The Pecan Sheller’s Revolution of 1938

By

Glenn Allen Nolen

Copyright © 2000 by Glenn Allen Nolen
All Rights Reserved

Contents

Introduction					1

History of the Pecan Shelling Industry					4

Disturbance of 1938					13

Rise of Home Shelling					19

Martyrs				             21

Dependence on Public Assistance					 27

Housing, Health, and Education					 29		

Conclusion					 30	

Endnotes					 32

i

Pecan Sheller’s Revolution of 1938

Introduction

In late October 1938,
The San Antonio pecan shelling industry had a date:
The Fair Labor Standards (wage - hour) Act;
The San Antonio pecan hand shelling industry made a pact.

A shutdown occurred.
For over 8,000 Mexican-American men, 
Women, and children, 
Unemployment was the word.

Those workers averaged five cents an hour
And literally had no power.
Industry leaders were disturbed.
They were perturbed.

They wouldn’t accept an increase in minimum wage. 
It would be going to twenty-five cents.
It made no sense.
Underpaid Mexican-American labor was then displaced.
The industry was disgraced.

Southern Pecan Shelling Company formed in 1926.
It dominated the hand shelling industry. 
The domination included San Antonio and the south.
They were the industry’s mouth.
Their workers were left in a fix.

With no way to earn a living;
Thousands of men, women, and children threw down 
Their pecan picks.
The industry considered them to be hicks.
Workers were set free.
How good could that be?

Southern Pecan, the only true vender 
In town,
Did nothing but hinder 
Their fantasy of relinquishing a frown,

1

San Antonio had been a dominant player 
In the pecan shelling industry for fifty years;
Yet, young workers were getting grayer;
And their eyes filled with tears.

They had no way of earning a living.
There wasn't a lot of food for giving. 
Their families were starving.
No one even had a minute carving.

The federal government stepped in sending aid.
It wasn't enough.
Times sure got rough.
Workers went unpaid.

To be a five cent 
An hour slave,
After you have given and gave.
No worker would get rich at that mint.

They were merely cast aside
Exposing hide.
Not knowing if there would be another day.
They went silently not violently away.

Most of the workers lived in town and rented.
Workers rented year round.
Some anger got vented.
It was a muffled sound.

Violence wasn't in their interest.
They were mainly centrist.
With no money saved,
They did what they were told and behaved.

Contractors left them to their own recourse
Hindering their plight
Ignoring their constitutional right
Pursuing the advancement of a monetary source.
 
One might think they caved.
You would be wrong.
It may have been trite, but they waved 
And started singing a union song.

2

Becoming vocal,
The San Antonian's may have been local;
But they were not all yokels.
Their determination was quite focal.

Before I go any farther
And eulogize a martyr.
Perhaps, I should start the first inning
And trace the pecan shelling industry from its beginning.

3

History of the Pecan Shelling Industry

"The first commercial shipment of [a] shelled pecan(s)
Was made by G. A. Duerler, Sr. in 1882." 1
He could appropriately be called the first Don.
The concept was new.
 
"Duerler, a Swiss baker and confectioner," 
He bartered with local Native Americans for the nuts. 2
He got them off their butts.
Native Americans still lived in no more than huts,
But those pecan picks sure caused a lot of cuts. 

Most, however, failed to acquire
The western civilization work ethic of you or me,
What did they know about hire and fire?
It didn’t allow one’s spirit to live free.

Duerler got on their case.
That's the history of the human race
To culturally discriminate and debase,
War paint should have been applied to every 
Native American’s face,
 
Was it exploitation
Condemning a Native American nation?
Or was it a way to survive?
Duerler, certainly, did thrive.

What's your vibe? 
Did Duerler consider the needs of the tribe?
Should we have imposed our culture?
Are we akin to a vulture?

He then hired Mexican-American workers to crack,
Pick, clean, and pack.
They worked exclusively with pecans.
They were merely pawns

Working long hours into the night time sands.
That began a long journey filled with ruts.
You couldn't be a klutz.
Workers needed steady hands.

4	
A workers back
Felt like it was on a rack.
They got tired from the monotony.
It wasn't botany.

Fifty barrels had been the first goal.
Off to the East Coast, 
They did roll.
And Duerler made his first toast.

Selling so fast,
The nuts did not last.
Consumers liked them.
It wasn't merely a whim.

