Archival Vintages for
The GRAPES of W4H'
:!At the beginning of John Steinbeck's perennially popular (and still controversial) masterwork, The Grapes of
Wrath, two dedication lines appear: "to Carol who willed it" and "to Tom who lived it." Carol, of course, was
the author's wife, who originated the title for Steinbeck.
Most readers logically assume that the second line targets Tom Joad, the archetypal protagonist whose shade
still walks the land "wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat." But the line actually refers to Thomas E.
Collins-a nonfictional "character" whose ghost would likely be found walking right alongside that of Tom Joad.
There are significant relationships between the worlds of "the two Toms." First, the real Tom Collins
steps over into The Grapes of Wrath as the model for the character "Jim Rawley" in chapters 22-26. But
in addition, both Steinbeck and his biographers have acknowledged a major influence that flowed into
the novel from a wealth of federal documentary source material provided by Collins. Most of the latter is
preserved and available for public research today as a unique, absorbing, somewhat "quirky" treasure held
by the National Archives-Pacific Region (San Francisco): the narrative reports, mostly 1935-1936, of
California fedr
igrantla!bor camp manager Tom Collins.
Left and above: The Kern Migrants Camp in Kern County, in southern California, was one of 18 camps established by the Resettlement Administration beginning in
1935 to assist the thousands of refugee families who left the harsh agricultural conditions of Oklahoma, southwestern Missouri, central Texas, and western Arkansas.
As the 75-year remembrance of the New
D)eal period passes into the 70th anniversary for 775e (Grapesoq Wrath, it seems a
good time to again visit these "Tom Collins
documents," which in a rare occurrence
for government reports, were regarded as
"worthy literature" by no less an expert
than Steinbeck himself.
()kic Migrants and Federal
( amps in ( aliforflia
In 1936, when he met Steinbeck, Tom
Collins managed the Resettlement Administration's Arvin/Weedpatch federal "Migratory l1abor Camp" for migrant agricultural laborers in Kern County in southern
California. "Weedpatch camp" appears in
Tlhe Grapes q1Wrath in chapters 22, 24,
and 26. lhe"campers"atWeedpatch were
among thousands of mostly rural D)ust
Bowl refugee families newly arrived in
California in search of farm-related work.
They came mostly from Oklahoma, southwestern Missouri, central Texas, and western Arkansas.
Most were victims in one way or
another of a crop-killing 10-year drought
Archival Vintages for The Grapes ofWrath
or "tractoring out" (farmni mechanization), rather than of the terrible Dust
Bowl storms per se, which struck a little farther west. Most had been farm
laborers, tenant farmers, or sharecroppers; there were also some small farm
holders and others. Stereotyped by
mainstream resident Californians as
"Okies" or "Arkies," these newcomers furnished a new and major source for traditionally subsistence-level migrant agricultural labor, harvesting fruit, vegetable,
and cotton crops in verdant well-irrigated
central California valleys dominated
by the large, often corporate-owned
agribusiness operations described by
Carey McWilliams in his renowned
study, Factories in the Field.
Since the latter 1800s, white "fruittramps/bindlestiffs" and various ethnic
minorities--Chinese, Japanese, South
Asian, Mexican, and Filipino-had served
as seasonal "migrant armies" fated to harvest large-scale California farm crops.All
had faced exploitation, meager pay, and
severe living conditions. But generally,
they had truly "come with the dust and
gone with the wind," moving on after the
harvests. In contrast, the 1930s Okie
migrant influx brought entire families
that, having nowhere else to go, remained
in the valleys during times of scarce or no
employment, generating consternation
among valley residents and further straining state and local social services already
stressed by the Depression.
As noted by historian James Gregory in
his classic American Exodius, the agricul-
tural labor Okies comprised only a portion
of a much larger stream of nearly 1,300,000
emigrants to California from the southwestern southern states during 1910-1950.
Many arrived in less desperate straits and
adapted more easily to their new, sometimes
urban surroundings. Still, the thousands of
California migrant labor tamilies chronicled
by Steinbeck, C(ollins, Sanora Babb, and others, had it very bad-sometimes far worse
than the Joads.
The destitute Okie agricultural migrants
had been drawn to California by hopes for
employment or even a new start on smallholding farm o-v nership.Word-of-motith fur
nished much of the inpetLIs, and there is evi-
IPrologue 19
dence Arizona had miore to do than California
with the cross-country lure of grower-pro-
duced ads and hlidbills as portrayed in The
Grapes of Wralh. At any rate, there is no
doubt that during the 1930s, large California
growers took advantage of a huge bulge on
the supply side"of agricuIR1'al labor to drive
down wages. Okic migrant income hovered
aro1nnd and sometimes descended below
bare subsistence levels, and that was for the
"lucky ones"who found employment. At one
point, for every available crop-picking job at
even the most meager recompense, there
were 3 to 10 workers who needed it.
