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Roberts Road Ranch, Rosebud County, Montana.; Greetings from Miles City

Mr. L. A. Anderson, one of the small Negro landowners who have had to move out of the Camp Croft area. Near Spartanburg, South Carolina

Arkansas-Texas state line to Gurdon, Arkansas. War emergency pipeline from Longview, Texas to Norris City, Illinois. A welder's helper

Miscellaneous lot of photographs by Barbara Wright, e.g. University of Virginia, Franconia, New Hampshire, Maine. Finnish descent farm youth helping with repairs at Washburn Homestead, Livermore, Maine

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Migratory worker in auto camp. Single man, speaks his mind. "Them WPAs are keeping us from a living. They oughtn't to do it. It ain't fair in no way. The government lays them off (that is in Work Projects Administration - 1939) and they come in because they're locals and take the jobs away from us that never had no forty-four dollars a month. I came out of Pennsylvania, used to be an oil worker. I'm getting along in years now and I seen lots of presidents and lots of systems. Voted for Roosevelt both times and I don't know of any president that ever leaned toward the laboring man like him, but this system they've got here in the fruit is a rotten system the way they work it." Yakima Valley, Washington

Brawley, Imperial Valley. In Farm Security Administration (FSA) migratory labor camp. Family of mother, father and eleven children, originally from near Mangrum, Oklahoma, where he had been tenant farmer. Came to California in 1936 after the drought. Since then has been traveling from crop to crop in California, following the harvest. Six of the eleven children attend school wherever the family stops long enough. Five older children work along with the father and mother. February 23, two of the family have been lucky and "got a place" (a day's work) in the peas on the Sinclair ranch. Father had earned about one dollar and seventy-three cents for ten-hour day. Oldest daughter had earned one dollar and twenty-five cents. Form these earnings had to provide their transportation to the fields twenty miles away. Mother wants to return to Oklahoma, father unwilling.She says, "I want to go back to where we can live happym live decent, and grow what we eat." He says, "We can't go the way I am now. We've got nothing in the world to farm with. I made my mistake when I came out here."

Migrant laborer's children. Mother was thirty-two years old, had had eleven children, two sets of twins, six are now living. She and her husband lost jobs in packinghouse because they cut down in help or closed after the "freeze-out." The older boy said "This little 'uns fell off so since we come here. It was so fat before. It's had colitis so bad. My daddy didn't know we was comin' to the wrong place this time. We've been lots of places. I don't like it here so well but I reckon we'll have to stay a smart while. My daddy had to turn back the car. He'd paid a lot off on it but he didn't git enough work here. Now we can't go nowheres else." Belle Glade, Florida

Highway City, California, near Fresno. See general caption. Family from Oklahoma; have been in California for six years, have been migratory workers now on Works Progress Administration (WPA) from which they may be cut off at the opening of the 1939 harvest. Their house represents one of many similar structures, which they are attempting to construct by their own efforts on poor land, for which they are paying a few dollars a month out of the WPA budget. Their light bill is two dollars a month. Water bill one dollar a month, kerosene for cooking five dollars per month, approximately. They own a 1929 Ford. "The cheapest thing for the government to do would be to put people like me on enough land to make a living on. You can't tell me anything about running around with the fruit, I know that deal. You are lucky if you make enough to get home. I'm not a kickin', I'm being tuk care of, but if I should live to be hundred this way I'm not getting ahead noways."

Hopkins denies AGC Charges. Washington, D.C. October 11. In a radio speech this morning WPA Administrator, Harry Hopkins, denied charges made by the Associated General Contractors of America that the WPA should be blamed for labor shortage. He said that "WPA projects in communities have been efficiently run and that the unemployed on these projects have been well treated, when the AGC complained that cities were unable to find workers because they were all employed in the WPA. When charged of boondoggling, Hopkins replied that it reminded him of the "Old Story of the bandits in South America," He said "they are never in the town which you are visiting, they are always just over the hill, and the townspeople will tell you they are there but when you look for them you never find them"

Calipatria, Imperial Valley, In Farm Security Administration (FSA) emergency migratory labor camp. Daughter of ex-tenant farmers on thirds and fourths in cotton. Had fifty dollars when set out. Went to Phoenix, picked cotton, pulled bolls made eighty cents a day with two people pulling bolls. Stayed until school closed. Went to Idaho, picked peas until August. Left McCall with forty dollars "in hand." Went to Cedar City and Parowan, Utah, a distance of 700 miles. Picked peas through September. Went to Hollister, California. Picked peas through October. Left Hollister for Calipatria for early peas which froze. Now receiving Farm Security Administration food grant and waiting for work to begin. "Back in Oklahoma, we are sinking. You work your head off for a crop and then see it burn up. You live in debts that you can never get out of. This isn't a good life, but I say that it's a better life than it was."

Highway City, California, near Fresno. See general caption. Family from Oklahoma; have been in California for six years, have been migratory workers now on Works Progress Administration (WPA) from which they may be cut off at the opening of the 1939 harvest. Their house represents one of many similar structures, which they are attempting to construct by their own efforts on poor land, for which they are paying a few dollars a month out of the WPA budget. Their light bill is two dollars a month. Water bill one dollar a month, kerosene for cooking five dollars per month, approximately. They own a 1929 Ford. "The cheapest thing for the government to do would be to put people like me on enough land to make a living on. You can't tell me anything about running around with the fruit, I know that deal. You are lucky if you make enough to get home. I'm not a kickin', I'm being tuk care of, but if I should live to be hundred this way I'm not getting ahead noways."