Am I going out on a limb?
Like a basketball rolling on the rim,
Had they ever even seen a gym?
Do we give the credit to him?

Was it a fad
The United States of America had.
When it was only a lad.
Supply and demand isn't all bad.

You decide!
Has the taste for pecans risen or died?
People still put them in pies
Hoping the price will not rise.

By 1889, workers cracked them with precision.
Automation worked like a dream.
They had become a team, 
But was it a conscious decision.

In 1914, power driven crackers
Forced the need to hire more packers.
In the 1920s, mechanization peaked.
Into the industry, the great depression sneaked.

People were forced to compete.
Hand labor was virtually free.
Machines laid obsolete.
Extensively, back to the time of the Cree. 

5

Until 1925,
“The Duerler and Funsten companies" 
Dominated the industry with ease. 3
At least, workers managed to stay alive.
 
Julius Seligmann and the Southern Pecan
Shelling Company then arrived.
He juked and jived.
The industry took a dive.
He destroyed the hive.

He wasn't Irish, 
And he didn't work with fish.
Seligmann had a wish.
He wanted to be nouveau riche.

A $50,000 investment,
Which was lent
From his fathers' estate,
Gave workers a definite death date.

Putting the industry into a tailspin,
Southern Pecan grossed "$700,000 in 1930
To over $3,000,000 in 1936." 4
At that rate, Seligmann could retire with a grin.
He didn't soldier at Fort Dix.

Julius would be too rich.
He wouldn’t have to do that hitch.
Today, he may have been called nerdy.
Seligmann single handedly turned the industry dirty.

Could that have been how he got his kicks?
Competitors suffered and took their licks,
But he did not read by oil lamp wicks.
He was adept at business tricks.

How many statues can one put on a lawn?
Did he have to have so many gates?  
Didn't he even consider the workers fate?
All or nothing for Southern Pecan!

How much did he hate?
Handling 25% to 33% of the nation’s seedling crop.
6

Southern Pecan forced mechanization to stop.
The rest of the industry had no time to wait.

"Until then the usual practice ... [was] to use 
Shelling machines which graded, [and] cracked." 5
The new policy was to abuse.
It's substantiated by fact.

Machines had "conveyed the pecans to tables or belts.
They were [then] hand picked to remove the shells," 6
But Seligmann needed more money for his pelts.
That's the conclusion history tells.

Until then profits were amiss,
Workers would now never obtain bliss.
The automation dream
Did scream.

The company "replaced the mechanized process.” 7
Southern Pecan would go exclusively with handwork.
Would Seligmann confess?
He certainly acted like a jerk.

They were a profitable team.
Southern Pecan introduced a contract system
Replacing the mechanical hum.
It was a brilliant scheme.

Seligmann stripped out every cable
Forcing workers to hand label
Paying them a crumb.
How numb! 

Can that be wisdom?
I prefer being dumb.
Seligmann you’re a bum.
For you, eternity should never come.

Work was thin.
Illiterate workers can't read a fable
Or earn enough to buy coats of pure sable.
Thus, contractors roped them in.

7

Hand workers were used on a large scale.
Workers did not wail.
They refused to fail
And hurriedly filled a pail.

By 1934,
San Antonio had a core
Of 400 shelling plants.
Workers could barely afford pants.

They called them that.
I can't!
The buildings heavily slant
And offered no more protection than a hat.

Those shacks
Were not sturdy. 
They were as flimsy as paper sacks.
Seligmann, I hope you never hit a birdie.

Building codes were lax
And sanitary facilities were not on track. 
There was no one to fax.
Why complain about a crack?

One person could knock them down without even a bat.
The rat!
I hope he sat
Getting fat.

Up to 20,000 men, women, and children were employed;
That occurred each season.
Profits were unevenly deployed.
Seligmann was the reason.

That is historical fact.
Children weren't playing with toys.
They were cracking and picking pecans, girls and boys.
Seligmann, you had no tact.

The pursuit of profit,
Workers couldn't stop it.
Working conditions were bad.
Life was sad.

8

Southern Pecan did avoid
Entertaining “the direct responsibility of an employer.” 8
Workers weren't knowledgeable enough to be annoyed,
They did not have the expertise of Seligmann’s lawyer.

A substandard working condition
Was Seligmann's tradition.
He cozied up to the till.
Taxpayers foot the bill.

Let him have had guilt.
Historically, he was not alone in his tilt.
Nothing changed,
Was he deranged?

