FSA HEAD SAYS LABOR HAS STAKE IN SOLVING MIGRATORY PROBLEM
FSA Head Says Labor Has Stake in Solving Migratory Problem Dr. Alexander Is Witness at Senate Hearing LaFollelte C o in in i 11 v e Told Economic Tragedy of 'Okies' Washington, d. c—That...
...That represented 2 per cent of the total farm families in the area...
...The migratory problem, according to Dr...
...Alex-inicer held, is nation-wide and in-y:easing at an alarming rate...
...I have no doubt that many of these people were described as shiftless or lazy, when actually they were sick...
...f The migratory problem...
...Alexander said...
...he said...
...Alexander pointed out that 110,-000 families rehabilitated under the present modest program have paid every penny they owe the government, and are now taxpayers and purchasers of industrial products...
...W. \V...
...Alexander declared, "already have become migrants or are almost certain to be forced on to the road, unless some measures can be quickly undertaken to rehabilitate them and give them a new foothold in their own communities...
...Alexander, is a social as well as economic "sore spot...
...F.ffeyt of More Buying Power 2. These homeless wanderers would no longer be in competition for all-fo-few city jobs...
...For example, in the five states in the Corn Belt last year 24,:0> families-were uprooted and turned adrift because land owners had no further use for them...
...Alexander asserted that it is insane to imagine that the nation can forget this problem and hope to prosper...
...The signers say the transfer is dangerous and unnecessary and contra-t!ii-:> the traditional American pHi<\ ird.the immigrant in our mid.v...
...Alexander voiced very forceful opinions...
...He emphasized that agricultural workers are not under the social security laws or the Wage-Hour Act, and this, he said, creates two distinct classes of citizens...
...Educators Protest Service Changes NEW YORK CITY—Twenty-five prominent American educators and writers, headed by Dr...
...In the long run, he emphasized, this situation must have a dis-a.-ferous effect on industrial wages a/d conditions...
...Cost Is Very Low-He estimated the cost of rehabilitation a farm family at $72 per family a year, which compares with a cost of S800 per family in cities and more than $300 per family in rural areas...
...economic adviser to the Farm Security Administration echoed Alexander's alarm that the "future of America in at stake," and added: . Nation Must Choose "The nation can choose to reap a harvest, of insanity, crime, poverty and lowered standards, or it can choose to preserve the courage, simulate the intelligence and cultivate the patriotism of these people...
...Alexander, head of the Farm Security administration, declared that if hundreds of thousands of homeless "Okies" were returned to the land and made self-supporting city workers would be benefited in two ways: 1. A "tremendous market" would be opened for industrial products, creatine jobs for an army of workers...
...On t^he subject of rural competition far city jobs Dr...
...As evidence of what can be done, Dr...
...America...
...From a hard-boiled business viewpoint, we must work out some method of helping these families get at least a minimum of medical care at a cost which they can afford...
...Alexander said, "reveals almost limitless new markets which can be created by increasing the incomes of these people...
...Any study of present under-con-sumption of the under-privileged group in agriculture...
...Holyoke College have signed an open letter to congress requesting defeat of the proposal to transfer the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Department of Justice...
...T. J. Woofter, Jr...
...Charles A. Beard, historian, Dr...
...Sections {considered the most stable and pros-'perov.s farming areas have felt the blight of "mined homes and lost hope...
...Marion Edwards Park, president of Bryn Mawr College, arid Dr...
...These displaced families," Dr...
...Here is a matchless opportunity for building new industrial well-being out in the fields of rural America...
...Mary E. Wooley, president emeritus of Mt...
...Unless security in some form is provided for the farm population, he warned, the relatively higher standards of Industrial workers will be undermined and eventually brought down to a common level...
...Alexander argued that the problem is one for the Federal government, but he "sorrowfully" admitted that efforts at rehabilitation "have little more than scratched the surface...
...because of their distress are < compelled to...
...The 3.0PB.000 neediest families In the nation'are now using very few industrial products...
...We must find a permanent solution of this problem of the displaced and surplus rural population...
...accept any wage offi^ed...
...He shocked Senators by showing that considerably more than half of low-income families in a Southern county examined by physicians were found to be physically defective, rickets being common among children and pellagra among adults...
...he insisted, "cannol afford to plan only partial solutions or to be content with palliative measures...
...Alexander Is Witness at Senate Hearing LaFollelte C o in in i 11 v e Told Economic Tragedy of 'Okies' Washington, d. c—That industrial workers have a vital stake in the solution of the migratory labor problem was the judgment of experts who testified last week before the La Follette Senate Civil Liberties Committee...
...Paraphrasing Lincoln's famous statement about a divided country Dr...
...The Federal treasury, he asserted, will get back not less than 80 or 85 per cent of all money advanced to help homeless farmers, and the losses will be largely concentrated in areas of the Great Plains which have been ravaged in recent years by drought...
...Prey to C'hiselers He,'said that many men forced from/ the land turn to the city for wori...
Vol. 10 • June 1940 • No. 23
