The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath

In his third article, Steinbeck delved into the relationship between the farmworkers and the farmers who employed them. Small farms were between 5 and 100 acres in size. Most owners of small farms relied upon workers who lived in squatters’ camps nearby. Some farms provided land for the migrant workers to settle. Water would be available as well as a toilet, typically, though there were usually no areas for bathing. Despite some concerns, small farmers and their workers got along fairly well. In fact, small farmers often took the side of their workers against the larger corporate agricultural operations, which Steinbeck referred to as speculative farm groups.

The large farms organized themselves under the umbrella of entities like Associated Farmers, Inc. to better represent their interests and lobby legislators. Steinbeck described the different kinds of members of Associated Farmers, Inc., including private citizens and banks that received foreclosed lands. The small farmers were thus in a predicament, as they received loans from banks—including the same banks that were members of organizations like Associated Farmers, Inc. Therefore, if these small farmers opposed the policies of the big farm growers, they could see their loans denied or their farms foreclosed upon.

The large-scale farm ranches provided housing for their migrant workers, but they charged a monthly rent of $3–$15. The rent would be deducted from the worker’s paycheck. The houses consisted of a 10x12-foot room with one stove and no beds. Water had to be brought in from outside. There was one toilet to serve 100–150 people in the settlement. Some ranches operated nicer houses, but these employers paid a lower wage. Steinbeck outlined the arrival of a hypothetical farm worker, who would arrive without much money and would go to the ranch’s general store, where he could obtain supplies and food on credit, putting his family further into debt. He would need to work his second day to pay off the debts of the first day, making it that much harder to accumulate any savings.

In these housing areas, which ranch employees policed heavily with guns, “the will of the ranch owner, then, is law” (35). Many migrants were shot on these farms for supposedly resisting “officers” even though these employees were not necessarily law enforcement officials. Employers mistrusted and hated the employees, and vice versa. Organized revolts by the workers subsequently broke out, and the farm’s management violently suppressed them. Steinbeck implied that the power of the large growers protected them from being prosecuted in the judicial system for any crimes against their workers.

Included with this article are several black-and-white photos of the daily lives of migrants shot by Dorothea Lange, who worked as a photographer for the Resettlement Administration. The photos depict both the official migrant camps and the more informal squatters’ camps.