Seligmann enjoyed
Skirting the law.
He wasn’t annoyed
By the money he saw.

Workers united,
They tried to fight it.
Deployment of union personnel
Wasn’t a hard sell.

Yet, workers could not hit the ball.
They didn’t even get half a swing, at all.
The city of San Antonio arranged to amend 
Their health codes and tend

To the access of running water,
No issue was hotter.
That did little to lighten their load.
Workers had a hard road.

They toiled
And boiled,
Was Seligman royal?
Put him in aluminum foil.

They felt trapped.
All their energy sapped.
Yet, workers remained loyal.
They were people of the soil.
9

Winter came and the cold wind blew.
It blew all the way through,
And it didn’t stop for every hole in the wall.
It wasn't a mall.

Workers didn't even have quilts
Protecting their legs.
Seligmann stood on stilts
Making workers beg.

After San Antonio amended its situation, 
"Small establishments closed down." 9
They were all part of Seligmann's manipulation.
The industry didn't leave town.

It stayed 
And played 
With low pay,
There was no place for workers to stray.
 
Seligmann, you were a clown.
You preyed on workers, because their skin was brown. 
The industry was coiled to explode.
Hope you enjoyed your pie a la mode!

Many workers prayed for a better way.
Only the sun
Decided to run
And lay.

Things looked grave.
Food and shelter, they did crave. 
Most workers needed some form of aid.
Seligmann could afford jade.

Keeping a family under a roof
Proved to be aloof.
"Profits ... were maintained
At the expense of the" Sheller's, on whom it rained. 10

In December 1934,
Average income for workers per week was a $1.29.
Those who complained were heaved out the door.
The lucky ones had a fishing line.
10

Low pay was ingrained.
Seligmann lavishly dined
And workers pined.
He should have been brained

And heavily fined.
How did Seligmann sleep
Lining his pockets that deep?
Who could have thought he was kind?

What a nasty feller!
He sure wasn't stellar.
I bet that he would have hated Old Yeller.
He should have been locked in the cellar.

Workers did not even have tents
Protecting them from the elements.
Did he repent?
I doubt if he even went.

Perhaps, someone plucky
Shoved Mr. Lucky
Tossing him into a bin.
Hopefully, It was labeled to hell for your sin. 

Magdaleno Rodriguez produced 
"The first important attempt to organize." 11
He got workers to rise
Forming the "Pecan Shelling Workers Union of San Antonio." 12
It failed to go.

He was the one laying stone
Attempting to produce a foundation,
But the timing was not right for a loan.
It was his creation.

In 1937, 
"The remnants of this union reappeared.” 13
The Texas Pecan Shelling Workers Union was not feared
Being led by Albert Gonsen toward heaven.

Finally, a course;
But was Seligmann the funding source?

11

He took the credit.
Did Albert let it?

Albert Gonsen 
Didn’t live in Wisconsin.
Other workers for the cause
Never hit pause.

When push came to shove,
Gonsen flew like a dove
Streaming into Seligmann’s pocket.
Just like a rocket.

There wasn't a Sarah
And certainly no Farrah
Coming into sight.
Latinos ruled the night.

It was an attempt to enforce a workers right.
Martyrdom was their plight,
But the martyrs 
Were somehow smarter?  

Late that year,
United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied 
Workers of America (UCAPAWA)
Issued a temporary charter.
There wasn't any time available to cheer.
Life had gotten harder.

Catastrophe was near.
The pursuit of happiness is for all to hear.
It is especially for the ones we hold dear.
Thankfully, workers weren't afraid of fear.

12

Disturbance of 1938

Southern Pecans' contractors
Were one of the most prevalent factors
Causing the disturbance of 1938.
A reasonable person would call it fate.

"On January 31,…
The Southern Pecan Shelling Co's contractors announced" 14
That wages would be bounced.
Seligmann, you should have been cursed.
  
Workers clamored
That was outrageous.
They were already getting hammered.
Opposition was contagious.	
 
"A spontaneous walkout" ensued. 15
Workers were in a rage
And bolted from their ram shackled cage.
Gonsen came unglued.

He held back support for the march.
Workers lips became parch.
Was he enamored by Seligmann's starch
Or caught flat-footed without an arch?

Late to get on the bandwagon
Isn’t something worth braggin'.  
Gonsen made an alignment with Seligmann's fort.
Union members didn't know he was that sort.

