January, 1937, 1937

The year began with public hearings of the President's Special Commission on Farm Tenancy at Dallas and Montgomery. The papers include the STFU statements at both hearings, as well as memoranda to the commission from Odis Sweeden and Fred Matthews, STFU leaders in Oklahoma and Texas, respectively (4 to 6). Virtually all of the papers near the middle of the month have to do with the Muskogee Convention, including the "Auditors' Preliminary Report to the Convention", the convention program, Howard Kester's "Ceremony of the Land", revised for the Muskogee meeting, the "Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention" (in both printed and typescript form), and telegrams to the convention from many high-placed government and labor officials. Following the convention, there is considerable correspondence concerning a supposed agreement reached at Muskogee between Mitchell and David Fowler, a UMWA official, to cut ties between the STFU and Commonwealth College. See especially a copy of a letter from Claude Williams to Gardner Jackson, vehemently attacking the alleged bargain (23), and two letters from Howard Kester to Roger Baldwin, explaining the problems at the college and Mitchell's actions (8, 28).