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The New Labor History: A Challenge for American Historians

1955; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1540-6563.1955.tb00182.x

1540-6563

Vaughn Davis Bornet,

American History and Culture

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. Research necessary for this article was facilitated by a grant from the Ford Foundation and by courtesies extended by Edgar Eugene Robinson, Director of the Institute of American History, Stanford University, during the time the writer was its Research Associate. The cooperation of the late William Green, then President of the American Federation of Labor, of Florence Thorne, for many years Director of Research for the Federation, of William F. Schnitzler, now its Secretary‐Treasurer, and of certain other labor leaders was invaluable. Many archivists and librarians answered inquiries promptly and cheerfully.2. This conclusion is based on a close analysis of the introductions, bibliographies, and footnotes in all of the books listed under the words “Trade Unions, United States, History of” and “American Federation of Labor, History of” or their equivalents, in the libraries of the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, and ona complete shelf check of the labor history sections of the former and of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library3. George Gilmary Higgins, for example, did his doctoral research in Washington, D. C., and thanked the staff of the A. F. of L. Library; yet he cited and seems to have used no manuscripts for his Voluntarism in Organized Labor in the United States, 1930‐1940 (Wash., D. C., 1944).4. In addition to its regular lists of manuscripts, see Collections on Labor and Socialism in the Wisconsin State Historical Library (Bulletin of Information No. 77. Nov., 1912). The library has in recent years been microfilming journals of every state federation and many labor periodicals as well. Some 75 official union journals and 125 local labor newspapers are filmed regularly. “Labor Papers on Microfilm,” July 1, 1954, mimeographed. The Department of Labor Library is strong on newspapers and documents. See Helen M. Steele, “The Library of the United States Department of Labor, Washington, D. C.,” Special Libraries, XLI (March, 1950), 93‐97.5. Paul Lewinson, “The Archives of Labor,” American Archivist, XVII (Jan., 1954). 22, mentions these. Louis S. Reed, The Labor Philosophy of Samuel Gompers (New York, 1930) tried to show the “origin” of Gompers' “ideas and policies” and “to account for them …. [tracing] their development and the reasons therefor,” (p. 8) Yet no manuscripts or scrapbooks were cited or used.More recently, Robert K. Murray offered a revaluation of “Communism and the Great Steel Strike of 1919,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXXVIII (Dec., 1951), 445‐466, without citing manuscripts. He writes that there was only an “alleged connection between communism” and the strike (p. 465). Frequently citing the not entirely unbiased Interchurch World Movement report, Public Opinion and the Steel Strike (New York, 1921). he does not mention the subsidized and partisan, yet telling and detailed Analysis of the Interchurch World Movement Report on the Steel Strike (New York, 1923) by Marshall Olds. William Z. Foster's denial that radicalism was involved in the strike goes unchallenged (p. 455), and any radical responsibility for violence is discounted (p. 456), Gompers is a figure dimly seen, whose objective of keeping the A. F. of L. out of radical hands in 1919 receives little comment. The Steel Strike can be revalued after further study in such collections as the Gompers manuscripts.Delber L. McKee worked in the Gompers materials in 1954 to strengthen a completed Stanford dissertation, reading a paper on its theme, “The A. F. L. and American Foreign Policy, 1886‐ 1912,” before the American Historical Association, Dec. 30, 1954. Sidney Fine and several other historians have used Gompers Copybooks.6. Secretary‐Treasurer William F. Schnitzler has stated, “Naturally we are very interested in the field of labor history and want to make our records as accessible to historians as we can within the practical limits of A. F. of L. policy.” Thus, “Any individual wishing to be given permission to utilize A. F. of L. records should write directly to Mr. George Meany, President.” Letter of March 25. 