of the area and some of the opinions expressed by Basin residents in the summer of 1949. Adams, an old homesteader, once owned a farm near the black alkali area. In 1949 he told the following story: I was land hungry all my life. Finally, about 1907, I obtained this farm. It contained black alkali and I never raised anything fit for man or beast to eat there. I planted barley and it came up good. Then I Irrigated; the water brought up the alkali that had been resting on the hardpan a few feet below the surface. My crop died and blew away. There was a rock layer five or six feet down. I tried dragging a contrap- tion made of mountain mahogany branches around my farm on a windy day, hoping to loosen up the alkali and let it blow off. The alkali blew up on the hillside dry farms and killed their crops but didn't help mine. The Bureau of Reclamation also advsled me to dynamite holes in the hardpan and let the alkali drain off. I tried; but 58 that didn't seem to help either. Then, on the advice of the Clark County agricultural agent, I put down four tons of sulfur to the acre and pastured the cows on the land to try and get it in better shape. But none of it was any good, and I finally lost the land. Adams, now past middle age, finds a good deal to complain about and his unsupported account might lack full conviction. Nevertheless, his misgivings with regard to the alkali area are shared by many people living in the vicinity of the Lost Lake Basin. Several farm units bordering the 1948-A area were opened for settlement in 1946, and one selectee, a Clark City boy who had the chance to select either of the last two of these units, refused to exercise his homestead rights on the grounds that these farms were not good enough. In the couree of the 1948 drawing, ten more selectees refused black alkali homesteads. Old Homesteaders whose lands border the alkali area feel some anxiety over the fate of their new neighbors. One of the 1937 homesteaders who visited the area several times during the summer of 1949 for the purpose of talking with the "new boys" and offering them "on-the-srot" agricultural advice, had this to say, "Now, above any time, we need more and better agricultural advisors. These new boys have a pretty rough road ahead of them." Anxiety over those holding alkal.i farms is shared by some members of the 1946 group too. One leader in that area said, "If Bill and John don't make good; it will be because they have bum land. Over half of the boys in the alkali -area will sell out or walk off the land." Some of the "alkali boys" can be expected to sell out or abandon their farms, and it is probable that the pessimistic atti- tude of some of their neighbors toward this "'marginal" farm land will influence their behavior. CHAPTER VI - SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT Social Structure In general, the New Homesteaders resemble their neighbors of the Old Homesteader area. They differt chiefly in age (the new settlers averaging a generation younger),and in time spent at Lost Lake. The New Homesteaders have.also developed patterns of social interaction which stress to a greater degree the importance of neighbors and of the year-of -entry group. New Homesteaders spend more time at home than do Old Homesteaders (Table A14). They "fix up" the house, work in the garden, and care for livestock and children. When they leave home It is for relatively short periods -- a trip to the swimming pool at Marina, a shopping expedition to Clark City, a movie, or, a flshing trip to some nearby lake, or a visit with relatives In another county or state. The Family. When New Homesteader men are In a group, working on a neighbor's farm machinery or having coffee at Sam's Supermarket, they ordinarily speak of their wives and children in mildly derogatory terms. At times, a great point is made of how hen-pecked the men are: "We ought to unite and get the checkbooks out of our wivesl hands before we all go broke." But at the same time, the men are pictured as masters In their homes: "My wife wanted me to lease my land so she could get some money for curtains right away, so I old her, 'Pee on the curtains, I'm going to farm my own land. "' Nevertheless, in most Slew Homesteader families, wives and husbands read the same books or magazines, listen to the sae radio programs, and share the same recreational interests. Among the Old Homesteaders and even more amng the townspeople, husbands often make hunting or flshing trips without taking wives and children along. This pattern is comparatively rare among the New Homesteaders. The role of a woman in the New Homesteader area is that of full partner in a family enterprise that promises to be a successful one. Forty-five percent of the New Homesteaders, as against eighteen percent of the Old Homesteader group, keep cows (Table A12). This is not because dairying is an important source of income, but because fresh milk is wanted for the children and store-bought milk is expensive. Dairying is also encouraged by the presence of small acreages of non- irrigable pasture land attached to many homesteads. Although the major- ity of New Homesteader children are, as yet, of pre-school age, there is considerable interest in school problems and the New Homesteaders' Club maintains a permanent committee for school improvement. About two hundred New Homesteader children will reach school age in the next five years, straining present school capacity beyond the limits of tolerance. Organizations. The necessity for economic and social interaction with other settlers is met by forml organizations and by neighborhood and visiting groups. The principal formal organization of the New Homesteaders is the New Homesteaders' Club. New Homesteaders also par- ticipate in the organized social life of the Lost Lake comunity, chiefly through the Ame3rican Legion and the Farm Bureau, .but also, to a lesser degree, through fraternal ordlers, churches, and even such town organiza- tions as the Chamber of Commrce and the Twenty-Thilrt,y Club. 60 The New Homesteaders' Club has been discussed above. In addition -to Its Integrative and "action group" functions, this club also Serves aB 'an agency which assists New Homasteaders who are In difficulties: Matt, a member of the 1946 group, had removed a barracks from the enemy alien camp and was under obligation to clear the barracks site of debris by a certain date. Before he was able to discharge this obligation, he suffered a broken hand. An official of the New Homesteaders' Club, by driving around the area, in two hours obtained the services of thirty-five men and a dozen trucks. This volunteer work party appeared at the camrp next morning and by mid-afternoon the job wae finished. Ned, a New Eomesteader, lost his houee as the result of a f ire A meeting of the New Homesteaders' Club was held and varnous members contributed bedding and cash. The Bureau of Reclamation obtained a new "barracks house," a local builder donated heavy equipment, and New Homesteaders moved the house onto Ned's place. A grass fire was In progress in the locality known as the Peninsula, andt there was a rumor that the home of Orin, a former official of tbe New Homesteader's Club,was on fire. A total of thirty-eight car- and truck-loads of New Homesteaders arrived at Orin's house within the space of an hour. "They weren't just onlookers," Orin said, "they camo prepared to help me out." There is considerable group pride as well as some ethnocentrism bound up in the attitudes of the New Homesteaders toward their area and their club. As one New Homesteader, who was not a member of any c'urch, remarked in the course of a discussion of Basin churches: "I don't think any of them matches our little church down at New Town when It comes to real religion." Informal gLroups. In addition to participation in the formal organ- izations of the Lost Lake commnity and in the New Homesteaders' Club, New Homesteaders belong to many Informal groups. These are groups of close neighbors who gather for such purposes as repairing machinery., playing pinochle, taking children to school, and going on ehopping trips. Since New Homesteaders are a relatively homogeneous group, most families have mny friends living nearby. They have less spare tireo than Old Homesteaders and they prefer to solve most of their problems on a neigh- borhood level. For these reasons, neighborhood groups are more strongly developed among the New Homesteaders than amng the -Old. In Lost Lake, It is the younger generation that stays at home and the older generation which frequents loafing placee,. takes long vacations, and supports local gambling and drinking places. New Homesteaders have friends other than their neighbors. This inlteraction is generally limited, to occasional, Informal visits, and the groups usually visit each other on Sundays, do such things as play 61 cards, make home -mde Ice cream, or "sit around and talk." These visits are usually