The mood was hate.
For to long, workers had been treated like bait. 
Anyone with a brain could tell,
What would happen next in Pecan Sheller's hell?

Police were out in force.
Could the event have been staged?
No one can be sure, of course, 
It could have been strategically gauged.

13

Demonstrators were gassed
And put in the slammer.
It all happened so fast.
Seligmann's mother: Damn her!

Lack of respect
Helped create an environment in which to be decked.
It was a violent start.
The establishment had no heart.

Lacking were the laws.
There was no protection.
Demonstrators gave no good cause.
The police should have taken time for reflection. 

Luckily, San Antonio Chief of Police,
Owen Kilday didn't have access to an atomic blast,
Or all the strikers would have been tied to a mast
Losing their life's lease.

Kilday had Mayor C. J. Quinn's support.
The mayor was elated.
He publicly stated:
UCAPAWA; Take us to court!

He must have been dense
Boxing workers in a fence.
A national officer of UCAPAWA entered the fray.
"He and his assistants were given police bodyguards"
And promptly driven away. 16

Union officials were barred
Disallowing anyone with a union card
Near the strike scene;
Seligmann, you were so mean. 

Strikers screamed
Bloody murder,
But they had no foundational girder
Building a platform on which tomorrow beamed.

I don't believe they had as yet dreamed.
It wasn’t possible it seemed.
A day would come when they could stand.
All they could offer was a hard working hand.
14
San Antonio had been placed on riot alert.
Conversation was curt.
No one in a skirt
Was in a mood to flirt.

Some wanted to leave.
They had their chance.
Those remaining decided to dance
And grieve.

The situation got obscene.
It wasn't keen.
"On February 7, the police routed 300 pickets." 17
And no the purpose wasn't to issue tickets.

Strikers were tossed,
And they were not sauced.  
Charged with disturbing the peace.
They were rounded up like geese.

Over 1,000 Sheller's ended up in jail.
Unlawful assembly:
The strike will fail.
The mayor said simply.

One week later,
Estimates suggest that 6000 workers were walking the line.
Had Darth Vader
Given them a sign?

Living in the mouth of a gator, 
They wouldn't even be able to feed their families a tater.
I would have given them every dime
Had I been alive at the time.

"Treatment of the strikers by the police
Attracted so much attention."18
Newspapermen couldn't help but mention
Their plight,
And how they were peacefully polite.

An investigation was to follow.
It rang hollow
And was greased 
By men wearing pants that were creased.
15

Police Chief Kilday testified:
"I did not interfere with the strike." 19
Obviously, he lied.
He stuffed his finger in the dike.

He said:
"I interfered with a revolution." 20
Thus strikers bled.
Was intimidation his only solution?

The streets of San Antonio ran red.
Nobody counted the dead. 
The union filed for an injunction.
Striker protection was part of their function.

A judge refused their refrain
Leaving the police at bay.
He never issued a stay.
His hands would permanently and forever have a stain.

They violently played.
Justice was delayed. 
Only Governor James V. Allred
Could put the situation to bed.

He halted the violence
Negotiating a silence.
Requesting that they not be tardy,
He persuaded each party.

Allred called for a meeting. 
It was to be with limited seating.
Even though they hated to negotiate. 
It was the Sheller's fate. 

"On March 8,
The strikers agreed to return to work" 21  
In a forthright state
Without even a perk,

Low wages would still irk them
Remaining in their future.
Wages were still dim,
But it was better than getting a suture.
16
The arbitration board
Refused to lift the sword
Setting "the new [wage] rate." 22
The pecan shelling industry had a mate.

It was "... to be 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 cents after June 1." 23
Honestly, the union argued they won.
On that basis,
They could save their faces.

"Closed shop contracts" 24
Were signed.
The union had opened some cracks,
And some contacts were redefined.
	
Only after November 1,
Had the unions work really begun.
Unionization is never done,
And it isn't a lot of fun.

"The unions first contracts with the operators
Expired after the industry had closed down." 25
That was no cause to frown.
"Within a little over a month," 26
Seligmann began to punt.

The industry signed on the bottom line thirteen times.
Supposedly, ending the most flagrant crimes. 
Grievance representatives were then placed in each shop.
No one was forced to work and drop.

Workers might soon earn enough for a bottle of pop
Or heaven forbid go out and shop.
Everything wasn't fine;
But at least, now they had the beginnings of a vine.

