Food and Shelter on the Road

Before the U.S. government instituted its welfare system in 1935, religious organizations such as churches, missions and the Salvation Army often provided the only indoor locations where tramps and hoboes could get hot meals, sleeping quarters and clothing.  Many missions had the motto "Feed and Convert."  If hoboes accepted the mission's charity, they were obliged to work for their food and sit through sermons, no matter how long. 



Gospel Mission, 1937  Roy Stryker (1893-1975)  Minneapolis, Minnesota;  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

"Although missions provided necessary services for the poor, some took advantage of the situation:  "Most of the religious at the missions were made up of out-and-out racketeers who used God and the Bible as a front for soliciting funds and clothes.  A very small amount of these was allotted for the care of the homeless.  The result:  vermin infested, foul-smelling, unhealthing lodgings, half-cooked indigestible slop called food; second-hand clothing received in return for many hours' work in the woodpile or the kitchen." William fields, from his 1936 senate testimony on behalf of the transients' organization, Untouched Youth of America

  


Young Boy Waiting to See If He Can Get a Place To Sleep for the Night, City Mission, 1940
John Vachon (1914-1975)  Dubuque, Iowa; Courtesy of Library of Congress

"In the large cities a few queries would reveal the location of any number of flop houses such as Jesus Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, etc.  If you were so inclined to listen to a short prayer you would be rewarded with a bowl of soup and for 25 cents you could get an army cot for the night, provided you went through a delousing process."  
                                                                             Donald Wagner, Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania

Listen as Frank Hubbard describes the "hobo jungles" 




                         
I Remember Distinctly:  A Family Album of the American People, 1918-1941, 1947
Compiled by Agnes Rogers, with commentary by Frederick Lewis Allen; Gift of John Marckle

By 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, about 14 million American workers were unemployed, comprising 25 percent of white adult males and 50 percent of African American adult males.  Families faced with too many mouths to feed sometimes sent their teenaged children away to earn money to support themselves and to send home.  In some cases, these young people also found jobs for othe family members.

Listen to F.R. Logan look for work after the bank closes.


"Worked in N.Y. State on farms picking vegetables and fruit.  P.S. I picked 100 bushels of apples a day and was paid $5.00 for that day.  Got paid one penny a pound for picking beans.  Thrashing wheat, kidney beans, also pears, etc. and paid 25 cents an hour for that."
                                                                                    Emile Yuhasz, Nazareth, Pennsylvania Pea Pickers, 1939 
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)  Imperial Valley California
Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Listen as John Steele boxes for a meal


Teenagers, however, were often able to find work picking fruit and vegetables across the country.  In rural, sparsely populated area of the country, fewer workers were available for hire during the brief but labor-intensive harvest time.  Farmers needed hand pickers who were able to do heavy, physical work for long periods of time.  Strong teenagers filled this need.  As different crops became ready for picking, farm workers traditionally moved across the country along previously established routes called "streams."  Workers told other on the road where jobs were available, allowing drifters to find farms that were hiring for the season. 
 


"My buddy and I decided to hobo from illinois to Kentucky and work on Grandmother's and Uncle's farms.  We worked for room and board all summer.  All the work was done by hand, chopping [hoeing] the corn and tobacco fields.  In the fall, we returned to Ilinois and resumed our education.  I was 15 and my buddy was 16 years old."


Thirteen Year Old Sharecropper Boy, 1937  Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)  Near Americus, Georgia; Courtesy of the Library of Congress


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