My sense is that the Southern opposition was tied up intricately with
subordination of the black labor pool in the South -- not surprisingly, you
need to look at race and gender along with class to understand Southern
opposition to a federal AFDC benefit.
The first one has a
terrific anecdote (I think) about some bubba congressman wondering who was
going to iron his shirts if there was a federal minimum benefit.
Treacy: In the 1950's there was great opposition by liberals to run away
industry moving South. In fact Federal Minimum wage laws were viewed by
some as attempts by Unions to restrict competition from low wage
Southern areas.
Fed. laws restricting tobacco land to allotments kept a large number of
black males employed because tobacco was still cultivated by mules that
could work much narrower rows than tractors in the Pee Dee Section of
South Carolina.
When a shirt sewing factory was set up in Florance, S. C. in 1956, there
was great wailing and gnashing of teeth by White Matrons who lost their
$10-12 a week(six days) maids and cooks to forty dollar a five day week
job in the shirt factory. While these wages were low relative to those
in Northern unionized towns, they looked like heaven to the black women
of Florence. Maid and cook wages jumped to $18 a week within three
months. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***************
Teresa Amott
Dept. of Economics
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
717/524-1652 (w)
717/524-3760 (fax)
