STRIKES AGAINST BIG BUSINESS IN THE 1930s

Reasons to Strike,

Throughout the 1930s blue-collar workers united against the harsh conditions imposed by the corporate giants and walked off their jobs. The common man, spurred on by increasingly powerful unions, believed that bringing production to a halt in the factories or on the docks was the only way he could effectively fight for a better working environment. Furthermore, workers struck even though they faced unemployment or blacklisting and risked injury at the hands of pro-company police officers and strikebreakers. Workers had much to lose by striking, and many paid the price with their lives or by spilling blood for the cause, However, in an overall sense, workers made tremendous gains by organizing and putting their newfound power to the test. Unions, with the assistance of the federal government, consistently won collective bargaining agreements with the giant corporations, which improved the standard of living for the workers.

Strikes and the Depression

The Great Depression had a life-altering effect on the American worker. The economic crash forced companies to lay off millions, and by 1933 one-fourth to one-third of the labor force was out of work. The massive unemployment and general deterioration of working conditions led to labor unrest and a renewed interest in unionization. Strikes inevitably became labor's most useful weapon against the corporations. In 1934 alone a million and a half workers in different industries went on strike. Soon, major companies were completely disabled by the strikes. Unions used the advent of the sit-down strike to win major victories in the automobile, rubber, and steel industries. In a three-year span from 1936 to 1939 American workers employed the sit-down strike 577 times.

The San Francisco General Strike

The San Francisco longshoremen's strike of 1934 is an example of the tremendous power that unions gained by striking in the 1930s. Beginning on 9 May 1934, the strike by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) Local 38-79 developed into a citywide general strike and soon closed ports up and down the Pacific Coast, Harry Bridges, a lean, Australian longshoreman with an irascible, intense nature, led the ILA. By the end of May the strike grew into a stoppage involving almost all maritime workers. After much violence and a failed attempt at mediation by the Roosevelt administration, labor sentiment for a general strike reached a peak. On 16 July sixty-three unions voted to walk off in support of the longshoremen. For several days over 130,000 workers in San Francisco engaged in a general strike, closing down much of the city. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins stepped into the fray and was able to mediate a settlement. The seventy-nine-day strike ended on 27 July. The strike was a victory for Bridges and the ILA; the longshoremen were awarded wage increases and a thirty-hour workweek.

Violence

Violence was commonplace during strikes. Companies hired men from the lowest rungs of society to break strikes and patrol the factories. Spies and moles among the workers informed company officials of union activity. Often, the local and state authorities sided with the employers and used their superior manpower and weaponry to coerce strikers. In the San Francisco strike police, strikebreakers, and workers viciously battled with baseball bats, bricks, and tear gas on 3 July, and the violence culminated on 5 July, or "Bloody Thursday." The 5 July battle lasted the entire day and was so ferocious that many bystanders and innocent citizens were injured. In the end the poorly armed workers could not withstand the power of the police, and by nightfall two workers were dead and sixty-seven others were seriously injured. The governor of California, Frank E. Merriam, sent in the National Guard to restore order in the city, The two victims, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, became martyrs for labor's cause, and their funeral drew more than ten thousand workers.

The Little Steel Strike of 1937

Later in the decade came another important, but violent, strike. The Little Steel strike of 1937 was unique because the employers were actually able to fend off the organizing forces led by the newly formed Committee for Industrial Organizations (CIO) and its offspring, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC). The "Little Steel" companies—Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Inland Steel, and Bethlehem Steel—were antiunion and refused to accept the SWOC as a bargaining agent for its workers. Organizers believed that the steel industry was a vital proving ground for unionization; therefore, the defeat tested the resolve of the union movement. Ultimately, however, the companies succumbed to the pressure of unionization and were forced to recognize the SWOC,

Bracing for Conflict

Labor officials began their unionization drive against Republic Steel in May 1937. The Little Steel companies were led by Republic Steel's antilabor president Tom M. Girdler. The SWOC organized workers and held rallies to recruit new members. Republic responded through intimidation and by spying on local union leaders. The Little Steel companies braced themselves for battle by increasing their stores of guns, tear gas, and billy clubs. They also added new plant guards to their already large security forces. SWOC locals called for a strike, and seventy-five thousand workers walked off the job on 26 May. In steel towns from Illinois to Ohio SWOC members set up picket lines. The first days of the strike were peaceful.