In 1935, with Tom Collins playing a major
setOup role, the Resettlement Administration
(RA, Farm Security Administration [FSA] as
of 1937) established a chain of tederal
"Migratory (migrant) Labor Camps" up and
down California's agricultural valleys. At
their peak just before World War II, 18
camps, including 3 "mobiles"-from Brawley
in the south to Yuba City in the northfeatured sanitary, low-cost, and very basic
living facilities (mostly tent sites) for migrant
labor families. Poptilations could reach
around 500 or more per camp,
Early on, opposition from powerful growers' organizations, as well as lack of support
from the federal sector, divested the RA/FSAXs
regional office in Berkeley of any hope of
accommodating the entire California migrant
farm labor population in federal camps. The
agency fell back toward more limited aims:
to demonstrate to both the growers and
California at large that it was possible and
advisable to provide low-cost, relatively
humane living conditions for migrant workers and their families and that there was no
basis for common tendencies to bnnd the
newly arrived migrant population in
California with such terms as"morally degenerate,' intrinsically "uncivilized," etc.
For Okie residents, the camps strove to
provide health services and education, comMnUnity, and a road toward "depolarization"
with hostile mainstream Californians. The
federal camps served as comparative oases
of health, human dignity, and relief from the
often inhumanly degrading conditions prevailing elsewhere.
Steinbeck, Collins, and Migrants
Collins and the migrant laborer families
at the Resettlement Administration's Arvin/
Weedpatch federal camp hosted several
Steinbeck visits beginning around August
1936, when the author jouneyed from his
Los Gatos home to do fieldwork for the
seven-part San Francisco News series
"Harvest Gypsies." But their relationship
did not stop at Weedpatch. With the approval of the RA/FSA regional office in
Berkeley, Collins also served as Steinbeck's
primary "migrant liaison" at various times
between 1936 and 1938. The two traveled
up and down the San Joaquin valley in
Steinbeck's legendary "old pie wagon,"
gathering information and offering aid in
several crisis situations.
During this period, Steinbeck's nonfictional portrayals of migrant squatter camp
conditions were grim, stark, and shocking.
The innovative federal photojournalism of
Dorothea Lange and others, "on the road"
for the RA/FSA starting in the mid 1930s,
captured for the public eye unforgettably
haunting, dramatic images of destitute
Okie families: journeying in often ramshackle "jalopy caravans" along their "desolation road" to California (Route 66) or
"wasting away" within the shockingly
squalid California ad-hoc irrigation ditchbank squatter camps and "Hoovervilles."
Previously, the mostly non-European
minority migrant labor force in California
had been exploited and "expected" to accept
The story of this family of 10, who arrived at Arvin Camp on April 23, 1936, was featured by Tom Collins in his weekly report on July 25. Collins noted their poverty
and that "the fellow had been a farmer" until "drought conditions broke his morale and removed all hope of a bright or normal future for his family."
20 PIrologuc
Winter 2008
living standards lar below the median for
most Americans. But most of Amcrica had
never actually "seen themnf-espccially like
this. Publicity relating to the Okie migrant
plight took hold and spread through the
local and national media. By mid- 1938, fedCe1l cur1tailmenti ofC alifornia cotton acreage
and related reduction in employment opporItInity, a continuing influx of farm jolb-seekers, severe flooding, resultant deprivation,
and vivid documentation made the peaking
"( alilornia Okic crisis" into continuous frontpage news. Ihis helped "Wprime the pump"
for the explosive sales of the novel The
Gtrapes (fW#'roth upon publication in 1939
and for the popularity of the John Ford
illovic version in 1940i.
t, ise-,o!lwA
;
ette
i1
LtYbo
sarsl
was; ct
o is il
,v*1t,
rgo~
flw hrt
lctt
or ytcssr s
twi Tonesby
N2%r.
s
R
ewtbst
3ioo fro
i sels 1,
.n P _rtýzstth aie hstw, t,
fr
we11
In many respects kindred spirits, Stein-
beck and Collins shared a commitment to
the uphill light to better ()kie migrant laborer
and falmily living conditions. The situation
was often dismal enough at the growerowned camps they visited. But at the ditchbank"sultILItter casll)S"and Hoovervilles,conditions had descended to depths hard to
acki owledge. Steinbeck and Collins saw, documented, and toiled to alleviate mind-nlumtbing, spirit-killing poverty, squalor, epidemic
disease, malnutrition, and outright starvation
among a vast valley assemblage of least
I100,000 (historical estimates vary)-often
lacking even subsistence in the most abundant "fi)od-baslei "of thie nation.
ID)uring Steinbeck's San Joaquin valley
migrant journey)s with Collins, the) toiled
and lived alongside destitute migrant labor
families as well as rendered emergency
assistan(e. Efforts culminated in a twoweek mission, with the two "dropping in
the mud from exhaustion" while trying to
resCLICe i,00-5,00)0 squatter camp fami-
lies stranded during the terrible Visalia-
Nipomo floods of February 1938-"not
just hungry but actually starving" as noted
by Steinbeck. According to Robert De Mott,
this horrific experience, etched in acid
upon Stcinbeck's consciousness,galvanized
his commitment to 7he Grapes oqlWrath.
While at work on the hatter, Steinbeck
had athis side Collins's official federal niarrative reports aIswell as correspondence.
Previously, Stcinbeck had tried to aid
Collins il an unfulfilled effort to get them
published, even doing some editing work.
