arrests on Thursday, October 12, 1939, I went out on strike. The day after I went out I joined the CIO. This was Saturday October 14. It was the first time

I ever belonged to a union.

At the time the strike was called, most growers was paying eighty cents a hundred pounds for cotton picking, and we was asking for a dollar and a quarter. On an average, taking younger and older men and women together, a cotton picker can pick from two hundred to two hundred and twenty five pounds of cotton a day, working from sun-up to sun-down.

On Saturday, October 14, Sunday, October 15, Monday, October 16 and Tuesday, October 17, I was in the picket caravans that went around in Madera County. We would drive in front of ranches where there was people picking cotton and would wave to them and holler to them to come out and help us win the strike. We had to wave and holler to them because most of the times they was so far in the fields, off the roads.

Some time Wednesday morning, October 18, eighteen or twenty of us strikers was taken out to Warren Ocheltree's ranch in cars and dropped off there. As we got there Mr. Ocheltree was sitting in front of his ranch with a shotgun across his legs. We picketed up and down in front of his place, and when he seen we wasn't going to cause a disturbance he leaned his gun up against his car which was there. A little while later he put the gun inside his car.

That evening we was all sitting on the side of the road, a little way from Mr. Ocheltree's ranch, waiting for some cars to pick us up and take us on into Madera. While we was waiting, Mr. Ocheltree's foreman came over and pointed a double-barreled shotgun at one of the Mexican pickets and threatened to kill him. We told him it would be alright for him to kill the Mexican boy, but he'd have to kill us all while he was at it. He had the gun aimed at the Mexican boy when he made the threat and when we talked to him, he lowered it and went away. Pretty soon the cars came and picked us up and went on into Madera.

The next morning, Thursday, October 19, 1939, at about 11:00 or 11:30, about twenty five of us pickets in five or six cars went out to picket at Elmer McCree's ranch. We got there about noon, just as the pickets that were there was quitting for lunch. We parked our cars on the side of the road, just to the west of the house on the McCree ranch. We got out of our cars and walked up and down the side of the road, and hollered at the people picking cotton in the fields to come. There was one or two farmers there when we got there and other followed us out on the road. A car with two deputy sheriffs also followed us out there.

After we were there for a few minutes, there was twenty five or thirty farmers altogether. Among these I recognized Jim Buffington, Bill Buffington, Mark Van Elswick, Elmer McCree, Joe Sutton, Chester Weaver, Voddie Weaver, and Warren Ocheltree. While we was hollering at the people to come out of the fields, Jim Buffington called over to us and told us to stop hollering at the pickers. Three or four of the farmers there had shotguns and rifles.

After we was there for about an hour or an hour and a half, one of the deputies came over to us and said, "Boys, I'm gonna have to shake you down." He then searched us all and didn't find anything but a pocket knife on a chain that was on one of the pickets. When he was through he said, "I seen that the farmers' guns is unloaded; I made them take the shells out. There's nothing that I can do about them having the clubs. The farmers is going to get you and I can't stop them." During the time we was there a woman by the name of Mrs. Ray, who runs a big dairy farm near the McCree ranch, told us that it looked to her like we'd rather be walking up and down the big road and taking relief than picking cotton.

While we was picketing all the farmers hollered at us to quit picketing and to go and pick cotton. Jim Buffington was talking to one of the strikers and looked over to me and asked me why I wasn't picking cotton. I told him I wanted a living wage and he didn't say anything, just walked on off. Just then we saw a bunch of cars coming up the road, and we thought it was some of our strikers because when we got out there and saw all the farmers, we sent a fellow into town to get some more strikers to come on out. When these cars came along we saw they was more farmers. As they got up to us they jumped out of their cars and attacked us, with the help of the farmers that was already there. They used clubs and other weapons on us; some used short pieces of chain.

Before the farmers attacked us, we all stayed on the county road; no one left it, but after they started chasing us a few of the strikers ran across Mr. McCree's field. After we started running, they stopped bothering us.

