The producers news. [volume], March 30, 1934, Page TWO, Image 2

About The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
THE PRODUCERS NEWS
Published Fricbay of each week at Plentywoed, Maataaa, kj
The Peoples Publishing Company, Inc.
j
Entered as Second dams Matter. October 18, 1Ä8, at the
Poat Office at Pkntywood, Mon tar*,, ünder Um Act of March
9, 1879.
j
!
OUR PROGRAM
1. No eviction«, no fored*«or«te.
3. Passage of the Workers Unemployment Bill (H. R. W88)
2. Cancellation of all secured farm debts.
4. Immediate cash relief for unemployed workers and desti
tute farmer®.
(U-tit
Subscription Rates: Per year. $2; six months, $1; three months
60 cents. Foreign per year, $2.50; six montes, $1JB§; th re e
months, 60 cents.
Advertising Bates famished upon application.
ALFRED F. MILLER, Acting Editor
HANS RASMUSSEN, Business Manager
Friday, March 30, 1934
Yours is not the Question Why
C.W.A. work has stopped. The Why and How Come is
not for the people to ask.
After a short intermission the new Roosevelt relief pro
gram will become effective on Monday. This program con
tains interesting provisions which clearly reveal the efforts
of the administration to limit the distribution of relief to
the smallest number of people.
The selection of workers to carry out the projects
planned under the program will be on the basis of need e
termined by the relief administration," the Montana state
relief director states. He also talks about destitute persons
eligible for relief.
Since this is supposed to be a democratic country one
might think that every destitute person, every family that
has not enough food in the house, all children who have no
shoes and clothing to go to school, would automatically re
ceive relief, just because they are in need.
But no, the administration decrees! that destitute per
sons may be "eligible." What constitutes elegibility is not
stated and it is not the business of the people to know.
Because it will be "determined by the administration.
And further.
There has been much talk and reports in the capitalist
press have stated that under the new program workers will
be paid cash. Unfortunately that is not true for rural areas.
Work projects in rural areas will be provided as means
of affording work in exchange, either for advance of food or
other consumable items or for capital goods, such as live
stock, furnished for self-sustenance purposes," the relief di
rector explains.
You ask: Why is that?
You want to know why farmers, people living in rural
areas, are not entitled to cash for the work they are doing?
You want to know why exactly farmers should work for
food orders?
Who are you to ask such questions?
The administration has decided and we should be satis
fied to get anything without asking too many questions.
And then there is the local administration. They want
to
ii
9 9
ii
ii
relief director states
that no person shall be employed LESS than three days in
any one week, they try to tell you that the maximum hours
of work shall in no case EXCEED 24 hours per week.
And you are not to ask whether that Is contradictory or
not, you are to work to get the food, to get the strength, to
go to work, to get the food, to get the strength, to go to
work and so on throughout your lifetime.
But we are the ORGANIZED strength of the workers
and farmers, and we demand an answer to all these ques
tions. We WANT to know why not every person in need may
receive relief. And we also want to know why everything is
determined by the administration ?" We do not feel that
it is just and right that the gentlemen with the well filled
bellies should tell the needy how much they should eat to
still the pains of hunger.
We think that it is the height of impertinence when
these triple-chinned bellies come around to tell us which one
of us is hungry and in need of relief.
It is our money that is spent for relief, money earned by
the workers and farmers. Farmers and workers are the
ones and the only ones who create value; we are making the
things that are needed by the people.
And because of this we should demand, that the im
poverished farmers and workers administer the relief them
selves. We should organize strong enough so that this de
mand can be fulfilled.
Organized mass action will bring us the relief we need
and can help us to the proper administration.
99
part of
A number of papers along the same lines were started
at that time. Practically all went out of existence, unable
to stand the pressure brought upon them by the capitalist
powers to be. Some sold out and became misleaders of the
farmers and workers movement.
