Smith-Lever Act
of 1914 (PL 95)
Shannon
Patterson
Introduction
The Smith-Lever Act, introduced by Senator Hoke
Smith of Georgia and Representative A. F. Lever of South Carolina, provided for
vocational education in the areas of agriculture and home economics for
individuals not attending college.
Also known as the Agriculture Extension Act, the Smith-Lever Act
established cooperative agriculture extension for the purpose of sharing useful
and practical information with the American homemaker and farmer.
Historical Contexts of the
Day
In the late 1800s and early 1900, many land-grant
universities began to offer training off campus with field demonstrations for
farmers, home management demonstrations for rural women, tomatoes clubs for
girls, and corn clubs for boys. Seaman
Knapp, considered the Father of the Extension Movement, left his work at Iowa
State University to establish demonstration farms in Louisiana and Texas. When the cotton boll weevil threatened to
devastate southern agriculture, these demonstration farms were successful in
controlling the problem within three years.
Although extension work began much earlier, the Smith-Lever Act, signed
by President Woodrow Wilson on May 8, 1914, authorized the organization of
cooperative extension at the county, state, and federal levels (Clemson, 2001).
About Smith-Lever
The Smith-Lever Act established Cooperative
Extension as a partnership of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
land-grant universities. The act stated
cooperative agriculture extension should consist of practical applications of
research. Also, it should give
instruction and practical demonstrations of existing or improved practices and
technologies in agriculture (Act, 2001).
Smith-Lever set up a series of general demonstrations
by county agents in the local fields.
These local agents served as the link between the land-grant colleges
who were conducting research and the farmer who could use the information to
improve his farming system. Supporters of the bill felt information gathered by
scientific research was locked up in the vaults of the agricultural colleges
and not reaching the farmer. Further,
it was believed the local farmer could benefit more from a demonstration by an agent
who knew the work and could apply the research than from reading bulletins and
pamphlets (Grant, 1986).
Representing a local, state,
and federal partnership, Smith-Lever was the first act to require the state to
match federal funding on an equal basis.
The act is considered one of the most responsible and ingenious pieces
of legislation ever adopted by the United States Congress (Mabry, 1999).
Links
http://stanly.ces.state.nc.us/HERITAGE/smithlever.shtml
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/grant.html
http://www.clemson.edu/extension/Orientat/week3.htm
http://www.dafvm.msstate.edu/laws/smithlvr.htm
References
Act of 1914 establishing cooperative extension
work: Smith-Lever act. Retrieved October 12, 2001, from http://www.dafvm.msstate.edu/laws/smithlvr.htm
Clemson University & the land grant system. Retrieved October 12, 2001, from http://www.clemson.edu/extension/Orientat/week3.htm
Grant, P.A. (1986, Spring). Senator Hoke Smith, southern congressmen,
and agriculture education, 1914-1917. Agriculture History, volume 60, number
2. Retrieved October 12, 2001, from http://cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/grant.html
Mabry, J. (1999, August 24). The eighty-fifth anniversary of cooperative
extension. Retrieved October 16, 2001,
from http://stanly.ces.state.nc.us/HERITAGE/smithlever.shtml