Evening star., 1939-08-13
F. S. A. Officials Credit Novel
For Appropriation Increase
New Solid Body of Public Opinion May Be
Created by Grapes of WRATH,
Writer Believes.
By Marquis ". ChHds.

the state IN 1886, aCCOrQlng TO an r. 3. A.
count, was 84833; for 1887 the figure was
90,761. In 1888 it dropped to 67,664 and
it is believed it will be considerably under
this in the current year.
One important reason for the drop, of
course, is the fact that private employ
ment agencies have virtually ceased to
recruit farm workers from the Southwest,
according to the F. S. A. F. S. A. officials
say there is still kind of informal re-
cruiting. A good-natured man with a
California license plate on his car stops
at the neighborhood grocery and filling
station and casually remarks that there's
a lot of work for able-bodied men on the
coast, But farmers in Oklahoma and
Arkansas have begun to learn the truth
about conditions in California agricul-
ture and this propaganda is not so effec-
tive today. All across the country on
their painful trek the Joads clutched a
handbill that held out golden promises
to those who came to California for work.
While there are from two to three times
as many workers on the West Coast as
are needed to harvest and tend the truck
and fruit crops according to F. S. A., the
big growers nevertheless live in fear
that some day the peaches will be ripe or
the lettuce will be ready and it will be
impossible to find 1000 hands for two
weeks. The large scale farms in Cali
fornia are in reality factories, according
to Carey McWilliams. Gov. Olsen's COM
missioner of immigration and housing.
Mr.. McWilliams has written book called
Factories in the Field" to show how this
industry operates. Although it was
written before The Grapes of WRATH
it is factual supplement to that narra-
tive.
Better Living Conditions.
Besides trying to stop the flow of mi
grants to the West, the F. S. A. is under
taking to create somewhat better living
conditions for these farm factory work.
ers. For two and half years F. S. A.
has been building simple tent camps with
shower baths and toilets. AS Steinoeck
these camps look like paradise to families
that have been existing in ditch banks
and Squalid places.
At first there was some opposition to
this program, ranchers and others on
the Coast feeling that this might tend
to attract an excessive number of mi
grants. They called it "coddling" There
was even some political opposition to the
camps
Recently, however, this has largely dis
appeared. The new F.. S. A. bill con-
tanned an additional s5,OO000O to build
camps such as the one described in The
Grapes of Wrath" There are no., Is
camps either completed, in process of
construction or projected. Twelve are
in California and they are all in the
far West with the exception of four, in
the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and
two in the Everglades area of Florida
In both Florida and Texas conditions
are resulting in farm-factory areas, ac-
cording to F. S. A., comparable to Cali
fornia. In Texas the migrants are
largely Mexicans, in Florida more than
half are Negroes.
The Is camps will accommodate more
than 5000 families. In these camps, of
course, the population is constantly
shifting so that considerable propor-
ton of all the Okies will benefit by
them. The elemental decency provided
in the F. S. A. camps means great deal
to families with an average annual in
come somewhere between $3.50 and $500.
Six Mobile Camps.
Besides the permanent camps there
are six mobile camps that move from
harvest area to harvest area along with
the workers, after the fashion of a we'll
organized circus. AS matter of fact,
it was former circus executive, now an
fornia, who worked out this system of
mobile camps. There are trucks with
shower facilities for 20, one for men
and one for women. There is medical
clinic on wheels, with nurse in charge.
These mobile camps have all the facilities
of those with permanent base, with
the advantage that they can be shifted
rapidly where the need is greatest.
F. S. A. officials realize that this is
merely temporary solution. Temporary.
that is, until land can be obtained for
these homeless workers. Virtually all the
camps include labor homes" year.
round houses for a certain number of
families who are able to find sufficient
work without having to move on.
Having taken poll of leading book
sellers, the publishers predict sale of
1865 900 copies by December Is and they
are optimistic that sales will continue in
proportion after that date. It is difficult
to read THE Grapes of Wrath" and not
be moved by the plight of the Joads and
the others like them who wander the
Pacific Coast highways. Several million
readers of this angry, bitter, moving,
harshly realistic novel may mean the
creation of solid body of public opinion.
Another Congress may discover pressure
for large scale solution of this tragedy
Perhaps it was no accident that Stein
beck gave his hero the name OF Tom.
Here it may be, Is another Tom created
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