1955, to writer.7. (Stanford, 1935).8. (2 vols., New York, 1925). Dr. Harvey wrote from a familiarity with manuscripts. It will be noted, however, that only 43 outgoing and 13 incoming example of Gompers correspondence were cited, largely from the years before 1900 and from 1916‐17.9. The present writer was permitted in the spring of 1952 to have access to the Archives of the Federation without supervision or restrictions.10. Secretary‐Treasurer William F. Schnitzler to writer, March 25, 195511. (Urbana, Ill., 1920).12. Labor Department files and other manuscript materials are not cited by Francis E. Rourke, “The Department of Labor and Trade Unions,” Western Political Quarterly, VII (Dec., 1954), 656‐672.13. Samuel Gompers. Labor in Europe and America (New York, 1910), 286.14. Robert W. Hill, Keeper of Manuscripts, N. Y. P. L., to writer, Jan. 30, 1952. No book author since Philip R. V. Curoe in his Educational Attitudes and Policies of Organized Labor in the United States (New York, 1926) seems to have mentioned indebtedness to these scrapbooks.15. A copy of this letter was sent by A. F. of L. headquarters to the presidents of 24 international unions. AFL Circular Letter, May 7, 1928, in Circular Letter Book 6, A. F. of L. Papers. George Sinclair Mitchell, Textile Unionism and the South (Chapel Hill, 1931), Chapter III, tells of Hoffman's movements at the time, unfortunately without having seen the organizer's reports.16. A comparative study of two “unofficial governments,” the A. F. of L. and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, by workmanlike Harwood Lawrence Childs. Labor and Capital in National Politics (Columbus, Ohio, 1930) used no manuscripts. Citing four newspapers frequently, the author commented, “It is surprising how much information can be gleaned from these sources.” (p. 273). Mollie Ray Carroll, Labor and Politics (New York, 1923), a study of “the attitude of the American Federation of Labor toward legislation and politics,” written by a person well informed on labor activities, gives no indication of manuscript research.17. Homer Halverson, Johns Hopkins librarian, to writer, Feb. 18, 1952.18. See R. C. Stewart, “The Labadie Labor Collection,” a reprint issued by the Michigan library.19. Libraries desiring to build substantial collections of secondary works in the labor history field may begin by checking their holdings against the 1,024 entries in Ralph E. McCoy, History of Labor and Unionism in the United States (A Selected Bibliography) (Champaign, Ill., Institute of Industrial and Labor Relations, Univ. of Ill., 1953) and A Trade Union Library (Princeton University, Industrial Relations Section, 1949). See also Phillips Bradley, “Special Libraries and Research in Labor and Industrial Relations,” Special Libraries, XXXIX (March, 1948), 82‐86, and Harold L. Wilensky, Syllabus of Industrial Relations; A Guide to Reading and Research (Chicago, 1954).20. Chief editor of A Documentary History of American Industrial Society (10 vols., Cleveland, 1910‐1911) and the four volume History of Labor in the United States, 1896‐1932 (New York, 1921‐1935) series, for which he wrote, in part, the first two volumes.21. A History of Trade Unions in the United States (New York, 1922) and other works. See below.22. Trade Unionism in the United States (New York, London, 1917).23. Ebb and Flow in Trade Unionism (New York, 1936).24. See below.25. The Economics of Labor (3 vols., New York, 1938‐45), especially volume III, Organized Labor (New York, 1945).26. The I.W.W., A Study of American Syndiacalism (New York, 1920).27. Co‐editors of Studies in American Trade Unionism (New York, 1906). See also A Trial Bibiliography of American Trade Union Publications (Baltimore, 1904 and 1907).28. Almont Lindsey used about a dozen manuscript collections while writing The Pullman Strike (Chicago, 1942); see also Henry David, The History of the Haymarket Affair (New York, 1936) and Richard B. Morris, Government and Labor in Early America (New York, 1946).29. (New York, 1949).30. Mary R. Beard, A Short History of the American Labor Movement (New York, 1920 and other editions) was based largely on the work of the Commons group and on secondary works and was infinitely superior to Anthony Bimba, The History of the American Working Class (New York, International Publishers, 1927) which ended, “The proletarian revolution is inevitable in America.” (p. 356).31. (New York, 1932). Dr. Witte wrote, “Correspondence and interviews with employers, labor leaders, and their attorneys can be made to yield much data not otherwise obtainable ….” (p. 113 n.). He also obtained copies of a file of A. F. of L. correspondence in the matter of the Coronado Coal Co. Case (p. 117 n.).32. (New York, 1946).33. Felix Frankfurter and Nathan Greene, (New York, 1930).34. The Problem of Group Responsibility to Society: An Interpretation of the History of American Labor (New York, 1922).35. This conclusion was reached by the process indicated in footnote number 2, page 1, above.36. