January, 1942, 1942

Papers for the Eighth Annual STFU Convention, held at Sheffield, Alabama on Jan. 7 to 10, are far more extensive than the papers for previous conventions. They include the program, list of delegates, reports from Butler , Betton, Mitchell, and J.F. Hynds (on his work settling claims against the AAA), the "STFU Sign Manual and Ritual", approximately fifty resolutions passed at the convention, including one on the retirement of J.R. Butler as STFU President, and a thoroughly revised union Constitution. A set of typed minutes, with handwritten corrections, does appear, but the printed Proceedings does not. For the first time since the mid-1930s, the STFU encountered large-scale violence when a group of planters broke up two union meetings at Caruthersville, Mo. on Jan. 16 and 23, and the correspondence from Jan. 17 onward is almost solely devoted to the incident. Major figures involved in the Caruthersville affair include Mitchell, Missouri organizer W.M. Tanner, Governor Forrest C. Donnell of Missouri, Frank McCallister, Secretary of the Southern WDL, and William Green, President of the AF of L