“Some Social Aspects of the Willamette Valley Project”

This material was first published in “The Willamette Valley Project” written in 1935.Much of the Willamette Valley is close to pioneer days and as a result many lands have been skimmed and soils in other areas have been mined without adequate rotation of crops or fertilization. Many ranchers hold farms of from 200 to 500 acres and under-farm only a part of this. This practice makes for a relatively sparse population, excessive tax load, inadequately financed schools and excessive road mileage in proportion to population. In such areas there is little social intercourse and little public or community spirit. In contrast with such neighborhoods are areas where intensive cultivation with adequate methods produce a more satisfactory sustenance for a much more dense population. This latter conditions makes possible more adequate school facilities, better roads, easier communication and a lively and attractive social life of a community character. Adequate utilization of present areas which are under-developed would increase the population without increasing the costs for social and educational facilities, or adding to road mileage or cost of maintenance.

The more populace areas maintain a fairly satisfactory rural culture and are ambitious to make it more satisfying. The sparse populations of less highly developed areas make little or feeble efforts to satisfy their social needs, with discouraging results.

With the present stagnation of economic opportunity, the lives of the rural young present a problem, both economic and social. The adults of the more highly developed sections are more keenly aware of these problems and more easily organized to meet them. The stagnation of the more backward areas leaves the young to find their own social contacts at a distance, or to content themselves with uninteresting and often sordid diversions in their own neighborhood.

Hand in hand with the conservation, development and greater utilization of the under-developed areas should go the improvement of the cultural and social opportunities by the development of cultural, recreational and welfare projects. Newly settled areas should not be left to work out their social problems after the fashion of pioneer communities. The physical and social developments should go forward side by side. Rural dependency and delinquencies could be expected to decrease as the economic improvement reflected itself in better social conditions.