Archival Vintages for The Grapes ofWrath
JohnSteirec (top) rsearhet
d thew
imoeihdcniin
fmgatfmlies
atteAvn
epthfdrlcm
an totherw loatios fwo hi er ewsaper seie"Hres
t Gyses"o Colin (aoe
eve sSenecs"irn
liio"at tmsbten13
and13.I c am p eot
C lisisetdacpyoh
ete etb tecm'
Cetral C m iteepesn
prcain
o tibc'
fot lf)
In 1936 Steinbeck declared to writer and
friend George Albee: "Now tm working
hard on another book which isn't mine at
aill. I'm only editing it but it is a fine thing.
A complete social study made of the
weekly reports from a migrant camp."
As time passed, all other projects gave
way to The Grapes o/Wrath. But there are
indications that Steinbeck believed that
basing many of his fictional California
migrant scenes and contexts on nonfictional documents like the Collins reports
might help when the firestorm of criticism rained down following publication
of his novel. Notable for its duration and
intensity, the backlash featured such
events as "book-burnings in Bakersfield."
The Reports
Prominent Stcinbeck biographers and
California Dust Bowl migrant historians,
not to mention numerous thesis-writers,
have come to the National Archives-Pacific
Region (San Francisco) to research the
Collins reports and related records of the
Farmers Home Administration (Record
Group 96). Steinbcck biographer Jackson
J. Benson "rediscovered" the 1930s FSA
migrant camp reports there during an early
19 7 0s quest to find and write more about
Tom Collins.
Thanks mostly to Benson's clogged biographical detective work, we know that the
federal migrant labor camp period was likely
the high point of Collins's far from run-of-
mill life. Born out of wedlock, raised in a
Catholic orphanage, and drawna
it one point
toward priesthood, Collins listed his educational background as fotr years at prep
school plus a year at a possible "diploma
mill" teachers college from which, when
convenient, he claimed to have received a
doctorate. During the early 1920s, he
worked as supervisor/organizer of public
g,- l
21
schools at the Guam Naval Station. He also
traversed the Amazon jungle with his young
ex-socialite wife (the second of three) while
fleeing from her family's lawyers.
He came to the Resettlement Administration in 1935 from a job as director and
organizer of shelters and labor camps for the
Federal Transient Service in San Diego
County and LosAngeles. In his June 1935 job
application, Collins recorded a sadient attribute: "1have the ability to ... successfu|lly handle people without coercion or force."
Wearing the face turned toward his RA/
FSA superiors when writing the reports,
Collins sometimes commented on low levels of intelligence for certain adult migrant
individuals or groups, especially in comparison with their own children. He remarked
on major initial "learning difficulties" especially regarding hygienic education. In his
view, these were attributable mainly to the
sociocultural/psychological trauma stemming from prolonged deprivation. His anecdotes about the migrants sometimes made
light of what he regarded as primitive, superstitious and/or ignorant beliefs anId customs.
Sometimes the comments sounded like
laughing at, not with-though he also
laughed at himself. Collins's reports also
document some unsavory migrant behav-
ior such as wife-beating (or occasionally
vice-versa). His usual laissez-faire position:
"A man's tent is his farm."
Some references can be seen as condescending, such as "these simple, honest,
full-hearted, deserving people." But Collins
saved his special scorn for less honest,
more convoluted, and sparse-hearted folk
such as exploitive growers, educated nosein-air social workers, and "His Satanic
Majesty, Caesar Augustus Hearst" (William
Randolph Hearst).
Some recent historians have accused
Collins, Steinbeck, Lange, and others of seeing Okie migrants through a lens distorted
by urban elitist liberal "reform agendas"
while neglecting to attend to and preserve
authentic Okie culture.This view seems not
to recognize that the real foundational concern of these three-the need for relief
from sustained socioeconomic trauma and
severe human misery-is a precondition
for cultural survival and recovery
The reports as a whole, as well as accounts of his managerial conduct by firsthand observers, reveal a complex and
mainly constructive portrait of Collins. Regarding his behavior toward the migrants,
quick-spotters of insincerity and hypocrisy,
he noted in an earlyAugust 1935 report that
Tom Collins with a migrant mother and child at the Arvin camp. Collins chose to live and work in close, constant, and deliberately visible personal contact with migrant camp residents, emphasizing neighborliness through
friendly instruction, suggestion, and encouragement,
22 P'rologue
he was "on the spot at all times." Shedding
bureaucratic trappings, Collins chose to live
and work in close, constant, extensive, and
deliberately visible personal contact with
migrant camp residents, where "one false
move, and he loses the confidence and
respect of the campers."
With the migrants, Collins combined the
straightforward aspect of the "plain-folks
American" with a daunting regimen of
24/7 on-call caring and public service. In
a short piece included in America and
Americans, Steinbeck gave some insight
into Collins's dedication:
The first time I saw Windsor Drake
[Collins] it was evening, and it was raining.... I drove into the migrant camp, the
wheels of my car throwing muddy water.
The lines of sodden, dripping tents
stretched away from me in the darkness.
The temporary office was crowded with
damp men and women ... and sitting at
a littered table was Windsor Drake, a little man in a damp, frayed white suit.The
crowding people looked at him all the
time ... his large, dark eyes, tired beyond
sleepiness .... There was an epidemic in
the camp-in the muddy, flooded camp
... every kind of winter disease had developed: measles and whooping cough;
mumps, pneumonia, and throat infections. And the little man was trying to do
everything. He had to....
