Cesar E.
Cha¡ve.~
Saying "Yes" to ]\,fan's Dignity
Men a.-e not 1¡eally {.-ee until they accept death. Once they have done this; they can overcome most things.
I am grateful to the priests of the United States for the continued support they have given the farm worker movement. I take this opportunity to thank pmticularly those priests and nuns who were with us last summer in Fresno. I understand that that experience represented the largest number of religious in jail on any one social issue in the history of our country. That kind of help is very special to us. It is the help of commitment and understanding; but, even more important, it is the help of one's body-it is the help of people getting into trouble because they are helping us. It is the kind of help that is respected and appreciated by all of us. For in our struggle to change, to bring about some dignity to man-and I say to the men, the women and the children who toil in the fields-we are seeing that, throughout the ages, little-but little-dignity has come to them. In the days of the horse and buggy, the farm worker's dignity was equal to that of the beast. And today, in the day of mechanical harvesters, his dignity is equal to that of the machine. And, so, we ask ourselves: Is that saying "yes" to man's dignity? 117