Book Description

Excerpt from Rural Migration in the United States Sir: I have the honor to transmit a comprehensive analysis of rural migration in the United States. The effect of migration on the distribution of the rural population is important with respect to both the location and the extent of unemployment and relief needs and consequently affects the extent and distribution of employment under the Works Program. The depression of the early thirties markedly reduced the migration from rural areas. Since there was no corresponding decline in the excess of births over deaths, a rapid increase in farm population was inevitable. Moreover, the increase was most marked in the productive ages, especially among youth. Not only have the reduced migration from rural areas and the back-to-the-land movement been important factors in intensifying rural relief needs but also residential requirements for public assistance have had the general effect of retarding needed migration from rural areas. Migration alone offers no panacea for the problems of rural areas. In combination with efforts to improve the social and economic conditions of rural people where they are and with a declining rural birth rate, however, guided migration for a limited number seems to offer one approach to solving the long-time problems of widespread need in rural areas. By the use of census data this report presents a detailed analysis of the recent movements of the rural population. In addition data for approximately 22,000 rural families included in comparable field surveys conducted in 7 States make possible an intensive study of the characteristics of migrant and nonmigrant families in the same areas. The study was made in the Division of Research under the direction of Howard B. Myers, Director of Research. The schedules and instructions used in the field surveys were prepared by C. E. Lively, now of the University of Missouri, and Conrad Taeuber, now of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, when they were members of the research staff of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.