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Gertha Couric Eufaula, Alabama
AL-9
THREE WORKERS OF COWIKEE COTTON MILL
Mrs. Lee Snipes, Weaver
"I am glad to tell you what I can.
"Before Mr. Comer bought the mill there was filthy tobacco spit all on the floor. There was no accommodations, not even a decent toilet. Now we have a fountain of running ice water, marble toilets, marble floor, five commodes, all cleaned every day. We have first class bosses too.
"The mill used to be run with steam. Now everything is electricity.
"The Comers try to keep the morals of the mill girls at a high standard. If a girl is not straight they 'have nothing for her to do'. We all wear uniforms, each department a different color, blue, green and white.
"I started working when a girl, stayed out ten years after I got married. I have been working seventeen years straight on, thirty years altogether. My work is such happiness. I work from six until two, my husband from two until ten.
"My oldest daughter, Ruby, married Elbert Beasley, the band director--'Red' Beasley they call him. Margaret, my second daughter, finished high school last year. She is working at Elmore's 5 and 10 Cent Store. You know, you have to have a high school diploma to work there. Her brother Willie will finish high school this year. He is captain of
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the Eufaula High football team, you know, and his father is so proud of him. He is going to Auburn and hopes to work his way through with his football and connet-playing. You know, he is a member of the band. Little Lee--he is my youngest child--is in high school too and works on Saturdays at Rogers.
"We are getting along fine. The pay is so much better than it used to be. And the long hours used to be something awful, from six in the morning 'til six in the evening.
"It used to be we were just factory folks or 'lint heads'. Now we are 'Mill Operatives' and we hold our heads high. All work is honorable, you know, and we are proud of ours. We are proud to work for Mr. Donald Comer and there has never been a strike or any trouble in any of the mills. We would all fight for him, not against him. And Mr. Comer Jennings, since he has been President, is wonderful too."
B. T. Clements, Fireman
B. T. Clements is a fireman at Cowikee No. 1 and operates a small farm as a sideline.
"You want to know how I run a farm and work at the mill. I'm glad to tell you what I can about it.
"I go to work at the mill at six in the morning and work until two. Then I go home--I have a car--and me and my four boys work on the farm in the afternoon. The oldest girls help too, but my wife doesn't. She has too much to do with the cooking and sewing and watching the least ones.
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"All of my children are in school, excusing the baby. The next least one is in kindergarten. We have nine, the youngest two and the oldest eighteen.
"I have a home in town. When school starts, we leave the farm and move in town for the winter. But we keep on working the farm just the same until the crops are all laid by. Me and my boys go out to the farm as soon as school is out and work until dark and you ought to see them younguns eat. It sho' is a good thing I got a farm! Saturdays we work all day.
"I raise everything we have to eat but flour. All my meat, lard, potatoes, butter, chickens, eggs, syrup, all vegetables I raise myself. Last year I made eight bales of cotton, every bale premium grade A staple, and only spent $2.00 for labor. My farm this year will provide more income than last year.
"I ain't the only man that has done this in the mill. Others have too, you know. But my children do help me a lot.
"The boys like the country so much they raise particular sand when they have to come into town. They like to fish and hunt. But the girls and the missus, they like the city. They are crazy about that Community House and everything there. I got five younguns in the Band.
"The missus does a lot of canning. We have so many vegetables she gives the other ladies vegetables, too, for canning.
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"We are mighty happy. My farm and my home is all paid for and I have some money laid away. Our President has sho' helped. I am for the New Deal one hundred per cent.
"Me and the missus didn't have much education. We lived in the country and, in them days, it was hard to git to school. But I want my younguns to get as good an education as I can give them.
"Somebody asked me which I liked best, "firing or farming", and I tol' 'em, I liked both. Its grand to work for men like Mr. Donald Comer and Mr. Comer Jennings. There ain't nothin' that they wouldn't do for us and I'd almost die for them. Look what they have done for our children. When I started to work in the mill twenty-five years ago, before Mr. Comer bought it, I was Just making 50 cents a day. Them was hard days and I had no ambition, but it's a different story now. I believe we are the happiest family living. God's been good to us. We have had mighty little sickness too.
"We go to church on Sunday. But we don't go Sunday night, 'cause I am kinder tired at night from gettin' up so early. The rest of the family don't get up so early--'cept when we live in the country in Summer."
Mrs. Champion, Weaver
Mrs. Champion--everyone calls her "Miss Champion"-- is a typical "Mrs. Wiggs" and a philosopher, always happy. She greeted me: "Honey, you sho' looks youngified and that hat sho' tops you off!"
(Three Workers of Cowlkee Cotton Mill) - 5
She lives at "Morning Side" in a little two-room cabin, spotlessly clean, with her flower yard in front, a little garden in the rear, and a chicken yard.
I asked her if she would tell me something about herself. She smiled.
"'Tain't much to tell 'bout my poor life. My chillun all married and left me, 'cep'n Bessie. She live 'bout two mile North o' here. Her and her old man and six younguns come to town every Saturday in their old car. Their farm ain't much--and them six younguns, Law'! I tells her she's good for six more. She always was kinder feeble-minded, you know.
"My ole man died 'bout three years ago. He was good, but he kilt hisself drinking liquor. 'Fore God, he drinked enough to float a creek. He didn't work in the mill. He drove a kivered truck for Mr. Hatfield, when he was sober. But, if he was drinking, Mr. Hatfield wouldn't let him work. Lawd, but I seed some tough times.
"My boy, Low, is in the Navy and he sends me some pretty things sometimes from all parts of the world. He was de only one of my chillun dat had much schoolin'. He went through de seventh grade, de others just de third.
"I ain't never been to school in my life. Sho' do wish I could read. But, when I gets lonesome like, I just dig in my flowers and my garden. Then I goes to see my neighbors.
"They's a right smart few of folks out here in 'Morning
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