The Rural Voice, 2019-02, Page 10 After reading a column by the
editor of one of the other farm
newspapers about favourite books he
reads over and over, I decided to pull
my copy of one of those titles off the
shelf and reread it myself.
It was 80 years ago this year that
John Steinbeck’s masterpiece The
Grapes of Wrath was published, yet
so many themes seem relevant today.
First of all, it is a demonstration
of the power of climate change to
disrupt lives. The Dust Bowl
conditions of the 1930s were the
result of a short-term climate change.
The drought lasted nine years in
Canada’s Palliser Triangle, for
instance. Year after year crops would
be planted, the heat would come but
not the rain, and the crops would
shrivel and be covered by blowing
soil.
The Grapes of Wrath follows the
effect of all of this on one family, the
Joads. Like many in Kansas and
Oklahoma and other U.S. prairie
states, they didn’t own their land.
Some had once owned their farms
but couldn’t meet the mortgage
payments and so farms were
repossessed by the banks. Most of
the farmers became sharecroppers,
growing crops and giving a share to
the landowner instead of rent.
As the years of drought wore on,
the landowners saw the return from
their land diminished and decided
they had to do things differently. I
couldn’t help think of all the schemes
over recent years to package large
parcels of Canadian farmland
together and sell them to Asian or
European investors.
Next, along came technological
change. The sharecroppers had
cropped small parcels using horses or
mules. The landowners realized that
by using powerful Caterpillar tractors
pulling huge planters they could farm
hundreds of acres with only one
hired employee.
The tenant farmers were told they
must vacate the land. To make sure
they’d never come back, often their
ramshackle houses were knocked
down.
About the same time, large
orchard owners in California
distributed thousands of flyers
offering good jobs picking fruit.
Desperate for work, the farmers
loaded up their families in old junker
trucks and cars, and headed west.
Such desperate migrations are
everyday news in 2019. Usually we
hear about overloaded leaky boats
filled with Africans trying to cross
the Mediterranean to Europe, too
often with tragic results as the boats
sink and people drown. Then there’s
the relative trickle of refugee
claimants who walk across the border
into Canada from the U.S. at remote
crossings.
And then, of course, there are the
infamous caravans coming from
Central America through Mexico that
are filled with rapists, murderers,
drug dealers and terrorists according
the U.S. President Donald Trump
who wants to build a wall to keep
them out.
All these people are foreigners to
the countries of their destination so
fear of the stranger is understandable.
But the migration of hundreds of
thousand of Americans from one area
of their country to another evoked
the same resentments among
Californians. The “Okies”, as they
were called, were often harassed at
the California border by state police.
When they huddled together in
makeshift roadside camps while they
searched for work, they were often
pushed out. If they got too settled
vigilante groups from nearby towns
might assemble to burn the camps.
And of course with so many
people looking for work the large
orchard owners kept lowering the
pay they offered and people couldn’t
make enough to get by – yet they
couldn’t leave California because
they had no money and no home to
return to. So they stayed, and despite
their struggles, little by little they
settled in and helped build a
prosperous California, just as
generations of immigrants to Canada
have done here.◊
6 The Rural Voice
Old story, familiar
themes
Keith is former
publisher of
The Rural
Voice.
He lives near
Blyth, ON.
Keith Roulston
180 Brock Avenue, Hensall
519-262-3130
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