Workers had a net.
It was a specific date, 
And it was set.
Everyone could relate.

On October twenty-fifth, 
Their contracts became a myth.
The industry never intended to hold up its end of the bargain.
It was all jargon.
17

According to a New York Times report,
Their words were full of contort.
The industry shut down on October twenty-fourth, 
But they didn’t shut down in the north.

"The union made clear
That it supported the Fair Labor 
Standards Act unconditionally." 27
The union did veer,
Albeit provisionally.

There wasn't a lot of tact
Approaching oncoming traffic.
Thereby, in fact,
Creating havoc.

Workers sighed.
The industry vied
Sitting under their umbrellas.
Those inconsiderate fellahs!

Sipping drinks with lime,
They had plenty of time.
Why didn't they care?
Were they rare?

18

Rise of Home Shelling

An investigation by the Wage and Hour Division saw
No need for an exemption.
On January 19, 1939, the union got redemption.
"The Wage and Hour Division denied
The [industry a 90 day reprieve] request." 28
The union received the information with zest.

Finally, forward progress.
No one believed the industry would die.
It was all disinformation: Why?
Profit margins impress,

The industry had a huge paw.
It began selling pecans in the raw.
People who refused to buy
Were not given a piece of the pie.

Contractors still spied,
And they fervently lied.
They never even tried 
Waiting a day to hide. 
 
"One employer" told, 29
How he sold
Rotting pecans to workers in the morning.
He never had any hesitation or warning.

They rented a seat
In a building without heat,
And then he bought back the pecan meat.
That's how to stay elite.

Definitely, It was an act of derision.
Contractors made a conscious decision.
Seligmann continued to buy imported wine
Never receiving a fine.

"Home shelling [,] ... [It] was being done [,]
Monitoring was nil [,] on an increasingly large scale.” 30
Preferably, contractors didn't force work with a gun.
That might have made it curtail.

19
It was not for fun.
Those contractors should have been hauled off to jail.
You can't eat the sun
Or digest a nail.
  
The union had to wait for the “reorganization of the industry." 31
To the average worker, it was all wait and see.
Their attention was on keeping their families alive.
Usually, there was nowhere to drive.

Seligmann and the other locusts
Didn’t give a damn if people died.
They were extraordinarily focused
On an uninterrupted ride,

To them 10,000 was just as good as five.
They didn't give a damn about the hive. 
Pecans continued to collide
Clashing with workers, fury flied.  

It was a tumultuous
And extremely arduous
Extended campaign
Being conducted in the rain.

20

Martyrs

The stories of the workers follow.
After reading,
It shouldn't be difficult to swallow.
I've left out most of the bleeding.

"Late in 1936, ... [Juan Flores]
Began working in [a] pecan plant(s)." 32
He couldn't feed his chorus.
However much he raved and rant.

On a salary of $2.50 To $2.75 per week:
Salvation Army and federal aid, therefore, he did seek.
And Anastacio Medina
Did not earn enough to live in Pasadena.

Even his wife and daughter
Were sent off to shelling plant slaughter.
Shelling from October to July,
They had no other hope on which to rely.

Drastically, reducing "expenditures for food." 33
Certainly, altered their mood.
In my opinion, Seligmann was crude,
And he was one lewd dude.

Medina and his family lived in an "abandoned chicken coop,
Which a friend let them have rent-free." 34
There was no money for soup
Or anything like a drink of iced tea.

That's not hype.
It never occurred to them to steal.
Picture the homeless living in a pipe.
Tragically, They were without so much as a meal.

Life got ripe.
There were no catalogs to wipe.
The union kitchen 
Kept them from bitchin'.

And the church relief depot
Allowed their kids to grow.
21

Pecan Sheller's gathered together to survive.
It was all live.

Using late twentieth century slang,
They were the San Antonio pecan shelling gang.
Seligmann, how long were your fangs?
Couldn't you sense those hunger pangs?

Not allowing their spirits to go
Any more low
Became a quest.
The Mexican-American community answered with its best.

To complain
Or exclaim
Did not win the game.
It only vocalized the pain.

Seligmann, you were a toad.
You should have been squashed crossing the road.
Where was your honor code?
Starvation is no way to goad.

Others tried
Leaving their "pecan-shelling job." 35
It was a long ride,
And there was always a mob.

"Manuel Juarez, a widower, with six
Children living at home." 36
His family did not have enough flour to mix.
Children can't eat water bubbles or foam. 