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Its Origin and Development (New York, 1946).37. The Labor Problem in the Public Service (Cambridge, 1951).38. The Iowa State Federation of Labor (Iowa City, 1915).39. Financial Reports of Labor Unions (Boston, 1950).40. The United Mine Workers of America as an Economic and Social Force in the Anthracite Territory (Washington, D.C., 1931).41. A few, like Wilfred Carsel, A History of the Chicago Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (Chicago, 1940), have used manuscript minutes of local board and/or council meetings to good advantage, and others have interviewed varying numbers of labor leaders.42. The printed dissertations of A. M. Sokolski (1906), James M. Motley (1907), F.E. Wolfe (1912), David A. McCabe (1912), Theodore W. Glocker (1913), Nathaniel R. Whitney (1914), Leo Wolman (1916), William O. Weyforth (1917), D. P. Smelser (1919), Vertrees J. Wyckoff (1926), David M. Schneider (1928), and Joel I. Seidman (1932) have a startling similarity of research method and intention.43. (New York, 1935).44. Mary Harrita Fox wrote her warm Peter E. Dietz, Labor Priest (South Bend, Ind., 1953) almost exclusively from a diary and seven files of manuscript letters, with the unfortunate result that all labor history seems to focus on her hero. Vernon H. Jensen cites a few dozen letters which passed between trade unionists to strengthen the final 100 pages of his fascinating Heritage of Conflict: Labor Relations in the Non‐ferrous Metals Industry Up to 1930 (Ithaca, N. Y., 1950). David Ziskind, in One Thousand Strikes of Government Employees (New York, 1940), used many documentary manuscripts, although almost exclusively to establish the bare fact that strikes had been called and won or lost. John Lombardi's history of the Department of Labor to 1921, Labor's Voice in the Cabinet (New York, 1942), came from extensive research, and five percent of its citations are from governmental correspondence and unpublished minutes of meetings. No Gompers or A.F. of L. letters from collections described here were used. An unpublished dissertation by James Earl Wood, “History of Labor in the Broad Silk Industry of Patterson, New Jersey, 1872‐1940” (Univ. of Calif., 1941), rests on a diversity of documentary and manuscript material (but not many letters) gathered by a WPA project of earlier years, and doubtless there are other unpublished doctoral manuscripts which used correspondence files.45. Sidney Hillman: Statesman of American Labor (Garden City, 1952). Many will quarrel with this and other Josephson evaluation of men and events.46. Albert T. Helbring, The Departments of the American Federation of Labor (Baltimore, 1931), states, “An official of the American Federation of Labor was kind enough to place some material from the Federation's files at the author's disposal.” Only one statement of fact in the book came from these data, so far as can be determined, the footnote reading. “Copies of Letters in Files at the A. F. of L. Building.”47. (New York, 1929).48. (Washington, D. C., 1933).49. Pp. 40 n, 138.50. The author's research method was little changed in his useful new draft of his 1929 work. The International Labor Movement: History, Policies, Outlook (New York, 1953) despite the passage of two decades.51. (Newark, N. J., Nordan Press, 1950).52. Very carefully selected sentences and paragraphs of A. F. of L. outgoing letters are reproduced now and then in facsimile, with emotional captions like “One of the most damning documents in American labor history.” In many of the reproductions the letterhead, text, and signature are separated by white space, and the author's judgments may not be verified.53. On the Jefferson School of Social Science, see the Fourth Annual Report of the Subversive Activities Control Board (Washington, D. C., 1954) and the text of a forthcoming ruling. See also the New York Times Index for recent years and the New York Times for May 7, 1953.54. The Fur and Leather Workers Union, pp. 370, 449, et passim; p. 685. There has been a “shameless betrayal of the American workers by C. I. O. leaders” since the majority abandoned the C. I. O.'s alleged “progressive policies” by expelling Communist‐dominated unions in 1949. When the “left wing” Fur Workers were expelled, C. I. O. leaders resorted to “red‐baiting tirades,”“witch hunting,” an “orgy of red‐baiting,” and “the most unbridled redbaiting” (pp. 680, 681, 682, 676). The Fur Workers union, endorsers