Responding to Okie Migration

A Review of Walter J. Stein’s California and the Dust Bowl Migration

Walter J. Stein is currently a professor at the University of Winnepeg. He graduated school from the University of California Berkeley. This is his only novel and was originally a doctoral dissertation. He is well respected by the historical community for his work.

BY KEVIN EDMONDS

After the Great Depression hit the farmers of the Midwest during the 1930s, they were sent into financial hardships. Pushed off their farms and out of jobs, these so called “Okies” began to search west for other opportunities. Staring at them was the haven of California. Although many people believe the Okies heard about job opportunities from California advertisers, they were actually told to come by their fellow Okies. However many ended up coming because of they had the “hope of improving their economic conditions.”1 The Great Depression was a springboard for people to drive down Highway 66 to California, as Walter J. Stein illustrates in his California and the Dust Bowl Migration.

At the beginning of the book, Stein discusses why the Okies decided to move west. Even before the Great Depression, the Okies had an ebbing and flowing cyclic relationship filled with success. At times, the Okies were able to lead successful lives as farmers, while at other times, drought and other factors cause the Okies hardships. However, the Great Depression was the worst of these cycles. Even though the Dust Bowl was a cause of some Americans’ decisions to migrate westward, it was not the main cause of migration. Many of the farmers had too little land to support themselves or their family and were eventually evicted from their property. This was one of the first movements to California that involved the migrations of whole families and not just individuals looking for jobs. Also, farmers—to their chagrin—knew that new technology had also played a prominent role in their removal. New technologies forced farmers to lose their jobs and land because bigger farms could afford more machines and less labor. Therefore, there were fewer jobs in the Midwest than before. And with California full of farms, many people believed that there was a higher opportunity for success in California. In fact, it was “California’s years of self-praise, agricultural abundance, and newly discovered cotton bounty” that pulled Okies west.2 The so-called Dust Bowl migration was the product of two forces. One was the drought, depression, and mechanization of the era. The other was the results of untenable agricultural life on the Great Plains.

The author then discusses the impact the Okies had on the Californians, economy, and politics of the state. Because California was dominated by three lush fertile valleys, the migrants began to take over major areas of the state, disrupting the delicate balance of California’s economical structure. These problems led to political struggles within California, particularly during the 1938 governor election. Also, migrants were not typical agricultural workers of the era. Many of California’s fields were filled with non-Anglo-Saxon Protestants, many of whom were Mexican. A little before the Great Depression and the wave of immigrants hit California, the repatriation of Mexicans removed over 50 thousand laborers from the area, which had far reaching results on California’s agriculture. Thus, there was a gap in California’s labor, but the amount of Okies that arrived in California as a result was larger than what was required. Migrants brought the Californian agricultural scene into chaos, willing to work for lower wages than Mexicans. They migrants “accepted any wage in the cotton fields.”3 This angered Mexicans. Because the new migrants were willing to work for less money, they could no longer use strikes as a way of protest. The migrant influx also retarded the recovery of wage levels that should have accompanied the reviving farm income. Also, most of the migration was concentrated into three years of migration. County officials tried to get federal help for the massive immigration, but were unsuccessful. Also, the federal government enacted the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which allowed cotton growers to evict tenants, sending even more Okies to California. The floods of 1938 and the AAA created a cataclysmic series of events that brought attention to the Okie influx. However, those rich and influential in the farming community benefited from the migrant problem: there would never be a shortage in labor. The politics also shifted because many of the Okies were Democratic; however, their opinions were usually similar to other Californian farmers.

