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James Kerby Ward

-9-

mentioned it today. He thinks he may go with the Hygienic Company.
He's a good talker if I do say so myself. Everybody says I got a
mighty good boy. Anyway, he's the best one we ever had.

"When I started working I got 48 cents an hour and we've been
paid up to 53 cents, but have been cut down as low as 41 cents. Now
we have got back to the 51 cents. When the times get hard the company
has to cut down a little everywhere they can. But they're a mighty
good place to work and will treat you right, too.

"I been there since 1918 and I really like driving the buses. I
don't have any trouble with anybody. Seems like everybody is about the
same. Some people think the conductor ought to make the Negroes get up
and give up their seats, but if they get on first and get the seats
they are entitled to them. Lots of time I have let people ride for
nothin, if I knew that they didn't have the money and that they rode
when they had it. The company tells us when we start to work to use
our own judgment about things like that.

"I've had a chance to make a lot of friends in the years that
I've been a-drivin. I enjoy my work a lot. No, they never say a word
about who a feller votes for. We'd all vote like we wanted to, anyway,
no matter if they did say something.

I've voted the straight Democratic ticket ever since I started
and that boy will do the same. I never did try and tell my wife to
vote. She usually votes her own way, anyway. She has friends that
discuss the elections and such, and she's a member of the P.T.A., who
all urged us to vote for the bond issue for the schools, and we did.

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