Motherless migrant children.
They work the cotton fields.
_____________________________________________________________
Greensboro N.C.
Febuary 12,1938
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt,
Washington D.C.
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
On January 1st I was layed off from my work leaving my father the whole support of our family. just recently he was cut down to three days a week with a cut in salary. With seven of us in the family it is just about impossible for us to live on this amount.
My mother has been sick for over two months having had a nervous breakdown and we are unable to buy or furnish her with the medicine required for her recovery.
I am 18 years of age the oldest girl in the family, and it just seems impossible for me to get a job any where. I have been to Mills, Stores and Firms of all sorts. I am willing and able to work. Can furnish excellent references but at this time of the year it just seems impossible to find work.
We are so in debt and each week the bills are piling higher and higher that it just seems as if there was no way out. We must make a pay ment on our furniture bill. And if it isn't paid soon they will be out any day for our furniture. And on top of this we are behind in our rent.
It would be a big help if we could get some of our bills paid on as they are already impatient for their money. If you could help us out with from $35.00 to $50.00 I believe we would be the happiest family in the world. We have a good respectable family, none of us have ever been in any trouble, and our characters are above reproach. Just as soon as I get back to work and the family on their feet again I will pay you back as much a week as possible until your kind favor has been fully repaid.
My father's work has been very poor for the past year. He is an advertising salesman, and his work right now is practically nothing; and as he has had kidney trouble for some time, taking more than he could make, for medicine. He has been improving recently, since he had his teeth extracted, and is looking forward to a job but which will not be available for a month or more. We went through the depression without asking for relief. I registered January 14th for unemployment compensation, and although promised $6.25 a week, have not received a cent as yet.
Won't you please grant me the afore mentioned
favor, please make it a personal favor, Mrs. Roosevelt, for if you would
refer it to a local agency, I would suffer untold delay and embarrassment.
Altough we are poor, we try to hold off embarrassment,
for you know it is "hard to be broke, and harder to admit it."
Please grant me this favor and I will ever be
Gratefully yours,
D.B.
This is not intended for publication
____________________________________________________________________
_
Christmas
dinner in home of Earl Pauley. Near Smithfield, Iowa.
Dinner consisted of potatoes, cabbage, and pie.
[http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/csnider/berry/hist206/depression.htm]
Granette, Ark.
Nov. 6, 1936
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
I am writing to you for some of your old soiled dresses if you have any. As I am a poor girl who has to stay out of school. On account of dresses & slips and a coat. I am in the seventh grade but I have to stay out of school because I have no books or clothes to ware. I am in need of dresses & slips and a coat very bad. If you have any soiled clothes that you don't want to ware I would be very glad to get them. But please do not let the news paper reporters get hold of this in any way and I will keep it from geting out here so there will be no one else to get hold of it. But do not let my name get out in the paper. I am thirteen years old.
Yours Truly,
Miss L. H.
Gravette, Ark.
R #3
c/o A. H.
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