Mrs. BURR. That is right.

Senator GUFFEY. 8 hours a day for 5 days is 40 hours a week, and at 75 cents an hour, that would be $30 a week.

Mrs. BURR. That is right. It would not be much help with conditions the way they are and the rent I pay, and the gas and electricity. Senator GUFFEY. It would help some?

Mrs. BURR. It would help some.

Senator ELLENDER. Don't you get time and a half for the extra hour you work?

Mrs. BURR. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. In other words, you get 87 cents for that extra hour..

Mrs. BURR. That is right.

Senator TUNNELL. If there are no further questions, thank you, Mrs. Burr.

Mr. ERVIN. The next withness is a mother of eight children. She has worked in the same factory for about 13 years, a canning factory in Traverse City, Mich., Mrs. Bellows. She will tell her own story.

TESTIMONY OF MRS. GLADYS BELLOWS, FOOD, TOBACCO, AGRICUL TURAL AND ALLIED WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, TRAVERSE CITY, MICH.

Senator TUNNELL. Give your name and address to the stenographer. Mrs. BELLOWS. My name is Gladys Bellows. I am from Traverse City, Mich. I work at the Cherry Growers, Inc., cannery. I have been there for 13 years.

When I started working nights, which I had to do because we just could not make ends meet with our eight children, I got 20 cents an hour, and gradually they brought the wages up until we got 30 cents and overtime. We asked for a raise, and they said, "Well, if we give you a raise we have to discontinue operations. We can't pay it." But somehow they managed to muddle through.

We got 40 cents an hour when the 40-cent minimum went through, and when the union came in and organized, we got 50 cents an hour. Now, we work any number of hours that they ask us to. Three years ago, on peaches, we worked 91 hours, and some of the girls became exhausted, hysterical, and although I was used to working and had been pretty steady at it, they had to take me home. I had to stay home 4 hours because I was worn out, because after I got home I had washing, ironing, baking, scrubbing, and everything to do myself. My girls went to school. They did what they could, but that is not much, because school children have to have their rest, they have got their homework to do.

Senator AIKEN. Who owns Cherry Growers, Inc?

Mrs. BELLOWS. It is a farmers' cooperative, so you know as much as I do about who owns it, because they do not tell us the different members, they are afraid we might get to them sometime.

Senator TUNNELL. Do you can all the year round?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Up to last year, it was only a seasonal operation. Cherries were their main pack. Then they took on the peach pack. and last year we had a corn pack. They put that through a frozen process, quick-freeze. Then a year ago they put in a dehydrating plant, and since that time we have worked almost the year round.

From 9 to 14 weeks off was about what the older girls would get. I have accumulated quite a great deal of seniority, and if there was any work I was able to get it, but due to the fact that they were allowed 28 weeks exemption on their work, we did not get time and a half. They were allowed to work us as many hours as the law would permit without any overtime. They always said they could not pay overtime and operate, but this last year for everything over 40 hours we got time and a half, we worked 8 hours a day 6 days a week, and the plant is still flourishing paying time and a half, with more people than they ever employed before, and in fact they are building a nice new building right now.

Senator AIKEN. What part of the plant is it that you are talking about now?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Well, they haven't told us the borders; it is just an addition to the rest of the building. I suppose it will be some special processing.

Senator AIKEN. What did you say they are paying?

Mrs. BELLOWS. We get 50 cents an hour.

Senator AIKEN. 50 cents an hour?

Mrs. BELLOWs. Yes.

Senator AIKEN. And time and a half overtime?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes, now we do, but only if they don't use the exemption periods, because while the dehydrating plant is running and we do work more time there is no guaranty that the dehydrating plant will work that long, and then our work will not last 28 weeks, for which they have an exemption.

SENATOR AIKEN. What are they dehydrating?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Potatoes. We work under conditions which you cannot call ideal. We are in water all day long, and after we have worked there for a while, it is very common for the girls to have arthritis and neuritis.

Senator AIKEN. How many days a week, and how many weeks do you work?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Well, as I said, this last year I think we have had perhaps 12 weeks. It might be a little more; it might be a little less than that, I don't remember just exactly, because I came in a hurry and I did not bring any finished story with me.

I know how much it costs to raise a family. No one has to theorize for me, I know from experience. We have a son that has been discharged from the Army and he will never be well again.

