Speech #870011178

Murrow comments that the workers pick beans there at the prevailing rate of 50 cents a hamper. That does not leave. but rather negates. a $1aday impression. Later. in Reverend Cassidys interview. he states that "the grower pays them 45 cents to pick a crate of tomatoes" and that the crew leader of whom he was speaking turned over to the migrant only 12 cents. That does not leave. but rather negates. an impression that the farmers pay $1 a day. Later. in the scene of the strike meeting of cherry pickers. one of the migrants says: "You make $5 or $10 today and tomorrow you just alooking for a job and you stand on the street looking for a job." That does not leave. but rather negates. an impression that the growers pay $1 a day. The monthly wage figures quoted in the analysis for the three States of California. Oregon. and Washington. and for the U.S. average. as of July 1. 1960. are irrelevant. They are cited to counter the "Grapes of Wrath" characterization of the flow of migrants from the Mexican border to the three named States. and to counter. as the analysis states. the impression the uninformed viewer could reasonably suppose that $1 a day was a normal situation. The figures given are irrelevant for two reasons: First. the program did not state $1 a day was the normal situation (this we have shown above). second. the figures quoted in the analysis are on bases of per month. per week. per day. per hour. but do not suggest how many months or weeks or days or hours an average migrant works per year. The figure used on "Harvest of Shame" was an average of $900 a year. (See p. 4. "Report to the President on Domestic Migratory Farm Labor (1960)": "* * * the migrant earns an average of about $900 per year and lives a life that is characterized by exclusion.") In short. your letter of December and the analysis seek to create a "strawman" issue of $1 a day. There is no $1 a day implication. such as you and the analysis have suggested. Finally. with respect to the $1 a day issue. the analysis notes that the woman interviewed had stated she had not put her four children in a nursery (she had left them at the Okeechobee labor camp) because she didnt make enough to pay the 85 cents (per day) charge for the nursery.