The Migrants: No. 1 Black Spot of the United States
By Dorothy Clark Haskin
What Are the Christians Doing About the Mission Field in Their Ow n Back Yard?
While public interest flares and dies, and the government begins a red-tape, over-all, long-term program, the migrant remains the No. 1 black spot of the U.S.A. It stamps as true the worst lies that Communism tells about the poverty and need in the United States. Estimates of the number of migrants vary from one and a half to two millions. California, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Florida are honeycombed with them. They live, or exist, in Government Camps, contractor camps of 12x15 shacks, in wind-blown tents, or under tamarack trees. These desert smoke trees have branches covered with heavy foliage which sweeps to the ground, making as com plete a shelter as is possible in a tree. These drifting, ill-cared for families are as diverse in nationality as is the whole of the United States. True, the majority are white Americans from Oklahoma and Arkansas, but there are also colored, Mexican Nationals, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hindus and European displaced persons. They have large families. The women bear early and late. Five children is considered a small family for many have ten or twelve children. These children, for the most part, are brought up in one room shacks, often with no flooring, only the trampled earth. The camps are built on the edge of the harvest fields, and the dust seeps in continuously, cover ing everything. Furniture consists of broken-down odds and ends. There are no closets—only a hook or two on which to hang clothing. There are no cupboards but neither are there inside walls, so food is set on the studs. Walls, if papered, are papered with newspapers. Beds are lumpy; linen is grimy. In the contractor camps there is a central washroom and outdoor toilet facilities. But for those who live in tents, or under the trees, there is not even water.
Migrant children. Their I. Q. is high, but their opportunities are low. HUNDRED STARVE IN MIGRANT CAMP was the ban ner headline in national newspapers when migrant workers and their families were found without food. The crop had failed and these people, not eligible for relief, were in dire distress. Mr. and Mrs. Citizen were aroused. The Red Cross proclaimed an emergency and gave the farm laborers tem porary aid. But once that crisis was passed, the migrants were forgotten and again were living on the edge of star vation. WETBACKS SWARM IN stated Life. There was agitation over “Mexicans who disrupt border economy by sneaking over for low wages.” Steps were taken to return by air the thousands of Mexicans who had entered the country illegally, and the migrants were left to perform the “ stoop labor.” HELP FOR MIGRATORY WORKERS promised Quick, describing the work of the Commission on Migratory Labor. This federal agency proposes eventually to end worker migrancy.
Typical Living Quarters in a contractor’s camp ■ T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
A Cotton Camp Group
Page Fourteen
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