Unfinished business; People on the move - Program 5

Finished business. Our unfinished business. Designed to acquaint you with unresolved social welfare problems television and radio center and cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. Today's unfinished business people. Right. Really very very frightening. Good old Cleveland. Do you remember our convention here in 1945. Let him do I. I'll never forget it. Well it's quite a city all right. About the sixth

largest in the United States isn't it Bruce and all. Not according to the house trailer companies. How come. They say the sixth largest city in the United States is a city on wheels. Or you mean the people living in house trailers. Yeah. And over a million in mobile homes they say. You know that's something. One thing I can never understand is why people move around so much anyway. Now you take mine. Yes yes I know you and your folks have lived in the same town all your life. I. Was proud of it too. You know Rolling Stone you know that makes you just a little less than an average American. That you know more than half of the people in the states are not living in the place they were born. It's kind of hard to believe it's true. Over 36 million will be moving from one city to another this year. Wow. It sort of makes us a nation of people on the moon doesn't it. People on the move. Yes last was right. We are a people on the move.

Young people old people single people married people Native Americans and DPF and refugees those from the north the south the east and the west those who have to move and those who are running away from trouble or perhaps from themselves. People in the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence and people. But I'm getting ahead of my story. What do you think makes this man move about. By the way I'd like to explain that the voices you hear from now on in this program are the actual voices of these people on the move. This man is 58. Here is his answer to a question about his reason for being on the road. 10 or more for trying to years and I found that my temper wouldn't think after that. So I quickly boyhood's where you got her shelf. Well you are sort of like travelling around the right area. If she had been married then you do that sort of a truly good

Lonia work alone I walkers 519 my hour for I will live but when remembering pulls over gives you that level where it's really me it really is. Look I live in Iraq so that I want I like to see what's our next he'll see new face your new place. Get different people they can get talking to people I get to get paid a lot in life and you say you have two sons that's worth every and Philadelphia were delivered out of there. You know you're both married after you go exposed. I mean you don't see them don't you know. But do they want to see you. Were they right assuming that well why bother them then kids again when I go down I want to be a millstone they don't want to know who they're for where. He's going to have to be on the road isn't it. Now listen to this high school girl who

had a different reason for moving. Back. Enjoy moving around going to do much. Why not tell me just why you enjoy that. Could you give me some reasons for that. Well I think it's been made and there are people out there saying and making new friends and you play last year you're asian we moved to the mother ship right. So we moved there because I stressed there and I got back together and so we went back to Georgia. And this year they separated again and we came a clear and there we have a diversion. And. As I think we're going move to California next year. Or you're going to move again and I want your reason for moving to California. Well mother now to travel and we've always wanted to go California. And I guess we'll just move there. Here's a man who is running away from something. Oh man are you. 48 48 and have you been on the road very much. Well quite a lot

in the last three or four years. I see how it is I. Well I was divorced back and forth you and Sasha and I was just kind of been knocking around the top job here and there I had a home up land and then what happened with your home situation and why am I why she fell for another guy and divorced me. Oh yes and then you took to the road. Yeah wow that's pretty hard and yes I did like that pretty well that yeah. How long had you been married 10 years 10 years. Did you have any children. For what did you get along quite well one of your own. Now not too well didn't get along you know. What was the main difference. Well I mean all the way through. You know. We had forget history of the last album and one was for me on the floor all around. Well did you have any idea who she was that kind when you know I didn't such a vast world. You haven't been on the road before that. Now why I had to you know back in depression I was on the road some back on the breaking news.

But after that you said that's right. That's right. Here's a family that moves to stay with relatives. Why does your family move around so much. Well it is just me and my mother and well my sisters so full well they help take care of me and my mother and now my sister is American they have children. Well the mother of my mother has to go and help out with her grandchildren. And another family finds relatives helpful. Oh yes when he was in the army we lived with my relatives because there were two other younger kids in our family and my mother had difficulty in keeping this in mind. This helped quite a bit. But there are those who have to move because of their employment. Let them out of these three high school students where my father was an Air Force and we have to travel around quite a bit. Dad was stationed up there so we had to move here. How often have you had to move during your schooling.

