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TOLAN COMMITTEE ON INTERNAL MIGRATION

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Testimony of Joseph Lapolla, of Philadelphia, Pa.

Mr. OSMERS. Will Mr. Lapolla come up? Will you give your name please?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Joseph Lapolla.

Mr. OSMERS. Congressman Curtis, Will you interrogate Mr. Lapolla?

Mr. CURTIS. Where do you live? Where was your last permanent home?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Philadelphia.

Mr. CURTIS. And when did you leave there?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I left there the 4th of June 1940.

Mr. CURTIS. And where have you spent your time since then?

Mr. LAPOLLA. On the farm now; we are picking.

Mr. CURTIS. A farm where? Is that in New Jersey?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. Of E. Lore?

Mr. LAPOLLA. That is the name.

Mr. CURTIS. Are you married?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes, sir.

Mr. CURTIS. How old are you?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Fifty-six.

Mr. CURTIS. Do you have any children?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Eight children.

Mr. CURTIS. What employment did you have in Philadelphia?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I one time had a little business there, a little stand.

Mr. CURTIS. A little stand?

Mr. LAPOLLA. A stand with soft drinks and sandwiches up to 1935.

Mr. CURTIS. You had a little sandwich stand from 1910 to 1935?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. And what happened to that little business?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Business went—shot.

Mr. CURTIS. What did you do from 1935?

Mr. LAPOLLA. From 1935 I am employed by the city of Philadelphia, for 14 months.

Mr. CURTIS. You worked 14 months?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. What did you do there?

Mr. LAPOLLA. We got laid off.

Mr. CURTIS. What kind of work did you do?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Sweeping the streets and cleaning.

Mr. CURTIS. Now, were you a regular employee, or were you on the W. P. A.?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No; I was a regular employee; not W. P. A.

Mr. CURTIS. And you held that job for 14 months?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes; and we got laid off in 1937; 1,900 were laid off.

Mr. CURTIS. And then what did you do?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Then I had no job.

Mr. CURTIS. Now, just a minute; don't go so far. You say that you hunted for a job and didn't get any?

Mr. LAPOLLA. That is right.

Mr. CURTIS. Have you had a regular job since 1937?

Mr. LAPOLLA. About 7 or 8 months later I worked 4 months.

Mr. CURTIS. What are the ages of your children?

Mr. LAPOLLA. The young one is 17.

Mr. CURTIS. And how old is the oldest one?

Mr. LAPOLLA. The oldest one is 31.

Mr. CURTIS. Of the eight, how many of them live with you?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Five. Three got married.

Mr. CURTIS. They have homes of their own?

Mr. LAPOLLA. One lives with me; one daughter lives with me.

Mr. CURTIS. So that you have five children and one son-in-law with you?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. Your son-in-law has work?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes; he works.

Mr. CURTIS. Where does he work?

Mr. LAPOLLA. He is a plumber.

Mr. CURTIS. In what town?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Philadelphia.

Mr. CURTIS. When did you leave Philadelphia?

Mr. LAPOLLA. The 4th of June.

Mr. CURTIS. Well, is he living in your home?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes; he is paying rent, too. He helps me out. He is paying $15 a month.

Mr. CURTIS. Do you own the house?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I own the house.

Mr. CURTIS. Now, are any of your other children employed?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I got another one employed 2 or 3 days in a week. It does not last long. Two employed.

Mr. CURTIS. What do they do?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Two are employed in the tailoring business. The other is a young kid, 20 years old, working for Brill; they make trolley cars.

Mr. CURTIS. Do you come to New Jersey to work on a farm every year?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No; I came last year and this year. That was the first time.

Mr. CURTIS. Are you employed in Philadelphia during the winter?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I did work last winter for 3 months, when I came back from Jersey.

Mr. CURTIS. How much money do you usually make in farm work during the summer?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Last summer, four people for 4 months, we make $200.

Mr. CURTIS. Three of your children and you?

Mr. LAPOLLA. My wife and two children and me, we make $200 for 4 months.

Mr. CURTIS. Did you get $200 and your food besides?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I got $100 taken and we spent the rest.

Mr. CURTIS. Now, when you are in New Jersey, did you have to pay for your food?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Surely; you have got to buy bread and things. We eat, you know.

Mr. CURTIS. Did you buy that?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Oh, yes.

Mr. CURTIS. Or did your employer buy it?

Mr. LAPOLLA. You have got to buy it yourself. I saved $100, that is all, for 4 months.

Mr. CURTIS. Now, how much money do your children who live with you turn over to you?

Mr. LAPOLLA. It depends upon how much they make. If they make $10 they give me $7. My daughter, Mary Lapolla, pays $15 a month.

Mr. CURTIS. Who pays $15 a month?

Mr. LAPOLLA. My daughter in Philadelphia; they pay.

Mr. CURTIS. Your daughter and her husband pay you $15 a month?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. Have you been on relief any time?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Seven or eight weeks; yes.

Mr. CURTIS. How much—

Mr. LAPOLLA. I had about 7 or 8 weeks last year before I went to the country. I got disgusted and went to the country, and we got $10 a week for 10 people in the house.

Mr. CURTIS. Now, how do you know where you can find a job in New Jersey, or do you just start out?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I started out last year, a friend of mine said, "What the hell, we might go over there, we are going to die in Philadelphia, and we might as well go over to Jersey."

Mr. CURTIS. Did you have a car?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No, no.

Mr. CURTIS. You just started out on the road?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No; they send a truck down to Philadelphia; a farmer sent a truck.

Mr. CURTIS. A farmer sent a truck down and told you that?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. The farmer came down himself?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes; and take the truck down, and we put the clothes in and we go to Jersey.

Mr. CURTIS. Did the farmer drive the truck down or did he send another man with the truck?

Mr. LAPOLLA. He sent another man. He used his own truck. His name was on the truck.

Mr. CURTIS. Did they take you back to Philadelphia?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. When did you arrive in New Jersey.

Mr. LAPOLLA. That was June 4.

Mr. CURTIS. How long will the work continue?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I don't know. Maybe next month.

Mr. CURTIS. The last half of next month?

Mr. LAPOLLA. That is all. If it doesn't rain, we might go another week.

Mr. CURTIS. This year how many of the family are employed?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Three.

Mr. CURTIS. There were four of you last year?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes. My wife and my Johnny, he came down with us.

Mr. CURTIS. Are you the only three that are there?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. Do the other children have some work back in Philadelphia?

Mr. LAPOLLA. They have got something. Not much, just a couple of days a week.

Mr. CURTIS. Do any of your children go to school?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Not any more. They have got to go back in school, you know.

Mr. CURTIS. I mean in the wintertime?

Mr. LAPOLLA. In the wintertime they go to school back in Philadelphia. He is in high school, you see.

Mr. CURTIS. You just have one boy that is going to school.

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes

Mr. CURTIS. HOW much money have you made this year so far?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I made about $40.

Mr. CURTIS. You mean you have saved $40.

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. About how many days a week were you able to work?

Mr. LAPOLLA. We work every morning. We get up at 4 o clock in the morning, and we are in the field until half past 5, and we work all day and make a couple of dollars apiece.

Mr. CURTIS. And you work again in the evening

Mr. LAPOLLA. No; we go back the next morning. We start at o'clock in the morning.

Mr. CURTIS. You pick green beans?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes; lima beans; that is all.

Mr. CURTIS. How long does it take to pick an bushel of beans.

Mr. LAPOLLA. It depends, maybe an hour, or maybe an hour and a half, and it depends upon the crop.

Mr. CURTIS. What are you paid?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Thirty cents a bushel.

Mr. CURTIS. If you could work all day how much could you earn?

Mr. LAPOLLA. If you could work all day you could pick 10 bushels.

Mr. CURTIS. Do you buy your food at a local store or from the farmer?

Mr. LAPOLLA. We buy them at a store.

Mr. CURTIS. Does the farmer furnish you a house?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes; that is all; a house; you call it a house. It is a shack. I bump my head when I go in.

Mr. CURTIS. Does it have any windows in it?

Mr. LAPOLLA. It has got two windows about that big, about 9 inches.

Mr. CURTIS. How many rooms?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Two rooms. We have got to cook and everything in there. We are living like rats, no human beings should be in there no human being.

Mr. CURTIS. Where do you get your water?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Right in back of the shack

Mr. CURTIS. The water is all right, is it?

Mr. LAPOLLA. It is not so bad. It is pretty good. The mosquitos are pretty good, too. We can't sleep.

Mr. CURTIS. What kind of toilet facilities?

Mr. LAPOLLA. We haven't got any. Just a couple of boards there, that is all.

Mr. CURTIS. No building?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No building; no.

Mr. CURTIS. No pit?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No pit, just a box, and lay them on the ground and we can't sit, we can't do anything.

Mr. CURTIS. How many people are employed on this farm besides you?

Mr. LAPOLLA. About 17 altogether.

Mr. OSMERS. Did you all come out in the same truck?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No; some live in New Jersey.

Mr. CURTIS. What work do you know how to do besides run your little sandwich stand? Are you trained in any other work?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Only labor.

Mr. CURTIS. Just common labor?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. CURTIS. Do you expect to come back to New Jersey next summer, if you don't have a better job?

Mr. LAPOLLA. If things improve a little bit, I think that I will die in Philadelphia. If there is more money, it is all right. If we will make a little money, it is all right, but if I have got a job in Philadelphia I won't come down here.

Mr. CURTIS. But if you don't have a job would you rather come back there and have $100 to go back with?

Mr. LAPOLLA. It buys coal for the wintertime. I need 10 tons of coal for the house.

Mr. CURTIS. I admire your attitude but you will be able to live only a short while this winter on what you can take back.

Mr. LAPOLLA. If I make enough to buy the coal I am satisfied.

Mr. CURTIS. But you would rather—

Mr. LAPOLLA. I would rather work in the city.

Mr. CURTIS. But rather than go on direct relief you would come here and work.

Mr. LAPOLLA. That is right

Mr. CURTIS. What country were you born in?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Italy.

Mr. CURTIS. How old were you when you came here?

Mr. LAPOLLA. 17 years. I am 56.

Mr. CURTIS. According to my figures—well, Mr. Lapolla, we naturally do not like to see anyone have to live in conditions such as you describe, but we are glad we have people in this country who are willing to sacrifice and make what they can.

Mr. LAPOLLA. We have got to take it anyhow.

Mr. OSMERS. Mr. Lapolla, did I understand you to say that you would rather die in New Jersey than in Philadelphia?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I would rather die in Philadelphia than New Jersey.

Mr. OSMERS. As a resident of New Jersey, I am glad to hear you say that. Has the State Health Department of New Jersey ever visited the farm where you are?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I can't tell, because we are in the field.

Mr. OSMERS. But not to your knowledge, they have never visited that—they have not inspected the water supply?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No.

Mr. OSMERS. Or they have not inspected any of the men working there to see whether they were sick or not?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No.

Mr. OSMERS. Have they inspected the toilets?

Mr. LAPOLLA. No.

Mr. OSMERS. Do you have good toilets or not?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I just told them, just boxes that they set on the ground.

Mr. CURTIS. I was going to ask you, how many other people are employed by that same farmer, how many families?

Mr. LAPOLLA. That is all. We have got two families from Philadelphia, one family lives right there.

Mr. OSMERS. That is three families?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Seventeen people altogether.

Mr. OSMERS. Are you a citizen of the United States?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes, sir. I became a citizen in 1922.

Mr. OSMERS. Any further questions?

Mr. PARSONS. Mr. Chairman— You say that you would rather die in Philadelphia than Jersey?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Yes.

Mr. PARSONS. Would you rather die there than go back to Italy?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I am a member of the United States. I don't Nvant to go back to Italy. I spend my time here. I am getting old now.

Mr. PARSONS. Did you ever send any money back to Italy?

Mr. LAPOLLA. I have got nobody there.

Mr. PARSONS. You have got nobody there, and you have never sent money back there?

Mr. LAPOLLA. When my mother was there. My mother died in 1917.

Mr. PARSONS. Over there?

Mr. LAPOLLA. Over there, and so I sent no more. I have got nobody. All of my family are here.

Mr. OSMERS. Thank you very much, Mr. Lapolla.

(Whereupon the witness was excused.)