FARMERS: Gun-Cotton

Harvesting the fattest cotton crop since 1931-32, Georgia farmers last week faced a scarcity of pickers. Results:

¶ In Bibb County, 116 laborers were transferred from a WPA road project to cotton fields. Sixty-eight refused to go because pay for cotton picking was too low, only 50¢ a hundred pounds. Twenty of the 68 were promptly removed from the WPA payrolls.

¶ In Glascock County, cotton farmers who were short of help offered cotton pickers in Warren County 75¢ a 100 lb., plus a drink of corn whisky morning and evening. Following this, farmers in Warren County, where pickers were getting 40¢ a 100 lb. and no drinks, took shotguns to their fields. Said Warrenton's Sheriff, G. P. Hogan:

"Our farmers just put a stop to it. There was no trouble although a number of them . . . fired into the air. They told the pickers there was plenty of cotton to pick in Warren County and asked them to stay home and pick it. They decided to stay."