Reel 30

Scope and Contents

On the continuing campaign to save the Delmo Homes, see two detailed letters by Rev. L.S. "Ted" Thornton on the work of the St. Louis Committee (5,16) and a nine-page memorandum by David Burgess entitled "Basic Facts About the Delmo Labor Homes Project, and Their Relationship to the Future of the FSA" (25). There is also a memorandum by Burgess on ways to strengthen the STFU (20). For information on the college girls at the Deerfield Packing Co., see the letters of Mae Pearl Kelley (5, 8)

Scope and Contents On July 10, the STFU sent 90 workers to the Frank M. Wilson Co. in Stockton, Calif.; for information on this subject, see the lengthy exchange between Mitchell and the company on the problems which arose (24, 27) and reports from Carrie Dilworth (13), Moses Brown (22), and Roy Clay (24), all at Stockton. For summaries of the STFU's current activities, see Mitchell's memoranda to the NSF (7) and to the STFU Executive Council (13). David Burgess and Cong. Frank Hook both testified before the...

Scope and Contents Reports on the situation at the Delmo homes arrived from organizer Bill Johnson and David Burgess; see also Burgess' monthly report (31). Mae Pearl Kelley kept Mitchell informed on what was happening at the Deerfield Packing Co. (3,10,20,27). During the last week of the month, a furious fight erupted when the STFU learned of Department of Agriculture plans to enact a wage ceiling for cotton picking in the South by holding state-wide referendums. The Department's Arkansas Wage Board held...

Scope and Contents The most important topic for this month is the union's unsuccessful attempt to halt the wage ceiling imposed on cotton picking. Items related to the wage ceiling fight include: minutes of a meeting of the Delta Council Labor Committee held July 12 during which the Council voted to ask the government for a wage ceiling (6); Mitchell's statement to the Secretary of Agriculture entitled "A Ceiling on Cotton Pickers' Wages" (10) and his report to the Executive Council on his trip to Washington...