Harry Barton Interview 1

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: The veterans of the industrial army, Hogansville Mills, Hogansville Georgia, June the 27th, 1927, Photo by Holmes Studio.

Segment Synopsis: Harry Barton and Judith Helfand discuss some photos of mill workers and the Veterans of the Industrial Army. Barton discusses some of the people in the photos.

Keywords: blacklisting; mill owners; photographs; photography; union organizing

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing

Partial Transcript: Judith Helfand: Now what happened, you said , you told me he was caught with a pistol, could you tell me that story?

Harry Barton: This is one of the last trips that the flying squadron made out of Hogansville.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses when the flying squadron went to the mill that his Great Uncle was superintendent of.

Keywords: National Guard; flying squadron; union leaders; union organizing

Subjects: Labor union members; Labor unions--Organizing

Partial Transcript: Helfand: Now were you there when they nominated Homer Welch?

Barton: I expect that I was the man that nominated him as president of the, I expect I was.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses Homer Welch and his invovlement in the mills and the unions

Keywords: Blue Eagle; National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; National Recovery Administration; United Textile Workers of America; beaming; eight hour workday; minimum wage; union leaders; union meetings; union organizing; wages; weaving

Subjects: Labor union meetings; Labor unions--Organizing; United States. National Recovery Administration; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: Barton: Well, uh from a company standpoint. The company built their own, had their own, uh, uh, emergency unit, what do you call it, a dispensary.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses how the mills provided workers with access to healthcare.

Keywords: paternalism

Subjects: Textile workers--Health and hygiene

Partial Transcript: Helfand:... locked up at Fort McPherson too?

Barton: As far as I know he was. I think he was carried up there from Newnan jail

Segment Synopsis: Barton and Helfand discuss Homer Welch's arrest and interment at Fort McPherson.

Keywords: Fort McPherson; Textile Worker's Strike; jail

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); Jails; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Helfand: Now did you get to go right back to work after you quit the union or was the Hogansville Mill closed for 3 weeks?

Segment Synopsis: Barton and Helfand discuss the mill closure during the strike, and Barton's leaving the union.

Keywords: General Textile Strike of 1934; National Guard; U.S. Rubber Company; WPA; flying squardron; mill managers

Partial Transcript: Barton:... go up to Fort McPherson with that crowd.

Helfand: What did you think of your friend Etta Mae getting locked up there

Segment Synopsis: Barton and Helfand discusses Etta Mae Zimmerman's arrest and involvement with the union.

Keywords: Etta Mae Zimmerman; Fort McPherson; U.S. Rubber Company; aftermath of the strike; blacklisting; picket lines

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Fort McPherson (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Helfand: What did he do? You said he could have gotten a job anywhere, what did he do?

Barton: You have an overseer over a department, an overseer's assistant is called a second hand, or a shift supervisor.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses how his supervisor had to repudiate his ties to the union in order to save his job. He also discusses how mill management took care of his workers.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; blacklisting; mill managers; paternalism

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Helfand: And none of these women are alive?

Barton: There ain't anybody that I know of on there that is alive.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses Homer Welch.

Keywords: U.S. Rubber Company; mill managers; photographs

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing; Photographs

Partial Transcript: Barton: Hogansville was one of the nicest, let me say now what happened. The first prisoner was released from the Korean War, who was a boy that lived right down yonder, about a half a mile from here, little bitty fella, and my son Bob was working in New York City then, and he told me "Daddy the New York Times has picked this thing up and you've never seen so much writing.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses the town of Hogansville and the coverage it received in the New York Times when a prisoner of war from the Korean War returned home.

Keywords: New York Times; aftermath of the strike; civil rights; union organzing

Subjects: African Americans--Civil rights; Labor unions--Organizing; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Barton:...they washed , they washed for people all over town, they cook, they'd look after babies for a week at a time.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses African American domestic workers, the mill ball team, and his friendship with members of the African American community.

Keywords: African American domestic labor; McKinley Marchmon; R.J. Terrell; baseball team

Subjects: African Americans--Employment; Baseball teams; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: Barton: I told you about going maybe to the ball game, out in um, in Candlestick park in San Francisco.

Segment Synopsis: Barton talks about going to baseball games in California with his grandchildren.

Keywords: Atlanta Braves; baseball team; retirement

Subjects: Baseball; Baseball announcers; Baseball teams; Retirement

Partial Transcript: Barton: How did you do that?

Helfand: Ummmmm, Rendar Parm.

Segment Synopsis: Barton talks about how he got a story about how he corrected a newspaper story.

Keywords: newspapers

Subjects: Newspapers

Partial Transcript: Helfand: Like a beedo man?

Barton: Huh?

Helfand: Like an efficiency expert?

Barton: Yeah efficiency expert.

Segment Synopsis: Barton and Helfand discuss efficiency in the mills, and if there is anyone from management in the 1930s that they could talk to.

Keywords: asbestos; mill managers

Subjects: Asbestos; Textile workers--Health and hygiene

Partial Transcript: Barton: And you don't talk to Frank Barton, now. Please don't.

Helfand: Well I certainly

Barton: You're far too nice a person.

Segment Synopsis: Barton and Helfand discuss Barton's brother Frank Barton and how he got into mill management.

Keywords: high school; mill managers

Subjects: High schools