The South Works cut my hours again. They blame the NIRA, saying they have to give everyone equality, which means we have to just accept more cuts. My children aren’t learning a thing, and there’s no work to be had for Susan. Still, we decided to go to the opening of the World’s Fair. It’s called a Century of Progress. They opened a “Rainbow City”, with bright buildings changing the skyline.

It was nice to take in the Skyride and see the city from the air. Jeanette saw our neighborhood. I chose to look the other way.
We weren’t that fortunate at the Darkest Africa exhibition. People said to be our ancestors were whooping and dancing half-naked in cages.
“Send you back to the Jungle where you belong”. My family doesn’t belong in Mississippi either. We don’t belong at the restaurant on the fairgrounds that refused us service. When times are tough it seems that the spaces we manage to carve for ourselves get smoothed away.
Our banks close, our jobs get lost, our children go without, just like the rest. But I keep hearing that the NRA is helping the working man. To me it just seems like the Negro Removal Act.
But I can’t think about that right now. Anne-Marie wants an ice cream cone, and as a family we’re taking in a Century of Progress.

” What makes the landscape look so fair,
What blossoms bright perfume the air,
What plants repay the farmer’s toil
And will enrich the worn-out soil?—Alfalfa.

What grows in loam and clay and sand,
What lifts the mortgage off the land,
What crop is cut four times a year,
And no foul weeds in it appear?—Alfalfa.

What makes all the stock look nice,
And brings the highest market price,
What fills the milk pail, feeds the calf,
And makes the old cow almost laugh ?—Alfalfa.”

I decided to grow some alfalfa this year—my drought-stricken land that has good drainage should be perfect for it. I’m going to grow mostly corn as usual, but between the extreme heat, potential flooding and other natural disasters and the grasshoppers eating up the crops, I am not sure what I will have to harvest come the fall!
The weather here in Nebraska is extreme and unpredictable. In the winter we tie clotheslines between the barn and the house to get around during the blizzards and in the summer we sometimes sleep outside because it is so hot out. Not to mention the ferocious dust storms that descend upon the land or deadly tornadoes that rip through the countryside. This type of weather is not completely out of the ordinary, but since the Great Drought of 1930 everything just seems so much more extreme. If you had told me fifteen years ago that I wouldn’t be able to afford to make my mortgage payments or even buy groceries and that I’d be out catching rabbits for dinner every night, I would have thought you were crazy. By planting this alfalfa, I’m just trying to make the best of it.

To end this on a happier note, here is the song my wife has always sung during tough times:

Sometimes, if we help Gracie’s mother with the washing, she takes us to the movies. When they end, it’s all she can do to pry me out of the seat!

Gracie’s mother said that we should learn a lesson from the pigs: If we work hard, then the Depression isn’t so scary after all. I’m not too sure though; Daddy works harder than anyone I know, and the only money we have comes when Peter and Eric send it back to us. The wolf seemed really scary. Especially since the newsreel we saw before the film said that farmers have had to slaughter pigs because the government won’t let them have any more – at least I think that’s what the man said. That makes the New Deal seem like the Big Bad Wolf instead. Everything is topsy-turvy. My Uncle says things are worse than ever, but Daddy says he is very hopeful now. But I had to stop talking about it when Gold Diggers of 1933 started:

I just sat back and pretended I was in that chorus line – I wish I didn’t have to worry about “Headlines or Breadlines”, either. Although we haven’t had to go back to the St. Mark’s for a handout since that one day.
Gracie doesn’t like Ginger Rogers as much as Mae West. But personally I think she’s too brash. I danced like Ginger all the way home.

Greetings from Sebring, Florida where I’ve started my new job as a proud member of the Civilian Conservation Corps! While I really miss my family, it is good to be working hard at a job again and the camaraderie around here brings me back to my days in the Army. It is not as strict as the military, but they do keep us on a pretty tight schedule, here is what a typical day is like for me:

6:00 AM—Revelry!

6:30 AM—Physical Training (we have to be washed, dressed and in formation.)

7:15 AM—Breakfast (usually stewed prunes, cereal, ham, eggs, coffee and milk—a real stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal.)

7:45 AM—Roll Call and Inspection before work (Each morning at my CCC camp, our commanding officer gives us a little pep talk for the day before we head out to our job sites and he always ends it with “another day, another dollar!” to which my buddy Pete, a fellow vet always responds “Great! In a million days, I’ll be a millionaire!”)

