The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-07
BY Worker Correspondent

and tomato fields a few miles north
in Mississippi. My informants were
Louisianans and they said: Things
are pretty good up there" Being
a sort of New Dealer when there
are any good jobs going the rounds
or loose cash to be picked up, ]
HE'D myself thither.
About the only persons now who
will pick up fellow in distress are
the travelling statesmen (they used
to call them drummers) and the
first one that came along honked
and motioned me to seat along
side. He asked me if I had a gun
and without waiting for the answer
sped away.
Arriving at McComb, the cheap
hotel and flop-house man told me:
boy! It's been tough, but she's
sure a-hummin' now. The six hun
dred cotton mill workers have gone
back to work and the Illinois Cen
trail has put back 900 shop men
My house is full"-at 81 week. I
ate a good dinner there and walked
into q small grocery. The boss
smiled broadly and said, IF you're
looking for work or got sumpn to
sell you're in the right place now.
Saturday will be the first pay day;
you just wait till tomorrow and see
what she looks like"
could hardly wait for Saturday
to come, but having sump'n to sell
went out to look the town over and
contact few prospects for tomor-
rows cleanup. There are many
ten to fifteen thousand dollar
homes in the part where the trad
ing class, the doctors and lawyers
live in this little ten thousand city
like there are in all others like
this one in the South. A neat young
colored maid meets one at the door
and with smile and perfect sang
froid assures the caller that the
madam" is not in. firing of so
much repetition, the inquirer mean
ders over into the section of town
where the poor white population
lives. The gaunt, poorly-fed worker
is Just cumming the "makings" of
his equally ill-fed neighbor and is
sending his eight-year old kid
across the street for a match-so
that both of them may smoke.
With the utmost cordially he in
vites the visitor to rest himself,
meantime pulling forward a dilapi-
d ate d implanted cane-bottomed
chair of the vintage of 1912. All
the other furnishings are in keeping
with and are parts Of this self-Same
"set" of 20 years ago for small farm
/ homes-for these men are the ones
who came in to town to break the
I. G. shop strike of 1911. Many OF
the same men voluntarily went to
Paducah, KY. ito take better jobs
when the big system strike oc-
CURED there in 1921. One 80-year
old woman told me: MY man
come here in the strike Is year age
and he went to Paduky in 1921 tc
help break the strike-whur he got
the fever and never did git over it
He died a year ago-Without a jot
and we're awful pore" One mid
dle-aged man said that the mil
workers ought to be satisfied with
whatever the owners could afford
to pay them. In the homes OF
| young parents who are poor, the
children go without shoes and many
times their clothes are rags helc
together with patches. The Elmer.
gency Relief" Administration pro.
vides the head of the family will
one day a week at $180 and some.
times two days.
Finding no money in town,
scraped acquaintance with Bene.
fit (mutual-insurance) Association
man who invited me to travel witt
him to Crystal Springs. In two day.
he 'wrote-up" one contract and col
lected SO of the IS initiation fet
and traded-in tn edollars of the
fee for our nights lodging with
another farmer on another contract
The farmer said he would charge
nothing at all for our lodging, bu
at the same time my friend knew
that this was the only way in which
he could have gotten the contrac
at all. This farmer said he doubted
whether he could ever meet thu
dollar month requirements to keer
it in force for the 1000 death ben.
eft. We saw many more WHIT
wanted it, but said they could no
even obligate themselves for so cent
a month should the initiation bt
waived entirely. -Four miles out W.
met a canvaSsing agent who wa!
talking and selling Is to 25 cen
small, much wanted articles. HI
had sold to only seven people OF
his 30-nile route. He said, how.
ever, that as some of the newly re
employed shopmen drove their fliv
vers from five to 90 miles, between
their farm-hone and work lever,
day., he had taken some order
for future delivery.
Most of the land is owned by tn
town store men, in large tracts o
500 to 5000 acres. The store me1
| P4OflAC OllC ld1lA dlIQ JllC
down boarded, implanted residential
houses, the fertilizer, the food, tn,
livestock and farm implements, ant
take half Of what the farmer pro
duces. The farmer pays for his owl
seed and his own food and pays TO
half of all the other stuff that tn
store man furnishes. About So
worth of fertilizer per acre is re
quired for cabbage and the yield
about sig tons to the acre. This yea
cabbage averaged about Sc a tol
80 cents 100 pounds; so that if
farmer cultivated six acres and go
s216 for the crop and paid $3.50 TO
fertilizer he had net profit o
$36 for the work of himself AM
family. This $36 had to be divides
between himself and the merchant
leaving him S18 net from the cab
bage crOD But the merchant soil