October, 1942, 1942

The WMC took up Mitchell's offer and the planning began in earnest. FSA Administrator C.B. Baldwin supplied detailed information on prevailing conditions about wage rates in California, but claimed to know little about Arizona and New Mexico (13). Odis Sweeden, a former STFU leader in Oklahoma, happened to be in Arizona and sent Mitchell the missing information (15); the sheet of paper on which Sweeden answered Mitchell's questions is lost, but see Mitchell's transcription of Sweeden's replies (20). There are three comprehensive memoranda in which Mitchell set forth his position: one to the War Manpower Advisory Committee, written in response to a request from Walter Reuther (6), one to the WMC itself (15), and one to the Farmers' Union over possible affiliation came to a somewhat caustic end; see the letter from NFU President James Patton (5) and Mitchell's memorandum describing the full history of the negotiations (9)