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Show Tennessee Valley* Southeastern States United States Number employed in manufacturing, as percent of total gainfully employed... Number employed in construction, as percent of total gainfully employed... Number employed in transportation and communications, as percent of total gainfully employed....... 16.0 2.9 6.4 16.4 3.0 6.8 24.1 5.3 9.1 Numbex employed in 3 classifications above as percentage of total gainfully employed. . 25.3 26.2 38.5 1122 counties. Source: U. S. Congress. Joint Committee on the Inves- tigation of th.c Tennessee Valley Authority, 76th Cong., 1st sess., Report C1939), vol. 2, pp. 277-286. Fewer people were employed in commercial and professional careers in the Tennessee Valley than in the Southeastern States or the United States. Employment in trade was 7.3 percent in the valley and 12.5 pearcent in the Nation; comparable figures for the professions were 5.4 and 8.2 percent respec- tively. The extent to which education in the valley in 1930 reflected these economic handicaps is indi- cated in the following comparisons with the South- east and the United States. Number of illi terates over 10 years old, as percent of total population over 10 years old..................... Percentage of ^population be- tween 7 and 17 attending school.................. Annual expenditures for pub- lic education (per child 7 to 17) a................. Tennes- see Valley* 7.7 82.5 $23.40 South- eastern States 9.9 82.0 $28. 50 United States 4.3 87.4 $68.20 1122 counties. * 1933-34. Source: U. St. Congress. Joint Committee on the Investi- gation of the ITennessee Valley Authority, 76th Cong., 1st sess., Report (^1939), vol. 2, pp. 290-292. Characteristics of agricultural production.-In the Southeast two crops, cotton and tobacco, have been dominant historically. The Tennessee Valley is on the fringe of the cotton area; tobacco produc- tion extends over the eastern section of the basin, where cotton is not grown. In the Southeast as a whole in 1930 more than 2 million families raised cotton-nearly a third of all the farm families in the Nation. The basin sections of Mississippi, Ala- bama, and west Tennessee were devoted to cotton production. The area has been singularly susceptible to eco- nomic instability. Farm tenancy has been com- mon, resulting in mobility and lack of purpose on the part of a large sector of the population. Hous- ing standards have been among the lowest in the Nation. Prices and income have been unstable and capital for proper farm management and mecha- nization lacking; wage standards notoriously low; and the agrarian South exists under the shadow of excessive debt. Before 1930 the area was deficient in dairy prod- ucts, eggs, and vegetables. The minimum dietary requirement of milk for the Southeast in 1930 was 2,450 million gallons; the deficit was 1,160 million gallons, which represented more than a tenth of the Nation's total milk production. In some re- gions in the South 50 percent or more of the chil- dren received inadequate diets. The Southeast, cultivating about one-sixth of all croplands in the United States, in the early 1930's used two-thirds of the total tonnage of fertilizer. The farmers of the Southeastern States in 1929, though they received about a fifth of the country's agricultural income, paid two-thirds of the Nation's fertilizer bill. The fertilizer bill was almost half of the base cost of operation, exclusive of debt serv- ice and taxes, for southeastern agriculture. This was a major factor in the grass roots demand in the South for Government production of fertilizer at Muscle Shoals. Emigration of productive workers.-A peculiar- ity of the Southeast has been the emigration of its labor force. The region has had a high birth rate, but a large proportion of its young adults have left the region. It was estimated in 1934 that the area had suffered a net loss of more than 3.4 million peo- ple since the beginning of the century. The South- east, including the Tennessee Valley, consistently contributed to the labor forces of other regions. On the professional level its losses have been even more pronounced. In 1930 approximately 45 percent of the social scientists and 60 percent of the natural 708 |