referred to as "Just dropping in." Vistting groups usually contain one or two close neighbors, several people living in the same year group area or geographical neighborhood, and a few people living seven or eight miles away (Map 4). Members of visiting groups usually vote for the same things at meetings of organizations and try to work on the same committees. In addition, New Homesteaders frequently have one or two friends among the older settlers who give them advice on farming praotices and provide them with other assistance. The New Homesteaders and the Lost Lake Community Although the New Homesteaders are got greatly.different in background and way of life from their older neighbors of the Loot Lake community, there was some possibility in 1949 that they would set up their own community with the townsite at New Town as its nucleus (Map 5). Some tensions developed between the Old Homesteader group and the 1946 homesteaders during the latter group's first year on the land, and these tensions have not entirely subsided, although they seemed to be less mrked in 1949 than they had been in 1948. There are indications that the Old Homesteaders would have liked to "adopt" their young, new neighbors, initiat.tng them into the mysteries of the Lost Lake type of agriculture, taking them into their organizations, and generally absorb-- ing them into the life of the- community. Several Old Homesteaders in 1949 expressed somE, resentment against the Settlement Specialist (since transferred to another area). Apparently they would have liked to have played the role of guide and advisor to the New Homesteaders, a role which he successfully fulfilled. Some animus is also felt against the more active leaders of the New Homesteaders' Club. Several New Homesteaders, on the other hand, complained that members of the older group had tried to take advantage of the new men's inexperience in business transactions concerning the leasing of farm lands. There is also some resentment over Old Homesteader efforts to control events in the new area, as in the case of the New Town store's application for a license to sell beer, which was denied through the efforts of an Old Homesteader clique. Some motives for Joining the established commurnity are the conven- ienoe of doing business through established firms In an established town, the advantage of the greater pool of agricultural knowledge held by the Old Homesteaders, the advantage of greater political and economic power tQ be had by Joining with Old Homesteaders in their veterans' and farmers' organizations and, not least, the essential similarity of Old and New Homesteaders as to general character, Interests, and Ideals. Motives for not Joining the Lost Lake community require more explan- ation. Perhaps foremost among these Is the special character of Lost Lake Town and the fact that the town does not have the undivided loyalty of the Old HIomesteader group. The town is nzew and unfinished; only two 62 \ MO RTON MARINA 'COMMUNITY COMMUNITY X~~~~~~~~~11 -A AFFILIATION % UNDECIDED ' LO - X COMMUNIT \ ' %/~~~~ M AP 1P1RESENT AND PIREDICTED COMMUNITIES OF lOST LAKE 13ASIN 63 . of its streets are paved. Grocery prices are slightly higher than those found in Morton and Clark City; consequently a good many Lostlakers do some of their shopping In those towns. The Lost Lake moving pioture theatre has low prestige and Lostlakers prefer to go to Clark City to see the same moving pictures. Lost Lake Town has no park an no swimmi ng pool, as contrasted with the lmposing new recreation area at neighboring Marina. Finall.y, Lost Lake Town has a history of f ailure as a social conter. Several Lostlakers remarked In 1949 that, "People Just seem to make money here; they go outside for their fun." Lost Lake also has a history as a "rough" town and there ls more gambling and a larger number of barrooms (seven for a population of 1200) than is to be found in the average small town in this region. In 1949, a number of New Homesteaders indicated that they would like to have their own town, at New Town, with a movie house, a beer parlor ("but no hard liquor"), a good school, and their own leaders in charge of organizing and directing the commumity. New Town (formerly the enemy alien camp) is a relatively high and dry site. It has power and telephone connections, good drinking water, and several paved streets. The prospect in 1949 was that a sub-community of Lost Lake would be established, a community that would have its own town-nucleus with such things as schorls and. loaflng place9, but whose formal and informal organizations would interlock with those of the Lost Lake community. Attitudes and Goals Farm land can be treated as an economic tool, like cash and bonds, or it can be regarded as a permanent home, the last material possession that the farmer would be willing to surrender. A few of the New Home- steaders at Lost Lake intend to sell their homesteads or to lease the land aid leave the community. These are the persons known to Lostlakers as "speculators." They constitute perhaps 5% of the New Homesteader group. A few other New Homesteaders seem determined to expand their holdings at the first opportunity, using the original homestead as a springboard for larger operations. Several of these, perhaps another 5% of the whole group, are likely to succeed, partly by means of govern- ment leases and partly by obtaining farm units relinquished by members of the "speculator" group. In spite of this tendency toward speculation, the great maJority of the New Homesteaders plan to make their permanent home in Lost Lake Basin. Some are attracted by the plentiful fish and game of the area; others have relatives or friends in the Old Homesteader group. In addi- tion, Lost Lake presents the attraction of being an area where a farm owner can make a good living by working only a part of the year, with a minimulm of the long hours and heavy work usually associated with the traditional farming life. The 1949 Questionnaire indicated that 60% of the Now Hiomesteaders liked Lost Lake better than their former homes., while only 7,% preferred the places f rom which they had come . The Old Homesteaders who have remained in the Basin have mae a number of individual adjustmente to life at Lost Lake, with its peculiar- ities of a short agricultural season and a relatively long period of agricultural inactivlty during the winter months. Some take extended vacations; others have established businesses in Lost Lake Town or engage in farming activities in some other community during a part of the year. Some of the Old Homesteaders keep livestock, which means that they have year-rourd chores. The remainder of the group that is lightly employed during the winter months fills its spare time with such activities as amateur photography, hunting and fishing, reading, moving pictures, and pinochle games with friends or neighbors. Corse- quently, social. and organizational activity is heavy during the cold Lost Lake winter. In 1949, it appeared that most of the New Homesteaders would make adjustments very much like those of their older neighbors. At present, some work on their houses, some Bsek outside employmnt, and some do both. Others "go home" during the winter, presumably to work on a relative's farm or to spend some time at another occupation. Three of the 1946 group have small, part-time businesses, and one New Home- steader is starting to raise chinchillas. Perhaps as many as 5% of the New Homesteaders will be able to operate a business in addition to their farm units, while another 5% may acquire enough additional farm land to keep them thoroughly oocupied. The number of New Homesteaders who become "bona wide" members of the Lost Lake community will bear .some relationship to the number who find satisfactory employment, whether business or pleasure, for the predominantly non-agricultural months between November and April. The New Homesteaders have been given valuable farms, houses to live in, and coal to burn during the first winter on the project. In 1949, there was no evidence that these people had been softened by this treatment, nor by their good fortune in arriving at a time when their crops brought good prices. Instead, the impression Is that the greatest stability exists In the most favored areas. Probable Fate of the New Homesteaders The Dissatisfied. Not every New Homesteader will become happy and prosperous at Lost Lake. Nor will all those who become permanent members of the community achieve a thoroughly satisfactory ad.jut.ment to life in that region. In general, however, and particularly in comparison with such colonies as Durham and Delhi (1), and the Vale and Owyhee, where a good many settlers failed due to inadequate land or lack of capital and credlt (2), Lost Lake appears to have achieved a marked degree of eco'nomic success, especially In its post-World War II phase. Economic conditions are excellent and the psychological