"Citizens, angered at red agitators, burn squatters’ camp. Last night a band of citizens, infuriated at the agitation going on in a local squatters’ camp, burned the tents to the ground and warned agitators to get out of the county."
…Thomas folded the paper carefully and put it in his pocket. He had himself in control again. He said quietly, "Those men were sent out by the Association. Now I’m giving ’em away. And if they ever find out I told, I won’t have a farm next year."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. The employer Mr. Thomas is a small farmer who a lot of sympathy for the plight of migrant workers. He reads a newspaper report to Tom Joad and Timothy and Wilkie Wallace about a group of angry citizens burning a squatters’ camp, allegedly full of communist agitators. He reveals that the arsonists were sent by the Farmers’ Association, thus exposing how corrupt the group is. The camp referred to is the Hooverville camp where the Joads stayed the previous night before it was burned out. Thomas shows humanity and courage , he could lose his farm if the bank-owned Farmers’ Association learned that he had outed them for their role in the arson.