My first business deal was made without the ceremony or benefit of a handshake. It was more like an arrangement. My parents proposed that I should undertake to provide the family with a gallon of fresh milk each evening. In exchange for the daily milking, I would receive the free use of a Jersey cow, as many Holstein calves as she could raise, and one dollar per day. This was a smashing good deal, one that led me into the cattle business and helped me develop a stout handshake. This arrangement held until my younger brother was ready to take over the daily milking. And then the next brother. And finally the last. And while the names of the milker-boy changed over the years, every Jersey cow was always named Mary.
My first handshake deal was made with the grandfather of my classmates just down the road. Grandpa Paul had made a living by milking a string of Shorthorn cows, and while he was ready to retire, some of his cows were not. I bought three of them and turned them into beef cows; no more milking for me. I remember the size of his gnarled hand as we shook on the deal. I think I was thirteen, maybe fourteen, and that handshake was all the guarantee we needed. It was a promise that I would bring him the cash and he would bring me the cows. Done deal.
Not so many years later I began entering into more formal business relationships, ones that required written agreements, papers signed by both parties. For the most part, these were longer-term and more complicated arrangements that involved money, labor, land, livestock, and time. Suddenly, my gentleman’s handshake agreements had become contracts, deals that seemed inviolable. These usually worked out just well. Turns out, most people viewed a written contract with great respect.
That said, along the way, most of my day-to-day business continued to be conducted through handshake deals, and for the most part these turned out just fine. The exceptions were the few times I found myself engaged in deals with sociopaths, and these arrangements always ended badly.
About thirty years ago I graduated from written contracts to agreements I’ve learned to think of as treaties. In a treaty, one governing body asks another to provide some sort of physical asset or service in exchange for payment. In my case, the US Government asked me to take on tasks that would provide things like clean water for those folks living downstream and outstanding habitat for wildlife, creatures that are, after all, property of the State. I agreed to build fences and waterlines and to keep our cattle out of the creeks. I agreed to buy tens of thousands of baby trees and plant them along those same creeks, and then to take care of them for decades. I agreed to allow routine inspections of my land and to be a good “cooperator” with the folks who represent the government. And for all of this, I was reimbursed for the time, effort, and materials that went into those projects. And everyone was very happy.
I suspect some readers would question my use of the term “treaty”, as I am not truly a representative of any foreign land. True enough. But as a land owner, I consider myself a Sovereign, at least to some degree. I do, in fact, own my land, in at least as much as any of us can actually own land. I control who comes and goes on this land and I make decisions about what activities take place here. My agreements with the US government are signed statements of my will and my permission. In return for my permissions, I receive what I believe is the “Full Faith and Credit” of the US government. This all seems pretty heady, both in language and intent. At least it feels that way to me.
Recently an old friend stopped by for a visit. Our joyful few hours were filled with old stories and laughter, of course, but also with questions and thoughts about the current state of affairs in Washington DC. We talked about the idea that true change, structural change, and legal and technical change, might be coming to things like America’s agreements with allies, trading partners, neighbors, customers, and clients. These, of course, are not handshake deals. These are Treaties.
At one point my friend (who happened to hold a high post in a Washington DC agency) laughed and explained things to me:
“Listen. If you want to know how this is going to go, just look at the last three hundred years of history when it comes to our treaties with the tribes. Of the hundreds of official treaties the US has made with tribal governments, the only ones that haven’t been broken are the most recent iterations. All the rest were simply ignored when they became too burdensome. And that is what is about to happen to the thousands of agreements the US has with States, NGOs and other countries. And also with anyone else who is doing business with the United States.”
Huh.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I found myself in the awkward position of asking my local USDA people if they thought the US Government would be honoring their commitments to reimburse farmers and ranchers for out-of-pocket expenses on their completed projects. The answer to my question was…not completely comforting. At the same time, I had been in constant contact with my contractors, setting up our work schedule for our last big push. Supplies (live baby trees) were already in transit, labor crews and schedules confirmed, final cost estimates made. We were all systems go, and the project was on track to happen…the very next day.
As I read Kathy Voth’s admonition to “STOP WORK NOW!” in a recent edition of On Pasture I had to sit down and think about the consequences of simply pulling the plug on my project, a project that had included many, many hours of planning, making handshake deals with my contractors and signing treaties with the government. Could I simply make a half-dozen phone calls and tell everyone involved to just…”Never mind”?
It didn’t take all that long to reach a conclusion, and the simple answer is NO. I have made commitments to my friends and allies, the people I have worked with for many years, people I trust, people who trust me, people who have families and employees that depend on them.
And so, we went forward and completed the project, fulfilled the contract, honored the Treaty. And if the people who currently run this country were to simply walk away from their obligations and decide to break their Treaty with me, well, I would treat them as I have the very few sociopaths I have stumbled into in prior bad deals: I would use whatever resources I have to expose and oppose them, not with the expectation of “winning”, but in the hope that others might not fall into the trap I had. And, of course, I would never, ever consider doing business with them again.
“As long as the grass shall grow and the rivers shall flow.” I find it hard to know what the value of poetic language like this is, considering what is happening with treaty-holders across the country. I believe there are many farmers and ranchers who are faced with terrible hardships because they trusted in the power of their written agreements. I’m afraid this has become a cautionary tale.
Best wishes to those who are more entangled than I am.
John Marble