For Okie farm migrants reeling from
the terrible treatment meted out elsewhere in California, the experience of
Collin's "neighborly" caring manner, dedication, and public "servant-leadership"
must have come as a dramatic, welcome
contrast. It may have generated a sort of
"positive culture shock" that partly explains FSA migrant camper receptivity to
his guidance during 1935-1936. At any
rate, it earned him a tremendous reservoir
of credibility with Marysville and then
Weedpatch migrant labor camp residents.
He tapped into this with great effect while
using tactfully packaged instruction,
friendly suggestion and encouragement,
and the attitude of the "Good Neighbor"
(his signature phrase) to foster individual,
family, and camp community democratic
Winter 2008
self-help programs in health, hygiene,
nutrition, baby and child care, education,
daily government/law enforcement, and
recreation.
Time and time again in the reports,
Collins conveyed respect, esteem, and faith
that the destitute, despised migrant Okie
families, given a place to stand and a chance,
were capable of conduct at least on and perhaps above the level of the mainstream
California society that had so far brutalized
them. Combined with Collins's management style and programs, the minimal
amenities atWeedpatch camp furnished the
foundation for a gently guided, generous,
high-standards, self-governing "community
of caring" atArvin/Weedpatch. This amazed
visiting farmers, politicians, social workers,
and others who had previously believed
migrant Okies to be inherently incapable of
such achievements. Steinbeck, his sympathies already with the migrants, was also
mightily imlpressed.
Collins's views of migrant capabilities
evolved alongside their own story of recovery at his prototypical camps. In
September 1935 at Marysville, he had
found it "very gratifying to see what we can
do fbr these people simply through ... giving them some voice in the camp routine
...they do very well under proper supervision and guidance." A year later in
October 1936, Collins observed that the
migrant Okie community at Weedpatch
camp had, even during "down times" of
scarce employment,"demonstrated beyond
a doubt just how little they need us down
here to manage their affairs."
The reports follow a form fairly consistent with the "Instructions to Camp Managers" approved by initial regional RA/ FSA
camp community manager Irving W Wood,
but which Collins at least had a hand in
writing. Usually written and sent to the
regional office weekly or biweekly if things
got too busy, the Collins reports usually contained most of the following interesting
components:
1. Statistics: Reports noted the number of
resident camp families and individuals,
illnesses, destitute persons, persons dismissed from camp (with reasons), referred to other agencies, employed,
Archival Vintages for The G rapes o fWrath
unemployed, children at camp, treated
at camp first aid stations, and children
by school grades. They also recorded
the classification and number of camper
families by state of origin and by occupation. In addition, Collins noted the
number checking in and checking out,
sometimes with notes on local travel origins and destinations. Oklahoman migrant families always won hands down
in terms of Weedpatch camp population. A September 1936 report recorded
"Oklahoma 56, Arkansas 4, Texas 8,
Missouri 6, California 7," and a few each
from eight other states. Similarly, farm
labor outpaced all other
pre-California occupations, as in "Farm Laborers 63, farm renters
10, farm owners, 8' and
one to three for assorted others.
2. Types, rates paid, and
notes for any employment, such as: "Fruit
picking. Wage rates
$.25 per hour.Average
weekly earnings $15.00
based on 10 hour day"
(July 1936).
3. Commentary on the
labor conditions including employment,
labor supply and de-2
mand, grower practices, worker reactions, unrest, disputes,
and strike situations.•
4. Notes on migrant living
conditions at the federal camps and also the
off-site local, grower-
bE
owned, private fee,
and ditchbank squatter
camps/Hoovervilles.
The Arvin camp's self-help programs in health, hygiene, nutrition, and baby and child care
were of special significance in a
.
setting where disease often
spread rapidly. Collins's report
of July II, 1936, for example,
noted the number of children
in camp and the illnesses for
that week and their treatment.
:
5. Sections about camp organization, government, and programs for health, education and recreation. Collins was an
advocate and the chief on-the-ground
architect of what Regional Director of
[migrant camp] Management Eric
Thomsen called "functional democracy" as a way to run the camps. By various noncoercive methods, federal
managers were to educate, encourage,
and empower the migrant residents to
govern themselves in most daily affairs
through elected camp committees.
This approach worked very well for
Collins in 1936, though much less so
with some other managers atnd espenic minorities (and mostly concerned with
the "offic ialese" of most constrained, graycially after 1937, when FSA des tabilized
"blaming the poor") landed in this instance
scale gov,ernment reports. Collins's creative
the situation by mandating shotrter stays
on destitute white, old-stock ruralAmerican
latitude h ncluded both ad hoc headings and
and more frequent turnovers of camp
Protestants slotted into the lowest rung on
no-holds- barred candid, opinionated comresidency tor migrant families.
the "California caste ladder" -migrant farm
mentary, as in the following under "Labor,
6. Newspaper clippings with c onnllenlaborers. The stereotypical slurs--inhercontinue d (September, 1936):"
tary and a log of visitors and ccontacts.
ently dirty, lan,,stupid, immoral, shiftless, parFrom the latter we know, for instance,
asitic, welfare chiselers, fundamentally incaThe SIhadow of Associated Farmersthat Steinbeck visited We edpatch
pable of joining mainstream American
the Hi dden Hand
camp in August 1936.
civilization -tell
us much about the
Rumt ors are now afloat that the Asso7. Ili addition, the reports of Co Ilins and
sociopathology of prejudice and nothing
ciated Farmers and the Cotton Finance
several "disciples" also containe •d"bits of
about the groups victimnized.
