Greenbelt cooperator. (Greenbelt, Md.) 1937-1954, 1941-11-14
The Other End
OfDen1ocracy
By LESLIE ATKINS

Tect0rs OF the GreenbeH Health
Association. He helped draW up
the original articles of incorpora-
ton and the by-laaOs, and aOas &C.
tue IN forming association poll
caes. NoaO he has entered into
health association Vork ON na-
tlOnGl scale. In connection with
has position avith the Farm Sc
curity Administration he has set
up health associations in ~ MI
grant Worters' camps, stretching
from Washington to Arizona and
around the coastlime from Texas
to Name. About 100000 families
are involved, and this number will
probably be tripled in three
years.)
If you drive west from Palm
Beach about 40 miles-right into
the Everglades around the edge
of Lake Okeechobee in Florida,
you will get about the sharpest
social contrast that can be found
in two points So close together.
Miami, Palm Beach, they are
synonymous with leisure and lux
ury. Belle Glade, Fla; Pahokee,
Fla; Canal Point, Fla, maybe the
man who sells your grocer his
beans and celery has heard there
are such places, but they are
probably only names to him. In
the Everglades is the richest soil
in the world, to IA feet deep
and black as the inside of your
hat.
This rich soil had to be treated
like big factory. 1t needed a
few people to handle the machines
that prepared the crops, but when
picking time came, it needed
enormous quantities of hand labor,
for only a month or so for each
crop. That's where the migrants
come in. Thanks to Steinbeck the
situation on the west coast has
been we'll dramatized. Everybody
knows who the Okies are. But not
many people know that there is
a well defined migrant stream
starting in south Florida, with
Strawberries, tomatoes, beans,
celery and similar truck crops and
moving right up along the East
coast, Georgia peaches-up into
the Maryland Eastern Shore,
melons, more tomatoes; potatees=E
up into Jersey-potatoes, and even
into Northern New York State for
late apples.
It isn't the healthiest Of work.
There's respiratory trouble among
the migrants, lots Of rheumatism,
some venereal disease, almost al
ways bad teeth, which, of course,
lead to other things. After all,
you cannot keep much body and
soul together on $40O a year. The
farmers did what they could for
these folks, but a farmer cannot
supply schooling or medical care,
or even adequate housing for the
short time he needs the migrants.
Then again, the folks in the cities
had to have their lettuce, citrus
fruits, celery, beans and whatnot.
so in time it became obvious that
something ought to be DONE" 1t
was situation in which our Gov
eminent was the only possible re-
medal agent. The Farm Security
Administration started three
years ago to establish camps, tenn
porary field housing with full
community facilities, a place to
sleep, a place to get good hot
bath, a stove to cook with and a
place to get together and "chew
the rag" with other pickers (con-
munity hall).
If things are through and
there's not much work, the mi
grants can stay while for
nominal sum, which is turned in
to the camp council elected by
the migrants themselves. So far
as Farm Security itself is con-
cerned they require no rent from
a migrant family, but the family
head must put in two hours of
wok each week and it is up to
the migrants to keep the camp
clean, to haul the garbage, to
keep the weeds down and so
forth.
In each camp there is well
equipped clinic, with resident
nurse and local doctors who come
in once a day. In some places
dental service is given because bad
teeth are so common among the
migrants, and a continuous diet Of
fried foods does nothing to help
the situation. Usually, too, there
is an FSA employee skilled in
stretching the limited budgets
these people live on-a home man.
agement specialist.
The picture is infinitely varied.
The lives of the MIGRANTS are ful1