33 pages • 1 hour read
John SteinbeckThe Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1936A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Article 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Article 7 Summary
In this final article, Steinbeck turned toward broader policy suggestions, as he believed that there was an urgent need to help the hundreds of thousands of migrant farm workers suffering in the state. His solution was two-fold. First, Steinbeck recommended that lands be leased to these migrant farm workers, as many of them had experience managing their own farms back in their home states. Secondly, he requested that a portion of state and federal lands be allocated for subsistence farming for these migrant workers; these lands could be leased at a low rent or sold with long-term payment options. Subsistence farming entailed raising livestock and planting fruit and vegetables that the family could consume themselves instead of purchasing food.
According to Steinbeck, schools and houses should be built near these subsistence farms. When the seasonal agricultural cycle on the larger farms demanded additional labor, only the men in need of work would move to fulfill the labor needs. The rest of the family could remain on their subsistence farm. Medical attention would be provided through schools and health boards. Federal, state, and local government would fund the cost of building subsistence areas for these workers. These recommendations would ensure that the family did not go hungry, that they had a permanent shelter, and that children would be educated during the agricultural work season.
Steinbeck went further, advising that a state labor board be established to represent the views of workers. He wanted greater transparency around the number of laborers needed and the wages to be earned. He stressed the right of laborers to form unions not only for their own protection, but also for their “self-government through the consideration of their own problems” (60). He wanted the workers to receive government funds and agricultural training to be able to support themselves independently. He stressed that farmworkers must be able to legally organize. Furthermore, Steinbeck recommended that the state attorney general of California investigate any acts of terrorism, thus helping to quell concerns about violent agitators in the migrant camps.
Article 7 Analysis
Steinbeck did not rely only on emotional appeals for humanitarian assistance to migrants. He realized that not everyone would be swayed to sympathy for the migrants, so he also presented a pragmatic reason to aid farm workers: for the sake of business. Providing workers with the opportunity to organize was a better option than the alternative—mass revolt:
It is certain that until agricultural labor is organized, and until the farm laborer is represented in the centers where his wage is decided, wages will continue to be depressed and living conditions will grow increasingly impossible until from pain, hunger and despair the whole mass of labor will revolt (61).
He urged policies around job transparency so that there would not be an excess of workers applying for jobs, which would drive down wages due to the economic principles of supply and demand. He presented labor organizing as a natural right, but also a smart way to ensure the fair distribution of labor. Ultimately, Steinbeck pushed for greater accountability on all fronts and an end to discrimination against a community that he saw as fundamentally hardworking—and fundamentally American. He wanted the unscrupulous practice of hiring twice as many laborers as needed on the farm to stop, because the practice resulted in extremely low wages for all laborers. Furthermore, he wanted accountability for people who committed vigilante terrorism in the state.
Although Steinbeck fashioned himself a New Deal liberal, he predominantly encouraged that communities be given the means to improve their own standard of well-being. In other words, Steinbeck promoted self-help. He was trying to appeal to people who thought of migrants as a drain on resources by assuring them that their investment would be returned as the migrants achieved self-sufficiency.
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