Contro I agencies have been circulating
migrant wisdom" relating
through the valley in an effort
observations and anecdotes
to have the larger growers and
about goings-on among the
others pay a cotton-picking
Kern Migrat-y J-ar ýI
residents. Though some
scale between $.60 and $.80
vignettes can admittcdIly be
per
cwt [hundred-weight] .This
a wsema at Ari'
let
har pat oeato Adwrtie
seen as demeaning, the re"u --- tin•dar picesa retrnae A .a-p-r tdld
is the advance guard preparing
he ted
the anll
sashd tO a pip
1an& the read
nisar keia, Ta want te the wosian sai tel
her at his
ports overall show an Unfor the general price-fixing sesfind. linen she saedsup he hed net troauht the dat
(a)
aleg wath hi" (he
ý
dd net tell
her it sa
derlying respect, sometimes
aaaleit
sion to be held at Fresno,
rplidyJ
.a
I eases. t.r t-11 Yer par d-6
inbiable ht it
bordering on "romantic revrt rtrnbl,ý.
California on September 8,
5
Whe & wflsla
fls
hears, heIn ini
the he-ci dat
erence," for a straightfor1936.
•oalin his en the streat, Yea aint never see biw
(i)
ekik a
,illPa11,
Wf' w is
st like t6 he'-n
gu.
ward, resourceful people
de,%
bl
b Ai1 twi a ste-iF
Thl" fells
who stubbornly persevere,
Items like the above would
1fee t.G -aa-at
ate all sareed ni taing part
ib elasti
asatity
sIngs in the vrins
tants at
somehow keeping hope
have been of great interest to
Ca)
aetsasa
Ilar's te'sk In ,itu a
ýsasdthe4
alive in the face of chalSteinbeck, who believed that
lenges far more harrowing
Associated Farmers, the pow(
)) the
a
tan
-wp.
r. tat
t,eenn•an
bs'
e
neser
-lnnlstw mmatns
-nntdý,seheel
lsIJ.ts theeScsyn
h
than those faced by the"avererful large growers lobbying
lasses'• -4"ies "lrdee all areatarsa af the
All
5
age American."' The reports
at seed,
,•are
pet
the trTe salt a
ent,i
organization not particularly
5
(a)
S•ep ebaia tinse herea ertd mats thai nasager
teature transcriptions of
disguised as the "Farmers Asna get hi
ar l ht.
migrant poetry songs, letters,
sociation" in The Grapes of
(f)
de a raentt at eve- clets
ta thw vera•in
tiats
fea
and conversations.
Wrath, were after him as their
"public enemy number one."
Collins often tried to capBehind Collins's unique
GIts• at hense •xad olna natrait,
ture the regional flavor of
Te ne-Idi nni•
report stylings, there must
"Okic dialect." Compared to
have been purpose. An eduSteinbeck, Collins exaggerates,
cated guess would be that he
with frequent gratuitous mishoped to: capture and hold
spellings, as in a February 1936
the interest of regional and
example: "When we aswallas
higher RA/FSA and other offiCollins regularly tried to capture the regional flavor of"MigrantWisdom" in his reports,
including its dialecL insights, and humor. His entries conveyed respect, esteem, and faith
the last been our innards will
cials; buttress precarious fedin the migrants, who were victims of negative popular stereotypes.
haf ter shak the disc ter see
eral support and funding for
who agits it." Still, (omllins's atthe migrant camp program by
"Respectable visitors" to Weedpatch
highlight ing spectacular challenges and
tempts may have influenced tl le more
ndition.
camp, from large growers to social workachieverr
muted and readable Steinbeck rc
",Pretty." ers, often confessed near-disbrlief at the entertaintents; as part of the latter, provide
For instance, b0th use -purty" for
ing PR copy for RA/FSA; and
exemplary levels of conduct "these primfamiliariz e readers with the California agriOne of the prime educational iatues of
lp show
itive people" had achieved there in a very c ultural
a
the Collins reports is that they he
abor scene.
Iaand culshort time.
the fundamental falseness of racial
Finally, what stands out about the reports .
nflueni
tural prejudice.
:es on Steinbeck
Sources,
is Corlins's literuegand antibureaucratic style
Steia bo
Along with other contemporary
eck spent considerable time with
s" of negof government narrative report writing. He
Collins a
they document how "standard set
te Anglowent to lengths (sometimes 20-30 pages)
patch ca nd among the migrants at Weedative stereotypes associated by th
rithethand took liberties to inject colors far beyond
section omp and elsewhere.The California
American mainstream of the day
.f The Grapes of Wrath therefore
24 Prolopic
Winter 2008
bcars ihe stamp of lnincrous conversations
as well as events and characters seen firsthand. In addition, as Benson notes,"There
were deeper influences flowing froom the
both had fiaith that our democratic institu-
novel-from small farmer protests against
large grower coercion aimed at cutting
migrant wages, to the price for a cottonpicking sack if you have none. Sometimes
these were inserted whole-cloth into The
Grapes o] Wrath, but more often they were
reconfigured or "built-out" to serve the crcative purposes of the novel.