Wow. In the last two years I've been to about six schools. So my dad was in the army and we moved with him some time in his work took us different places. My dad's a preacher in one place and the other pastor in church and then there are the thousands who move with the crops following six major patterns of movement. The East Coast from Florida north and back the west coast from California north and back. And four other streams of migration. But there are other reasons for moving. Let's listen to these men stopping at the lodging of the Volunteers of America for a night on their way to a ranch in the West. Is there no employment there are no i mean nothing. There is nothing nothing at all. Why did you work on during the winter or so far this winter. Well just fishing camp taking care of a vision camp and where we live on that was nothing no other employment in the community at all nothing at all what have you done earlier in

your life what kind of work coal mine coal mines in there is there any prospect and I have nothing. No future no future in coal mine coal mine to play him out but on account of diesel fuel the home has just run the whole month without you. Have you worked in the mines to know your work and to milk teeth anywhere you want to work about two months from. Laid off from a minnow and so no worked on songs like on the line. And is there any future and I have to be there. Well I like to work there. It seemed like you know were. Going to blame these men for moving out. Well there you have some of the reasons for people being on the move. The chronic Wanderers familiar to most of us. But then also the many who move because their employment demands it or because they're seeking better employment in a different community. The problems caused by this moving around are mainly connected with families. Traveler's Aid reports that 54 percent. Of the total family groups are not

just couples but families with from one to nine children. That's not this high school girl tell us about her family that has had everything but smooth sailing. Worked in the mines for about 25 years got sick with stomach Copus had to quit. You couldn't work anywhere else and so Mom decided that we would come to Columbus police. So if she could find work come to Columbus first her and my sister my sister about work for my family. Were about. For a point to Chicago to find work and work there. My brother and his wife. My sister is living in Chicago when school's out we're going to work and to work and I were my sister my brother works. How many children are there in the family.

There's eight. God the housing Did you have any trouble in finding housing. I. Had quite a long time before she felt so close to it for us to bring us out here. She came to this place trying to get a trailer. And told her that the trailer to her because it was too small to show two or three houses for us. She paid $65 for three Chiles furnished were she able to get something in a pretty good neighborhood on account of the children perhaps. Well as you know they don't like it too well so we're going to move about the part of the 14 that we're going to try and get a 6 room house furnished for 35. Here's an honest coal miner asking for one night's lodging in a large city. And you have a family he said.

Home of the children to have to hold out I have the Voyager 3 Know that there is only one I have a right here live in myself. Oh that's grand. And you're on the room for what reason. What I'm looking for. What do you plan to do find where you bring your family with you. Well I'd love to hear your voice for Siri on the call for us working shit out. From now right here on the road this way. Is it rather tough on your family as far as getting along is concerned with you know. Yes I just put off two months ago and that was I couldn't find the words there so I had to get up you know. Where you were coming from. Unemployment insurance away from the work. Well now that's something that never did you notice for I don't want to try to get up first.

Then if I can't long did you work in a coal mine 13 years 13 you think with a record like that you'd have a steady job for the rest of your life. Doesn't work out that way. No it doesn't. Were many laid off when you were laid off. So it was 97 more than 97 for one man and how many are in there. One of mine is a rule of oh well there's probably around 300 make about a third of them laid off most of them probably will. Family is. Only a small home and I was little I was going to call mine is office. Well that really the stuff would have a great many of them taken to the road from that and they said if after saying see others try to stay there hoping to get well here and there why didn't they call for sign up as you say only unemployment should draw on it and most of them about to drop out I don't know what they'll. Issue

families still living here and the only company house they didn't want to leave that gives helpful notices of how long you got to know well what little left I say they give you a couple of minutes just to go be out within 30 days or days. Well I understand it they just get straight off those of the kind was that your first year out and they really put you in the story is that it's the well that you weren't a boat while you were working to save enough to build up a bank account although you see I was put off last summer and on the phone by 3 months I was going off in April and went back in September to get off again and the sever or I'm 37 years of age and this is the first time I ever asked up there for any organization that sent me a record that said make sure if you're down to kind of does girls around. And the mystery Well he didn't want to stay in his home community