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM—Work (Right now we are constructing a bridge and adjacent roadways in the Highlands Hammock State Park. My days at the family logging company are coming in handy with a lot of the work here.)

12:00 – 1:00 PM—Lunch (Usually this consists of baloney sandwiches, pb & j sandwiches, fruit, pie, and coffee, although sometimes we luck out and get a full hot meal.)

1:00 – 4:00 PM—Work (When it gets really hot in the afternoon, we usually sing songs to get through the work, here is a link to one of our favorites: Loveless CCC)

4:00 – 6:00 PM—Free time (The younger guys usually organize a football or baseball game before dinner. I think they are trying to set up a formal intramural league for baseball because the games have gotten highly competitive! I usually use this time to head to the library and catch up on my reading. It is a small library, but we rotate books among CCC camps and yesterday I started 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.)

6:00 – 7:00 PM—Dinner (Each day of the week is a different meal. My favorite days are Monday when we get beef stew with biscuits and Wednesday when we have spaghetti and tomato sauce. There is always lots of fresh fruit, dessert and coffee too.)

7:00 – 9:45 PM—Recreation time (A lot of the other vets and I enjoy shooting pool or playing cards in the evening and I make sure to write home every few days. This is also the time when the Exchange is open (the general store for the camp.) We only have $8.00 per month for personal use, the other $24.00 goes home to our families. I usually only spend money on essentials and postage.

9:45 PM—Camp lights flash indicating lights out in 15 minutes. I’m usually in bed by 9:00 PM.

10:00 PM—Lights out

10:15 PM—Taps

So as you can see they keep us busy during the week. On the weekend, our time is our own, so we usually organize activities at the camp or head into town. A few of us have even started a little band. We have a banjo, harmonica, accordion, guitar and my fiddle and we sing all types of folksy songs. Many of the younger men go to town to chase girls at church dances or the local bars on the weekends. In a few weeks I’ll get the chance to go home and visit my family for a long weekend. Well, I should get off to bed, it has been a long day!

There was so much enthusiasm in the beginning. It feels like so long ago that I was worrying about getting banking legislation through Congress. Washington, with a few challenges here and there, still seemed rather agreeable to me. However the Federal Emergency Relief Act has come up against the Old Right, even within the Public Employment Office. The idea that government can give mandates to businesses does not sit well with their non-interventionist ideology. We had finally gotten the president to bring government directly to the people, and the devil has taken this moment to perch on his shoulder and spout reactionary nonsense!
Just today, Governor Eugene Talmadge called the FERA a waste of taxpayers’ money, and a way to reward the shiftless and lazy. All because the South is upset that the Administration sets the rules for the ways in which states doll out relief. Don’t they understand that we want to keep the money out of the hands of the shiftless and lazy? We want to put people to work, that is the whole object of the Act.
The President hates the idea of the dole, and even he understands why he had to sign it into law. It’s a joint effort between the federal and state government agencies, when did it become so hard to cooperate –
And apparently Secretary Perkins just got back from a meeting where Republican Senator Simeon D. Fess just complained that “Uncle Sam is looked upon as a Santa Claus to give alms.”
Attack the bill on it’s merits, don’t just cry socialism, it’s absurd!

Did you know that nearly 9000 banks have failed since Black Friday? 4000 this year alone! We very nearly lost all our savings because of a run on our bank. Now that we have put our little bit of savings and my meager paychecks in the bank, I’ve still been as nervous about our money being safe there as when it was under my mattress. Al and I have been fighting about this all the time because my concern is that who is to say that our local bank won’t fail again? I just don’t see how our situation is any better than it was a hundred days ago when FDR first came into office. Yes, there have been various programs enacted to help people in industrial and agricultural sectors, but all I’ve noticed around here is a greater influx of dirt poor migrant workers coming from the Plains looking for work.

Al says that many of the acts pertaining to banking actually are going to help us, including this second Glass-Steagall Act passed today. Part of the act is the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the FDIC, which will ensure deposits up to $2500. So if our bank fails, our money will be insured and we won’t lose it. As for all of the other programs being enacted, Al has assured me that they are meant to help the people and sectors in the direst situations, which in turn helps our economy as a whole.

