Report on Tobacco Bag Stringing Operations in North Carolina and Virginia, 1939
East Bend, N.C. (Yadkin County.)
October 6, 1938.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
It has just been brought to my attention that there is a possibility that the women of Yadkin Co. are likely to lose the work of stringing tobacco bags. At present I am serving Yadkin County as one of their three commissioners and feel it is my duty to call your attention to this fact. For years I have owned and operated two grocery stores in this county. I fully realize the true benefit this home work has been to the many families I have served. This county is altogether a farming county and since the past few years have been bad farm years I can mention any number of families from asking the county for help. The bag stringing in most cases is done by the mother of the family who cannot leave home for outside work.
Tobacco bags have been strung in this county as home work for thirty-five years or more and it would be a very distressing blow to the families that have depended upon them for years to lose this work now.
Trusting you will see this situation as I know it to be and give it due consideration, I am
Very truly yours,
L. L. Smitherman.
[Source: "Tobacco Bag Stringing Operations in North Carolina and Virginia."
Richmond, Va.: 1939. North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]