Evening star., 1943-04-11
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By Sieyid Arne,
Associated Press Writer.

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the first picking. but they couldn't find
them for the second and third.
There is a second crisis just starting
The spring bean crop must be picked
between now and May Is. There are
10000 acres to be picked, the biggest
planting on record.
So, for many months Florida growers
have been clamoring for more labor
They wanted Bahama Negroes, particu-
lar]y, because the Bahamans have a
reputation for putting in full work.
week.
The problem with the American field
hand is a sort of ephemeral one Even
the growers, annoyed as they are,
chuckle about it.
They agree that the field workers
seem to work until they've earned be-
tween SIS and $40, then they lay off, pre-
sumably, until the money is gone And
there's no authority that can legally
force them back to work. AS long as
they're happy with so little-a roof
(often leaky), some greens and SOW belly
and perhaps a bottle of liquor for Sat-
urday night the problem continues.
Find No Solution.
The whites-growers and oficials-can
get high blood pressure over it, but so
far they've thought of no solution.
There are exceptions. Most of the
growers have some reliable people they
employ the year around and house in
quarters who work six days week.
And at the FSA headquarters 1 ran
through the work records for people
living at one of the migratory camps
parklike places with neat little one-room
cottages, a laundry house, school, a
church. The majority of those workers
had done five and six days week, even
on the crops that pay lower wages
FSA's Paul Wander SchouW told me
he thinks the clean living at the camps
is having its effect He said most of
the field hands had to be taught how
to use the property when they moved in.
But now they're sending their children
to school more regularly and the men
work the long weeks.
The rest of the migratory labor lives
either in quarters furnished by the
growers or in town quarters" where
they pay rent for rooms in ramshackle,
unrepaired buildings.
I drove through the Belle Glade quar-
ters" They make Dubose Heywards
Cat Fish Row. look palatial. It was
easy to understand why the field hands
won't work even when they can earn
plenty of money. They've lived so
meagerly for so long that they don't
have the usual need for money. They
think of it mostly as a chance to buy
lazy hours sitting in the sun. Several
growers agreed with me on that.
Draft Boards May Aid.
At Belle Glade the draft board is going
to try to force longer work weeks. Luther
Jones, a draft board official, a grower
and publisher, told me he's organizing
all growers to report any field hands
for absenteeism. Those who have been
deferred from the draft will be reclassi-
fed. But Jones has little hope for the
plan. He says among the field hands
here some 80 per cent have already been
passed over for some physical defect.
The silent battle comes to head each
day at dawn-in one of the most curious
scenes in the country.
That's when the growers send out for
their days field crew. They dispatch
trucks to the Negro quarters and the
migratory camps. On each truck is
hawker who shouts the advantages of
his plantation. At Belle Glade, in the
peak season, 5000 field hands sit silently
listening to this clamor for their services.
The first hawker. will start offering
"Thirty-five cents here. Thirty-f five
cents to pick hamper of beans. Cold
water at the end of each row. Fresh
beans, easy to pick, full bushes
The 5000 sit like wooden figures. They
scarcely look at the hawker. So another
hawker bids 40 cents. In the dim-light,
the 5000 still sit silent and wooden
The price goes up to As cents hamper
to so cents. There the first break comes
and some of the trucks fill up with hands
men, women and children-and roll off.
The shouting becames clamor The
price goes to SIS cents, 60, 65-up to IS
cents on the tight days. At each bid field
hands pick truck and climb aboard.
The truck rolls off to the various planta-
tions through the dawn.
And It's a curious thing: They roll off
at sunrise, but picking doesn't start until
10 a.m.-after the dew has dried. The