Texas Cotton Acreage Control Law of 1931-32

Tam Anne Cotton Gin (Sixgun Siding)

(TSHA)  In the late 1920s and early 1930s reduced cotton consumption and steady cotton production resulted in low prices for the crop and placed economic strains on many cotton farmers. This situation prompted southern states to seek measures to reduce production and address the need to stabilize a weak export market to Europe-a major buyer of southern cotton.

The states of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and New Mexico were represented at the Southern Cotton Conference on August 4, 1931. The gathering was called to consider proposals to restrict cotton acreage, look to other crops for production, and develop an industrial program to unite the South.

The representatives felt that Texas should take a leading role in enacting an acreage law, and then other states would follow suit. In the second called session the Forty-Second Texas Legislature passed the Texas Cotton Acreage Control Law on September 22, 1931. Continued