THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE development OF THE MIGRATORY FARM LABOR SYSTEM IN TEXAS: 1900-1954 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY GEORGE oT' COALS ON Norman, Oklahoma 1955 THE DEVELOPIv'IENT OF THE MIGRATORY FARI4 LABOR SYSTEM IN TEXAS: 1900-1954 APPROVED BY THESIS COmHTTEE PREFACE The present system of migratory farm labor In Texas has developed since 190 O. During the past fifty years, the traditional labor requirements were altered on thousands of Texas farms, forcing farmers to become dependent upon non­ resident labor to meet their seasonal labor needs. The de­ mand for seasonal labor was met by workers, drawn largely from the Mexican population in the southern part of the state, who were willing to follow the crops throughout Texas, work­ ing wherever and whenever they were needed. The present paper was v/ritten in an effort to trace the development of this system of migration. No attempt has been made to present a sociological study in which recommen­ dations are made to solve the complex problems which have arisen as a result of the growth of the migratory farm labor system. Instead, the problems have been treated more in respect to their historical perspective and chronological sequence. I wish to express my sincere appreciation to those who gave encouragement and help in the writing of this manu­ script. I am especially indebted to Dr. W. Eugene Hollon i i i for his helpful criticism and counsel. To Drs. A. K. C h ris­ tian, A. B. Sears, D. J. Berthrong, and Jim E. Reese I am grateful for their reading and criticizing the manuscript. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Clay Cochran for his early encouragement; to Miss Opal Carr for her as­ sistance in locating certain government publications; and to the librarians and staffs of the University of Texas Libraries, the Texas State Library, and the Texas Agricul­ tural and Mechanical College Library for their help in finding material. In addition, I wish to express my appreciation to Mr. Jerry R. Holleman, who gave me access to the files of the Texas Federation of Labor on wetback labor, and to Mr. Andrew C. McLellan of Rio Grande C ity, Texas, who gave gen­ erously of his time to discuss the migratory farm labor problem with me. Also, I thank Mrs. Dorothy Jean Peach for typing the final manuscript. Finally, I shall be forever grateful to my wife, Angeline, whose assistance in collect­ ing material, as well as in reading and typing the prelim­ inary drafts of the manuscript was invaluable. George 0. Coalson Norman, Oklahoma IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................... vl LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS...................................................................................... v il Chapter I . LABOR SYSTEMS IN TEXAS 1900-1954 ................................... 1 I I . THE BUILDING UP OF A LABOR RESERVOIR: 1 9 0 0 -1 9 3 0 ............................................................................................ 21 I I I . THE MIGRATORY LABOR SYSTEM.................................................. 39 IV. OUT-OF-STATE MIGRATION............................................................ 59 V. ORGANIZING THE LABOR MARKET: 1909-1940 ................ 83 VI. THE MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE 1930' s ................................. 102 VII. THE EMERGENCY FARM LABOR PROGRAM................................... 124 V III. THE WETBACK INVASION............................... l4? IX. THE CONTRACTING OF MEXICAN NATIONALS......................... 173 X. POSTWAR RECRUITMENT AND DIRECTION OF MIGRANT LABOR.................................................................. 203 XI. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................224 ' î l " ■ BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................ 229 V LIST OF TABLES T a b le Page 1. Cotton Acreage and Production in Texas: 1910-1950. .................................................. 9 2. Labor Requirements per Acre for Selected Crops: Texas ....................................................................................... 19 3. Mexican-born Persons Residing in U. S. and Texas, 1900-1930 ..................................... 24 4. Farm Wages p er Day, W ithout Board, fo r Unskilled Men, Selected Months, Averages, 1947-49 Mexico .................................................................................... 151 5. Migratory Workers Sent Out of Texas, by States of Destination, 1954 ................................................... 204 6 . Migratory Workers Leaving Texas for Agricultural Employment in Other States: 1939-1954 ........................ 