climate ie favorable. Despite these good conditions, there are a number of New Homesteaders who seem likely to sell their farms or to lease their land and leave the project, as will be seen byr an exaihination of the cases presented below: Pat is energetic and a good mechanic. He won a homestead in 19IiFand had a profitable year In 1947. His early success convinced him that he could "make a killing" by planting sugar beets, a row crop that has been grown at Lost Lake but is consid- ered risky. Pat sought agricultural advice both from older neigh- bors. and from agricultural experts, but accepted only that which conformed iiith his own ideas, Instead of trying out a test plot, he planted his entire acreage to sugar beets and added another Innovation, insofar as Lost Lake is concerned, by resorting to sprinkler irrigation. This is expensive because it involves the laying of a net- work of surface pipes over the entire acreage, with sprinklers at intervals. Pat seeded his crop too lightly, resulting in a sparse stand, then planted additional seed so that he had two stands of beets at two different stages of development, requir- ing additional care and two harvests instead of one, He suffered a series of misfortunes, lnoluding slimmr frosts, and made practi- cally. no crop in 1948. His farm unit was put up for sale in the summer of 1949, and although one agrioultural expert described him as a "good worker and an.excellent mechanic" he was the first of his year group to "fail." Ralph has one of the best farms in the NIew Homesteader area, but Ralph does not like Loot Lake. He prefers orchard crops and. dislikes the commiunity, of which he knows very little. He believes that older residents are trying to "cheat" New Homesteaders out of their land. Ralph is a very poor fit at Lost Lake and probably will-not become a member of the Lost Lake community. Seth also has a good farm and appears to be a competent farmer. He plans to keep his homestead as a "summr place and farm it myself," but to spend most of his time in another community. There are others among the New Homestiaders who do not seem likely to remain at Lost Lake. One has leased his land and returned to his former occupation. A second owns a valuable fart in another state, which he regards as his real home. A third is deeply attached to his Lost Lake homestead, but "does not seem to be able to do anything right," and doubts his own ability to retain possession of his farm. The Bureau of Reclamation and Congress have indicated that they wish to create reclamation communitles peopled by farmers who operate family-sized farms. From this point of view, the presence on a reclama-- tion projeot of such settlers as those just described tends to retard the realization of the human goals set for the project. Even If the pro- portion of "failure-prone" settlers l quite small, it is desirable to reduce their number. 66 Proportion of New lomesteaders Likly to fail. The authors mde a prelilm.tary effort to estimate how many of the New Homesteaders were likely to fall; that is, to sell their farms or to lease their land and leave the community. This rough estimate may be useful for the future analysis of the problem. Several persons who were well acquainted with Lost Lake and with the New Homesteader group were shown a list of all New Homesteader.s, arranged in the order in which they took possession of their farms, and were asked to oomment on the probable success or failure of all those whom they knew well. Two New Homesteaders and two agricultural experts gave fairly oomprehensive answers and their opinions, together with those of the authors, are sumrized below (Table 11). New Homesteader #2 expected an economic depression and previously had predicted that half the boys on the black alkali lanrd (Chapter V) would fail. The others were willing to assum that business at Lost Lake would go on about as usual, with farm tncomes dropping below the high level of the immdiate post-war years but not falling to the level of the 1934-1939 period. For the purposes of this table, neither respondents nor authors attempted to predict the fate of the New Home- steaders settled in the black alkali area. TABLE 11 Predicted Failure of New Homesteaders Person Making Number Predicted Percent Predicted Prediction Considered Failures Failures New Homesteader #1 18 5 27 New Homesteader #2 39 20 5`. Agricultural expert #1 29 8 28 Agricultural expert #2 9 2 22 The authors 66 7 10 1/2 NOTE: Failure was defined as selling out or leasing the home- stead and leaving the community. Table 11 represents a series of "educated guesses" based upon impres- sions gained by talking to and by observing the behavior of a number of the New Homesteaders over periods of time varying up to two or three years. The samples were too small ancl the supporting data too scanty to form the basis of any dependable predictions. Howevei, the consensus is that about one man in four (20% to 30%) Is likely to sef his farm or lease his land and leave the community. The authors' estimate Is conservative because they based their figures on known intent to leave the community and because they made no effort to estlmate farming abililty. This seemed to be a minor factor in any case, for only two men were definitely described as lacking in agricultural skill. 67 For purposeLi of d;ifriprisoi} Oats on settler fallture In two Old. Hi.- steader areas were collected. The results are su2mnrized in Table 12, and indicate that the settlers of the 1937 group, who had been screened by a simple selection process, had fewer failures than did the earlier group, in which applicants had undergone no selective process. Improved ecniz'rtic conditions doubtless account, in part, for the superior record of the se- lected 1937 group. They had more conveniences (railway transportation and electric power), more money at entry, and., partioularly during the period of World War II, much better opportunities to make money. But those who habitually lease their land to others are in almost equal proportion in the two groups, while there are three who sold out In the unselected 1927 group for every one who sold out in the selected 1937 group. There is, thenr, some reason to believe that techniques of selection In use in 1937, and not much altered by 1948, are not effectual In eliminating applicants prone to become habitual leasors, but are successful in weeding out some of those applicants who would tend to sell their lands and leave the project. TABLE 12 Settler Failure at Lost Lake Comparing the Unselected 1927 Group vith the Selected 1957-Grou Group Date of Original Size of Sold Habitual Failures Study Home- Sample out Leasors Total Percent steaders 1927 1936 145 145 55 17 72 50 1937 1948 69 69 8 1/2* 9 18 l/a** 27 1937 1949 69 7 0 0 2 28 Sources: 1927 group -- report published in 1936 by the United States De- partment of Agriculture; 1937 group -- Bureau of Reclamation crep census reports for 1948, and 1949 Questionnaire. Data from the 1949 Questionnaire were included because Bureau of Reclamation figures appear to validate Questionnaire-based estimates, at least in this case. *One man sold half of hie farm unit, 8 1/2. **Includes one settler who did not claim Homestead at end of two year period, 18 1/2. Table 12 also indicatee that the history of failure In the selected 1937 group is not greatly different from the estimates of probable failure for the New Homesteaders. Three of the four persons eatinmting the per- centage of New Homesteaders likely to fail gave answers yielding figures of 27%,, 2O% and 22%, as compAred with a figure of 27% for the 1937 group. Only New Homesteader #2 (51%6) and the authors (10 1/2%6) are far off the average estimate, and; as indicated above,, the former estimate is probably 68 too extrem, and the latter too conservative. It should be noted that It ie very likely that those who say they will sell out, will actually do so. Hence the authors' estimnte may be taken as Indicating that at least one settler in ten of the group examined will probably leave the project. If the figure of about 25% settler failure in the first ten or,eleven years on the project ie to be accepted, the ideale ast up by Congress and the Bureau of Reolanmtioh will have been largely fulfilled. This is a gB9d record, but one whi-ob might be further improved. Appendix B Is an effort to- indicate ome procedurnee which tight help to improve present techniques of settler selection. Footnotes (1) Smith,' Roy J. 1943 The California State Land Settlements at Durham and Delhi. Hilgardia, vol. 15, no*. 5 Berkeley. .