Reel 21

Scope and Contents National Sharecroppers Week was held March 1 to 8; the papers include the NSW pamphlet, a list of sponsors, and an "Outline for Speakers" (1). Negotiations continued with James Patton concerning possible STFU affiliation with the National Farmers' Union (7,13,23,25) and the papers include a nine-page transcript of the debate on this question at the March 21 meeting of the NEC (21). Also under discussion during March was a plan to start an STFU Cooperative Marketing and Purchasing Association...

Scope and Contents At the request of Will Alexander, Mitchell undertook a study of the operations of the Farm Bureau Federation in the South. The papers include his letters to Alexander (1,17)) and a lengthy report with attached statements from 98 small farmers claiming they were forced to join the Farm Bureau in order to continue receiving their government subsidy payments (17). The Southern Conference for Human Welfare met at Nashville on April 19 to 21; some correspondence relating to the Conference...

Scope and Contents Mitchell's attempt to gain wide publicity for his Farm Bureau report ran into a snag when the Associated Press, featuring a possible suit for libel, refused to cover the story. See the STFU's press releases on the report (4) and letters from Frank McCallister (5,8) and Benjamin Marsh (16) on their efforts to get proper coverage. There are also two interesting letters reacting to the report from AF of L president William Green (4) and Aubrey Williams (5) The Articles of Incorporation of the...

Scope and Contents There are two interesting letters on the situation in Missouri, one from Arthur G. McDowell to Frank McCallister reporting on UCAPAWA activities there (2) and one from Mitchell to McDowell on the current status and the STFU in Missouri (16). An apparently complete list of STFU locals, with an estimate of the number of active members in each, appears immediately after the GEC minutes (27; note: the NEC changes its name to the "General Executive Council" as of this date). Finally, there is a...

Scope and Contents The only notable event of the summer was the creation of the STFU Legal Department with Arkansas lawyer K.T. Sutton in charge to handle the various legal problems of union members. The reader may follow the progress of the new department through the correspondence of Sutton and in the case reports he sent to headquarters (n.d. [July], Aug. 6, n.d. [August]). Other major topics during the summer include the union's desperate search for financial support and the new co-operative associations...

Scope and Contents The union held a Wage Conference in Memphis on Sept. 7 to demand the same wages for cotton picking which the government had guaranteed to Mexican workers imported by the War Manpower Commission. Papers related to the conference include a press release (2), circulars, petitions, and handbills distributed at the conference (7), and the draft of a press release which provides a rough account of what took place (9). Toward the end of the month Mitchell went to Washington to try to convince the...