215 Vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Texas Shifting Cotton Production ........................................................ 5 Cotton Picking Seasons in Texas ........................................................... 42 Major Migratory Routes to High Plains ............................................ 45 Travel Patterns, Migratory Agricultural Workers ..................... 212 v i i THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE MIGRATORY FARM LABOR SYSTEM IN TEXAS: 1900-1954 CHAPTER I THE CREATION OF A DEMAND FOR MIGRATORY LABOR Various developments occurring In agricultural labor requirements have changed the basic character of Texas agri­ culture within the past fifty years. Prior to the twentieth century the agricultural scene was characterized by the farmer who performed all the necessary work on the farm. Whether owner, tenant, or sharecropper, he and his family planted, cultivated, and harvested the crops throughout the year. Very little outside labor was required, and then It usually was provided by a single hired hand or neighbors. The twentieth century, however, witnessed the alteration of the traditional labor requirements on large numbers of Texas farms. The resident labor force, once able to perform all the tasks on the farm, came to be supplemented by a new type of labor -- seasonal and migratory by nature. This labor force consisted of thousands of workers who were willing to travel hundreds of miles each year, following the crops as they matured throughout the state and working only a few days 2 or weeks on each farm . In Texas the demand for non resident labor resulted largely from certain changes in the state's farm economy: (l) the development of new cotton producing areas, (2) the partial mechanization of cotton production, and (3) the in­ troduction of fresh fruit and vegetable industries in South Texas. Cotton has always been an important crop in Texas sin c e i t was f i r s t introduced in 1822 by Stephen F. A u stin 's 1 colonists. During the period before the Civil War, cotton production was confined generally to two regions: the first and most important one was the Brazos River Valley, extend­ ing about 150 miles into the interior; the second was located 2 in the northeastern and eastern section of the state. In­ deed, cotton culture proved so successful in these areas that by 1859 Texas ranked fifth in the nation in the production of 3 t h i s crop. It was not until after the Civil War that the present great cotton producing areas were opened up. The first to be developed was the Black Waxy region, a narrow strip of land more than three hundred miles long and from twenty-five 1---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rupert B. Vance, Human Geography of the South (Chapel Hill, North Carolina,“ l$35),326-3^7. 2 L. P. Gabbard and H. E. Rea, Cotton Production in Texas, Texas Agricultural Experiment SiâTTôn~cTr^cinârnNôT~39 (College Station, Texas, 1926), 8. 3 Elmer H. Johnson, The Basis of the Commercial and Industrial Development of Texas, University of Texas Bulletin So. 3 3 0 9 .{Austin, fexas. 1^33),, 6 2 . ........................................ 3 to seventy-five miles wide stretching across the central part of the state from the Red River north of Dallas to just above San Antonio. Before the Civil War this part of Texas had been given over largely to sheep and cattle ranching. The lack of transportation for getting farm products to market and the prejudice which many farmers had against prairie land had held up settlement in the area. However, the iSyO's brought railroads into the region and with them many farmers who soon discovered that the dark prairie soils were ideally 4 suited for growing cotton. In subsequent years the produc­ tion of cotton gradually supplanted ranching as the main industry in the Black Waxy region, and by 1922 approximately ninety-three percent of the land was under cultivation with about sixty-seven percent of the total cultivated acreage 5 planted in cotton. Meanwhile, cotton continued to spread westward across the s t a t e . I t was not long b efo re the d isco v ery was made that it would grow well in the sandy loam of the more level areas of the Rolling Plains, nor was the subhumid climate of the section too severe for the plant. In the l880's there 4 Edmond C. Day, "History of the Agricultural Develop­ ment of Texas" (Unpublished M.A. thesis. Dept, of History, University of Texas, 1926), 8 7 , 101. 5 L. P. Gabbard, J. B. Hutson, and T. L. Gaston, J r . , Systems of Farming for the Black Waxy Prairie of Texas, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 3^5 (College Station, Texas, 19 2 9 ) , 7 . 4 began a steady migration