The government of California tried very hard to deal with Okie migration. The Merriam administration that had held office prior to the Okie migration left office and was succeeded by the new Olson regime. Olson had little to fear from the migrants and detested those who owned the factories in the fields and manipulated their bounty for personal profit. Olson never acquiesced in the popular tendency to equate the Okies with unemployment benefits, using relief policies that brought powerful opposition from grower organizations. However, new relief rules hit migrant families in the San Joaquin Valley hard despite a sympathetic governor. Many members of the economy bloc sought to lower taxes by directly lowering the amount of relief towards the Okies. However, all laws hindering the Okies were determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court—other states had similar laws to California rescinded as well. The federal government also tried to ease the problem of migrants, but found it difficult because of the dual role of the migrants. Roosevelt could not help the migrants very much because many of his bills were blocked in the Senate, hindering administration. The resettlement administration became one attempt by the federal government to ease migrant problems. However, personal differences concerning the direction of the program were a more important source of division than patronage politics. The program was also hurt because they had to provide medical care for the migrants who could not afford the expensive care. Migrants congregated under the direction of administrations with interest in their conditions, though, in Farm Security Administration (FSA) camps. The key people at the FSA camps were those who “lived at the camps and were in constant intimate contact with the campers.”4 The FSA also sponsored recreational, cultural, health, home industry, and self-help programs to better the lives of the campers. There were also many ways for people to entertain themselves within the camp. In fact, John Steinbeck lived in one of these FSA camps with Okies while he was writing his influential novel the Grapes of Wrath. Stein makes reference to this novel frequently because it reveals the plight of the Okies as they travelled west to California and brought attention to their issue on a national scale.

The Okies intruded upon a labor system that had developed during 60 years in which immigrant labor had picked the crops in California. Californians viewed migrants as inferior because they worked in the fields and were poor, and they often exploited and patronized the Okies. A serious defeat in agriculture would have weakened the steady gains of labor unions that had worked hard to obtain rights. The Okies could have thrown off the balance and wage structure they had worked extremely diligently for. The depression’s economic dislocation wore thin the alleged docility of the Mexican field workers. As a result, many strikes happened at this time, protesting the lack of rights and the wages of field workers. Also, much of the agricultural strife shifted from the farm to cannery through violent strikes in Salinas and Stockton. The American Federation of Labor looked like they were going to let Okies into their organization, but backed out. Therefore the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) was formed. The large growers began to prepare for action because they were wary of the threat the union posed to them. The battle in California turned to the Associated Farmers against UCAPAWA. While the Okies were coming, many unions looked determined to struggle for control of the new arrivals. But the UCAPAWA’s idea for organizing the Okies was overly complicated and unlikely to happen. Another society called the Lubin Society began to grow, but was weak compared to the power of the Associated Farmers. The state government began to play a larger role though than private organizations in the balance of power between agricultural and growers unions. But many believed that relief to the people should be administered based on need only. Also, the Olson administration supported the UCAPAWA, which only reaffirmed and strengthened the hostility directed at the UCAPAWA by growers’ groups. Resettlement Association employees were in total sympathy for agricultural labor unions, but still recognized them as a weakness for the federal agency. Growers, wary of the threat of the UCAPAWA, were fearful that the government camps would cause the UCAPAWA to mount serious organizational campaigns. The fact that unionization could occur in California brought reaction from the larger growers directed not solely at the unions, but also state and federal agencies whose policies might ally themselves with other unions. But the UCAPAWA continued to dream. They hoped to “organize the Okies and remaining Mexicans and Filipinos into the ‘one big agricultural’ union that the AFL’s leaders had considered a pipe dream.”5 Even with the help of unions and higher wages, Okies struggled to find jobs and support their families. However, their problems vanished when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor as all of society began to focus on the coming of war and as new industrial jobs opened up for the migrants, ending their plight.