Senator TUNNELL. You do not mean that literally? You do not know how much it does cost, do you?

Mrs. BELLOWS. I do know how much it costs to raise a family.
Senator TUNNELL. How much?

Mrs. BELLOWs. More than we have.

Senator TUNNELL. It takes more than you have?

Mrs. BELLOWs. Yes.

Senator TUNNELL. Why do you say that?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Well, I will tell you. My husband works at the same plant that I do.

Senator TUNNELL. What does he get?

Mrs. BELLOWS. He gets now-Well, that is another story. He did get 71 cents an hour. They gave him a 5-cent raise. Last Friday he got his first check with the raise, and Saturday they were informed

that their hours have been cut, and now they won't make as much as they did without the raise. They still have to do the same amount of work. It is a speed-up. I don't know what is going to happen. I left before anything had been found out about it.

Senator TUNNELL. How old is your oldest child?
Mrs. BELLOWS. Our oldest child is a girl. She is 26.
Senator TUNNELL. Does she work or is she married?

Mrs. BELLOWS. She is married. Our three girls are married. We have five boys at home. Our next oldest son is crippled; he has been a cripple since he was a baby.

Things were not so bad about 14 years ago, we got so deeply in debt that just as soon as the little one was old enough to leave at night I went to work nights. I worked nights for a long, long time, and came home and did all my own work.

Senator TUNNELL. How old is the youngest boy?

Mrs. BELLOWS. The youngest boy will be 14 in November.
Senator TUNNELL. Are any of the boys working?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes; they work. The oldest boy, the one I told you was a returned veteran, he has a job, and he contributes to our budget. but at this time we are paying bills that we ran up from the time when things were so hard and we could not get the bills paid up no matter what we did, but we are just proud enough and determined enough that we want to pay them. We are going to pay them; we are going to pay up every debt. But this last year it has been awfully hard, because the home we live in and have lived in for 25 years we cannot have any longer, the people have to have it themselves.

We went to look for a house to buy, but from $5,000 to $7,000 in the city was more than we could afford to pay, and they were not worth it. so we started to look around, and we found a place in the country. We had to buy the land. Well, that is all right. We were well known: we have lived there all our lives, and we bought the land. Our credit is good, so we went to the lumber company and we got materials to build the house. We got priority because of personal hardship, we had to move and we had no place to go. My husband, besides working 8 or 9 hours a day, is building that house himself from the cellar or from the foundation up. He goes out every night after he gets home and works on that house. He is a good carpenter, and he is a cement finisher; he has worked at all those things.

Senator TUNNELL. What did you have to pay for the land?

Mrs. BELLOWS. We paid $800 for 10 acres. Five of it is clear and the other five woods.

Senator TUNNELL. Did you have to pay anything down on it?

Mrs. BELLOWS. My father and mother loaned us the $100 and our oldest son gave us the other $50, I had some income tax coming back, so we gave that to them to straighten out.

Senator TUNNELL. Did you say you had some income tax coming back?

Mrs. BELLOWs. Yes.

Senator TUNNELL. From where?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Well, I will tell you, sir. My husband claimed all exemptions. We did not know just how it was going to work. When we are working our 48 hours they take $5.50 every week from my check. He doesn't always earn, in fact he very seldom earns as much as he would be allowed with all the exemptions. I knew we were paying

more than we should, but that is a darned good way to save $5.50 a week. It goes awfully fast if you have it in your pocket. So we got it back. That is what we depended on for the down payment.

Now, the lumber company let us have all we needed, and they let us pay $10 a week until we get it paid up. We did not have a contract or did not sign a note until we had the down payment made.

Senator TUNNELL. You say they trusted you for the lumber and let you pay $10 a week?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes, and now we have signed a note. Two weeks ago we made enough for the down payment, and we signed a note. That has to be paid in a year. We figured our payments out on the land and on the lumber, and we have to pay $64 a month on our lumber and $15 on our land.

Senator TUNNELL. You are getting ahead a little now, aren't you? Mrs. BELLOWS. We will have a home when we are finished, sir, if we keep on working, but I am almost 45 and I haven't been very well this last year, because you can't work all around the clock and stay well. Senator TUNNELL. I don't mean you are not entitled to a home; I think you are, and I am glad to hear you say you could get one.

