Miller J from what I could see* 



Baum: Were conditions particularly bad in that year for 

 the pickers? 



Miller: Well, the wages in California were bad all during 



those many early years, I had been a picker in the 

 Livermore valley area of grapes and prunes and 

 almonds, way back from 1898 till the time that I 

 left for Richmond, California, in 1913, and the 

 conditions were very very bad those years. We used 

 to get about a dollar a day for a twelve-hour day, 

 or $30 a month. No field workers ever got a decent 

 wage. Of course, 1 had been not only a picker but 

 a small farmer with my dad, and I had seen both 

 sides of the picture — the farmer's side and the 

 picker's side. 1 came well equipped to cope with 

 situations exactly like this. 



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