“The Undercurrent of Friction”

Abstract This article examines the origins, contours, and consequences of a bitter bureaucratic rivalry within the US Department of Agriculture on the eve of New Deal soil conservation programs. The conflict, which pitted agricultural engineers against soil scientists and agronomists, served as a crucible for federal soil conservation. It emerged as these experts built the case that soil erosion could and should be controlled through state action. From the 1910s to the early 1930s, federal agencies and technicians developed reliable, practical erosion-control technologies, and they redefined erosion not as a private or regional matter but as a national concern demanding national attention. The feud also demonstrates how, contrary to popular belief, federalized soil conservation emerged prior to and independent of the Great Plains Dust Bowl. By the time dust storms captured the nation's attention in 1933, the question was no longer whether the federal government would act to control erosion but who would lead the effort.