Position of Farm Workers in Federal and State Legislation
This pamphlet, written by Robin Myers and published by the National Advisory Committee on Farm Labor, describes the rights of migrant farm workers in the late 1950s. This excerpt describes the conditions and the rights of child workers at both the state and national legislative levels. <br /><br />The National Advisory Committee on Farm Labor (NACFL) grew out of the work of the <a href="https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/3199" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Sharecroppers Fund</a>. <br /><br />The NACFL was organized in 1958 as a fact-finding, reporting agency whose goal was to build public awareness of the substandard living and working conditions of farm laborers. (<a href="https://reuther.wayne.edu/files/LR000393.pdf" target="_blank" title="Finding aid NSF collection" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuther Library</a>, n.d.) Leaders included Eleanor Roosevelt, Socialist party presidental candidate Norman Thomas, Catholic Archbishop Robert Emmet Lucey, Rabbi Eugene Lipman of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Presbyterian theologian Dr. John A. Mackay, and Tuskegee Institute president, Dr. L. H. Foster (<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/farmworker-advocacy-through-guestworker-policy-secretary-of-labor-james-p-mitchell-and-the-bracero-program/99180F6F8E1DC1D2D451F7612DBF6823/core-reader#fn79" target="_blank" title="Farmworker Advocacy through Guestworker Policy" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hazelton</a>, 2017).<br /><br />In 1958 and 1964, the NACFL held public hearings on farm labor and rural poverty. The agency dissolved in 1968.<br /><br />Excerpts:<br /><br />p. 34 "Children of migrant agricultural workers suffer from all the disadvantages and disabilities that handicap the whole migrant community -- unusual health hazards, inadequate food and housing due to low income level, lack of stable family life, and rejection by the community. In addition, two aspects of the migrant situation particularly affect the children and their future. The first is the common use of child workers, both legally and illegally. The second is their deprivation of such educational opportunities as would enable them to make their own lives an improvement over those of their parents." <br /><br />p. 35 "'Many of the Nation's farms do not come under the provisions of these Federal Acts. Only 6 States, 3 Territories, and the District of Columbia expressly provide a minimum age for agricultural work outside school hours, and only 13 States, 2 Territories, and the District of Columbia expressly provide a minimum age during school hours.'" (quoted from <em>Child Workers in Agriculture</em>, Leaflet No. 4, U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1959)<br /><br />p. 37 "The most common reason for the employment of child workers in agriculture, to an extent no longer acceptable in other industries, is that the low wage of the bread-winner of the family is not sufficient (averaging under $900 a year) to pay minimum family expenses, and so everyone works who can. This in turn creates the vicxious cycle of child labor lowering wage standards and contributing to the perpetuation of subnormal wages."<br /><br />p. 38 "In most places, the local schools cannot handle and do not want migrant children."
Myers, Robin
Box 248, <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/library/poage/index.php?id=925919" target="_blank" title="Congressional Collections" rel="noreferrer noopener">O. C. Fisher Congressional Collection</a>, The W. R. Poage Legislative Library Political Collections, Baylor University Libraries
1959 August
Baylor University Libraries
<a href="http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights</a>
Learn more:<br /><br />Hazelton, A. J. (2017). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030617000185" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Farmworker Advocacy through Guestworker Policy: Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell and the Bracero Program.</a> <em>Journal of Policy History</em> 29 (July), p. 431-461. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030617000185" target="_blank" class="url doi" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030617000185</a><br /><br /><a href="https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/3199" target="_blank" title="National Sharecropper Fund Records (finding aid)" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Sharecropper Fund Records</a>, Walter P. Reuther Library (finding aid).<br /><br />Cosgrove, B. (2013) <a href="http://time.com/3722532/bitter-harvest-life-with-americas-migrant-workers-1959/" target="_blank" title="Bitter Harvest (photographs)" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitter Harvest: LIFE With America's Migrant Workers, 1959</a>. <em>LIFE magazine</em> <span>Mar 10, 2013. (Previously unpublished photographs by </span>Michael Rougier). <br /><br />Furman, M. (1959). <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435030100218;view=2up;seq=2" target="_blank" title="Some Facts for Young Workers" rel="noreferrer noopener">Some Facts for Young Workers about Work and Labor Laws.</a> Washington : U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Standards.
Use of Mexican Workers Does Not Depress Farm Wages
This article compares the hourly wages of farm workers state-by-state, along with the number of Mexican workers employed in 1962. <br /><br />The document's author states, "The current average hourly farm wage of the 21 States in which Mexican workers were used in 1962 is $1.13 per hour. The average of the 27 States in which no Mexican nationals were used in 1962 is $1.04 per hour...."<br /><br />"One conclusion, however is obvious; that factors other than employment of Mexican nationals dominate in the establishment of farm wage rates and if there is <span style="text-decoration:underline;">any correlation whatever between the employment of Mexican nationals, or the number employed, and the level of farm wages in the various States, it is that farm wages tend to be higher in States where substantial numbers of Mexican workers are employed."</span>
unknown
<a href="https://www.baylor.edu/lib/poage/doc.php/251040.pdf" target="_blank" title="W. R. Poage papers finding aid" rel="noreferrer noopener">Box 241, f. 13</a><span>, W. R. Poage Papers, The W. R. Poage Legislative Library Political Collections, Baylor University Libraries</span>
1963
Baylor University Libraries
<a href="http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights</a>
<span>Learn more:</span><br /><br /><span>Hazelton, A. J. (2017). </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030617000185" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Farmworker Advocacy through Guestworker Policy: Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell and the Bracero Program.</a><span> </span><em>Journal of Policy History</em><span> 29 (July), p. 431-461. </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030617000185" target="_blank" class="url doi" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030617000185</a><br /><br /><span>Cosgrove, B. (2013) </span><a href="http://time.com/3722532/bitter-harvest-life-with-americas-migrant-workers-1959/" target="_blank" title="Bitter Harvest (photographs)" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitter Harvest: LIFE With America's Migrant Workers, 1959</a><span>. </span><em>LIFE magazine</em><span> </span><span>Mar 10, 2013. (Previously unpublished photographs by </span><span>Michael Rougier). <br /><br /></span><a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/317" target="_blank" title="Migrant Children and Youth by Florence Wyckoff" rel="noreferrer noopener">Migrant Children and Youth</a>, Social Welfare History Image Portal