News has been able to live throng*
these 16 years, fighting the farmers' battle is a fact that
ve have reason to be proud of. And since the lines of dem
° £ rc ^ tl0r ' hav e become more defined the battle today is waging
harder than ever before.
Only through the splendid support and cooperation of
its hundreds of shareholders and more hundreds of friends
and its tireless workers in the front and back rooms has
The Producers News been able to do what has wTdon"
helping in organization, giving guidance to all the activities,
vdSI ÎÈUTJS 4 la l' but " 0t Reading and de
Z t a P ^ ° 1 soph ^' a th^ry of fight for a better
orld for children to live in. And only through the same
cooperation will the paper be able to continue the good work
in years to come.
Never has there been a time when newspapers published
in the interest of poor farmers and workers were needed as
they are needed now at the moment when Fascism is nrp
Ä on Ä" 8 time Wh6n imperialist — «Ä
FasÄI SÄStT SST? T i0 , 8 ,ot in batt,i "e
f J?* reason enough
Hol te! ï a ? d f y end , 8 £ et behind it, to put the shoul
oer to the wheel and make the new year in the life of The
xTOaucers News the most successful one in its history.
Send in your Happy New Years Greetings in the form
Di paid Up old and in new subscription!.
The Producers News Celebrates
its 17th Birthday
° ° ° _ With this issue The Producers News steps into its
Sevent eenth year of existence. In March 1918 the first Pro
: ducera News was printed by the most progressive and radical
'• Sî eîncn *f m Sheridan and nearby counties at a time when the
' Nonpartisan movement swept North Dakota and
.. Montana.
'•
A LETTER FROM AMERICA
j
TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
BT JOHN L. SP1VAK
;
Fresno, Calif.
Dear Mir President:
_ . * „ •„
J T 8U PP° se y° U ^ 8 !*
Hus but I am writing to 7° °
keep a promise 1 made to a little,
16-year-«hl Homo
Ä^you
she had heard you w re doing
no^have
three stamp id L
S^e Se never wen^To schil to
leam how to write. Her earliest
memories atre of wandering about
in an old, rattling, wheezing Ford
from vegetable field to fruit field,
from fruit field to vegetable field,
and you can t go to school if your
father needs your labor in the
fields as soon as you are seven
years old.
I cannot give you her name be
cause when I told her I would
write to you for her she became
frightened and pleaded with me
not to mention her name. She
Was afraid maybe you'd write the
boss and her family would be de
nied the privilege of working in
the fields all day for 36 cents. She
said it was all right, so I'll tell
you how to find her.
Just take the main highway
from Fresno, Calif., to Mendota,
which is about 30 miles away and
turn west at Mendota for about
four miles. You can't miss it be
cause you'll see a big sign "Land
of Milk and Honey." When you've
passed this sign you'll see against
the horizon a cluster of houses and
when you come to the sign
"Hotchkiss Ranch—Cotton Pickers
Wanted" turn up the side road a
few hundred yards beyond the
comfortable farm house with its
barns and cotton shelters. There's
a row of fifteen outhouses along
the »road. That is where the migra
tory workers and this little girl
live, Mr. President.
There are two more outhouses a
little away from these and those
are the ones actually used for out
houses. You can tell that by the
odor and the swarms of flies that
hover around these two especially.
This is a typical migratory work
ers' camp, oaly some have five out
houses for the 'workers and some
have thirty. It depends upon the
size of the farm.
You'll recognize
workers' camp because each out
house—"homes" they call them out
here—is made of plain wooden
boards, dried by years of tropica*
sun.
a migratory
The little girl lives in the third
house from the front
as you ap
pioach. You can't miss it. It has
a large sign: "SCARLET FEVER"
on the door.
But don't worry about that be
cause the health authorities here
are not worrying. They just put
up the sign on this outhouse door
and on that one there near the
end of the now and went
They didn't tell anyone to be care
ful about a contagious disease be
cause that might have the
quarantined and the whole
away.
camp
crop
lost to the landlord, for all the cot
ton pickers and their children have
been in that outhouse,
imagine it's very dangerous though
for only two mooe children have
caught it. If it had been danger
ous I'm sure the health authorities
would have 'warned them.