As I left I saw some farmers had Tobe Bell, a striker, down on the ground, and was beating him. I got in a car with Thomas Brown, Thomas Hutchins and George Evans, and drove to the Dairyland Store. We stayed there a few minutes and then came back on into Madera.

The next day, Friday, October 20, 1939, around noon, about forty cars of us pickets went back out to the McCree ranch and parked from the corner of his ranch on out. We lined our cars up so that none of them was in front of the ranch. We called to the pickers in the field to come out. One of them did come out and talked to the picket captain. The captain told him that none of the pickers would be molested if they came out. This fellow went on back and talked to the pickers and they all came out.

We left there then and went to the Producers Gin and parked in front of the gin yard. A Highway Patrol car was there and one of the Highway Patrolmen asked the pickets to drive on. We drove on past the gin and between the cross roads we started picking up roofing tacks in our tires. A few of the pickets' cars got flat tires. We stopped and picked up as many of the tacks as we could, then drove on back into town.

That evening the union was conducting a meeting in the park, and a little after 8:00, the sheriff and his deputies come up on the platform and started arresting the people on there. They arrested all the strike leaders and altogether took twenty-two. As the deputies would come on the stand and arrest whoever was there, another striker would get up on the stand and talk over the microphone until he was arrested. After they arrested twenty-two they stopped taking them off and I got up on the stand and talked over the microphone and told the people at the meeting not to be excited or cause any trouble. Then our attorney, A. L. Wirin, came and we kept on with our meeting.

The next morning, Saturday, October 21, 1939, I went to the park at about 8:00 or 8:30 and stayed around there most of the day. I helped load a caravan of pickets that went out on Howard Road, a little way from the Valley Market. There was a meeting of farmers and some of the Governor's men from Sacramento going on and at about noon I went out on Howard Road and told the pickets there would be some lunch for them soon and also told them not to go any further until we heard what the farmers was going to do.

We held our regular union meeting in the park all day, but it was very small because of the arrests the night before. A lot of the people didn't show up after that happened. About 11:00 or 11:30 in the morning a well-dressed, sandyhaired man with a moustache came to the stand with a medium-sized, fleshy woman and told us strikers that they was trying to get the growers and the union people together and get the strike ironed out. The man said he was from Sacramento.

On the way back from talking to the pickets out on Howard Road, I stopped off at my house and picked up some writing paper for one of the women at the park. When I got back to the park, a striker was telling the people that the farmers had attacked the strikers out on Howard Road, and the people all wanted to go out there. Then the farmers started coming in the park from the Yosemite Avenue side. When we saw this Millie Pruitt, one of the strikers, called to the Sheriff over the microphone to come and give us protection.

At this time I remember seeing Grady Hawkins, Mrs. Anna Parker, a fellow named Thomas, all strikers, on the stand. The farmers came up both sides of the bandstand at the same time, and I was standing at the top of the steps on the east side. Mrs. Parker was standing right next to me. I grabbed a chair and hit the first man that came up on the stand. I went for another chair and just then Mrs. Parker hit another one of the men. One of the men that came up the steps first was Pete Cruchit. I'm not sure of the spelling of his name. After a few seconds of fighting, someone knocked me down and I got up and hit someone with my fist, then I was knocked down again and I rolled off the front of the stand, in the bushes. As I come out of the bushes, another fellow hit me on the head with a club and knocked me down and kicked me in the face. I got up and tried to grab his club, and another fellow hit me on the head with a club and knocked me down. I got up and staggered out of the park. Later on,

someone told me that gas was thrown in the park, but I was so groggy from being hit that I don't remember anything about it.

