Flee Dust Bowl for California
Source: "Flee Dust Bowl for California," Business Week, Vol. 33, No. 409 (July 3, 1937), 36-37. Reprinted by permission of McIntosh and Otis, Inc.
California business men are watching with mixed emotions the current influx of families from the Dust Bowl which, since Jan. 1, has brought more than 30,000 persons into the state. . . . The influx is now averaging one immigrant outfit every ten minutes, and the trek has only begun. . . . Many of the newcomers are competent farmers who have lost out in the drought and are seeking greener fields in California. They're eager to work for wages on the farms, to save what they can, and eventually buy land of their own. They're decidedly in the minority. The rank and file are out to seek their fortunes in a land where, so they have been told, living is easier. The relief office is the objective of many of these, and relief costs, especially in the San Joaquin counties, are rising. . . . [W]hen the Dust Bowl people show up at the San Joaquin farmer's door asking for work, they're usually welcome, especially as heretofore employers have had to transport most of their laborers to the fields. Experience has shown, too, that most of the newcomers won't have anything to do with farm labor organizers for a time, at least, and this condition may tend to relieve the pressure of the agricultural unions on California farmers during this harvest season. . . . The addition of so great an army of immigrants to the farm areas is stimulating certain lines of retail business. . . . The newcomers must eat. They must buy a certain amount of clothing (shelter, water, and wood are furnished by employers to those who work on the farms). The wages these people receive are providing many of them with the first real cash they've had in months, and they're eager to buy. Observers point out that much of this buying is not "healthy," that wages are going for down payments on radios, automobiles, cheap jewelry, rather than for necessities. On the other side of the picture, Mr. John Citizen, of the San Joaquin Valley, when questioned on the unprecedented immigration throws up his hands. For every worker that presents himself at the farmer's door asking for a job, another goes on relief with his entire family. . . . County hospitals are crowded with free patients, many of them maternity cases, neatly timed for arrival in California at the crucial moment. Schools are overwhelmed with new pupils. . . . A social worker asked one man why he had come to California. He pulled two newspaper clippings from his pocket, one from an Oklahoma paper and another from Texas. In them were unsigned advertisements painting in glowing terms the wonderful opportunities to be found in California. Are certain interests exploiting these people as ruthlessly as the steamship companies did during the days of the great immigrations from southern Europe two or three decades ago? Is there any doubt of it?"
Understanding the Meaning
Making Inferences
- How does the Business Week article characterize Dust Bowl migrants?
- What services are provided for migrants in California communities?
- What are the problems associated with the influx of large number of migrant farm workers?
- What impact does this migration have on California communities?
- What is the impact of large numbers of migrant laborers on union organization in the state
Making Inferences
- What is the general impression given of most Dust Bowl migrants?
- Contrast Steinbeck's views expressed in "The Harvest Gypsies" to those presented in theBusiness Week report. What accounts for the different perspectives?