Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-09-22
Stories Of Low Wages
And Poor Conditions old
TO Presidents

One man worked for almost ten
weeks and owed his employer
$3.50. Another averaged 81 a
week for eight weeks. This, and
m a similar accounts, were
given TO the Presidents Com
mission on Migratory Labor at
its hearings here by Puerto Ri
a field hands, flown here in
June to work on the sugar beet
crop.
Santos Cintron, who ended up
owing the Michigan Sugar Co.,
testified the same thing had hap
pened to many others he knew.
He told how he and seven others
arrived here at dawn on June IL
from Puerto Rico and were
working in the fields by mid
afternoon. He said the group
lived in a IL by 18-foot building,
and slept under the doubledeck
hunks when il rained.
Cintron said the company took
SIS from each mans pay for
Transportation and advanced SIS
weekly for food. On Aug. 8 the
men were told they weren't
needed any longer and were also
told they owed the company
money. under terms guaran-
teed them before they left home,
the workers were to receive at
least S46.35 by that date). Gin
tron reported he was unable to
send his wife and seven children
money for three months. He is
now earning SIS weekly in a
Detroit steel plant.
Other workers produced SINH
lar testimony. The Rev. Clement
Kern of Detroit's Holy Trinity
Church said he had seen six pay
statements, covering a five-week
period, which showed net earn
ings for two of $10.19; for an
other, S13.24; $16.14 for one and
$16.15 for another, and $34.37
for the other. Father Kern said
that "about 100" Islanders went
10 his beaten down" parish on
"Skid Row 30 talk over their
problems. 81 could not be a
priest for five minutes II / didn't
stand up and protest against the
horrible concept that men with
families can get along without
money to send TO Them" he said.
Saginaw has been the scene
this summer Of much contro-
versy over the migrant prob
lem. A CTO Auto Workers To-
cal initiated a probe and found
conditions brutal" and shock
ing" Puerto Rico's labor COM
missioner flew in, looked the
situation over, and reported to.
his government the charges were
all true, that the treatment his
eountrymen were getting was
Indecent" The insular legisla-
ture allocated money TO aid the
workers and recently the Michi-
gan Field Crops, Inc. negotiated
an agreement with the Puerto
Rican government on wages and
conditions for those remaining
here to harvest the crop.
Representatives OF the Michi-
gan Field Crops, Inc, compris-
ing 1928 growers In A Michi-
gan counties, warned the Presi-
dents commission that federal
regulation of the use OF farm
labor would be ''ruinous" to
their industry. One contended
that there is mo quick, ready
answer" to the migrant prob
lem, and charged that many
persons without any direct res
possibility In the problem are
interested either from a crusad-
ing point OF view or because
they have personal or political
axes TO grind"
Carroll r. Cough, PRESIDENT
of the Croswell Sugar Beet Assn.
claimed the industry was still
trying TO prove that II was able
TO show a profit. Henry McCusk-
er, deputy Commissioners Of the
Michigan Department of Labor,
asserted the farmers could pay
the workers more and provide
better conditions.
This was the last of the COM
missions on-the-spot hearings.
In their Investigations, they
travelled TO Arizona, Texas, Col
orado, California, Tennessee,
New Jersey, and Michigan. They
are 10 submit their report, which
should include recommendations
for a federal framework to con-
troll migrant farm work, to the
President by Dec. Is.