inually contrived ways to give the plains aid, and when the Supreme Court ruled that a certain agency was unconstitutional, Roosevelt simply created another one in its place. In the end, Worster argues, the government agencies did not improve the lot of the large number of poor, marginal farmers, and in fact, none of the federal activities altered much of the factory-like culture of the plains. Simply stated, the government programs failed to induce the changes that were needed to save the southern plains.Other groups outside of the government tried to help the plains with their own plan of attack. Local women's groups were organized in places like Haskell County, Kansas. These groups were aimed at strengthening the most common counterforce of the outside consumer society-the family. Ultimately though, as Worster writes, the effect of the magnetic outward pull of the capitalistic ideals was stronger than the principals of the family. Post-Progressive Conservationists, such as Lewis Gray also tried to lend a hand in correcting what went wrong in the Dust Bowl. Gray wanted to do things such as end homesteading completely, add unprofitable private lands to the public domain, and extend agricultural conservation. Again though, Worster claims these attempts were not enough, calling men like Gray "problem-solvers, often bogged down in the immediate issues of Depression Americaand did not give enough attention to the broader issues, nor did they talk boldly enough about the dimensions of change."(pg. 196) Then there were the ecological conservationists, such as Paul Sears, who brought their expertise to the problems like the Dust Bowl and made important suggestions to cure the problems. Worster argues, though, that the conservationists would evaluate the problem, make a diagnosis, and then back off leaving the plainsmen to fix the problems. "Ecologists were doomed to futility and self-deception as long as they supposed that man's use...