In this outhouse where a baby
girl has scarlet fever you'll find
an iron bedstead. That's where the
baby sleeps, the one that's tossing
around in fever while the mother
tries to shoo the flies away. That's
the only bed and it's one of five
in the whole camp, so you can't
miss it. The other six in this
family sleep on the floor huddled
together; father, mother, two
grown brothers, a little brother,
and the fifteen-yeair-old girl. They
sleep like most everybody else in
the camp, on the floor.
That barrel and rusty milk
in the comer of the room where
everybody sleeps on the floor holds
the water they hiring from Men
dota to cool the child's fever. It
is four miles to Mendota and foui
miles back and eight miles costs
little for gas so they have to be
very sparing with the water. That
is why they all look so dirty—it
is not because they don't like to
wash. It's because it costs too
much to get water—water needed
for cooking and drinking. You
can't waste water just washing
y ouraeif wh *n it coats so much to
After aü » when v° u make 86
cents , £or a £ul ! work
Ä ,72. of **
eaves y u ^ at much less
°The mother int in th. field to
day because the baby ie pretty
sick and those children playing in
an 4 ° u t of the house marked with
scarlet FEVER si «ms are too
young ' *° into the field but
ever y° ne else is therc - That*?
w ï ere Î fou ™Li he U ?. le for
'feLTVhS'ÜS IT
what
Stand just what she wants. It
would be a big favor, she said,
an< * 'would be very grateful,
She doesn't mind picking cotton
1)0118 for ^rty-five cents a day
and she doesn,t mind the filth and
dirt and starvation but she is
Ä
^ to? Well, you have to
pay twenty-five cents a week If
you wa "t to use that electric light
and twenty-five cents is a lot of
71 ? orey wheT1 yon only thirty
^ ve CPT, ts a day and you ueed that
twenty-five cents for food and for
I don't
can
a
you
gas for the car so you can go gev
water.
It's not that she wants the light
at night. She and her family get
along Vithout it but you see they
^ ^ered it's awfuUy hard to !
baby in a* u .
ness ' A " d !t ' S a l WayS d f b k Wh6 "
^ baby seema ^ crv the most.
And in additi ° n ' *" is
worri€d aboUt ^self. She is go
in ^ to have a baby and suppose it
c ? I T ie i at night and there is no
this little outhouse whs r her
m ^ hlS ht JJ e f
m°îher and father «id brothers
SCARI.ET FEVER over its
. *
__^ , , . .
What she wanted to ask you is
if you could possibly get m touch
with somebody and have them not
oharge them twenty-five cents fori
the use of the electric light— es
pecially when somebody's sick or
expecting a baby. It's not so bad
when you're well, but it's awfully
hard when you have a little sick
sister tossing and crying and you
yourself are expecting a baby.
I explained to this little girl that
you would understand about her,
not being so moral. She is such a
, .. ..... .,. PP . ,
frail little thing working so hard
in the fields all day and you know
after you get through working and
you just don't know what to do
wifh yourself and your youth just
cries out to forget the days that
have gone and the long years that
stretch ahead of you, well—you
sort of forget that maybe it isn't
just quite moral to have a baby
when you're not quite fifteen.
I told the little gril that you had
a daughter, too, groWn up now of
course and she thought that if your
girl had gotten_into trouble when
she was fifteen that you wouldn't
have liked her to have a baby in a
little wooden outhouse with an
other baby tossing in fever ana no
light to see anything by. l told
her I didn't think you would either,
and so sitting there in the cotton
field in this "Land of Milk and
Honey," she cried.
But I started to tell you what
we talked about and here I've gone
telling you w,hat_she wanted to
write. You see, when I walked out
in, the field there was this little
girl dragging a huge sack along
the furrow, and stuffing the brown
bolls into it. She looked so tired,
so weary and then I noticed that
she was with child.
