December, 1939, 1939

Further items relating to the Poplar Bluff camp include a letter from Butler to Josephine Smoot, detailing the efforts being made for the refugees (11) and an STFU press release on the projected FSA program (20). There are replies from two Department of Agriculture officials to union complaints in the Mayberry case, both promising that all AAA county elections will be well-publicized in the future (6, 13). There is an especially important exchange of letters between Mitchell and James E. Sidel, Field Director of the National Child Labor Committee, concerning Donald Henderson's attempt to form a "National Council to Aid Agricultural Workers" in competition with NSW (11, 15). Preparations for the Annual Convention and for NSW, including the hiring of Pauli Murray as Secretary of NSW, occupy much of the correspondence. There is a draft of a revised STFU Constitution, apparently written by A. James McDonald, who sent Butler a long letter concerning the document (15, 27). Lastly, a four-page letter from D. William R. Amberson appears, urging financial austerity and self-sufficiency for the STFU (29)