(2) McKain, W., and H. Dahlke 1946 Turn-over of Farm Owners and Operators, Vale and e Irrip- ion Projects. U.S. DepartmeAt of lgriculture, Bureau of Agricul.tur;al Economics, Berkeley. L B G E, 1I D Road Group A ~IRoad Group D r'T:: uclear L.:iVisitilng Group ( Associate with nuc- \_ lear group,but I less frequently \~'~j A |ssociates with _ :, ,,' a town group X I I , B ,. | 1. ., ia - - Property linles MA) L4 RtOAD AND VISITING GRtOUPDS 69 CHAPTR VII - GEN}RAL CONCLUSIONS Lbst Lake as a Reclamation Commnlity As outlined in the introduction, a successful reclamation project from the polnt of view of. the government Is one peopled by small farmers capable of making efficient use of the land. In addition, the government agencies concerned want to encourage the development of well-integrated, progressive new communIties which will make economic and social contrib- utions to the development of the nation. From another point of view, a community upon which neighboring comlmnities depend for leadership, or which has contributed to the economic development of nearby communities, may be considered successful. In these terms, the Lost Lake community can, with some qualification, be considered a successful one. Undeniably, Lost Lake Is prosperous. Farm Incomes are high (Tables 2, 4, and 5) and it seems probable that Lost Lake will continue to be comparatively prosperous for some time to come. Furthermore, the economic prosperity of the community is not derived from the activities of one or two large proprietors, but from those of many small farmers and small businessmen. Many of these small operators will undoubtedly pass their property on to their children and it can be expeoted that the percentage of small farms at Lost Lake will continue to be high for at least another generation.. When matters other than economic prosperity are considered, suc- cess becomes difficult to evaluate. On the surface, at least, Lost Lake is a friendly, active, and democratic place. And, while it is true that most Lostlakers are dissatisfied with local achools and worried by problems connected with the employment of migratory labor, most of their diseatiefactions concern such minor matters as dust and the sulfurous taste of the drinking water. Despite these complaints, most Lostlakers conslder the community a good place in which to live and regard friendliness and neighborliness as two of its outstanding charact- eristics. When Lost Lake Is compared to other rural communities, there is little or no suggestion that the way of life at Lost Lake is out of step with the rest of Amerlan culture. In many ways Lost Lake resembles the towns of Wasco or Dinuba as deecribed by Goldechmidt (1), yet Lost Lake is free of the social conflicts which apparently occur in those communities as a result of their large, permanent "loutsider" populations. In some ways, Lost Lake is like Plainville, the Ozark community described by Webt, yet Lost Lake seems to be much closer to the main current of American urban culture,, When Lost Lakel' clubs and organizations are compared with slmilar groups at Plainville, they eeem more effective and their members display relatively oooperatlve attitudes toward each other. For example In describing Plainville's businessmen, West writes (2), "The businessmen sometimes txry to organize for multual cooperation and profit, but out of mutual jealousy they never stick together long." Lost Lake businessmn's org3anizations are more stable and usually succeed in 70 complishing what they set out to do. Conflict between parents and l&'n, which Is so marked in Plainville, and which is implied by the t that students In a high echool near Wasco have life ambitions which ter from those of their parents, appeare to be far less noticeable t Lost Lake. Most Lost Lake high school students have farming as a life | o1 and most high school graduates willirngly become farmers. (Table 9). Even a superficial examination of Lost Lake and neighboring commun- A?ties Indicates that Lost Lake not only fits into local patterns, but s assumin increasing leadership in the area. Lostlakers demanded and Xot an agricultural experiment station for their community. They are lable to influence county and state legislation on matters of importance them and to their neighbors. The Lost Lake American Legion holds (JOint meetings with legionnaires frQm neighboring posts and attempts to >^sealat them in strengthening their organization. Lostlakers have developed vw ways of irrigating potatoes, new ways of attaching tools to tractors, ai;new ways of building potato cellars. At least three Lostlakers s,have patented such agricultura.l inventions. All this may not prove that Lost Lake is a superior community, but it does demonstrate that Lostlakers operate efficiently and that they are capable of making sig- nificant contributions to the developmont of American culture. If these :itigs are evidence of success, then Lost Lake can be considered success- ful. Few individuals, either in the community, in the government, or in E sarby towns, can find much that Is seriously wrong with Lost Lake and few, If any, label the commlnity a failure. Still, there are signs K'that Lost Lake is something less than the ideal envisioned by its planners. .For one thing., the family-sized farm Is by no means the only kind to be found. Many families own more than one farm unit and many farmers lease- operate very large acreages. Perhaps moderate expansion of an individual's farm holdings over a period of years Is desirable and gives Lostlakors an outlet for the strong impalse toward expansion and improvement which seems to be an ingrained part of their culture, but the development of large, corporate farms, where the operator does little or none of the farm work (Chapter 2) is unquestionably inconsistent with the ideals expressed in Congressional statements. Corporate farming is not the only threat to the continuation of .Lost Lake as a small farm community. An equally serious danger is that Lost Lake homesteaders will fail to perpetuate themselvea. The small size of farm families and the fact that many middle-aged married couples have no children (Table All) are other indications that the Ideal of the famlly farm has been incompletely realized at Lost Lake. Upon the death or retirement of childless couples ten to twenty years from now, many farm units will be sold. It Is possible that most of these farms will be sold to large operators, unless the 160 acre limitation is strengthened and more strictly enforced. As in manyr western commsunities, a principle pillar of Lost Lake's agricultural success is a depressed group of migratory laborers. 71 Lostlakers feel that this type of labor Is undesirable and, with typical optimia, believe that machlnes will Boon-be developed which will make "stoop labor" unnecessary. Until that occurs it appears that Lost Lake will be compelled to rely upon a social and economic class system which is in conflict with their own ideals and with those of many other Americans. Turning to the historical development-of Lost Lake, It can be seen that the community has not always been either an economic or a social succese. From 1922 to about 1933, the comanity was In an economically depressed condition and had little to contribute to the national welfare. In the years between 1922;,and 1930., there was no town, no church) and no high school. During this period, Lost Lake was a poor community looked down on by its neighbors, and thought to be a complete failure. These early days were a period in which only the stronger members of the group werne even partially successful. Other homesteaders, who had started out with less money or larger families, experienced poverty and failure. If, as some believe, hardship developeo haracter, this period of hardship, while causing many homesteaders to suffer unduly might have been in some way beneflcial to the community. Yet if the present condi- tion of the areas settled under adverse conditions (1922-1931) is com- pared with that of the area settled In 1937, it can be seen that the early areas contain more hired farm managers and more vacant farm units, and are the scene of more large scale corporate farming. In addition, fewer signs of friendly and productive soolal interaction are to be found In the 1922-1951 areas. The 1937 area, settled in times of adequate transportation and bettor economic conditlon0, shows fewer corporate- type operationo, very few vacant farm ,unlte, and almost no abeentee ownership. The 1937 area ia the atrqnghold of the family farm. Yet a comparison of age, birthplace) eduqation, and family size (Tables A8, A9, A10, All) shows little difference;between the two groups; it appears that the only slgnificant dlfference ie that the later settlers suffered less eooonomio distress., To be sure, the first years of the 1937 homesteaders were not easy, but most had at least ten thousand dollare In liquid assets, and wartime prosperity and the subsequent economic growth of Lost Lake enabled most of these later settlers to achieve a relatively high level of living. Sooial as well as economic adjustments of the -1937 homesteaders appear to be superior to those of earlier homesteaders. For example, 1937 homesteaders oocupy more offloial positions in Lost Lake organizations than do residents