Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
Making a Difference in Rural Illinois
A Foundation for Sustainable Rural Community Development
The Second Commission on Country Life
The American Country Life Association’s (ACLA) attempt to create a second Country Life Commission became a victim of a grueling process, including congressional hearings that wore down the desire to establish a national level agency to address rural living and rural communities. ACLA abandoned the idea of launching a second Commission on Country Life in 1964 as the Federal government under President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) waged the War on Poverty aimed at both rural and urban areas.
The proposed second commission maintained many of the ideas of its predecessor commission created fifty years before by President Theodore Roosevelt. But it generated numerous logistical questions, such as whether the commission would fall under presidential or congressional authority. Some questioned the commission’s necessity. Many of the second commission’s duties proposed by ACLA paralleled those already in the United States Department of Agriculture. Finally, the first Commission on Country Life was created by Roosevelt under his executive authority without congressional action. During the hearings, opponents pointed out that after Roosevelt, Congress intervened and discontinued executive commissions.
In 1964, after years of amending the second commission’s purposes, ACLA abandoned the idea. Its leaders returned to addressing the association’s role and function.
Recommended Resource
- “The History of AmeriCorps VISTA.” Americorps Website. http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista_legacy.asp (Accessed: August 12, 2008.)