and live on charity. Can you blame him. One of the problems these families face is that of losing residents. In other words you see a family is not eligible for help from a welfare department before they have lived in that community for one year two years or more depending on state laws and there are many different laws. Here's a man who ran into difficulty because he returned to his home state with four children after he had last residence there and so could no longer get help when trouble came. His wife became ill and needed hospital care but it was to pay for it. Let's listen as he tells a caseworker his story. Where I've been taken to see the doctor and patient just to get in the hospital and he referred me to the welfare of Karen and tell them that he said you're going to hear that. Hospital for a Immediately

question my residence. Knowing California and here they said that the residents here would be up to the state from which I came to get together they would have to tack California about the situation in the biggest car specs not there when the nation will live in that state. Take responsibility for going to spend it will never let me have the car but transportation back and forth to work. So they do worse. So really good care of your state. And so he had to leave the country but he hadn't gone far when his wife became so seriously ill that she had to be hospitalized for surgery. He was told that he should

not consider driving her back to California after her discharge for at least six months. The children did not have clothing either that was suitable for a winter in a northern state because they had come from a warm climate. This question of residents can work hardships of many kinds. Listen to this medical social worker in a hospital dictating a case record. This is a typical problem of the medically indigent person who is seen in a hospital setting probably more frequently than other social agencies. Patient was picked up by a sheriff and removed from that county and dumped into another county. He came to social service attention shortly after admission to the hospital he was admitted through the emergency room a transfer from a county hospital. He was found to have severely frostbitten feet and it was necessary to do a bilateral amputation. The problems of this

patient's medical nature were further aggravated because of his lack of legal status in any county in any state. The patient seemed to be defective but there was some possibility of brain damage during that time of exposure. Medical social service workers who worked in cooperation with various welfare departments of the various counties but were unable to establish his legal residence and under the existing laws medically indigent persons needs could be met only through a legal residence establishment. We think that this case highlights the individual's predicament in the type of discouraging results which grow out of an inadequate program designed to meet problems where medical indigency is present. It speaks for itself and we feel it does indicate that there is a great deal of work that needs to be

done to establish uniformity in state and county laws. This patient's problem was socio legal and medical. There should be some protection to ensure that the individual and his needs are not sacrificed to an unworkable attempt to make him fit into a program which does not take into recognition the fact that his need is with him wherever he is and that it is his right to be mobile and to make an adjustment to society's needs rather than the reverse. But what about school adjustments for the children of people on the move. Here or high school girls explained some of the problems they faced in this respect. There is a lot of difference in my birks harder books back here than I did so I'm getting a pretty hard time getting my books caught up. I just started to new schools all the time and you know you

had to start meeting your friends all over again. Do you find much difference I'm just going to school up here is a quite different from Alabama. Well not too different except the subjects they stress they're different from the ones I stressed here. In science biology is taught more thoroughly I think. And I found that when I went down there that they were further advanced in that in time being with magick they were quite a ways behind us. Did you find it hard making friends and in a school situation. Well the first year I came up here I found it quite difficult. I have a southern accent and in most ever made fun I was in grade school then and the most. Most of them got mad at me and I had quite a bit of trouble making friends then they got mad at you. I don't know whether they were mad they just act like it and only it seemed like they talked about me and everything they laughed at me.