Manuel packed 
His kids into a "1926 Model T Ford" 37 
Loading it within ten cubic feet of a cord.
It was racked.

Money was tight.
Yelling all aboard,
They started their fight;
But it wasn't with the Lord.

22

Juarez and his family traveled to Corpus Christi
Looking for work in the field.
The weather was humid and misty,
But cotton that year had no yield.

Workers were downtrodden.
They were frightfully forgotten.
He heard of work in another part of the state
And hoped not to arrive late.

"They left for Lemesa.
[It is] in West Texas.” 38
Behind the wheel, his oldest, Theresa;
They were not riding around in a Lexus.

It was an eight-day drive. 
Luckily, they made it alive.
All six of his children thrive.
It could easily have only been five.

With very little food,
Theresa could only try and lighten the mood.
She sang a song
For all those who sorrowed and suffered long,

A can of cerveza
Kept the younger ones a sleep.
Past many a mesa,
They never made a peep.

It was either that or concrete.
Once they even got to meet
A swan
Accompanying her was a fawn.

While they rested at a pond,
His children immediately made a bond.
Life has no magic wand.
Occasionally, children have to be conned. 

Their trip wasn't arranged by a travel bureau.
There's not much to eat at the canyon of Palo Duro.
His money was down to zero.
Call him a hero.
23
They had to eat.
It took a lot of will.
Manuel decided to kill
In order to have meat,

He beat
That deer.
It seemed like a year
Telling his children to take a seat

Resting on the other side of the car.
It wasn't very far,
But he needed them out of the way
Staggering his prey.

Nutritionally speaking, protein
Can get obscene.
Death is never a dream.
When your headlights are on high beam.

They earned $18 working two months straight.
I'm surprised there wasn't a line to wait
In order to hate,
Open the holy gate.

After day number sixty,
"Manuel borrowed money for gasoline." 39
A man named Bixby
Sure wasn't mean.

He allowed them to go 
Back to San Antonio,
It was less than a pleasant journey,
More like a ride on a gurney.

Those country roads were hard.
They were as difficult to survive as legendary Abilene.
Each pothole jarred
His Model T from adulthood back to a teen.

In Big Spring, 
His car hit a thing.
By San Angelo,
They didn't have enough for a cup of Joe.
24

Going through Brady
Was a bit shady.
At Mason,
Someone actually allowed them to use a water basin.

They made it all the way past Boerne.
Thanks to that gentlemen Ernie. 
But his Model T ended up lame,
“About 15 miles” from his destination, 40
Going back from which they came.

Traveling with six kids was a trial.
The second re-creation took a long while.
Juarez didn't have enough dough
Calling for a tow.

"He [then] sold the car for $5 cash
And a $5 grocery order" of corned beef hash. 41
This was no party or a bash.
They needed a place to crash.

Manuel "rented a two-room shack for his family of seven." 42
They were not living in heaven.
"Before he could get back to work at shelling pecans,
However, the plants were closed." 43
Seligmann should have been hosed. 

Amazingly, Seligmann was never caught
Relaxing out on his lawn.
And no one ever thought
Of robbing to pawn,
 
Maybe someone should have gotten off a grenade
Heaving it or lobbing it,
I would have done it without sobbing. Shit! 
There goes my lemonade.

Pedro Gomez supported a family of ten.
He wanted a better life.
Opportunity for advancement was thin,
And he did not want to wield a knife.

He thought of his wife,
But for San Antonio laborers, living was all strife.
25

"The net result of ... [a] low wage standard"
Meant the pulling of the lanyard. 44 

Seligmann, did you have fun?
You should have been flogged,
And you should have been left in the sun. 
You should have been dogged.

No worker acted in haste.
At least, they had taste.
Most workers were straight laced.
Seligmann was solid waste.

Through union unity,
They forged a community.
They acted as one.
Sometimes it's nice to have a gun.

26	
Dependence on Public Assistance

Southern Pecans contract system and low wage scale
Forced Pecan Sheller's, and the entire
San Antonio Mexican-American community, to sail
“Into dependence upon public relief and assistance 
[Continuing] in large numbers.” 45
Unencumbered, Seligmann peacefully slumbers.

Seligmann received absolute immunity
And lived with impunity.
He was never in fear.
What a dear!

As the most prominent pecan buyer,
Seligmann never experienced severe storms or hail.
As the town crier,
He always got mail.

