Tom King: Some of the jobs that have
been described to us so far are obviously very difficult
jobs, indeed- -hard, back-breaking jobs. But it was
an economic and social irony during the Great Depression
that often getting the job could be even harder than
the job itself. The people who are sitting on this
panel tonight are quite fortunate in that they indeed
did get employment. The general situation, however,
in this area at that time was different in many respects
from what we’ve been hearing, in that there
were a great number of men who were out of work right
in the midst of plenty.
As soon as it became public knowledge that the Hoover
Dam project (or Boulder Dam project) was underway,
unemployed men from all over the nation flocked to
this area. As you know, there were a number of tent
cities located in Las Vegas in close juxtaposition
to the hiring hall that was down there. There were
2 other tent cities at Railroad Pass- -one named Pitcher
and the other called Oklahoma City, perhaps in reference
to a number of Oklahomans who had camped there. Most
of the residents of these tent cities were unemployed.
It was in many cases very difficult indeed to get
a job, and quite often subterfuge of one kind or another
had to be employed. |
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