The Collins report items also have an
absorbing "story life" apart from The
tions, through the pressure of an enlight-
Grapes o?f Wrath. This storytelling strength
(IeId citizenry, Could and would conquer
the inequities that appeared to be tearing
is likely another reason the reports appealed to Steinbeck.
camnp manager to the author: influences of
spirit, emotion, and attitude, which are difficult to metasure or locate precisely ...both
had a knack for getting close to ordinary
people and winning their confidence ...
"Reverend Georgie," the "tIflyo One, whom
he hired as his housekeeper. Her description does not match that of Steinbeck's grim
fundamentalist who terrorizes Rose of
Sharon at the camp; rather, Georgie is depicted more as a voluble "space-cadet." Her
saga begins in a Max 1936 report and ends
in September as she and her part-Cherokee
husband, Noah, having recently launched
their Ark of Love," move on. CoRins records
(ieorgie's hobbies, perhaps in priority order:
"1. entertaining visitors at manager's house,
2. having her husband rock her before he
the fabric of society apart."
Ilaving the body of reports at his side
also furnished Stcinbeck with an extensive,
rich documentary context for the imaginalive surround in which he built the
(alifornnia section of the novel. The reports
contitined numerous portraits of labor conditions, domestic life, migrant character,
"characters," and such significant components of Weedpatch catnp life as the governing committees elected by campers.
The comnmittees were numerous, but
three chronicled repeatedly in the reports
appear in 11W Grapes o? Wrath.The Centrat
Committee saw to all-camp matters such as
law and order, basic upkeep, and employmncnt aid for the campers. The Good
Neighbors Committee ("Ladies Conmmittee"
in Steinbeck) visited all tents to welcome
new women and families, helped with sustenanc'e, and introduced them to sanitary
facilities and child-centered resources such
as the clinic, nu,sery, and playground.
The Recreation Committee arranged for
such events as baseball games with nearby
settlements or fairms ais well as the orderly,
liquorlcss, camper-policed "best dances in
the county" featured in the novel. As Collins
intended, such activities, besides boosting
camp morale, helped break down barriers
between the migrant campers and surrounding conmmnunities. This led to more
jobs with growers who had previously vilified the FSA camps (filled with highly patriotic Okies) as" red-inltcstcd." He was pleased
to report instances when campers
passed
beyond the migrant agricultural cycle altogether and left for steady, long-term employment ill the towns.
Th' reports feature numerous "items,"
from major to minute, that appear in the
Archival Vintiges for The Gropes of Wrath
A thoughtful young migratory worker at the Arvin camp, evocative of the "plain-folks" and their humanity
colorfully documented in Collins's reports and fictionalized in Steinbeck's The Gropes of'Wrath.
As one might expect, chapters 22 and 24
of The Grapes of Wrath-set mostly at the
Weedpatch camp-contain the highest numhers of items correlated to (ollins reports,
though they appear elsewhere as well.The
following are a few selected examples.
In chapter 8, Granma Joad exclaims,
"Praise God forVittorv!" Collins records use
of this phrase in April 1936 as the standard
ending f)r letters to "folks back hum" he is
typing for Weedpatch women campers. But
it is also the signature declamation of
goes to work and for hours after he returns,
3. saving souls through her preaching, 4.
holding revival services anywhere, anytime,
5.TALKING, and 6. Housekeeper"
"No cops" are allowed in Weedpatch
camp without a warrant, finds Tom Joad
to his relief (chapter 22). This policy is
specified in the August 1935 "Instructions
to Camp Managers."
"We won't have no charity," says Jessie
of the Weedpatch Ladies Committee
(chapter 22). The characteristic Okie aver-
P'rologue 25
sion to accepting charity or relief-the
spotless contrast to the festering situation
Early on at the Marysville migrant camp
opposite of the stereotype--recurs in
at squatter, private fee, and many grower
in 1935, Collins reports that "Complaints
both Collins and Steinbeck. In February
camps. Collins reports that by July 1936,
regarding drinking, gambling, and unneces1936 Collins quotes the Okie consensus:
Weedpatch resident women have taken
sary noise late at night all appear to be things
"jest as well haf all our teeth yanked out
over much of the clinic, nurse visit, nutriof the past since the campers committee
as ter go sit down, tell our life's history and
tional, first aid, and well-babies program
entered the picture." But later at Weedpatch,
ask for relief. Culd we only git a job for
work, lessening his own toils.
he notes an instance of "pappy rolling about
that's all we wants. We's able ter wuk and
Rose of Sharon mentions how "I'm to
in a dry ditch. Beside him was an empty bottle of gin ... we appreciated the fact that he
wants to wuk."
go see that nurse and she'll tell me jus'
In the "croquet mallet incident," Ruthie
left camp to have his big snort of liquor:' The
what to do so the baby'll be strong ... all
novel mentions two such "solitary ditchJoad snatches a croquet mallet from another
the ladies here do that" (chapter 24).
There are numerous mentions in the
girl, acts tough, and cries afterward (chapter
bank drunks,' the first involving Uncle John
22). In Collins, a very young newlywed does
reports of the well-baby program and
Joad (chapters 20 and 23).
the mallet-snatching; the "crying" part may
how resident camp mothers embrace it.