I went over to the Associated Station on Highway 99 about a block away from the park toward Fresno, and a fellow picked me up and took me to the Madera County Hospital. The doctor there examined me and put a stitch in my lip. /s/ CARL YOCHAM. Personally appeared before me this 15th day of November, 1939, Carl Yocham, whose address is Post Office Box 406, Madera, California, who swears that the above statement is true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief. [NOTARIAL SEAL] CHARLES F. PRECIADO,

Frank Stambuck, General Delivery, Chowchilla, California, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

On Friday, October 20, 1939, a large number of us pickets was escorted by the California Highway Patrol and went back and picketed the same ranch which I later learned was the Almer McCree ranch and where the fight took place the previous day, October 19. We picketed in front of the ranch where there were some people picking cotton, and then walked west to the crossroads, about 4 mile away. At the crossroads there were several cars, and I recognized a large man I saw the day before-the one who went to get something to eat-and the man who was with the leaders of the caravan of farmers which arrived as they started to break up our picket line. When we walked back to the field, the pickers all came out.

After the pickers came out of the field, we circled around and went past a gin pretty close by. The caravan cars all pulled up past this gin, and a bunch of people came around this car I was in and the driver stopped. There were about 200 or more farmers on the gin grounds, and some of them pointed at me and yelled, "There's the yellow bellied bastard", and I stood up and said, "Here's the shirt-come and get it!" They stopped razzing me then, and began razzing some of the other strikers.

All these men had clubs and pieces of white cloth hanging from their arms, their shirt fronts, and so forth.

The highway patrolmen stopped any violence that might have happened there. The majority of the pickets stayed in the cars. We stayed here possible five min. utes and then drove off and were going 20 or 30 miles an hour when the highway patrol which was behind us-several cars of them-drove by us very fast, and about that time the caravan was beginning to stop. We didn't know for five or ten minutes what was the trouble. Some of us got out of our cars and walked up the side of the road. We saw a number of roofing tacks on the road. Several cars, including a state police car, got flat tires from these tacks. Some of our pickets then cleaned the road, as much as they could, of tacks.

/s/ FRANK STAMBUCK. Personally appeared before me this 16th day of November, 1939, Frank Stambuck, General Delivery, Chowchilla, California, who says that the above statement is true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief. [NOTARY'S SEAL]

My Commission Expires June 21, 1943.

CHARLES F. PRECIADO,

Notary Public.

(4) ATTACK ON STRIKE MEETING IN MADERA PARK, OCTOBER 21, 1939

EXHIBIT 13070

AFFIDAVIT OF GEORGE BELL

STATE OF CALIFORNIA,

County of Madera, ss:

George Bell, a Madera County, California farmer, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:

Some time the evening of Monday, October 16, 1939, about a week after a strike of cotton pickers in Madera County had been called, I went to Memorial Hall in Madera to attend a meeting of growers. I don't recall just how I was solicited to attend, but I believe it was by word of mouth.

As I approached the door leading into the auditorium, my name and cotton acreage was entered in a book by Jim Buffington, a grower, who was standing at the door. At the same time, this man asked me for a dollar to join the Associated Farmers. Personally, I don't believe the Associated Farmers has the actual interest of the farmers at heart, so I flatly refused to join. This refusal caused an argument between several of the farmers there and me, during which they threatened to throw me out of the hall. I told them they were perfectly welcome to throw me out if they could, and this stopped the argument.

By this time I was pretty angry and rather than let the farmers think they were chasing me out of the hall, I went into the auditorium. As I entered, Stuart Strathman, State Secretary of the Associated Farmers, was addressing the meeting and telling the audience "how it was done in Imperial Valley in 1934." I just happened to catch this phrase as I walked in, but didn't pay much attention to the rest of his speech because I left a few minutes later. One or two nights after this meeting I was in the Madera County Park during a union meeting. I sent for Carl Patterson, one of the strike leaders, to come off the stand, and asked him whether the union would settle the strike on the basis of a dollar per hundred pounds of cotton. The union was then demanding a dollar and a quarter. Patterson replied, "We will be glad to discuss the matter." I took this reply to mean that the union would probably settle for a dollar. Some time before this I met Ollie Baker, another Madera County farmer, and a member of the Grower's Emergency Committee that was formed at the Monday night meeting in Memorial Hall, mentioned above, and suggested that the growers get together with the union and negotiate. Baker's only answer was that negotiations would bring the CIO into Madera County and that the growers didn't want this to happen. I made several approaches to other farmers about negotiating with strikers but got the same answer from them all.

