LABOR'S NTOLPI The adventure story of the battles, betrayals and victories of American working men and wor V WE Richard O. Boyer ert M. Morais L ABOR'S STORY, STILL UNTOLD and largely miss- ing from text-book and conventional history, is more than an account of strikes, spies, and frame-ups, of organ- izing and building unions, of men and women dying for better lives in a better America. The chief quality of this book, aside from its one volume completeness, is that it is not presented as a narrow, parochial account but as the heart of the story of the American people. In a sense this book is not a history of labor at all but a history of the American people from labor's viewpoint. It is the story not only of labor but of American monopoly, showing how the trade union movement developed as a part of the American people's struggle against corporate tyranny. Labor's great leap forward into industrial union- ism was an answering action to the development of trusts and the monopolized control of great industrial empires. Labor grew as monopoly grew, born of the conflict be- tween them. This is the third edition of a work recently called "a modern masterpiece of labor history." It has been widely translated and widely read abroad. Although filled with facts, figures, documentation, in this book too are people, a vast parade of them — human beings, men and women, black and white, native and foreign-born, fighting and dying and working and winning for a better life for all Americans. In its pages is Mother Jones, the little old lady in bombazine who fought until she was 100 years old for the nation's miners; but also in it is her antagonist, John D. Rockefeller, creator of the modern trust, who owned the mines in which Mother Jones' miners continued on inside of back cover COVER PHOTO taken in Philadelphia, dur- ing 1946 nationwide strike against General Electric. Eight cops cornered one worker. 41** Labor's Untold Story By Richard O. Boyer MAGICIAN OF THE LAW THE DARK SHIP JOHN BROWN: PROFILE OF A LEGEND By Herbert M. Morais THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN FREEDOM: THE FIRST TWO HUNDRED YEARS DEISM IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AMERICA GENE DEBS: THE STORY OF A FIGHTING AMERICAN THE HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN MEDICINE LABOR'S Untold Story by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais m United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America PA Pittsburgh, All rightsreserved, includingthe rightof reproduction inwholeor in partin any form Copyright© 1955 by Richard O. Boyerand Herbert M. Morais FIRST EDITION Published by Cameron Associates 100 West 23rd Street, New York, N. Y. 10011 SECOND EDITION 1965 Marzani and Munsell THIRD EDITION Twentieth Printing, 1988 Twentyfirst Printing, 1991 Twentysecond Printing, 1994 Twentythird Printing, 1997 Twentyfourth Printing, 2000 Published by United Electrical, RadioandMachineWorkersofAmerica(UE) OneGatewayCenter-Suite 1400,Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania15222-1416 (412)471-8919Fax(412)471-8999http://www.ranknfile-ue.org Library of CongressCatalog Card Number: 76-347 ISBN Number: 0-916180-01-8 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATESOF AMERICA Contents ChapterI. "Be Jubilant, My Feet!" i. In the Beginning ii 2. Mr. Ruffin Starts a War 13 3. The Second American Revolution 14 4. Blood and Gold 18 5. Sylvis 23 6. "Be Jubilant, My Feet!" 27 7. Gone the Glory 29 ChapterII. "Give Them aRifleDiet" 1. End of the Great Barbecue 38 2. The Killer King of the Reading 43 3. Hanged Heroes 56 4. "Lead for the Hungry" 58 Chapter III. "The Iron Heel" 1. The Dream 65 2. God's Gold 70 3. LaborEditor 80 4. Mr. and Mrs. Parsons 84 5. Mr. Powderly and theEight-Hour Madness 87 6. Letthe Voice of thePeople Be Heard 91 Chapter IV. "The Cross of Gold" 1. Prelude to Battle 105 2. "Less Corn and More Hell" 108 3. Eagle Forgotten 113 4. The Conservative Mr. Debs 114 5. "The Blessings-of-Civilization Trust" 131 CONTENTS Chapter V.HellintheRockies i. The Socialists of Cripple Creek 141 2. Big Bill 146 3. The Harmless Mr. Orchard 157 4. Return of the Cobra 160 5. Trial at Murdertown 164 Chapter VI.Progressandthe Wobblies 1. Free Speech andFree Men 171 2. "The Progressive Era" 177 3. The Old Oaken Gompers 180 4. Reality and Massacre 184 Chapter VII.MurderandMillions A 1. Little "Industrial Rivalry" 192 2. The Fight for Peace 195 3. Big Steel 202 4. The Sure-Fire Formula 209 5. The Fight Back 215 Chapter VIII. The Golden Insanity 1. Hate, Inc. 220 2. Revelry and Grief 228 3. Behind the Mirage 237 4. Disaster 248 Chapter IX. Grapes of Wrath 1. The Fall and Rise of Mr. Grossup 254 2. The Battle Cry of Poverty 259 3. MacArthur Wins a Battle 266 4. Tear Gas and Solidarity 271 5. Solidarity on the Embarcadero 282 ChapterX. Victory 1. CIO 290 2. Sit-Down at Flint 298 3. Triumph 3°9 4. The Know-Howof Victory 3l7 CONTENTS Chapter XL War—Hot and Cold i. Blood and Gold Again 329 2. The Cold War against Labor 340 3. The CIO Divides Itself 350 4. The Attack Widens 365 Chapter X1L "The More Glorious the Triumph" 1. The Tide Begins to Turn 371 2. The Tide Rises 376 3. Epilogue 378 Notes on Sources 381 Index 391 THE AUTHORS J~\^happy collaboration between Richard O. Boyer, author of The Dark Ship, a study of the Maritime Union, and Dr. Herbert M. Morais, formerly of the history department of the College of the City of New York and a specialist in American history, pro- duced this long-needed book. Mr. Boyer, as a member of the staff of The New Yorker, was one of the most successful practitioners of the Profile of that magazine, a technique which he employed to good advantage in Labor's Untold Story. He wrote John Brown: Profile of a Legend. Dr. Morais was the author of The Struggle for American Freedom, Deism in Eighteenth Century America and The History of the Negro in Medicine.