The reports are also laced with Okie
humor, as in this example from a January
come from a May 1936 report item in which
Collins, who cared most deeply about the
Collins arranges and pays for a birthday party
children, seems to have especially loved
1936 report:"With Roosevelt, we hunts our
dealing with infants. In August 1936, he
hosted by "the toughest kid in camp ... we
jack rabbits and milks 'em and turns 'em
celebrates Raymond, the "Perfect Baby":
loose again to catch again when we needs
have seen her tackle three and four at a time
'em."A similar Okie "jack rabbit fantasy" can
and 'clean tip."'
"Raymond seldom cries. He is always
Ruthie accidentally flushes a toilet and
smiling .... Many times he sits on our desk
be found in Steinbeck's chapter 27.
Regarding character, Collins seems to be
fears she's broken it (chapter 22). This incias we go about the routine office work.
dent appears in a Collins report from
At other times we can be found on the
talking about Ma Joad's strength (and Pa
October 1935.Throughout the reports, toisewing project floor keeping Raymond
Joad's protests) when he notes that" during
let, shower, and similar "plumbing hijinx"
busy while his mama runs a new suit of
times of unemployment ... the woman
occur due to unfamiliarity of some rural
steps in as Master of the House."And Tom
jumpers . . . on the electric sewing
migrant campers with basic modern sanita- machine.What a baby!"
Joad's instinctive bent to challenge head-on
tion technologyThe committee sugand strip away the puffery of
AIn
others resonates with report
gestion of a "toilet paper dispenser
items like the following, in
that rings a bell" transfers from
which a migrant faces down a
Collins (May 1936) to Steinbeck.
"pusher" trying to cut pay by
Much more serious are Collins's
force-speeding the pace of work.
repeated battles with deadly disease outbreaks, especially among
Pusher: "You pack 15 boxes a
children, caused by the unfamiliarday OR ELSE." Camper: "I been
ity of some rural people with basic
wuking here for 2 years, an I
hygienic theory and practice, horrid conditions at the squatter and
ain't had no one tell me I loafs
on the job .... I ain't gonna pack
grower camps, and sometimes the
traumatic migrant shock and
15 boxes because I ain't gonna
fatigue reported by Collins, Steinput rotten grapes in these
beck, historian Walter Stein, and
boxes to ship ... so OR ELSETO
th
YOU AND LIKE IT I ain't gonna
others. At a Hooverville in chapter
18, Ma Joad notes, "we ain't never
quit.. .so what's your other OR
ELSE?"
been dirty like this ... I wonder
why? Seems like the heart's took
Steinbeck biographers note
out of us."
that partial inspiration for Tom
Echoing numerous migrant sentiments recorded in the reports,
Joad may have come from a
Tulare FSA camp fugitive son of
Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon appreciate Weedpatch camp's hot water
Weedpatch
Camp Central
Committee chairman Sherman
and laundry, washing, and bathing
E. Eastom, a bronze-faced,
facilities. Due to opportunities for Above
: Collins's report of May 23, 1936, details some of the sppecial proand the efforts of the migrants, the
grams for the camp's 100 children, divided by age groups, in whhich mothwidely respected, no-nonsense
figure. Eastom's "eyes that miss
FSA camps generally furnished a ers took part.
26 P'rologue
Winter 2008
nothing" in Collins become "eyes like little
NOTE ON SOI IRCES
blades" for committee chair Ezra liuston in
TbW G'rap(es f/Wralh.
In 1937 Tonm Collins
Weedpatch
left Arvin/
"to act as traveling Field
Superintendent out of the Regional Office
to be ready on short notice to
. , and
a
enter into the organization and management of any new camp, as ordered,' a position also known as "Community Manager
at Iarge."After stints at Gridley,Thornton,
and Calpatria, his luster evidently
dimmed. Again a camp manager in 1940,
he resigned from the FSA in 1941, having
recently received $ 15,000 as technical
director for the Grapes ol[Wrath movie.
The currency Of "functional democracy" and the Collins community method
also faded as economic conditions and
pay improved, defense jobs opened tip,
FSA camp populations became more transient, and (Collins-school "servant-leaders"
gave way to managers accustomed to
niore bureaucracy and social distance
between themselves and their clients.
Steinbeck might have been disappointed
to visit later camps where most residents
were indifferent to clique-ish committees, or where camllpers charged managers with "I litlerism."
By 194#0, California was on the way to
ramping tip industrially and otherwise for
World War II. Over the next few years, pay
and detense-related employment in Cali
lornia lo1lowed suit.With the"War Deal," the
l)epression came to an end, taking with it
the (California Okic migrant crisis.
I lowcver, the Grapes (?1Wrath lives on
and on. and with it, that special sense of a
greatet; deeply human whole that comprises
a sizable portion of the legacy of not only
John Steinbeck but also Tomt Collins. For a
time at least, as Steinbeck noted when writing it, '1'om actually "lived it." That spirit
shines through in the words of Robert
Ilardie, a (Collins "disciple" selected to
replace him as Weedpatch camp manager.
