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- Title
MIGRATORY AGRICULTURAL WORKERS ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
- Authors
Taylor, Paul S.
- Abstract
The article presents information on migratory agricultural workers on the Pacific coast. It is essential to the success of agriculture that the harvests shall precede in peace, but in 1933 and 1934 the harvesting of crops was interrupted by more than fifty strikes. While there were few outbreaks in 1937, the growers report agitators in the field, are apprehensive, and are organized from Arizona to Washington. According to press reports, probably exaggerated, the Associated Farmers claim "35,000 militant farmers," 25,000 in California and 10,000 in Arizona, Oregon and Washington, ready to fight the subversive activities of the Communists and their allies, including the C.I.O. The reasons for dependence on migratory labor, and for the peculiar labor relations which characterize irrigated agriculture in the Far West, are deep seated. Not only is large-scale agriculture prevalent in the Far West and concentration of employment in relatively few hands, but also wage relations are highly developed with gang labor typical, including piece rates, hourly rates, foremen and labor contractors. Open-air food factories producing for a highly commercialized market predominate in many parts of these states and have stamped agriculture there with an industrial pattern.
- Subjects
HUMAN migrations; MIGRANT agricultural workers; ECONOMIC policy; SECURITY systems; LABOR contractors; LABOR policy
- Publication
American Sociological Review, 1938, Vol 3, Issue 2, p225
- ISSN
0003-1224
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2084256