Harry Barton Interview 2

Partial Transcript: Judith Helfand: Tell me a little bit about...

Harry Barton The liquor store up here?

Judith Helfand: Yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses his grandfather work as an overseer in the cotton mills, child labor in the mills, mill owners

Keywords: Futon Bag and Cotton Mills; child labor; education; wages

Subjects: Child labor; Education; Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills; Wages

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Well I went to school there in the first grade on, on Boulevard Street School right, right across from that um, what's that park there?

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses living in Atlanta in the early 20th century, the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills, the Exposition Cotton Mill, and the fire of 1917.

Keywords: Atlanta; Exposition Cotton Mill; Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill; education

Subjects: Atlanta (Ga.); Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: During World War One, I mean, yeah World War One, food was rationed, we lived in a barn of a house, you could throw a dog through most any place.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discuss the various places he lived, went to school, and started working in the mills. He also discusses how the family moved their possesions

Keywords: Leo Frank; child labor; education; influenza; trains; wages

Subjects: Child labor; Wages

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Now let me tell you, when we were living on Marietta Street, in Atlanta Georgia, when Leo Frank was lynched.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses living in Atlanta, Ga., as a child, when Leo Frank's body was carried past his home, the early days of Coca-Cola, and his grandfather's taxi service.

Keywords: Atlanta, Ga.; Coca-Cola; Leo Frank; taxi

Subjects: Atlanta (Ga.); Coca-Cola Company

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: My wife and I went to Griffin Georgia, to see her sisters , and my mother had some kinfolks in Griffin.

Segment Synopsis: Barton tells about finding his grandfather in Griffin, Ga., 4 years after he abandoned the family.

Keywords: schools; shunning by family

Subjects: Education; Griffin (Ga.)

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Greenville the last time, uh I went to work with, I had an uncle who was a building contractor, built houses.

Segment Synopsis: Barton talking about working with his uncle who was a contractor when he was 14 years old.

Keywords: child labor; wages

Subjects: Child labor; Wages

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: We all moved to, down to Newnan Georgia. He had an uncle his mother's brother was superintendent of the mill at Newnan Georgia.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses moving to work at the East Newnan Cotton Mill, the domination of the company in workers' lives and why they moved to Hogansville

Keywords: East Newnan Cotton Mill; bands; education; eviction from mill village houses; mill villages; paternalism; spying; wages

Subjects: Newnan (Ga.); Working class--Dwellings; Working class--Education; Working class--Recreation; Working class--Songs and music

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: For, they's work you for dirt. Now I didn't ever draw a penny of my money there, they'd put my money in the, in the ticket with my Daddy's money. Arnold Mills did.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses how he was paid as a child, the company store, and playing in the company band.

Keywords: band; child labor; company store; debt; wages

Subjects: Child labor; Poverty; Wages

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: This was the only entertainment, you didn't have radios, few people had radios.

Segment Synopsis: Barton talks about they entertained themselves in the mill village, how he came to Hogansville, and how the mill workers moved around looking for better jobs and wages.

Keywords: child labor; mill villages; trains; wages

Subjects: Child labor; Wages; Working class--Recreation

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: I come down with the fungus, where I got it I don't know. I come down with staph infection in LaGrange hospital, but the doctors wouldn't have no part of it.

Keywords: doctors; healthcare; hospital

Subjects: Hospitals

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Okay now where was I at?

George Stoney: You told us that you spent 44 years in Hogansville.

Barton: Yeah I was gonna tell you that.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses his health issues, including a fungal infection,and issues with asbestos. Barton also discussing testing asbestos.

Keywords: asbestos; doctors; hospitals; illness

Subjects: Asbestos; Textile workers--Health and hygiene

Partial Transcript: Geogre Stoney: Well lets go back to when you came to Hogansville, you came in to play in the band.

Harry Barton: Yeah.

Georgre Stoney: And you got a job, what did you do in the mills?

Segment Synopsis: Barton talks about becoming a section hand in Hogansville, taking continuing education class, the start of the great depression.

Keywords: education; loom fixing; spinning; wages

Subjects: Education; Great Depression; Looms; Wages

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Now do you remember what happened when the New Deal came in, NRA,...

Harry Barton: Yeah, NRA, yeah the Congress ruled it, that was illegal, you know.

Segment Synopsis: Barton talks about the lack of impact of the NRA for textile workers, labor organizing, labor unions, and how the textile industry moved from New England to the South.

Keywords: National Guard; National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; National Recovery Administration; New Deal; anti-union sentiment in the South; union organizing

Subjects: Labor unions--Organizing; New Deal (1933-1939); United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Got tired of my children crying for food. And if it hadn't have been for my wife's mother

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses his perspective on the General Strike of 1934.

Keywords: Etta Mae Zimmerman; Fort McPherson; General Textile Strike of 1934; Leona Zimmerman Parham; National Guard; Spartan Mills; United Textile Workers of America; anti-union sentiment in the South; flying squadrons; hunger; legal action after the strike; picket lines

Subjects: Hunger; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Let me go back a little bit, my boss told me in the mill, he says, "Listen Harry, you gonna join the union? " I says, "I don't know, I don't like the union." He says, "I thing you ought to."

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses how he helped the union organize, his disillusionsment with the union,

Keywords: Atlanta; Calloway Mills; United Textile Workers of America; eight hour workday; eviction from mill village houses; union dues; union organizing

Subjects: Atlanta (Ga.); Labor unions--Organizing; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Now what happened after, uh, the union broke up?

Harry Barton: Well I'l tell you what they did, they decided, the union group down there, decided to see the mill company, we didn't didn't have a strike.

Segment Synopsis: Barton discusses how the mill company responded to the strike, the flying squadrons, the arrests of strikers, and the interment of the flying squadrons at Fort McPherson.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; fishing; flying squadrons; mill managers; police

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); Police

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: During the time that the mill was stopped we went over to the Tallapoosa River in Alabama.

Segment Synopsis: Harry Barton discusses going fishing during the strike, his work managing the mill in Hogansville, and the union meetings

Keywords: Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill; fishing; mill managers; spinners; union meetings; weavers

Subjects: Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills; Labor union meetings

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: But do you have any pictures of yourself as, in, about this time? With the band or anything like that?

Harry Barton: You know I don't, don't know.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand ask if Harry Barton has any photos from the 1930s

Keywords: marriage; photographs

Subjects: Marriage; Photographs

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Where the [Erskin- Carwell?]?

George Stoney: Oh yes over at Moreland?

Harry Barton: Have you seen it?

Segment Synopsis: Barton talks about going to classes in mill managment at Georgia Tech

Keywords: Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill; Georgia Tech; education; newsreels

Subjects: Education; Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills

Partial Transcript: Harry Barton: Cause the government stopped them of it. Did you know?

George Stoney: When did the government stop 'em.

Harry Barton: Well that plant's been closed 5 or 6 years, I guess

Segment Synopsis: Harry Barton discusses mills that had been shut down due to uses asbestos.

Keywords: Asbestos; World War Two; mill managers

Subjects: Asbestos; World War (1939-1945)

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Judy, we better go.

Judith Helfand Okay, its been a pleasure.

George Stoney: This had been a wonderful talk.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney, Judith Helfand say goodbye to Harry Barton. Barton talks about his grandchildren about the 1930s and baseball.

Keywords: baseball

Subjects: Baseball