Presaging MaJoad's memorable words from
chapter 20-hrought forward to conclude
,John Ford's 1940 movie-Hardic declares in
his report for the week of Christmas 1936:
"Mit come what may-we'll find a way
through this thing-for we are the
Americaii people."i
Archival Vintages for The Grapes ofWrath
The Records of the Farmers Home Administration (Record Group 96) at the National
Archives-Pacific Region (San Francisco) contain
records of the Farm Security Administration
(1937-1946) and of the Resettlement Administration (1935-1937). FSA/RA's Region IX Office
in Berkeley/San Francisco compiled Coded
(Migrant Labor) Camp Administrative Files,
1933-1945, arranged by migrant camp code and
thereunder by subject file code. Arvin (Weedpatch) code 918-01 includes the Weekly Narrative
Reports of Tom Collins, 1935-1936.
A table of more than 30 correlated"item links"
between the Tom Collins records and The Grapes
of Wrath can be found in the footnoted online version of this article available at www.arcbives.gov/
publications/prologuel,
The Official Personnel File of Thomas E. Collins,
1922-1942, is at NARA's National Personnel Records
Center,Civilian Personnel, St. Louis, Missouri.
Misapplications of federal field office records management,usually due to ignorance,were common during the 1940s through 1960s. In the past, federal
records of FSA/RA regional officials were donated to
the Bancroft Library at the University of California,
Berkeley (in violation of the Federal Records Act),
where they remain today. The collections of federal
records researched there for this article include the
Harry Everett Drobish Papers, 1917-1954, BANC MSS
C-B 529;the RalphW Hollenberg collection of materials relating to the Farm SecurityAdministration, Region
IX, 1924-1949,BANC MSS C-R 1 Series 2;and the Irving
W Wood Papers, 1934-1937, Mss 77/111C. Also
researched were papers on UC Berkeley Professor Paul
SchusterTaylor, Papers, 1660-1997, Mss 84/38 c.
Negative "racial-cultural" stereotypes of the
California Okie migrants appeared in the texts of
numerous newspaper articles duinng the Depression.
One somewhat offbeat example comes from "Disease
Threat Seen in Transient Camps," OaklandTribune,
July 24 1937:"As Mrs.Joan Pratt, county welfare department explains,'You can't change the habits of primitive people from the southern and mid-western states.
You can't force them to bathe or eat vegetables."'
Secondary Sources
The author thanks Professor Susan Shillinglaw
and the Martha Heasley Cox Steinbeck Center,
both at San Jose State University, for their help and
tips on good "Tom Collins" sources.
Literary journalist Sanora Babb's research writings
on California migrants, 1938-1939, are available in On
the Dirty Plate Trail,Remembering the DustBowl
Refugee Camps,ed DouglasWixson (Austin: University
ofTexas Press, 2007).They include field notes that she
wrote while in California's migrant Ltbor camps as well
as published articles and short stories about the
migrant workers.The book also reproduces photographs of the people at the camps taken by Sanora's
sister Dorothy Babb. Sanora Babb's California migrants
novel, Whose NamesAre Unknown, eclipsed by The
Grapesof Wrath in 1939,was finally published in 2004.
Three Tom Collins-related works by Jackson J.
Benson are" 'ToTom Who Lived It:'John Steinbeck
and the Man from Weedpatch,"Journal ofModern
Literature(Spring 1976); Lookingfor Steinbeck's
Ghost (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1988); and The TrueAdventures ofJohn Steinbeck,
Writer (NewYork'Viking Press, 1984; reprinted by
Penguin Books, 1990).
Other secondary works consulted were Thomas
Dorrance, "Organization, Cooperation, and Administration in the Arvin Migratory Labor Camp,"Ex
Post Facto, Journal of History Students at San
Francisco State University (Fall 2006); Thomas
Fensch, ed., Conversations with John Steinbeck
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988);James
N. Gregory, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl
Migration and Okie Culture in California (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1989); Susan
Shillinglaw, A Journem into Steinbeck's California
(Berkeley, CA: Roaring Forties Press 2006); Charles J.
Shindo, Dust Bowl Migrants in the American
Imagination(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
1997); and Jerry Stanley, Children of the Dust Bowlthe True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
(NewYork: Crown, 1992)
Walter J. Stein's California and the Dust Bowl
Migration (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1973) is the initial classic history in the field.
Some of the federal records sources quoted by
Stein, then in agency custody and stored at the
Federal Records Center in San Francisco, were
later destroyed due to bad federal records disposition applications. Others survived to become
part of NARA-Pacific Region (San Francisco)
holdings.
The edition of John Steinbeck's Grapes of
Wrath used by the author was that published by
Penguin Books in 2006, with introduction and
notes by Robert DeMott.
In addition, the author consulted Steinbeck's
America andAmericans and Selected Nonfiction,
ed. Susan Shillinglaw and Jackson J. Benson (New
York: Viking Press, 2002; orig. publ. 1966); The
Harvest Gypsies,(Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1988;
orig. publ. 1936); In Dubious Battle (New York:
Covici-Friede Inc., 1936); Working Days: The
Journalsof the Grapes ofWWrath, ed. Robert DeMott
(NewYork:Viking Press, 1989); and Steinbeck: A Life
in Letters, ed. Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten
(NewYork:Viking Press, 1975).
Just after completion of this article, a new work
about The Grapes of Wrath postpublication controversy appeared: Rick Wartzman, Obscene in the
Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (New York:
PublicAffairs, 2008).
Proho)lue 27
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
TITLE: Archival Vintages for The Grapes of Wrath
SOURCE: Prologue 40 no4 Wint 2008
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it
is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in
violation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher:
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/