How old are you?" I asked.
Fifteen."
Working in the fields long?"
Uh-uh."
How old were you when
started?"
She srugged shoulders. "Dunno.
Maybe eight. Maybe nine. I
u
you
dunno."
"What do you make a day?"
"Sometimes in first picking dol
lar and a half. We get seventy
five cents a hundred. Used to get
sixty cents bat red agitators got
vis fifteen cents raise. But for
third picking get only forty cents
a hundred and there ain't so much
to pick."
You may be interested in her !
phrase * 'red agitators." That's!
tvhat the Communists were called!
here by the newspapers,
everybody calls a Communist
"ired agitator." This little girl
didn't know what a "red agitator"
was; she knew only that "red agi
tators" got them a raise of fifteen
cents on the hundred pounds by oi
ganizing them and calling a strike.
Forty thousand out of the 250,
000 agricultural workers in Cali
fornia have taken out cards in the
Communist union. They call it
the Cannery and Agricultural
Workers' Union, And most of the
40,000 are from the 100,000 migra
tory workers—those who live in
the camps like this little girl. They
don't pay dues often but they carry
their cards and they are strong
organization and very militant, es
pecially the Mexicans.
You probably read in the papers
about the fruit and vegetable pick
ers' strike in the Imperial Valley
and around Sacramento and Ala
meda and in the San Joaquin Val
iev right here in Tulare and Kem
counties. There have been violence
and killings but the strikes
almost always won. That's because
the workers felt a lot like this
little girl; no matter what hap
pened it couldn't be worse than It
was. If the Communists would help
them then they would be Commu
nists, Nobody else seemed to care
for them, nobody ever tried to or
ganize them until the "red agis
tors" came. Business men and
bankers and farmers are terrified
hv "red agitators"; -.-on understand
of course, why whe R you read this
letter that the little girl wanted
me to write you.
"Last year when 'red agitators'
make strike in Tulare and
sever ty-five cents a hundred
we ge<- seventy-five cents here,
too." she added laughing.
Her father, a tall, dark-skinned
man with a week's growth of black
heard saw me talking to her and
came over.
"SometTng wrong, eh?" he asked.
"No. Nothing wrong. Just talk
in<- to vrnir daughter. T want to
fh'd out how much you people
make a week."
A slow smile spread over his
featnres.
"V7* rnako nodding " he sad defi
nite! v.
"TTow
"tea »VI TT wtte. mv o-tel haro. Last
rr-a'-lr v»ra ttotV frovn Monr?
TV.r» r «MteTT ntehf and mako
w
>rv ' r, 'Qr ftenehter is fiffaor».
T fhenoht th«re W as a law against
child
(
so now
I a
on
were
get
so
can
to
•>vr
He shrugged his shoulders.
All chil
"Nobody come here.
drtn wo<rk in field soon big enough.
Snly time man come here is when
pu t up sign 'Scarlet Fever.' No-- 1
body care."^* , V l
^ .
«W «« last year or two years!
"No. No better. Lots worse.
Last year w e bu v 100 pounds cheap
flour for $2 . 45 . Now I pay $3.10
same Last year before Preai
d ^^t Jh d an
1 make n ° w - Made lots more m
, 32> legg in *33, in '34 hardly don't
!make
■
»
"I thought you fellows got a
raise far picking cotton?
,. Yes But we no get it . We
make gtrike b ^ fore we get it - Red
agitat0 rs.' They make for us."
« How about before ^ depres .
gion ,
99
ftt
Good times. Get $1.50 a hun
dred. Very bad now. Yes, sir.
Very bad."