Since he has a lot of free time during the day he reads the paper and listens to the radio so I guess I’ll have to concede that he is better informed than I am. He believes that FDR is just trying a bunch of things and seeing what works and what does not, especially since he did say in his inaugural address that we “need action and action now.” I still think there is a long way to go to get us out of this depression, though, and until we can afford to purchase meat other than hot dogs and do not have to make shoe soles out of cardboard when the rubber wears down, I don’t believe things are any better off. I guess we’ll just have to continue to make do.

Peter and Eric came home for a visit! They look so different even though it’s only been a month and a bit. They have more muscles. Eric said it’s from chopping trees and clearing logs, but Peter said they’ve just been eating their spinach at Green Lake, so now they’re strong like Popeye. I think he’s joking. Mommy made a torte and Daddy said he was happy to see them. Still, Daddy didn’t look all that happy.
They’re home, we could all listen to the Lone Ranger like we used to, and Kurt and John got piggyback rides all over 86th street. Do we have to be sad all of the time? Mommy had me sit down at the table with her and she explained that Daddy was hoping that there would be more jobs in the City, and that he would have work, and so would my brothers. She’s never told me everything like that before.
I wish there were more jobs in the city, too. Mommy says the New Deal doesn’t mean everything happens like lightning, but that we have to be patient. She says the President has created more laws that help working people and people trying to find work. He will give people jobs building towers and bridges in the city. The people in charge just need time to get organized. Then she started spelling things out the little ones wouldn’t understand: CCC, NIRA, NRA, PWA – I didn’t really understand either! I want Daddy building the top of a skyscraper though, so I can come visit.
I can be patient. I can! But I don’t know about Daddy though.

Help is on the way, said the President. He just passed laws saying that anyone can organize; it’s their right. White workers were all buzzing at South Works today. People like me hung back. It’s not that we aren’t hungry for a fair shake, believe me. It’s about time. But we’re skeptical. For so long these white men have worked next to us but in faraway neighborhoods as a means of keeping us apart. Now, it’s time for solidarity?
Worst of all, South Works is insisting on a Company Union. It’s not a trade union, we’re still not independent. Company Unions might be following the letter of President Roosevelt’s law, but definitely not the spirit. It’s more of the same. They decide what you can ask for and they set your wages. Sure they send a basket of food to a man they’ve fired, but a worker can’t even take steps to help his family because the boss won’t allow it.
I’ve heard that the Steel Workers’ Committee might send someone over here to help fight for Trade Unions. If they help us organize, I’ll join. If we’re getting a chance to form something all together, side by side, I want to be a part of it. Right now I have to worry about my family, and this law isn’t doing enough to help the people that really need it.

I had tears in my eyes after the passage of the NIRA. I didn’t even cry at the inauguration. The people will finally get a chance to help better their stations in life through the Public Works Administration, being created as part of the National Recovery Act.
I cannot even tell you how much convincing it took. Back in April, Secretary Perkins wanted $5 Billion in grants, and that did not sit well with the President. 3.3 Billion became the final number, it’s oddly specific. That too was almost dropped on the final bill back in May. We worked all night before Mrs. Perkins met with the President, preparing to defend including Public Works in the Industrial Relief Bill. What better way to relieve an industry?
Said the President, “Between these twin efforts – public works and industrial re-employment – it is not too much to expect that a great many men and women can be taken from the ranks of the unemployed before winter comes.”
I feel so proud that they left the provision in. Secretary Perkins fought so valiantly, and now the people will get the relief that they need. Let the naysayers accuse Uncle of Sam of being Santa Claus. For that matter, let us be cast as the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy! If you had seen the children in the cities and towns across this nation who had to go without food, clothing and shelter because their parents had no work, you wouldn’t care what your political opponents thought of your legislation, either.
But don’t take it from me:

http://bubble-cast.com

Source

I hope that years from now I can tell my grandkids that today was the day FDR saved our farm. The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act was passed today, which is intended to provide assistance to people delinquent on their loan payments by extending the payment period and offering emergency financing. I haven’t been able to pay my loans for quite some time, so this assistance will be a big relief. Between this and the payments I’ll be getting to not plant all my land from the AAA things are beginning to look up. But I’m being cautiously optimistic, because the government cannot assist us like this forever and it will be a while before we feel the effects of these acts. I’m just going to keep on focusing on getting through each day. A day with food in my belly and no dust storms is a good day for me…for now.