From Anna Ogden Jenkins’ journal

My father believed in honest labor. He had no sympathy for the idler. The county road crew who stood around "leaning on their shovels" while one man at a time filled the pothole always got a comment from him as he went by. He was not one to see something to be done and not get busy doing it. I remember that during the Depression when the WPA was instituted, my father thought the country was going to hell. "Roosevelt will make bums out of everybody," he said. Nobody will want to work if he can get on the WPA."

At that time, the WPA paid an able bodied man a dollar-fifty a day, and Dad had a hard time convincing some of them to work at the sheep herd for forty-five dollars a month with their board included. Of course, they had to be convinced that the fringe benefits of tending sheep were worth it. Walter was a generous employer—a man's family never wanted for food or help in getting to town or to the doctor, while the man was gone away. We were always impressed with the importance of taking care of such needs, and they often called on him for a few dollars, or we went by their homes with things from the garden, or a bag of flour, or some mutton or pork when it was butchered.

In those days of the thirties, there were many men who were "on the road," some looking for work, some not wanting more than a meal or a place to sleep for the night. Since the ranch house was right beside the road that goes down to Arizona, we often saw a weary traveler who had walked all the way through the canyon and evening was coming on. Most of them were glad to chop some wood or at least carry it into the house for supper and a bed in the camp wagon that night. But I remember that one fellow stopped at the corral fence while Dad was milking cows, and said, "That milk sure looks good." Dad got up from the stool and said, "Come on and finish her, and you can have all the milk you want to drink for supper, and bread, too."

But, I guess the traveler wasn't that impressed. He replied, "I wouldn't milk a cow for all the milk you got."

Dad's reply was equally harsh: "Well, maybe the next ranch will give you a better offer, then." Yes, Walter believed in honest labor.