"Now that you've finished pick
ing these acres What do you
"Go to peas field. Everybody
go in car or truck. We take every
thing but house. We get nodding
but house when we come. When
finiahed fieldg we c0mG back
fmiamd
.
do?
for grapes. 1
What do you make a week when
In
.
j £°°<1
'** n £°°d times . Oh, sometimes
ma ^ e J^aybe if work very hard
raa £ e
That seemed to be the heighth of
hi s ea/mings and he sounded very
j P leased that he and , his {&r ^l
! wer ! able on occasions to earn that
j much *
:
Well, I got to go back pick
He said something to the
bolls.
girl in Spanish. She flushed and
started picking again.
"My father he say better work,"
she said.
"Yes; Well, you go ahead and
work while I walk alongside and
talk to you. Are you married?"
She flushed again and shook her
head.
"No. No marry."
"Looks like things are not so
good for you people, eh?
"Oh, they awright. Things get
tin' better—everybody say. The
President, he take care of poor
people."
"Is he taking care of you?"
"No sir. No yet. Things very
bad for us. Bu + he got lots to do
and he never hear about cotton
pickers. I wanted to write and
tell him hurry up because I going
to have a bafy/ and things very
bad for us. He do something for
poor people if he know how things
very bad, eh?**
9f
t
AUCTION s&u
at Alfred Hjelm's place in Westby,
Mont.
Wednesday, April
A
i
Sale Starts at 1 p. m. Sharp
Terms: CASH
FARM MACHINERY
I Ten-foot McCormick-Deering disk
1 Three-bottom power plow
1 Eight-foot McCormick-Deering binder
1 Nine-foot McCormick duckfoot cultivator
1 Boss harrow, 26-ft. 1 14-in. gang plow
3 Wagons, eveners, doubletrees, etc.
Garden cultivator
3 Sets farm harness
HORSES & CATTLE
1 Team black geldings. 9 yrs., 3100 lbs.
1 Gray gelding, 3 yrs., 1260 lbs.
1 Brown gelding, 3 yrs., 1260 ibs.
1 Fresh cow
2 Sows, weight 180 lbs.
2 Sows, bred
HOUSEHOLD GOODS
1 Kitchen cabinet
1 Kitchen table, porcelain top
- Air-O-Gas range
Chairs,
Stone jars, 8 and 12 gal.
1 Chiffonnier
2 Radios, battery sets
1 Radio cabinet
Wardrobe
Steel crib
1 Washer and wringer
Table lamps
Canned foods
Many other articles too numerous to mention
Dish closet
Range
Oil Heater
1 Rocker
Blacksmith outfit
Axminister rug
Congoleum rug
Book case
One coming fresh soon
Fruit jars
OWNERS:
AUGUSTA HJELM - JUDITH HEILAND
E. C. FERGUSON, Auctioneer
ELMER BODIN, Cle*
a
'
No. No. I just talk. Just talk. ,
What a*re you afraid of •
No write the President, Mister, ;
please." She straightened up and
looked at me pleadingly. "If you ■
write for me to the President my |
father get in trouble. Maybe the
President get mad and my father, ;
he no get no more work. |
"I don't think so," I assured her. '
But if you don't want me to tel!
who you are I can write to him
and tell him about it without men
tioning your name. |
She looked up with a sudden
P®; !
oU do that?" ;
"Sure. I don't have to give your
name. I'll just say a little Mexi
ican girl in a cotto n field four
miles fYom Mendota." 1
She looked earnestly at me for
a moment. .
Please, you write the President.
Tell him my baby is coming, she
said in a low tone. "I dunno when
the baby come. Maybe at night
and we got no light. Please, you i
tell the President things very bad. I
We no make maybe nothing. My i
little sister she sick and if baby 1
come I no can have bed. I got to ■
have baby on floor and if it come
in night hoW T have baby?"
Why didn't you write to him,
then?
She blushed again.
No got stamp."
Oh," I said, "I'll give you a
U
stamp.
"Thank you but no can write.
"Sure, you go ahead. The Presi
dent will be glad to hear from
you.
a11 the tim€ '
"If.you'll tell me ^hat to write
IV do it for you." **
»• looked at ma wlth a 8wUt
smile and giggled.