Manpower. Americans all. Checo Blanco comes from a long line of Americans, some of whom probably resented those "immigrants" who came over here on the Mayflower. An Apache Indian from the Mescalaro Reservation in Arizona, Blanco is fighting to protect the land of his forefathers from encroachment by the Axis wreckers. He's a skilled machine operator who is processing parts for Uncle Sam's medium tanks in a huge Midwest plant. Pressed Steel Can Company, Chicago, Illinois

Family moving into trailer at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) camp for defense workers. This family is from Minnesota. The man came to San Diego ten months ago and enrolled in a vocational school. He started to work at Consolidated Aircrafts as a riveter and is now a clerk in the machine shop. Before his family came out three weeks ago he lived in a cabin for which he paid twelve dollars per month. He said it was alright for a man but that he wouldn't take his wife and children into such a place. He got a furnished apartment for his family--it was two rooms, rental eleven dollars per week. His wife soon discovered that there was inadequate hot water and was overrun with roaches and rats. San Diego, California

Migratory worker in auto camp. Single man, speaks his mind. "Them WPAs are keeping us from a living. They oughtn't to do it. It ain't fair in no way. The government lays them off (that is in Work Projects Administration - 1939) and they come in because they're locals and take the jobs away from us that never had no forty-four dollars a month. I came out of Pennsylvania, used to be an oil worker. I'm getting along in years now and I seen lots of presidents and lots of systems. Voted for Roosevelt both times and I don't know of any president that ever leaned toward the laboring man like him, but this system they've got here in the fruit is a rotten system the way they work it." Yakima Valley, Washington

description

Summary

Picryl description: Public domain image of a farmer, 1930s, 20th-century dust bowl era, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

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Tags

washington yakima valley nitrate negatives cougar valley migratory worker migratory worker auto camp auto camp single man single man mind wpas oughtn ain way government work projects administration work projects administration locals re locals jobs forty four dollars forty four dollars month oil oil worker lots presidents systems roosevelt times roosevelt both times fruit yakima valley great depression photographs great depression franklin delano roosevelt us presidents united states history library of congress
date_range

Date

01/01/1939
person

Contributors

Lange, Dorothea, photographer
place

Location

Cougar Valley ,  47.01956, -121.35815
create

Source

Library of Congress
link

Link

http://www.loc.gov/
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html

label_outline Explore Forty Four, Oil Worker, Auto Camp

Orchard along Yakima River. Washington

Near Meloland, Imperial Valley. Large scale agriculture. Gang labor, Mexican and white, from the Southwest. Pull, clean, tie and crate carrots for the eastern market for eleven cents per crate of forty-eight bunches. Many can barely make one dollar a day. Heavy oversupply of labor and competition for jobs keen

NASA Industrial Plant, Systems Integration & Checkout Facility, 12214 Lakewood Boulevard, Downey, Los Angeles County, CA

Single Brethren's House, 89 West Church Street, Bethlehem, Northampton County, PA

Squatters' shacks along the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. Many of the men living here during the winter work in the nearby orchards of the Williamette and Yakima Valley in the summer

A black and white photo of a man sitting on a bench, Virginia. Farm Security Administration photograph

Northern views. Ain Tabgha. The German hospice

Harvesting pears, Pleasant Hill Orchards. Washington, Yakima Valley. See general caption number 34

A black and white photo of a horse tied to a fence, Training hops. Yakima, Washington

Nelson congratulates a blind worker. For her work in training blind persons for war industries, Miss Helen Hurst, founder of the Helen Hurst Foundation For the Blind, was congratulated by Donald M. Nelson, War Production Board (WPB) chairman. Miss Hurst, herself blind, tries out the various types of jobs to see if they can be done by blind people before she places them in industry

Priorities unemployment. No more money. John Jones, silk worker, is a victim of "priorities unemployment." It might have been James Smith, rubber worker. It might have been anybody. The "priorities unemployment" is part of a process of changing over, of retooling. And it's a temporary part, in most cases. Defense industries are expanding. In the long run, the defense program will make more jobs than it will break. It has already created 4,000,000 new jobs and there will be 2,500,000 more by April 1942. Production skills are needed for defense, John Jones'skills, James Smith's skills. How does "man meet job?"

Hot Springs National Park Bathhouse Row, Maurice Bathhouse: Mechanical & Piping Systems, State Highway 7, 1 mile north of U.S. Highway 70, Hot Springs, Garland County, AR

Topics

washington yakima valley nitrate negatives cougar valley migratory worker migratory worker auto camp auto camp single man single man mind wpas oughtn ain way government work projects administration work projects administration locals re locals jobs forty four dollars forty four dollars month oil oil worker lots presidents systems roosevelt times roosevelt both times fruit yakima valley great depression photographs great depression franklin delano roosevelt us presidents united states history library of congress