of the Wallace ticket in 1948, opponents of the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine, led by the notorious Ben Gold ‐ the book's hero, admittedly a former Communist who was indicted in 1953 for falsely swearing earlier that he had not been a Communist ‐ is termed in conclusion “a beacon light for the American can working class” (p. 684). On Mr. Gold, see New York Times, Aug. 29, 1950, for his resignation witout recantation, and the issue of Aug. 30, 1953, for his indictment.55. Trade Unionism in the United States, p. 381.56. Lloyd G. Reynolds and Charles C. Killingsworth, Trade Union Publications: The Official Journals, Convention Proceedings, and Constitutions of International Unions and Federation, 1850‐1941 (3 vols., Baltimore, 1944‐46).57. President Daniel J. Tobin in Teamsters Magazine, XVII (Nov., 1920), 12.58. Harold Stevens (pseudonym), “How Unions are Run,” Personnel Journal, XXVIII (Jan., 1950), 279.59. For example, see Bruce Minton and John Stuart, Men Who Lead Labor (New York, Modern Age Books, 1937), in whose pages William Green was the friend of the National Association of Manufacturers and the betrayer of American labor (p.29), Matthew Woll the “sovereign of the reactionaries” (p. 25), but Harry Bridges the “voice of the rank and file” with sense enough to advocate political action. The C. I. O. would be (ca. 1937) the beginning of “an American People's Front” (p. 245). America has been a land of “classes whose interests were fundamentally conflicting” (p.12). Books like this, and those of Jack Hardy (1935), John Steuben (1940), and William Standard (1947), all issued by International Publishers, have nothing in common with productions by unindoctrinated scholars who seek the truth as an entity of value in itself.Two books which engage in character defamation heavily, much in the vein of cheap periodical literature, are Edward Levinson, Labor on the March (New York, 1938) and Charles A. Madison, American Labor Leaders (New York, 1950).Books which try to reach scientific judgements on labor leaders are Eli Ginzberg, The Labor Leader (New York, 1948) and C. Wright Mills, The New Men of Power (New York, 1948).60. Herman Kahn, “World War II and Its Background: Research Materials at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Policies Covering Their Use,” American Archivist, XVII (April, 1954), 162.61. Mr. Robinson continued, writing in The Roosevelt Leadership, 1933‐1945 (Phila., 1955), 412, “Neither Mr. Roosevelt nor the American people whom he represented were motivated by selfishness, small outlook, greed, and brutal purpose. Such individuals did exist. Mr. Roosevelt had to deal with that fact. But he never lost sight of the great, dominant purpose, the idealistic outlook, and the deep faith of the men and women who had built America.” The eating and drinking habits of labor leaders are not primary facts for their character sketches, and they are of little consequence in ascertaining their roles in history.62. See the writer's “Those 'Robber Barons,'” Western Political Quarterly, VI (June, 1953), 342–346.63. Bernard Mandel is writing extensively on Gompers from the critical standpoint of one who believes that American historiography should come “out of the clouds of Congressional debates and Constitutional arguments” and study the social basis of “political struggles.”“Calhoun, Lincoln and Labor,” Science and Society, XVII (Summer, 1954), 235. Gompers is coming out second best as Dr. Mandel deplores the Gompers fight against the Marxists and judges his race policies (ca. 30 years after Reconstruction) according to N. A. A. C. P. aspirations of the 1950's. See Cigar Makers Journal, 78 (Oct., 1954) and Journal of Negro History, XL (Jan., 1955). Gompers, one of the great figures of American history, is to this revisionist no more than “a conservative, stand‐pat bureaucrat.” Ibid., 34.64. For guides to related manuscripts, see Ray Allen Billington, “Guides to American History Manuscript Collections in Libraries of the United States,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXXVIII (Dec., 1951), 467‐496. Unfortunately, it will be no simple matter to persuade labor leaders to open even a significant portion of their golden store to researchers immediately. Such narrowness of viewpoint among labor leaders will have to be overcome by persistent effort. Historians will want to rally to their cause prominent community, state, and national public figures.Additional informationNotes on contributorsVaughn Davis BornetDirector of the welfare research project, Commonwealth Club of California, and member of Beta Beta Chapter (Stanford).