The Memorial Day Massacre

In Chicago a Republic Steel mill continued to operate with the help of a thousand nonstrikers, even after the general strike began. Chicago police and company guards fought with striking workers constantly. The police forbade union supporters to march and accused them of being members of the Communist Party. Chicago SWOC leaders called for a rally on Memorial Day to protest the way the police dealt with union picketers. When strikers and sympathizers began to march on the plant a force of over three hundred police and company guards intercepted them. After a brief standoff, a bottle or rock was thrown at the police, who responded by opening fire into the crowd. A melee ensued, and many SWOC supporters were attacked and beaten by police as they were running away or had fallen down. Ten marchers were killed, seven shot in the back and the other three in the side. Eyewitnesses and a movie film taken at the scene proved that the police acted brutally and fired for no reason. Over eighty other marchers were injured in the battle, dubbed the "Memorial Day Massacre," along with twenty-two police officers, though none of the police was injured critically or by gunshot.

Intervention and Failure to Settle

The Memorial Day Massacre elicited a public outcry in favor of the strikers, but the Little Steel companies stood firm. The steel companies refused to negotiate with the SWOC or recognize the union's legitimacy. The strike continued, along with much more violence, even after the Chicago incident. The steel companies began using propaganda and local antiunion committees to turn the public's sentiment away from the strikers. Officials from the Roosevelt administration soon began efforts to settle the strike. The president set up a Federal Steel Mediation Board in 1937 to investigate and search for a way to end the impasse; however, the group did not have any real power to enforce its recommendations. Eventually, President Roosevelt himself turned his back on the strikers, fearing that further support would hurt his chances in the 1940 election. At a press conference in late June, Roosevelt condemned both sides, wishing "a plague on both your houses."

Unionization Defeated for the Moment

The CIO and SWOC were defeated by the Little Steel companies in one of the bloodiest and violent strikes in the 1930s. The victory was only temporary, however, because the National Labor Relations Board ordered the companies to recognize the union four years later. By that time the CIO had organized six hundred thousand steelworkers, and the entire industry was covered under union contacts. The defeat did not ruin the SWOC or the CIO, and the union was able to win collective bargaining agreements and reinstatement of union members fired during the strike.

Conclusion

The Little Steel strike and the San Francisco longshoremen's strike were both brutally violent and typify the relations between big business and the worker in the 1930s. Both strikes pitted aggressive union leaders against powerful company officials and featured intervention by the Roosevelt administration. Ultimately, after much bloodshed and violence, the strikes were successful in that the worker greatly benefited from union representation.

THE FIRST WIREHEAD

The first computer was built in the late 1930s at the Iowa State University by Dr. John V. Atanasoff and a graduate student, Clifford Berry; it was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the ABC. Their calculating device consisted of two rotating drums that had capacitors mounted in them, and it was driven by an electrical circuit that made use of vacuum tube switches. Data was input on punch cards, and calculations were printed out on cards that were marked in distinctive patterns by sparks emitted by the capacitors. Answers were interpreted from the burn patterns on the cards. The ABC cost about one thousand dollars, but there were few takers. The machine could only be programmed to do one task, and it was best suited for small problems more easily solved by conventional means. The primary importance of the ABC was in the theory of its operation. Dr. Atanasoff was denied credit for his role in the development of the computer until the Honeywell corporation used his invention to challenge the patent of the ENIAC, developed by Drs. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert during World War II. In 1990 Dr. Atanasoff was presented with the National Medal of Technology by President George Bush for his role in the development of the computer.

Sources:

Irving Bernstein, Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1970);

Charles P. Larrowe, Harry Bridges: The Rise and Fall of Radical Labor in the United States (New York: Hill, 1972).