I guess they just wanted to see how far I'd go in how I act towards them or they would make friends with me. Yes you say folks on earth like to have somebody talk with a southern accent. I was wondering why they would then get mad at you. Well. I had quite a bad temper. I guess I blew up a lot of times there. They had quite a bit of fun making fun of me. Our authority on this subject is Professor H-Sharon Livingston Professor Livingston. We've looked at some of these problems faced by people on the move. What would you like to add. Although agricultural migrants as a moving group have been briefly considered before I think they deserve more attention. Agricultural migrants face serious difficulties as they travel all over the country while large numbers of them are needed to harvest vegetable fruit and other crops. Little attention is given to their living conditions while on the job. The shacks

in which families are required to live have no running water no electricity and usually consist of one room for an entire family must live regardless of its size. Children work too long and many are too young to work. If they do attend school and most do not their attendance is poor and learning is limited. The overcrowded houses lack of sanitation and long hours of work increase the health hazards faced by parents and children. Unfortunately although their health needs are greater for these people the medical care facilities are available to them are frequently almost nonexistent at best. There are too few doctors nurses. Clinics and hospitals. Assuming of course the doors of the hospitals are open to people who are non residents. Another group of people who pose a different kind of problem are the industrial migrants who move into

large urban areas to work. Many industrial cities must assimilate and essentially rural group into an urban setting. Every aspect of our urban civilization is strange and threatening to them. It costs a great deal of money to train an unskilled man for any job. Is it wires or economical for that money to be wasted because a community makes it difficult to the point of impossibility for that man to live in the community. Thank you Professor Livingston. Well what can be done about these people on the move. There have been constructive efforts to meet this problem through the united community defense services organization which tries to bring together social agencies which can meet the needs of these people when they are brought into a small community in large numbers. Their health needs their recreational needs their housing needs and casework needs. Let's stop and watch house trailer of a family benefiting from such community planning.

How do you do sir know you have been working quite a bit at different places as you have gone in construction work have you. Yes sir. And what has been your experience as you have gone around to different places have you found. It's we have a very good provision for families in these places and you know this or it's been dubbed for a dollar. Yes. Would you find it different in this particular And this is different I like it that you think they make you feel welcome. Yeah I think you're going to take good care of your family do they. Yes they've they've made preparations for my family and me to stay here. Nice trailer. Get along on your wife. How do you feel about this matter of the area. Do you feel that they've made you welcome or do you feel like a stranger from out of town. Yes well just housing.

Government has provided me like. This little fellow I wanted to be heard to. Know that body and what is your name. I will die you. Were right. 3. Oh and what do you like to play. The. Toys you like to play with toys. And do you have a good time here in this trailer. Can you sing. Let me sing something. You can sing. Oh you have to have a song. I see. Well well we'll see that you have a songbook the next time OK. Thinking of everything how schooling and recreation and housing and those making it being made to feel at home in the community you feel like they do a pretty good

job. I think you're doing an excellent job at it. Well as far as you know other words you feel that it will be the business of being on the move and having to go to another state for employment that you haven't lost out because somebody has done some very good planning in advance. Yes sir and people you know I'm proud I'm Professor Livingston what have you to say about the answers to the problems of our people on the move. This family benefited from the planning that was done on a federal project as part of the time and effort spent to help families adjust. There may be many problems still present such as overcrowded schools lack of help for children with special problems and insufficient medical care. How much planning has been done to help people who come to your community. In many communities committees have been organized to study problems of migrants and transient every community should have such a committee in New York State special schools

for migrant children have been developed. Another thing that can be done in every community is a study of harsh laws with a view to improving them. Another community project well worthwhile. Would be to provide year round employment for seasonal workers. These are only the few of the things that can be done in communities. Every citizen has a responsibility to study his own community and see its particular problems and think of ways that certain things can be done to alleviate them. In closing I would like to make one general statement. Until there is general acceptance of the principle that the development of the economic industrial and agricultural life of the country as well as the individual welfare of its citizens requires freedom of movement. The necessary community planning may not occur. People must feel free to make the moves they consider necessary for their economic security

and personal happiness. And so you see there is a great deal of unfinished business for each of us to face in his own community. We want to welcome these newcomers. Help them meet their problems and integrate them in our society. America will measure up to its best traditions wanted to extend the hand of friendly cooperation to these people on the move. Thank. You. You know I've been listening to people on the move. Be sure to listen to the next program in this areas which will be time out for recreation. The narration was by Robert Holsinger a production consultant was James Church and the entire program was under the supervision of Fred Hines and William Ewing.