The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-11-17
Migrant Workers
Starve In Rich
Joaquin Valley

VV@YWaH u@R~y
Bakersfield, Cal. (LPA)-A Con-
gressional subcommittee holding
hearings here Nov. IL to IA will
be asked to look into the appalling
living conditions of migratory
workers in the fertile San Joaquin
Valley. The press has reported the
deaths of four babies of starvation,
near Hanford, but in Fresno coun-
ty alone hospital records show 16
children have died of digestive dis
turbances, and there is no way of
telling how many died of malnutri-
tion.
Hundreds of others are dying
each week, according to H. l.. Nit
chell, president of the National
Farm Labor Union -AFL. He blam-
ed the S0th Congress for turning
back to corporation farmers the
20-odd farm worker camps form
erly run by the federal govern
ment. As soon as the camps were
turned back, the health and medical
care programs went out the
window, Mitchell said.
From January to March these
$1,000 migratory workers have no
jobs. The social workers call this
"The Season of Repose." There is
no social agency which will pro-
vide for these workers, according
to Mitchell. They starve, and their
babies die.
"The problem of malnutrition is
spread over the entire valley"
said DR.. Donald Upp, health officer
of Kings County.
Although Kings county has an
ordinance requiring all labor camps
to have health permits, DIR. Upp
said the ordinance has not been
put in effect.
Russell Troutner, of the county
board of supervisors, said, "We
can't put a nurse in the home of
each midwestern family located in
the county. These people are work
ing and getting paid don't know
what they do with their money. If
we educate them, other migrants
will come next year with the same
problems. Cotton pickers average
about Sc a day-when they work.
For three months there is no
work
The tent and tar-paper shack
settlements along the highways are
worse than those of the Tobacco
Road" farmers in the southeast,
Mitchell said.
A social agency found, on the
farm of William Silver, near Pix
ley, 10 one-room houses, with to
10 persons in each room. There
were two outdoor toilets. The own
er said he had no plans to make
the houses livable, as he was going
to use mechanical cotton pickers
next year.
OF the 10000 workers in the
valley, only 10000 are expected to
move on at the end of the harvest
season. How the rest expect to live
through the winter no one knows.
Employment officials and welfare
workers are sending out broadcasts
urging farm workers not to come
to San Joaquin Valley.
A county grand jury is ipvesti-
eating. A county coroner is inves-
tigating. The AFL in Fresno has
formed a survey group of clergy,
business men, housewives, and the
press is Investigating.
The AFL Farm Labor Union will
press the subcommittee of the
House Labor and Education com
mittce to investigate not only the
conditions Of the migrant workers
but the two-year-old strike of the
workers on the DiGiorgio Fruit
Corp. farm near Bakersfield. The
union plans to send a special com
mittee to see Gov. Earl Warren to
urge a special session of the state
Legislature to make relief avail
able and to amend the unemploy-
ment insurance act to provide that
farm workers be covered by the
corporation farmers who employ
them. But meanwhile, there is no
work for these wretched migrants,
no agency to help them. They
starve, and their babies die.