of all other year group areas combined. Finally, many of the l927 homesteaders left Lost Lake wlthin ten years after taking up their homesteads while a much smaller proportion of the 1937 group (Table 12) left Lost Lake within a similar period. Apparently, economic hardship severe enough to lead to the flnancial failure of any significant part of a groulp of settlers on a reclamation 72 project has a deleterious effect upon the development of the community as a whole. This, in turn, means that the community contributea fewer economic and cultural bonefits to the nation than would be the case if settlement had begun under favorable economic conditions. When the pro- blems inherent in the early stages of development are of such a nature that many settlers cannot solve them, commnity development is necessarily slow and the success of the entire project is endangered as was the case at Durham and Delhi (3). Contrariwise, the situation at.Durham and Delhi also provides evi- dence that too much settler aseistance of the wrong kind can also contribute to the failure of reclamation projects. The thesis of Roy Smith's report concerning the situation at Durham and Delhi is that the assistance given homesteaders on these projects was of such a nature that it discouraged initiative and led the settlers to depend upon reclam- ation authorities for advice and assistance. In most reclamation situa- tiong, however, particularly when settlers do not have large amounts of capital, some sort of settler assistance is necessary. It seems likely that a favorable situation would be one in which homesteaders had little trouble marketing their crops and so could reach a lligh level of living with relative rapidity. Under present conditions, few government agencies concerned with reclamation are in a poeition to build railroads, construct housing, or give other large scale assistance. Yet if large scale assistance had been available at Lost Lake in 1922, perhaps only in guaranteeing the sale at good prices of the first crops raised, it seems almost certain that the project would have begun to make valuable economic and cultural contributions to the nation soon after its initial settle- ment. The situation of the New Homesteaders at Lost Lake is a more favor- able one. They have had problems, but these were of such a nature that they fostered the development of community attitudes and welded the New Homesteaders into a tightly knit, cooperative unit (Chapter 6). Furthermore, in one or two years, they were able to market crops profit- ably and contribute to the economy of the nation by paying taxes, buying manufactured goods, and hiring labor. Probably because they are unworried about the future and feel financially able to support children, New Homesteaders have produced what one oldtimer referred to as a "fine crop of babies," adu family size in the New Homesteader area seems likely to surpass that in the Old Homesteader area(Table All). The New Homesteader area, established uncler conditions of pconomic prospe-ity, will almost certainly become the permanent home of a large number of farm families, while older sections of the B&sin commu nity are likely to become increas- ingly depopulated and to become the scene of an increasing number of corporate farm enterprises. 73 Assistance to Settlers If settlers on reclamation projects should be given initial assistance, it must be decided what sort of aselstance is desirable. It seems unneces- sary for the adminietrative agency to provide the new colonist with a house furrnished with gas, water, and electricity, and a growing crop. There is reason to believe that the New Homesteaders at Lost Lake derived certain advantages from the fact that roads and electricity were available only as a result of organized effort on the part of all settlers. However, particu- larly in a situation like that of Lost Lake, settlers require good, cheap transportation to mrket cities; good, localized agricultural advice; ade- quate farm loans; and suitable temporary housing. At Lost Lake, the major source of agricultural advice for New Homesteaders appears to be the older residents of the community. This Is not because good advice cannot be ob- tained from agricultdral experts, but because most agricultural experts have low prestige and community members cannot understand why they want to be agricultural experts if they really know how to farm. In such a situation as this, it might be effective to establish a group of experienced and suc- cessful farmers as a eettlement committee to help new homesteaders with their agricultural problems. In sum, the business of establishing reclama- tion communities is like any other businees; If a reasonably competent workman or settler is given the right tools and the right facilities for doing good work, it can be expected that the job will be well done. Ethnological Value Although Lost Lake was studied with a particular problem in mind, eval- uation of its success as a community in term of certain goals, it presents a number of aspects which are of general anthropological interest. There are enough differences between Lost Lake and other rural communities to pro- vide some interesting data conceming the range of variability of American culture. Lost Lake differs enough from Wasco, for lnstanoe, to irndicate that the patterns of specialty crop agriculture vary considerably in differ- ent communities. Thus, Goldsehmidt's finding, that one of the concomitants of industrialized agriculture is the increasing influence of large outside corporations upon the community (4), is not fully supported by the eituation at Lost Lake where there are many locally owned businesses (Table 7). Fur- thermore, there are few transient laborers who live at Lost Lake throughout the year, while there is a large outsider group at Wasco. In Dinuba, another community studied by Goldschmidt, which resembled Lost Lake In that it had many small farms, many community members attend church, while a relatively small number of aomunity members at Lost Lake belong to chuwhes. It is not necessary here to make a detailed comparlon of the various epacialty crop communities which have been-studied; but the evidence does indicate that communities belonging to the economic pattern of specialty crop agriculture differ greatly In certain respects. This being the case, it becomes apparent that any generalizations concerning the nature and direction of specialty crop agriculture must be based on studies of a series of communities. Some of the differences between Lost Lake and. other specialty crop comunities may be the result of the fact that Lost Lake is, In a sense, an artificial community deliberately established by governmnt agencies. If commrunities established by the governmet differ significantly from other commiunities, this fact will have considerable influence upon the develop- mont of rural American culture in the western states, since lt is to be ex- pected that a number of communities will be established by the government upon the completion of irrigation projects in such areas as the Columbia and San Joaquin river valleys. Comparison of varioue farm communities practicing irrigated agriculture might reveal that irrigation farming in the United States has cortain con- sistent effects upon the nature of the communities practicing it. Among these effects might be such things as- Increased co-operation between farm proprietors, the necessity for relatively Intense participation in state and national politics in order to insure the delivery of an adequate supply of water, and the presence of a relatively large class of unskilled labor- ers to do such things as harvest crops. * When Lost Lake is compared to agricultural communities in other parts of the United States, some of the differences which become apparent are so great that there is room for considerable doubt concerning the validity of descriptions of the American culture or the American personality which are based largely on studies of one such community. For example, Plainvillers emphasize a number of culture patterns such as open competition between individuals, a type of- trading involving "deception," rather intimate neigh- borhood groups, a class system wbioh permits relatively little social mobil- ity, and a relatively high degree of interest in religion (5). Lostlakers, on the other hand, diacourage direct competition between individuals and feel that the community should work together; deception, although practiced, is frowned upon; neighborhood groups are small ard by no means Intimate; there is a high degree of social mobility; and a relative lack of iiiterest in religion. Although some of these differences may turn out to be rela- tively insignificant, the available evidence does indicate that stlldy of the range of variation of American culture is probably a necessei;y prelimi- nary to the maklng of other types of generalizations concerning its nature. When