

INTRODUCTION 



Mi 



During the second half of the 1930s when agricultural 



strikes shook the rural counties of California, Contra 



Costa County remained quiet. In June of 1934 a brief and 



lor s >,'■--...- 

 explosive strike of the apricot pickers in Brentwood had 



• U34* t 



ended unsuccessfully for the strikers; after that date no 



attempt was made to organize the farm laborers of the 



county with the possible exception of the arrival of a 



known labor organizer in 1936. He departed rapidly with 



sheriff's escort. This industrial peace was in large part 

 sc 

 due to the Brentwood Plan, a system of registering and 



keeping close check on farm laborers, which was worked out 



before the 1935 picking season by the newly-elected sheriff 



John A. Miller with the cooperation of the leading growers. 



o th# sefciing .i. 

 Sheriff Miller, a self-made man, had defeated the 



previous sheriff of forty years standing in the fall of 



1934 with a vigorous radio and newspaper campaign in which 



public dissatisfaction with the handling of the Brentwood 



strike made a natural issue. The young sheriff immediately 



