The poster promotes the chief mission of the new Resettlement Administration (RA), established in May 1935 by President Roosevelt under the New Deal. The RA (succeeded by the Farm Security Administration in September 1937) provided emergency loans and grants for farmers impoverished both by the Great Depression and by the severe drought and huge dust storms that had affected the Midwest and the Southern Plains during this decade. In addition to resettling the farmers, their workers, and their families, funds were given for soil-conservation projects and education in best land-use systems. Richard Jansen was himself a beneficiary of the New Deal; he had been employed, mainly painting murals, since 1934 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that employed millions of citizens in public works during the Depression.