Lost Lake is compared with urban communities in the United States, it is found that the traditional stereotyped view of farm people as unedu- cated and conservative has no more than regional validity. Lostlakers visit urban centers frequently, attend the same universities urban people attend, listen to the same radio programs, and read the sae magazines. Despite their geographical isolation, Lostlakere appear to have adopted most of the mannerisms and behaviorr. of people of comparable Income class in cities in the same region. The most significant dlfference is-that at Lost Lake everybody knows everybody else, while in the city most people are strangers to one another. Since 1922 there have been rapid chanes in some phases of the culture of the commuxnity. About 1950, iihen the fisrt flushing toilet was installed in a~ Lost Lake farmhouse, its owner was reproached for "tputting on airs." During this period, Lostlakers hesitated to.grow potatoes on a commrcial scale because they feared that the lake bottom soil would give them a bad taste. Fifteen years later, nearly all In the community had flushing tol- lets, and the Growers' Association insisted upon the establishment of an agricultural experiment station in the Basin. These changes are symptomatlc of the rapid upward revislon of the idea of what constitutes an adequate standard of living for a farm family at Lost Lake. The historical development of Lost Lake demonstrates some of the pro- cesses which make for the social integration of new settlers Into a community. On several occasions Lost Lake has had to absorb large groups of new home- steaders. The behavior of the groups involved during the periods immediately following the 1937 and 1946 land openings (Chapters I and V) shows the im- portant role played by formal organizations in this process of absorption. The history of Lost Lake community also provides some material which might, if compared with the results of a sufficient number of similar studies, pro- vide a basis for generalizations concerning cultural change. The pattern of development of,social structures at Lost Lake is especially suggestive. In the early days, when settlers were economically depressed and population was small, there were few clubs or organizations. These clubs had general- ized functions, and it was the American Legion whlch provlded the community with many of the services comnly furnished by governmnt (Chapters I and It). The role of -the American Legion In the early history of Lost Lake seeme com- parable to that of the Waeco Improvement Club described by Goldschmidt. The New Homesteaders' Club, altibugh it did not develop in an atmosphere of econ- omic poverty, is the same type of organization. The subsequent development of Lost Lake, from a tightly knit community having a single comnw'nity organ- ization which served many purposes, to a larger and less closely integrated community having many organizations sugests that the development of certain types of social division may be correlated with increases in population and with decreased economic stress. The history and nature of the Lost Lake Community have been described and certain tentative conclusions have been reached. These conclusions deal with the methods to be used in establishing reclamation communities, and, in addition, with some of the facets of Lost Lake's culture which seemed to be of interest to the ethnologist. In general, it was found that, while present methods of selecting settlers and establishing reclamation projects are, under favorable conditions, highly effective, there is still consider- able room for improvement in the methods used. Such improvement can only come about as the result of general agreement as to what constitutes a de- sirable reclamation project, and the utilization of information derived from studies of previously established reclamation communities and their settlers to find out what factors have produced the development of such desirable or undesirable features as are to be found. 76 Footnotes (1) Goldschmidt, Walter 1947 At You Sow. Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York. (2) West, James 1945 Plainville, U.S.A. Columbia University Press, New York, (especially page8 (5) Smith, Roy J. 1941 "The California State Land Settlements at Durham and Delhi." [ilgdia, vol. 15, University of California Press, Berkeley. (Pp. -89-491 and 419-420.) (4) Goldschmidt, Walter 2. cit., p. 42. (5) West. James 0p. cit. 77 APPENDIX A -- TK 1949 QUESTIONNAIRE The rurai portion of the Lost Lake Division of the Clark City Irri- gation Project lncludes 624 prlvately owned farm units In an area of about 70 square miles. Considering the size of this area, It seemed de- sirable to adopt come method of sampling that would reach all portions of the Basin, would enable the field workers to secure data from a number of persons of each of the main social and economic groups llvlng there, and would secure uniform reaults by asking the same questions of a fairly large number of farm dwellers. The best method seemed to be that of the questionnaire. The 194` Questionnaire was constructed by the authors after one month's general study of the area. A man and a woman who are long-time Basin residents were asked to commnt upon it and a few minor changes were made before It was mimeographed. The sample used was selected in the following manner: UDon E map of the Lost Lake Division., furnished by the Bureau of Reclamation and bearing the names of registered farm owners, the anaJysts marked off the areae settled by different groups In various years from 1922 to 1948. One analyst then counted off an approximate 30% sample of the farms in each year area. From this 30% sample, the other analyst drew up three lists, each including the names of registered owners of approximately 10% of the farms in each year area of settlement. A questionnaire and a covering letter were mailed to those persons whose names appeared on list Number One. The field workers personally interviewed farm familios living on the unite appearing on list Number Two, usually spending from one-half to two hours with each family In addition to the time spent filling out the questionnaire. List Number Three was not used. Because only 12 (18%) of the 65 questionnaires mailed out were returned and because some large groups were not repre- sented at all while others were heavily weighted, reaulte obtained from the mailing list are not employed in any of the tables presented in this report. The tables In this appendix are based upon data Eathered from families living on the 64 farms actually visited by the field workers in connection with the Questionnaire. Data derived from the 1949 Questionnaire is believed to be relatively reliable. The material presentel appears to be consistent with other In- formation collected and, for the most part, It Is In agreement with Bureau of Reclamation records and other slmilar sources of Information. Further- more, inspection of the data presented by the Questionnatre itealf reveale a fairly regular distribution of the data In most oases and considerable Internal homogeneity. It would be useful to compare thl material wlth results of the 1950 Census, but census data are not comparable since it is not based upon the community, and the area in question is divided by state and county lines. In conclusion, the data yielded by the 1949 Questionnaire, although not as accurate as might have been obtained by the use of more sophisticated sampling methods and analytic techniques, seem ad9quate for the purpose for which theys are used here; namely, tc provide the reader with certain general notions concerning some of the quantifiable aepeots of the economic and social behavior of Lostlakers. Comment on the Tables. Etimates based on the Questionnaire were made by excluding vacant farm units and farm units belonging to the com- munities of Morton and Marina from the sample. This was necessary because the Lost Lake Division, upon which this sample was based, includes all of the land formerly covered by the waters of Lost Lake. Consequently, por- tions of the communities of Morton and Marina were included in the original sample. To obtain data concerning the Lost Lake community alone, It was necesary to eliminate questionnaires taken from individuals or farm units belonging to the Morton and Marina commnities. The elimination of these questionnaires has no Influence on sample size, of course, since the area covered by the 1949 Questionnaire is automatically reduced when Morton and Marina questionnaires are excluded. Thus, an approximate 10% sample of the 624 farms in the Lost Lake Division was taken; but, of the 408 farms in the Old Homesteader area, only an estimated 318 farms were considered to be within the limits of the community. The Questionnaire sample In this area included 33, or 10.4% of the farm units. Of these farm units, complete Questionnaire data were obtained from 22, two were inhabited but incomplete data were obtained, and nine were vacant. The size of the samples taken for each year group is listed below: is'. Al Year Farms Number Percent in area visited 1922 47 5 10.7 1927 73 7 9.6 1928-29-30 61 7 11.5 1931 68 7 10.3 1937 69 7 10.2 1946 86 9 10.5 1947 44 4 9.1 1948 86 9 10.5 In the New Homesteader areas (1946, 1947, 1948), the sample taken Includes all farms in that section of the Lost Lake Division because community affiliations of the New Homesteaders were not definite. The total sample for this area is 22 individuals, or 10.2% of 218 farms. Tables A2 and A3 are eatimates based upon the samples shown in Table Al. Other tables do not show estimates but record the actual number of indivi- duals interviewed. 