Feeding the Nation

.

 Overturned truck on approach road to Phillips Packing Company during strike at plant. Cambridge, Maryland: photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937
 

The factory so simple
from outside
once in
complexities

like the break room
a forest
danger, resentment, claim
trees firmly planted

You find out later
it was a mistake
then, too late
something already created
when you turned to go

But give me this at least
it is something to ignore

at least eat
feed the others too
between wars


-- Susan Kay Anderson 

Strikers in front of Phillips Packing Company. Cambridge, Maryland: photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937

Packing company strike. Cambridge, Maryland: photo by Arthur Rothstein, June 1937



Camp for migratory agricultural workers of the Phillips Packing Company in Vienna, Maryland. On the left are the living quarters and on the right the cook houses: photo by Jack Delano, July 1940



Camp for migratory workers of the Phillips Packing Company at Vienna, Maryland. On the left are the living quarters, in the center the cook-houses and in the background on the right the factory: photo by Jack Delano, July 1940



Housing for migratory labor at Phillips Packing Company at Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland: photo by Jack Delano, July 1940



Shacks for migratory workers at Phillips Packing Company, Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland: photo by Jack Delano, July 1940



Group of migratory workers in the camp of the Phillips Packing Company, Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland: photo by Jack Delano, July 1940



Trucks come before dawn to wait their turn to unload at Phillips Packing Company plant. Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941


 

This trucker has been waiting all day to deliver his tomatoes to the Phillips Packing Company. Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941

This Negro trucker has been waiting since dawn to deliver his tomatoes to the Phillips Packing Company in Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



Trucks unload tomatoes directly into the packing rooms. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



Trucks unload tomatoes directly into the canning room. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



Employees reporting for work at the Phillips Packing Company in Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941


 
Cans are sterilized with steam before filling and cooling. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941


 
Cans, after sterilizing in steam, travel in conveyor belt to canning room. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



Tomato juice is boiled in open vats and then piped to the canning room. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941


  
Filling cans with tomato juice. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



After cooking sealed cans are cooled in pool of chilled water before labeling. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



After being filled with tomato juice and sealed, cans are carried in metal baskets to chilled water pool for cooling. Phillips Packing Company, Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941

Phillips Packing Company storeroom. Cambridge, Maryland: photo by John Collier, August 1941



Leif Dahl (1908-1972), organizer of agricultural workers union, speaking at union meeting in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Dahl, a CIO organizer for the Fruit and Vegetable Workers Union that later became the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), played a central role in the ten year effort to to organize the Phillips Packing Company.  Dahl eventually became regional director of the union, which stood for interracial solidarity and was one of the few unions with a significant number of women in leadership. The union was ultimately destroyed in the post World War II reaction against the “Red Menace”: photo by Edwin Rosskam, 1936

Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress