An American Idyll - The Life of Carleton H. Parker by Cornelia Stratton Parker
page 61 of 164 (37%)
page 61 of 164 (37%)
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could have more fun in the woods than we. But the combination of small
children and no money and new babies and work--We figured that in three more years we could be sure of at least one wonderful trip a year. Anyway, we had the joy of our plannings. CHAPTER IX The second term in California had just got well under way when Carl was offered the position of Executive Secretary in the State Immigration and Housing Commission of California. I remember so well the night he came home about midnight and told me. I am afraid the financial end would have determined us, even if the work itself had small appeal--which, however, was not the case. The salary offered was $4000. We were getting $1500 at the University. We were $2000 in debt from our European trip, and saw no earthly chance of ever paying it out of our University salary. We figured that we could be square with the world in one year on a $4000 salary, and then need never be swayed by financial considerations again. So Carl accepted the new job. It was the wise thing to do anyway, as matters turned out. It threw him into direct contact for the first time with the migratory laborer and the I.W.W. It gave him his first bent in the direction of labor-psychology, which was to become his intellectual passion, and he was fired with a zeal that never left him, to see that there should be less unhappiness and inequality in the world. The concrete result of Carl's work with the Immigration Commission was |
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