Mrs. BELLOWS. I think we are entitled to it, sir. That son of ours will never get married because he figures he will never be well enough.

to.

Senator GUFFEY. What is the name of this so-called cooperative? Mrs. BELLOWS. Cherry Growers, Inc.

Senator GUFFEY. Do you really think the farmers own it or some people in the neighborhood?

Mrs. BELLOWs. I know some farmers own it, because I have some friends that belong to it, but they are such good friends that I do not ask them questions. I don't want to spoil a friendship that has gone back to the time when I was tiny.

Senator ELLENDER. Did your son have difficulty in getting a job since he came from the war?

Mrs. BELLOWS. No. First he went in as a helper in a friend's gas station. Everybody liked him. He had the job until the station closed up. Now, he is working for the city. I think unless something goes very badly wrong, he will continue to work.

Senator ELLENDER. What does he get a week?

Mrs. BELLOWS. I am sorry, I cannot tell you what his wages are. I can tell you a few more things about how much it costs us to live. Senator TUNNELL. All right.

Mrs. BELLOWS. $25 goes to my grocery store every week for our groceries and milk, and maybe part of it for meat. We pay a small rent at this time, $20 a month, but besides we keep the repairs up on the place; we agreed to do that, and we have done so until now, when we started to build. But even so, my children have had to go without things for so long. My little 14-year boy is facing the prospect of having to have all his teeth pulled because we did not have the money to give him the milk to furnish the calcium that his little body needed when he was a baby. We paid $17 for two of his front teeth 6 months ago, and they crumbled right to pieces because they were not good teeth, there was nothing to furnish him good teeth; he was not getting what he needed.

I figure a 65-cent minimum rate if paid to the women-not for myself but for all of them, because most all cannery workers are women,

who have families and who have gone in to help their husbands-65 cents isn't too much, it is too little. After all, as I heard here yesterday, this is America. Everybody looks to this country for its progress, and we have got to keep reaching ahead all the time. It is only by reaching ahead all the time that we get anywhere. When we stop we are going to roll back down hill.

Senator ELLENDER. You stated you spent $25 each week for groceries.

Mrs. BELLOWs. Yes, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. Can you recall what your grocery bill was before the war? How much more is it now?

Mrs. BELLOWs. How much more was it before the war?

Senator ELLENDER. How much more is it now than before the war? Mrs. BELLOWS. Well, I really can't say an awful lot about that. because in our family if one of us goes. downtown and sees something that they think they would like on the table, we buy it. We don't keep track of that. I do know clothing has gone out of sight, because I can't buy a house dress for anywhere near the money I used to be able to. I used to be able to go to the stores and shop, to Penney's, Montgomery Ward's, and buy a really nice house dress that I could go out on the street in for a dollar. I went down 2 months ago and tried to find a house dress that was nice enough to wear. I wear slacks and coveralls to work in, because you get so dirty there you just can't afford to get a nice dress.

I am one of the older workers and if there is something that needs doing I do it. I have even taken a man's place, closing machines, something like that.

I tried to buy a dress for $4.98, and the dress wasn't a bit better than the dress I could have bought for $1.98 before the war. That is one thing we still have to do; we have to wear clothes. We can go without eating for a couple of days, but we can't go without clothes. Senator TUNNELL. Speaking of the grocery bill before the war, you have a growing family, you still have a boy 14?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes.

Senator TUNNELL. Before the war he was about 10.

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes.

Senator TUNNELL. I suppose the others were working?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes. Our youngest boy will be 14 in November. The next one was 15 last June. They both go to junior high. I am telling you, this year their books cost money.

Senator TUNNELL. Their books?

Mrs. BELLOWS. Yes, we have to pay for their books there, you know, all the books, all the materials, everything has to be paid out of our own money. They do not have any books furnished them.

Senator TUNNELL. In Michigan?

Mrs. BELLOWs. Yes, sir.

Senator GUFFEY. Does that apply to all the schools in Michigan? Mrs. BELLOWS. Up to the 8th grade they furnish the books, but after junior high you have to buy all the books, everything-nothing is furnished.

Senator ELLENDER. What size town do you live in?

Mrs. BELLOWs. I imagine it is around 16,000.

Senator ELLENDER. How much more do you think it would cost you to maintain yourself and family if you lived in Detroit?