79 TABLE A2 Estimated 1949 Farm Population of Old Hon3steader Area Year First Settled 1922 1927 1928- 1931 1937 Total Total Farm Units in Basin 65 145 61 68 69 408 Estimated Farm Units lri Morton and bl-rina Comunities 18 72 0 0 0 90 Estimated Farm Units In Lost Lake Community 47 73 61 68 69 318 Lost Lake Farm Units in Sample Number 5 7 7 7 7 33 Percent 10.7 9.6 11.5 10.3 10.2 10.4 Number of Persons in sample 19 14 24 15 22 94 Estimated Popuilation 179 146 209 146 217 897 TAB3LE A3 Estimated 1949 Farm Population of New Homesteader Area Year First Settled 1946 1947 1948 Total Estimated Farm Units 86 44 86 216 - Inhabited 77 44 86 207 Units in Sample Number 9 4 9 22 Percent 10.5 9.1 10.5 13.2 Persons in Sample Adults 15 7 18 40 Children 9 5 13 27 Total 24 12 31 67 *Estimated Population 229 132 296 _____ 80 TABLE A4 Land. Occupants in Lost Lake Community in 1949 Year of Original Purchasers Leaseholders, Uninhabited origitial Homesteaders* tenants, or settlement hired men 1922 2 2 0 1 1927 1 1 1 4 1928-29-30 3 0 3 1 1931 1 0 3 3 1937 5 0 2 0 Total 12 3 9 9 *Referred to as Old Homesteaders In the following tables. TABLE A5 Land Occupants in the New Homesteader Areas of Lost Lake Community in 1949 Year of Original Purchasers Leaseholders, Uninhabited original Homesteaders tenants, or settlement hired men 1946 8 0 0 1 1947 4 0 0 0 1948 9 0 0 3 Total 21 0 0 1 81 TABLE A6 Economic Statue of Heads of Farm Famllles in the Old Homesteader Area in 1949 Economlc Status 1922 1927 1928- 1931 1937 Total Percent 29-30 Large Proprietor 1 2 0 0 3 6 21.4 Small Proprietor 3 0 5 3 5 16 5T,.1 Farm Mnager or Sharecropper 0 0 1 0 0 1 3.57 Hired Man or Farm Laborer 0 1 0 1 1 3 10.8 Government Employee 0 0 1 0 0 1 3.57 Professional in Town 0 1 0 0 0 1 3,56 Number of Families 4. 4 7 4 9 28 100.00 Note: A large proprietor operates more than 200 acres of Lost Lake land and netted approximately $25,000 in 1948; a small proprietor operates les than 200 acres of Lost Lake land and netted $5,000 to $15,000 in 1948. -82 TABE A7 Occupations of Farm Dwellers Living in Lost Lake Community 1922-1937 1946-1947 Occupation Areas Areas Family Heads Owner-operator of farm 14 10 Owner-operator of farm and town business 3 1 Owner-does not operate farm 1 1 Lease-operator of farm 5 0 Share-cropper 1 0 Farm laborer 3 0 Non-farm employed 2 0 Total 29 12 Other Employed Persons Housewife 24 9 Housewife-teacher 1 0 HoueewIfe -nurse 1 0 Housewife-farm laborer 1 0 Bookkeeper 1 0 Telephone operator 1 0 Navy enlisted personnel 1 0 Total 30 9 Dependents College student* 2 0 High school student 9 0 Grammar school student 12 2 Infant (under 6 yeare) 12 12 Aged person (over 70 years) 1 0 Total 36 14 Grand total 95 35 *One college student was also owner-operator of a farm but was not head of a family. 83 STAE A8 Education of Adult Farm Residents Education Old Homesteaders Other Farm New Homesteaders Total 1922-31 1937 Residents in 1946 1947 1948 Group Group 1922-37 Areas Group Group Group Grammar school only 4 3 0 1 2 4 14 Attended high school 2 2 6 2 1 2 15 High school graduate 37* 7 3 7 27 Attended college 0 2 2 4 0 4 12 College graduate 2 2 12 1 0 1 9 Total 11 9 18 15 6 18 77 *Includes two employees. TABLE A9 Birthplace of Adult Farm Residents Birthplace Old Homesteadere Other Farm New Homesteaders Total 1922-31 1937 Residents in 1946 1947 1948 Group Group 1922-37 Areas Group Group Group Pacific Coast 3 4 12 7 2 7 35 Colo., Ida., Wyo., Kan., Nebr., Utah, No. and So. Dak. 5 4 7* 5 3 4 28 Texas, Okla., Ark., and Misaouri 0 1 5** 2 0 7 15 Ariz., New Mbxico 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 East of Mississippi River 1 1 0 3 0 0 2 Total. 9 10 24 15 6 18 82 *Includes three emplovees. - * . ~**These five are employees. 84 TABLE A10 Age of Adult Farm Residents at Lmst Lake in 1949 Age in 1949 Old Homesteaders Other Farm New Homesteaders Total 1922-31 1937 Residents in 1946 1947 1948 Group Group 1922-37 Areas Group Group Group 19-23 0 0 5 1 0 1 7 24-28 0 0 5 8 3 2 18 29-33 0 0 3 1 0 5 9 34-38 O 0 4 3 3 8 18 39-43 0 1 5 0 0 2 8 44-48 2 2 1 0 0 0 5 49-53 5 4 1 1 0 0 11 54-58 3 1 0 1 0 0 5 59-62 1 2 0 . o 0 Total 11 10 24* 15 6 18 84 *Includes four employees between 19-23; two between 24-28; one between 34-38, and. one between 39-43. TABLE All Size of Families at Lost Lake in 1949 Size of Old Homesteaders Other Farm New Homesteaders Total Families 1922-31 1957 Residents in 1946 1947 1948 in Sample Group Group 1922-37 Areas Group Group Group Unmarried 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Married No children 1 3 2 1 1 1 9 One child 3 0 3 4 0 5 15 Two children Q 1 5 1 1 2 10 Three children 0 1 1 1 1 0 4 Four children 1* 0 0 0 0 1 2 Five children 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 Total 6 5 12** 8 3 9 43 *Widow of an original Homesteader. **Includes one employee with no child; two with one child, and one with three children. TABLE A12 Ownership of Farm Animals by Proprietors* 1922 to 1937 Area Farm Animals Kept Old Homesteaders Other Farmers 1946 to 1947 Area per Family. No. Percent No. Percent No. Percent Cows, 1-4 2 18.0 3 37.5 5 45.0 Chickens, 24-125 5 45.0 4 50.0 9 85.0 Saddle horses, 1-4 1 9.0 3 37.5 1 9.0 Pigs, 1-4 1 9.0 4 50.0 4** 36.o Sheep, 1-4 1# g.o 1 12.5 1 9.0 Some farm animal other than dog or cat 8 73.0 6 75.0 10 91.0 *Of the employee group, one farm manager keeps cows, chickens and pigs; one share-cropper and three farm laborers keep no animals other than dogs and cats. **One farmer owns 30 pigs. #One farmer owns 50 sheep. 86 TABLE A13 Total Number of Days Spent Outside Loot Lake Basin by Farm Operators In 1948 1922 to 1937 Areas 1946 to 1947 Areas Old Homesteaders Other Proprietors New Homesteaders How Time Days Spent Days Spent Days Spent Is Spent Number Outside Number Outside Number Outside Clark City 11 427 7 162 11 317 Medical Care 3 39 2 40 1 18 Vacations 7 486 5 94 7 156 Hunting and Fishing 7 178 7 114 6 70 Conventions 4 22 2 18 1 3 Farming in another Community 1 150 1 18o 0 0 Other Activities* 4 64 61 5 68 Total 36 1366 28 669 31 632 Average number of - Man-Days 37.9 23,9. 20.4 * Includes "business," 1"paying taxes at county seat," or visiting relatives in nearby communities. 87 APFENDIX B - SETTLER SELECTION The relationship of the Bureau of Reclamation to applicants for home- steads is like that of an employer hiring a group of new employees in that it seeks to select individuals who vill do a good job of farming and to avoid giving homesteads to persons who are likely to fail. One of the problems confronting reclamation authorities appears to be that of improving techniques for selecting settlers. As an approach to this problem, it may be useful to examine some of the personnel-selection procedures now in general use and to discuss their application to the kind of situation that occurred at Lost Lake in the late nineteen-forties. One of the most common methods used in selection is that of rating the candidates, either in personal interviews or by obtaining information from individuals familiar with the candidates. In selecting settlers at Lost Lake in 1948, persons 4ho knew the candidates were.asked to rate then as "toutstanding," "t average," or "weak,"1 in regard to "reputation," "dependability," "energy," and "management ability." Mary of those q.eried left this section of the questionnaire blank. Those who did fill out the form usually gave their candidates very high ratings, and subsequent investigation showed that the "speculator" was likely to receive an unblemished recommendation, while the "successful" New Homesteader received about the same quality of recom- mendations as did the "unsuccessful" one. The form used in 1948 is open to two criticisms: it does not readily lend itself to a uniform grading scale and the person making the rating can too easily manipulate the result. However, ratings by character references can be useful, especially in a situation like that at Lost Lake, in reducing the number of candidates to proportions that can be dealt with efficiently. It might be well to improve the content of the present questionnaires and to try to devise a uniform, objective scale that cannot easily be circumvented by the person maling the. ratlngs, perhaps sonething, like the one developed by E. Donald Sisson for officer-selection and officer-promotion in the United States Arny (1) or of the sort F. J. Reiss of the University of Illinois may be expected to produce concerning the personal characteristics of successful and unsuccessful farm operators (2). Another type of information that has been solicited from persons who knew the Lost Lake candidates is a statement of the length of time each can- didate has spent on a farm. But farming experience is an unsatisfactory means of estimating farming ability. It was found (Chapter 5) that one New Homesteader with over twenty years farming experience was in a precarious position because he was a poor manager, while another, who claimed no farming experience, was doing very well. An alternate method of rating candidates is by means of the personal interview. This method has had only limited use at Lost Lake, partly because the interviewers are volunteer workers who also have the task of reviewing the very large number of forms and questionnaires filled out by applicants. Thus, only nineteen candidates were intervriewed in 1946; ninety-three were interviewred in 1948. 