I honestly believe that if the growers had negotiated with the union on the basis of a dollar a hundred pounds of cotton, there would never have been any trouble in Madera County, as there was in the Park on Saturday, October 21, 1939. With the Federal Government paying us three cents a pound for cotton, plus the market price of around nine cents, we can well afford to pay a dollar.

/s/ GEO. P. BELL.

Personally appeared before me this 16th day of November, 1939, George Bell, a Madera County, California farmer, who swears that the above statement is true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief.

My commission expires June 21, 1943.

/s/ CHARLES F. PRECIADO,

Notary Public.

EXHIBIT 13071

AFFIDAVIT OF ELDON DISMUKE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA,

County of Madera, ss:

Eldon Dismuke, Age 23, 216 North O Street, Madera, California, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

I left the park in my car at about nine o'clock Saturday morning, October 21st, and came to the Signal Service Station to fuel up, service up, and get in line. We went down as far as the Middale Store on Howard Road, and the captain of the pickets had us to stop, and he said that the chief of the highway patrol had given him orders to hold us out there, that the biggest farmers of this county were in the jail in conference with Carl Patterson. After the line was formed and we were parked along Howard Road heading away from Madera, I saw two cars of deputies across the road facing toward Madera. None of the deputies were familiar to me, although I know all the regular ones in town. These two cars of deputies stayed right there until about 15 minutes before the farmers started clubbing us.

We was beginning to get wise while we were waiting there, because I know most of these big farmers by sight, and I saw them all passing in their cars going toward the Bonita Gin. I saw Marvin Baker, and Hotchkiss, the young one, and I saw Pad Davis, Bud Allen, Herman Baker, Sherman Thomas, Ernest Merritt, and Ochiltree, from Merritt & Ochiltree, and others.

All this time, the captain of the pickets was going back and forth to town, and telling us that they was having the conference in the jail. I started to pull out to go back to the park to find out what it was all about, and when I got to the railroad crossing near the Signal Station, the farmers was attacking some fellows, and I saw someone mark my license down as I went by (5K4838, Willys). I drove over town to the park and parked my car right by the library on Yosemite Avenue and walked across the street to the park. Just as I stepped up on the sidewalk, there was a car double-parked, and there was some strikers sitting in it. A carload of farmers with white armbands and clubs was there, and they started beating these men in the car. They broke the glasses out of the car and reached in and beat the people in it. They broke the window next to the driver and hit him on the back of the head and he fell on his face into the gutter. The farmers got back into their car and drove down the street about the length of a dozen more cars, and there was some more fellows sitting in a car parked at the curb. The farmers jumped out of their car and clubbed these men. One of those men was hurt bad, because he ran over to where I was, and he was hurt because his ear was cut and looked like it was almost busted, and the blood was running down on his shoulder. He came up to me and he said, kind of dazed, "They hit me!" He was an old man, about 60.

I went on into the park next to the bird cage behind the benches, and I looked around back the way I came, and all these fellows were getting in there. (When I say "farmers," I mean the men with white armbands and clubs.) All the farmers I saw was armed with either a club or a rubber hose, and some of them looked like they was patented blackjacks. The next thing I did was to stop right there and watch them. I really didn't think they was coming in there. I thought they was just bluffing.

I looked over towards the jail where all these traffic cops was to see what they was going to do about it, and they were all standing together over there in a bunch, and they had their tear gas guns out in their hands. I kept watching them to see if they were going to do anything about it, because they had plenty of time to break it up before the farmers got to fighting.

When these farmers were forming up, I recognized J. B. Harold, Dairyland farmer, Elmer Harold-he married my cousin-Cecil Harold, Joe Thompson, from back of the Bonita Gin, and Fritz Tosci, not even an American citizenI know him pretty well.