In his work, Stein theorizes that the main cause of the problems of the Okie migration was not the Okies themselves but the situation which forced them to come to California. Once the U.S. economy crashed, and drought and mechanization invaded the Okies’ Midwest paradise, they had no choice but to pack up and move. Once they arrived, they never became the sole reason of economic crisis that faced California. The author, a Californian, takes the perspective that native Californians were cruel and mean toward Okies. He takes this perspective because he sees the parallel between the plight of the Okies and the plight of Mexicans in his time. Many Californians chose to blame their problems on Okies rather than to find solutions. As a result, Okies were left at FSA camps, which were the only places an Okie could find solace, but “California’s growers and their organization detested FSA camps.”6 The author assumes that most Californians resented the migrants and uses evidence to support his opinion. The uneducated Okie children were treated poorly and looked down upon at their schools. They also did not attend church with the other citizens of California because they felt they didn’t belong. The influence of the time period has on this peace is that it is written in the early 1970s, the beginning of an extremely conservative era. However, Stein takes more liberal viewpoints because he does not side with the rich growers who wanted to lessen the tax burden by taking away funds from the Okies.

In his review, Andrew Rolle of Occidental College heaps praise on Stein’s work for its different perspective on a topic than books of a similar nature. Rolle notes that Stein sees the Okies as “not the cause but the focus of numerous problems.”7 Rolle also notices that Stein portrays many of the Californians as Neo-Nazi racists because they treated Okies very poorly and saw them as inferior. Finally, Rolle notes that the book does a fantastic job citing sources because it was originally a doctoral dissertation. Another review written by John Caughey of the University of California, Los Angeles discusses how the book is about one of the two labor movements that exploited the laborers. This review positively looks over the points of Stein and how his points relate to the same problems that faced Cesar Chavez.8 Focusing on how the book discusses the reasons and circumstances for Okies to come to California, Caughey feels that the author did well to differ himself from other historians. He also notes that the author identifies the reason for the end of the migrant problem well and explains the sudden end sufficiently. Stein’s book does a very good job at telling why the Okies came to California and why their arrival in California caused so many problems for the economic, political, and social aspects of the state. The political spectrum was divided on whether to help the migrants. Economically, the author does a good job analyzing why migrants threw the system into chaos. Because they were willing to receive less money than other workers, they angered other laborers who had hoped to be able to have a more effective strike and not be undermined by the Okies. Socially, the Okies were excluded from the rest of California society. Okie children were alienated at their schools, and their children could not keep up with the high educational standards of the state. The parents also did not want to show their faces in church because they felt like they did not belong in the same house of worship as other California citizens. The book also does a good job of organization. The way it is organized helps the reader understand the order of events and what is related to one another. Also, this book goes into detail about Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This book is a good contribution to similar types of novels that talk about the Okies’ effect on California society during the Great Depression.

The mass migration to California is definitely a watershed moment for California because it was a huge migration to California that led to a serious problem that California was forced to deal with. This changed the landscape of labor in California because it was no longer just immigrants in the field, but also white men who needed all the work they could get. It is also significant because it represents a time in California in which public opinion of a demographic was extremely low. Not many people sided with the Okies, and they were forced to fend for themselves in FSA camps, which provided “urban, secular, and educated” managers that could tend to the Okies.9 The camps were one of the few positives for Okies in the time period where many people and growers were anti-Okie.

The Dust Bowl migration changed ideas that California had because it completely overhauled the economic system of California. Also, it hurt new labor unions because there were just too many different groups that forming one big group was impossible. However, the Okies persevered because of “their tradition of rugged individualism.”10 This is similar to the struggles California faces today because illegal immigration is a major problem among politicians. One of the main topics of debate among candidates is how to deal with immigration to California. Similar to the migrants, many people believe that the immigrants are taking jobs in the middle of a crisis and are taking the taxpayers money even though they are in the country illegally. The situation of the 1930s is very similar to that of today’s issues because migration to California and foreigners taking jobs remains a major issue.

The significance of the Dust Bowl migration can be found in the conflict between the migrants and the preexisting citizens. This book excellently dispels any blame from the side of the Okies who were basically folk who “had been tenants or farm workers all their lives.”11 The Dust Bowl migration certainly caused a stir in the 1930s and is now echoed in the problems that America faces today.

Endnotes

Student Bio

Kevin Edmonds is a junior at Irvine High School. He participates in three sports—cross country, soccer, and track—and hopes to continue playing soccer into college. He is 17 years old and has one sibling.