88 The personal interview has certain obvious advantages. It can elicit information which can be brought out by no written questionnaire and the interviewer can eliminate those candidates who are obviously unfit for the job. It would seem that no person should be awarded a valuable homestead without a satisfactory personal interview. Infomation which might be of value to persons conducting future interviews could be collected by a studcy of the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful settlers on reclamation projects. In addition to or instead of rating candidates, selection may be carried on by means of written tests. Testinlg materials are not nowr being used in settler selection at Lost Lake, but it might be well to consider the practicality and probable usefulness of preparing such materials for use in future land openings. A well constructed test offers the advantages of uniformity, objectivity, and. once perfected, easy, rapid and inexpensive evaluation of. candidates Existing test materials of the kind listed in the footnotes to this appendix appear to offer certain possibilities (3), but at best could be expected to do no more than indicate some of those applicants who, mostly for reasons of personal imbalance, would probably fail if awarded homesteads. The adaptation of existing materials would be relatively inexpensive, but could yield only limited results. It would probably be very much more satisfactory to construct a new test to fit the particular situation. The construction of a new test for settler selection, following the latest principles, might well have results which would be beneficial in many departments of the government where the screening of large numbers of applicants for government grants is necessary. This would be a long process, however, and would require a number of research workers, who are in limited supply. It would not be inexpensive, but its cost would have to be measured against its potential saving inwastageo The Bureau of Reclamation already is engaged in collecting a considerable amount of information about homesteaders, some of which is published in its Chistories" of each land opening. It is possible that some of this activity might be employed in gathering more of the-kind of information that would lend itself to the preparation of suitable testing materials. A third method of personnel selection is the performance test. This would seem not to be useful in settler selection; ability to handle or repair machinery, for example, does not demonstrate ability or wlljngness to become a successful settler, and the demands made upon a farm manager probably are too varied and subtle to be reproduced in a test situation. It might prove beneficial, however, to institute a probationary period for new homesteaders, during which time they would be expected to prove their intention to become bona fide settlers, as well as their ability to do a good job of farming. A settler who really wanted to make his permanent home on a reclamation project would, under ordinary circumstances, feel no need to sell or lease his homestead a-fter becoming the legal owner. Speculation on reclamation projects is possible only because settlers are allowed to obtain complete legal cvrnership of the land and sell it on the open market within about twro years after settling. If those who left the project were compelled 89 to return their land to the Bureau of Reclamation in return for compensation for such improvements as they might have made, the economic basis for land speculation would be eliminated. The early sale of -a homestead constitutes a moral breach of contract; there is no reason why the more obvious forms of land speculation should not also be made a legal breach of contract. Administrators might also be interestcd in supporting legislation which would encourage the awarding of homesteads to those individuals most capable of benefiting from them. In the 1946 opening at Lost Lake, one applicant listed assets of approximately e3000, including 174 acres of range land valued at only a few dollars per acre. He had to be rejected because he already owned nmore than 160 acres of land. Another applicant showed assets of over w100,000, including some 30 acres of orango grove, and he had to be accepted because the Commissioner could find no basis in existing law for disqualifying candidates who already were wealthy. The Commissioner's decision was a reversal of the local examining board on this question; it may also be contrary to the wishes of Congress and of the majority of tax payers. Those New Homesteaders who settled in 1946 and 1947 are "proving up" and obtaining clear title to their homesteads in 1949 and 1950. Some have already sold out or have leased their land and left the project. If these individuals are to be classed as failures, and if it is desirable to reduce the incidence of settler failure in future land openings, skilled personnel should be sent out to interview and assess those persons now leaving or about to leave Lost Lake, for such a situation offers the best possible opportunity for gathering data on causes of settler failure on reclamation projects. The problem of improving techniques for the selection of settlers can be attacked by some of the methods commonly used by business men in choosing new employees. These include description of the jobs to.be filled and of the characteristics which qualify candidates to do well at those jobs. It seems probable that a study of the characteristics of successful and relatively less successful settlers on reclamation projects, if carried on by qualified specialists, might aid goverrnment authorities to encourage the development of successful communities on public land, and thus to contribute to the cultural and economic well-being of the nation. 90 Footnotes (1) Sisson, E. Donald "Forced Choice - the New Army Rating." Personnel P Autumn, 1948, pp. 365-383. Sisson has collected series of "desirable" ard "undesirable" personal characteristics of anny officers and has constructed a rating chart in which the person making the rating is said to have little oppor- tunity to influence the result. (2) F. J. Reiss of the Department of Agricultural Ecolomics, University of Illinois, has done some work on the personal characteristics of farners, based on Sisson's plan of operation. Results of Reisst work have not yet been published. (3) Strong, E. K. Strongis Vocational Guida.nce Test. n. d. Stanfor F rsty Press3 Paio to The Strong test is designed to reveal any of thirty-nine different vocational interests, including that of farmer. The Department of Educational Psychology, Stanford University, is willing to score test results, but makes a charge for this service. Hildreth, G. "A Diblio. rakhy of Liental Tests and Rating Scales." 1946, rev. ed. The Psycholo?-ical Corporation, New York. This is probably the most complete bibliography of tests and rating scales. The Psychological Corporation nilarkets tests and gives aid and advice to persons or agencies wishing to administer tests. Haire, Mason "Use of Tests in Employee Selection." Harvard Business Review, January, 1950, pp. 42-51. Also issued as Reprint no. 20, \ nstitute of Industrial Relations, 201 California Hall, University of California, Berkeley. Haire urges the employer to begin with the theory that he does not want selection tests and not to use such tests unless he proves to himself that they will help him. Thorndike, R. L. Personnel Selection. 1949. J. Wiley, New York. A general work which indicates sanmething of the nature and magnitude of the task of devising or of adapting test materials. Thorndike had an important part in devising tests for the Army Air Force during World War II. 1. . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 9