Migrant agricultural workers have rarely been able to protect themselves against the exploitation to which they are vulnerable. In 1913, one attempt they made to organize themselves in California was brutally defeated.
E. B. Durst, a large-scale California grower, advertised widely for hop pickers, and recruited many more than he needed—2,800 men, women, and children of twenty-seven nationalities, among them Syrians, Mexicans, Hawaiians, Japanese, Lithuanians, Greeks, Poles, Hindus, Cubans, Puerto Ricans. Durst had facilities for half that number at best; there were nine toilets for 2,800 people and the fields surrounding the workers’ camp were filthy in a few days; there was no provision for garbage removal nor was there drinking water closer than a mile from the camp, although lemonade was sold by a Durst relative. Also, Durst withheld 10¢ out of every dollar of wages, to be paid only at the end of the season. Many workers left early, forfeiting this part of their pay.
Led by a small number of I.W.W. members, the workers organized a mass meeting and sent a committee to demand that conditions be improved. After a heated argument, Durst slapped the leader of the committee, Blackie Ford, and fired all its members. A constable then tried to arrest Ford, but since he had no warrant, the pickers refused to allow the arrest. While the pickers were holding a mass meeting, the constable returned, bringing with him the sheriff and deputies and the district attorney of the county. The meeting was ordered to disperse. Again the sheriff tried to arrest Ford and was assaulted by angry pickers. A deputy fired into the air, and both sides began shooting. The district attorney, a deputy, and two pickers were killed.
When a posse of several hundred armed men and five companies of militia reached the farm the pickers fled. A round up of pickers and Wobblies began all over the state. Private detectives were employed to augment the police forces. Many of those taken prisoner were beaten or starved. Two men, including Ford, were convicted of murder in the second degree on the ground that their agitation about labor conditions had created a climate conducive to violence. The I.W.W. in California organized a general strike to free the two men. It was unsuccessful, though the campaign did publicize the plight of the migrant workers.
The account which follows is from the San Francisco Chronicle, August 4, 1913. For further information on the migrant workers in California as well as on the Wheatland riot, see the Commission on Industrial Relations: Testimony, V, 4911–5026; and Carleton H. Parker: The Casual Laborer and Other Essays (1920).
WHEATLAND, August 3—Four men lie dead and an unknown number of foreign hop pickers are injured as a result of a riot near Wheatland at 5 o’clock tonight.
The dead are:
E. T. MANWELL, District Attorney of Yuba county.
S. REARDON, a deputy sheriff of Yuba county.
Unknown negro hop picker.
Unknown Puerto Rican hop picker.
The injured:
Sheriff George H. Voss, shot in leg and head; badly beaten.
Nels Nelson, wealthy farmer, arm shot away.
Constable L. B. Anderson, right arm shattered by bullets.
E. Bradshaw, onlooker, shot in elbow.
Two unknown women, shot and badly injured.
Two unknown men, injured.
The riot was the result of a wage controversy in which the laborers demanded $1.25 a day for hop picking instead of $1.00, the former scale.
A squad of ten deputies was rushed from Sacramento at the first report of trouble in an automobile. Sheriff Boss of Yuba county went in person at the head of the party and attempted to parley with the strikers. Some excitable person in the mob of Mexicans fired a shot at random. The result was a fusillade from both sides, in which hundreds of shots were exchanged.…
It is reported that I.W.W. members were leaders in the rioting. The trouble started when the Durst brothers, who employed 400 hop pickers of their ranch, refused to concede to the employees’ demands for increased pay.
Durst and Constable Anderson attended a meeting of the strikers at noon today, and when Durst refused to grant the increase the men became abusive. Constable Anderson tried to arrest one. He was set upon and beaten and his revolver taken away. The constable then telephoned to Sheriff George H. Boss.
Boss swore in a posse of ten, and, accompanied by District Attorney Manwell, went to Wheatland in two automobiles. Boss and four of his deputies approached the mob concentrated near the ranch house. The Sheriff attempted to parley with the men, and urged them to cease the destruction of property.
It is reported that the ringleaders began to abuse the Sheriff and he threatened arrest. Boss seized one man more violent than his fellows and started to drag him to the automobile. His friends leaped upon the Sheriff and beat him unconscious. When the other deputies started to charge, those in the front rank fired.
Manwell, who was standing nearby, was instantly killed. So was E. Cunningham, a deputy, and father-in-law of Sheriff Boss. Several bullets were fired into Boss’ body as he lay on the ground. Another deputy was also instantly killed.
Nels Nelson, a wealthy farmer, a member of the posse, had his arm shot away in the volley. Constable Anderson’s right arm was badly shattered. Two women were also wounded, fatally it is reported.
The driver of the car in which the Sheriff was riding was the only one in that automobile to escape death or injury. He jumped into the car and fled. Firing ceased and those in the other automobile were permitted to pick up the dead and wounded and carry them back to Marysville.
The exchange of shots between the mob and the posse occurred at about 5 o’clock. The automobile carrying the dead and injured arrived in Marysville about an hour later.