Small Town Economics

Looking for an understanding of our country’s economic fix? Maybe a look at my home town will help.

Temple, a quaint country town in Southern Oklahoma, is surrounded by wheat fields and cattle pastures. It was first settled in 1902 and quickly became a thriving merchandising center for the smart, poor, ambitious land hungry young farmers who drew their 160 acres in a government lottery. Smart, young entrepreneurs also came to this frontier. Two of them were Bob and Otho Mooney who came from North Carolina. They started with a borrowed $3500 and established the B & O Cash Store, which grew to become a merchandising center for a large area of north Texas and southern Oklahoma. They employed more then 200 and claimed to be the biggest small town merchandiser in America. They operated a lumberyard and would build you a house, sell you groceries, service your automobile, serve you ice cream, provide you medical care and fill your prescriptions. The brothers advertised and operated under the slogan “We sell everything a person needs from birth to death”. They bought local farmers’ products: chickens, turkeys, pecans, milk, cream, cattle and pigs. Cream became butter. Turkeys were processed and sent to New York by the train car loads.

The impact of the B & O was such that Sears and Roebuck bought out the Mooneys in 1929. Sears operated the block square business until 1956 when they opened a large new store 40 miles north in Lawton. Sears gave the 50,000 sq. ft. building to the town.

As B & O became established, W. A. Yeilding put in a clothing store. He too was very successful. When the Sears B & O closed Mr. Yeilding made a deal with Hagger to put in a clothing manufacturing facility in the building. Hagger employed up to 300 people. Workers came from Temple and surrounding farms and communities. After 30 years with highly productive employees Hagger closed the plant and moved it to Mexico for cheaper labor. Economic life of Temple deteriorated. It’s a big change from the 1920’s when the town had five grocery stores, a movie theater, several gas stations, a bakery, four cafes, two auto dealerships, two banks, three cotton gins and various other businesses. Now the town has no grocery store, one bank, a nursing home, pharmacy, auto supply store, a convenience store, lumberyard, livestock feed maker and a grain storage business. The town has several independent craftsmen. This is a small sales tax base from which to draw town operating funds.

Before the 1970’s a large farm family lived on each quarter (160 acres). At five people per farm family that is 8,000 farm folks. Narrow margins for farm products made larger farms necessary. Now the rural part of the community consists of about one small family per 8,000 acres. Many of these farmers live in town. Large equipment enables very few laborers to farm the land. The number of middle class families in the community declined. The number of retirees and welfare recipients increased. It is a quiet country town.

Fifty years ago, Economics 101 taught that all wealth comes from three sources; the earth, capitol and labor.

It seems that when a large amount of labor was done on the farm and in the clothing factory the Temple community thrived. Now the employers of labor are gone and the community does not thrive. Thousands of Great Plains agricultural communities have met the same fate as Temple,

A huge amount of goods we Americans use daily are now made in other countries. What happens to a country if the labor for the goods it purchases is paid in other countries? Temple, Oklahoma and thousands of Great Plains rural communities may be examples of the outcome for the USA as a whole. Is the lost labor factor accounted for in current appraisal of our countries economic downturn?

Will Rogers said during the great depression, “There is not an unemployed man in the country that hasn’t contributed to the wealth of every millionaire in America?” Also he said after the 1929 crash, “After all everybody just can’t live on gambling. Somebody has to do some work.” Maybe other countries are doing too much of our work. How much less welfare and poverty would exist if the overseas jobs were returned to America?

Industrialization of the 1800’s made the USA the wealthiest nation on earth. Will the loss of industry make us a second rate country?

A few years back advocates of globalization said manufacturing moved to other countries would be replaced by a need for services. Who will be the servants? Who will they serve?

Do some countries not tax goods exported to the USA so as to make their goods cheap? Do some of these same countries tax imports to make them less competitive? Does the USA sufficiently tax incoming goods? Could the USA tax imported goods and use the revenue to create jobs to support our unemployed workers?

Do our lawmakers understand that the USA actually is in competition for wealth with other countries?

Temple is a quaint country town in southern Oklahoma: no red lights; no traffic jams; good people — retirees, farmers and women who meet daily for coffee at the convenience store and at the Senior Citizen’s Center.

Housing is low cost. The town will sell you lots for $300. A good 50,000-square-foot building is available to lease or purchase at a give away price. Temple is 15 miles from access to Interstate 44. It is midway between Oklahoma City and Dallas-Fort Worth.

I am a fourth generation resident of Temple. I moved away for twenty-seven years to college and an Army career. Moved back to be near parents and in-laws and because it is home. I wanted to try my hand at being a farmer-rancher. It all has worked out except the farmer-rancher part. The lifestyle, hard work and living on the prairie have been more delightful than I could imagine. Farming we’ve handled a lot of money and did a lot of work with little or no net gain. Retirement income and land appreciation held together a decent lifestyle.

My peers who stayed with farming-ranching (those are the third, fourth and fifth generation locals) have had a tough row to hoe. One I know best says he has been totally broke three times since 1952 when he started farming. He and other progressive farmers have put together large efficient operations which seem to be doing well. A few have jobs in the cities and farm as a hobby.

I think that many of the third, fourth and fifth generation descendents of subsistence farmers were insightful and fed up with the difficulty of farming and made up their minds early to work at something besides farming-ranching. Many made exceptional careers in other professions.
They became successful engineers, entrepreneurs, educators, managers and craftsmen and parents. Most settled in Texas, Oklahoma and California. Many have fond memories of growing up in the Temple community. Maybe some will let us know their thoughts about their hometown.

Seems Temple has gone through the same sort of economic decline as our country may be going through now.

--Harold Powell