1 took out apwdl and some
jW« and ^ ked her , name - ,
\ook of terror spread over her
face *
No can write," she repeated.
"No go to school; work in fields
u
ff
No! No! No write the Presi
dent!" she begged.
"Why not? Didn't you want to
write to him?"
ii
;
I nodded* unable to speak.
"You please tell the President, (
maybe he tell boss here not charge i
us twenty-five, cents a week for
electric light so I can have my 1
baby.
99
"I'll tell him exactly what you
said", I promised.
"You no fool me?"
"No, I'm not fooling you, I
promise."
That is all, Mr, President. I
don't know whether you will ever
see this but I just wanted to keep
my promise; and if you do see it
you'll know why "red agitators"
are making more headway here
than anyWhere TVe been so far in
this country. '
PRODUCERS NEWS WANT
ADS BRING RESULTS
RELIEF PROCRAM
ATTEMPT TO UMiï
WORK TO FEW
constitutes eUgibility. He did not
make clear on what basis it will
be determined who shall receive
réÉet and whdUaot.
"The selection * of workers to
carry out the planned projects,"
the relief director explained in his
address, "will be on the basis of
need, determined by the relief ad
ministration. They are expected
to work at proper efficiency on the
job. If they are unable or un- I
willing to do so, they will be ,
transferred to some other job, or ;
if no job can be found for them
w hich they can or will do, they!
will be dropped from the work di
vision and returned to direct re- j
n e f. All wages will be paid by,
or check
"N 0 person shall be employed in ;
work divisions less than 54 hours
a mon th nor les^ than three days !
j n an y one week. Persons whose
budgetary deficiency Is less Will ;
receive direct relief." !
Regarding relief in rural areas,
Spaulding pointed out, "that the
new plan will be based on the
fact that where land is available
for the production of home gar- ;
dens and fog domestic livestock j
an( j poultry, the average family,
w ben provided with such livestock
and poultry, ca n produce a major
par t 0 f its food requirements."
Cash Is Exception \
It seems to appear that the big j
promise that "all wages will be !
p a j d by cash or check" does not
^old brue for rural areas. The re
(Continued from Front Page)
Teachers
You can earn several hundred dollars this summer,
and you can secure a better position and a larger salary
for the coming year. Complete information will be
mailed on receipt of three cent stamp. Send for it today.
Rural Schools and City Schools
Summer Wlork and School Year Positions
CONTINENTAL
TEACHERS AGENCY, INC.
Denver, Colo.
1850 Downing St.,
Covers the ENTIRE United States
"Thanks for sending me so many good positions to apply for,
over 30 during the first five days I was enrolled."—An Illinois
Teacher.
SCHOOL OFFICIALS—We can put you in touch with the wj
finest teachers. Our service is free to you.
director explain "
projects in rural "i
*M«d « a
Tk in exchange
vancea of food * *»1
able items o r f 0r Z?**
such as livestock
self-sustenance
made in cash instead ™\
to.^d^attlS? ^ S
this new relief U ° n 33 i° ho*
ministered The pr0R: . rani i* *
'proffranf leave vSfe*
sorts of discrimina?*® ( o
only if workers and f s B*
organized strongly JjTj* 8 *n
able +o get enough - b*
lief to assure themselv* and *
enoe. ^ &r!
(Continued from Front p ft5t
—-^1 ***
curb the absolute tv™™
Indian office over the
Indian Agent, according tTÎi! ^
will have "a cooperative
visory relationship " ^
Indian municipal
will be set up by the c^?°, ratl0! *
the Interior, and will w?*
powers as they are cousinly r
the Secretary to discharged w
other words, the government *
"We will no longer treat » ^
children. You shall be flT ÎÎ
have your rights. How mÜf
rights ? Well, you aren't
of deciding that yourself. We?
cide that."
This means in the final anal»»
that the government -retains
same old attitude of "white «.
periority."
> !
Prt.
00 « HAVEiiH
CONFIDENCE IN®