Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Paul Hasbrouck To His Father, May 1, 1927

From: Paul Hasbrouck Letters From Warm Springs
Creator: Paul Hasbrouck (author)
Date: May 1, 1927
Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

Previous Page   Next Page   All Pages 


Page 2:

12  

Was delighted to get Mother's letter of April 28. Tell her that a little package should reach her from Manchester, Ga., sometime this week. I am sending a card to Edith Jackson, address she gave, also one to Helen Seidel. I hope Cousin Susan will not make her visit until after I get back, so that I can give her a lift now and then with the car. Perhaps, too, some of the prospective pupils will still want to be tutored after the 20th.

13  

This afternoon several of us went into the hotel. Things are much in the rough, but are coming around. There is a very interesting old stage-coach on the side verenda. The furniture of the hotel, too, is all being done over.

14  

Two of the cottages beyond the hotel were called into use over the week-end for 27 young people, constituting a band from Eufaula, Alabama. They came in two trucks, under the supervision of the community service worker of a mill there. We enjoyed various concerts, on Friday and Saturday evenings, and a fine group of selections, many of them sacred hymns, some old-timers, such as "Bringing in the Sheaves," this forenoon. The Friday evening concert was in the pavilion down at the pool. That on Saturday night was in the dance pavilion the other side of the hotel, and this morning's concert was on the green beyond the hotel. Their repertoire was large, and they did well, especially considering that some of the younger boys and girls were so small that they sat with their feet on the rungs of the chairs as they played their instruments.

15  

The band is organized by one of the mills owned by ex-Governor Comer, of Alabama. The instruments are provided by the mill, and a young man teaches the players individually and ensemble. I was told that there were $5,000. worth of instruments for this group alone, and that they had a drum corps, with 40 snare drums. There are 11 Comer mills, each having a similar band. The community worker, reminding me of Miss Moore at the Dutchess, told me that only three of the young people who came here worked in the Comer mill, however, some went to school, while others (7) worked in another mill, a knitting mill. So it is a community affair, not just a factory service. The Comer mills make calico cloth, and I was told by a gentleman who came along that they had been quite busy during the last couple of months.

16  

Eufaula is a city of six or seven thousand. In the social service work, at first an effort was made to instruct mill operatives in their particular work. Now, however, the direction given to their activities is rather along artistic lines. They will still give vocational or technical training if the demand of the individual is for that. But the community worker felt that the individual, if he had ability, would learn from his practical experience, and the aim of the community life is now to broaden their interests, enrich life, and incidentally to stop the restless shifting of labor from one town and one mill to another, such as is common among the poor whites. They are now taught art, painting, basketry, etc. The community worker made it plain, however, that the president of the company did not want to stress the profit through steadier labor supply, but sought to uplift the poorer people of the south, and to raise their standards of life. The mill takes care of its people who are sick, she said, and in fact resents anyone else doing for their employees when in need.

17  

This summer the community worker is to have a cottage on the gulf at her disposal, where she will be able to place employees for free vacations. Between their mill and another Comer mill, too, they are to purchase a farm, where employees can go for short outings, and have their fresh milk, butter, eggs, etc. furnished, free of cost from the farm. This new departure, she feels, will be an expensive one, but the farm is to be made a model one, and she feels it will be very beneficial in teaching the people farm thrift and methods. Many of them, she says, are now so shiftless that they do not even raise enough for themselves, but live out of cans.

18  

One little fellow who sat with me for a time while the concert was in progress said he had been in the band five years, though he was only 12. Each year they had at least one outing such as this. His first year, however, he was too small to be taken, and was given $5. to stay at home. At first, of course, he was in the Junior Band, which, we were told, is a feeder for the other. Those who came here wore their white band uniforms to-day. They were delighted with the spot here, and the swimming.

19  

Perhaps Ruth will get in again before I reach home, and make more use of the car. If she wants to take it out to the school, and the roads are good now, it is alright for her to do so. I presume that by now you have had to put water into the battery.

20  

Three young friends of Mr. Roosevelt who were here yesterday and last night said that you have had winter weather during part of April. I hope it is true May now.

Previous Page   Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3    All Pages