January, 1938, 1938

The national setback in the New Deal recovery program resulted in an especially hard winter for the union's members, and there is heavy correspondence between STFU leaders and both state and Federal agencies seeking help for poverty-stricken families. In conjunction with this effort, the STFU undertook several surveys to determine the extent of the need for relief, including a survey of evictions (15) and a survey of union members refused WPA work relief (appears at the end of the month). Mitchell travelled to Washington with the preliminary results of the 1937 survey (see folder 225 above) in hand and reported on his trip to Butler (4 and 5). Internal dissension developed within the union, both in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Oklahoma State Executive Committee listed its complaints (13) and Mitchell tried to straighten things out by correspondence with Odis Sweeden (14 to 16) and by a visit to a special STFU meeting on unemployment in Oklahoma (23 and 24). Late in the month, a group in Cross County, Arkansas formed the wild-cat "Arkansas Agricultural and Labor Association" and J.R. Butler responded with a hard-hitting circular letter to all STFU locals (28). There is also a summary of per capita tax paid to UCAPAWA by the STFU from October to December, 1937 (1); a "report to the International Executive Board, UCAPAWA" from Donald Henderson (18); and a copy of a letter from Barney Egan to his fellow CIO leader John Brophy on trouble between the Texas Pecan Shellers Union and UCAPAWA (26)