On the other hand, even before 1938,
Pecan Sheller's received antagonizing resentment 
Coming from “many non-Mexicans in San Antonio." 46 
Didn't those people know?
He set the wage rate.

Seligmann made money by pushing workers on the dole.
He never tied anyone to a pole,
But he left them clamoring to get out of one large hole.
They were covered in coal.

The pecan-shelling band
Never got independence.
To most, it was their sentence
Being of the land.

Father Carmelo Tranchese tried to help.
He offered absolution and very little kelp.
He was there for the needy.
Seligmann, you were seedy.

It isn't funny
To be out when it's sunny.
An associated charity 
Asked for parity.

27
It was denied.
Seligmann, you should have fried.
Bexar County Supervisor of Social Work, Clare Green
Did manage to screen 

Applicants for cash relief,
Mayor Quinn
Refused to give in.
He had no moral belief.

He said: "We would have no legal right to spend." 47
He must have been all wind!
Quinn never felt the Pecan Sheller’s grief.
What a thief!

Wright Riley,
Of the Texas Employment Commission,
Was not known as Mr. Smiley.
Workers confessed
That he made them more depressed.
 
Taking his office into intermission,
Riley knew that was an admission.
Requirements of citizenship disqualified many,
There was no double dip and little money: If any.

Hardly, anyone extended a hand or a wrist.
Not even public assist.
Why bother to insist?
People have a natural tendency to resist.

28

Housing, Health, and Education

"The pecan shelling industry in San Antonio is
Concentrated for the most part in the West Side of the city.” 48
Over 65,000 people were not giddy
About living in a slumlord’s space.
Less than four miles wide,
There was not room enough for one more face.

I cannot say that it was his,
But that was Seligmann's pace.
He was a San Antonio whiz,
And he was a San Antonio disgrace. 

Most paid half of what they earned
Sweeping a dirt floor.
That slum should have been burned,
But where else would the people have found a door?

"High death and disease rates" awaited the people. 49
No wonder they flocked to every steeple.
"Malnutrition, poor housing, [and] lack of sanitation" 50
Was unequal habitation.
 
"Inadequate medical care," 51
Left them no hope or fruition.
The people of San Antonio didn't dare
Reduce the cost of tuition.

Illiteracy and poverty are a team.
That's not overrated.
And it's not complicated.
Without a bean there's no energy to dream.

Seligmann, you were one mean
Profit hungry machine. 
You should have been knocked out cold.
That statement would have been bold.

29
Conclusion

"Thousands of pecan workers" were stranded
And displaced,  52
They were disbanded
And not embraced.

Their lives got colder,
Hardships got bolder.
Families were torn apart.
San Antonio had no heart.

Many young girls turned to prostitution.
It was an illegal substitution.
Could they let their parents starve?
From that experience people carve

Their own identity,
It wasn't serenity.
"Abject poverty brings in its train"
A showering of rain. 53

Forward thinking legislation 
And unionization
Brought workers some amenities.
Families could stop the shame of their rent a tease.

Fomenting revolution
Was their only solution.
It was a viable way to give
People the will to live.

Julius Seligmann, you’re branded.
To be candid,
I would not know where to start.
It may be improper to leave a stinging tart,
 
But you were one selfish arrogant clod.
Why did God allow you to make such a wad?
At least by now, you’re a piece of sod.
Hopefully, people trample all over your bod.

Realistically, you should not be judged.
On the other hand, history should never be fudged.
30

Go rest on your laurels.
Another generation will determine if you had morals. 

31

Endnotes

1. Federal Works Agency, Works Projects Administration, Division of Research, Pecan Shellers
of San Antonio, (Washington, D.C.: Government 
Printing Office, 1939), 7.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid, 8.
4. Ibid.
5. Monthly Labor Review,48, March 1939, 549-51.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Pecan Sheller's, 10..
10. Ibid, 13.
11. Ibid, 16.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid, 17.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid, 18.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid, 19.
28. Ibid, 22.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid, 21.
31. Ibid, 22.
32. Ibid, 24.
33. Ibid, 25.
34. Ibid, 26.
35. Ibid, 28.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
                                                                     32

40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid, 35.
45. Ibid, 37.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid, 41.
48. Ibid, 43.
49. Ibid, 45.
50. Ibid, 46.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid, 55.
53. Ibid, 60.

33