Reel 17

Scope and Contents

Folder 561 -- Reports from organizer J.F. Hynds in Arkansas. Folder 562 -- Reports from organizer W.M. Tanner in Missouri and Arkansas, and one report from D.A. Griffin in Arkansas. Folder 563 -- Reports of County Secretaries from Pemiscot County, Missouri, and Woodruff County, Arkansas. Folder 564 -- Not Filmed

Scope and Contents The union's correspondence for January primarily concerns the Seventh Annual STFU Convention held at Little Rock on Jan. 31 to Feb. 2. The convention papers, all filed at Jan. 31, include: the Annual Financial Report for 1940, President's and Secretary's Report, Vice-President's report by F.R. Betton, "Put the Man of the Land Back on the Land: A New Policy and Program for the STFU" by H.L. Mitchell, and the Proceedings. The convention was supposed to meet in Memphis, but was shifted to...

Scope and Contents A furor arose over a statement Mitchell made at the convention that "There is no basis for trade-unionism in Southern agriculture". Butler claimed that Mitchell was trying to turn a legitimate union into a crusade and threatened to resign if Mitchell did not retract his speech. On the dispute, the papers include a statement by Butler and a statement apparently written by Mitchell (9 -- note: it is not clear whether Mitchell's statement was read at the Feb. 9 or the Jan. 30 NEC meeting), the...

Scope and Contents National Sharecroppers Week was held on March 2 to 9; the papers include a good deal of correspondence about travel arrangements, etc. NSW was a great success, but the STFU leaders and the NSW Policy Committee in New York over whether the proceeds would be sent in 12 monthly installments, or as the union requested them (27 to 30). In addition to NSW, there is a series of letters from William L. Harris, County Agent of Hartford County, Conn., on the matter of providing temporary employment...