April, 1945, 1945

Efforts to save the Delmo Labor Homes were focused on Congress, as the STFU lobbied for legislation which would direct the FSA to sell the homes to the residents at a reasonable price. The members of Congress most directly involved in the campaign were Senators Frank P. Briggs of Missouri and William Langer of North Dakota, as well as Congressmen Orville Zimmerman of Missouri and Frank Hook of Michigan. The key documents include: a "Fact Sheet" on Delmo by David Burgess (3); the FSA to Zimmerman, stating their policy on sales of projects (10); an exchange between Mitchell and the FSA on complaints of Delmo tenants 912,17); and a detailed memorandum for Burgess to Mitchell on his conversation with FSA Regional Director Stephen C. Hughes in Indianapolis (n.d.). There are lengthy reports from organizer Ruby Warren at the Edgar F. Hurff Co. in New Jersey (9,18,21,23), and a memorandum by W.R. Ogg of the Farm Bureau replying to the STFU claim that the South had a surplus of farm labor (9)