A dangerous brew

John Mitchell and Samuel Gompers, representing the United Mine Workers and the American Federation of Labor, are witches stirring a “dangerous brew” of labor violence in a cauldron labeled “Unionism” over flames labeled “Anti-Injunction Bill.” Steam rising from the pot is filled with threatening human figures and the words “Boycott, Mob Violence, Intimidation, Dynamite-Persuasion, Riot, Lawlessness, Anarchy, Parkism, Graft, [and] Incendiary Press.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Samuel Gompers, founder and president of the American Federation of Labor (AFofL), and John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America (the union was a constituent member of the AFofL), are portrayed in this famous cartoon by Samuel Ehrhart in Puck as fomenting union strikes and labor violence.

The immediate context was the labor movement’s concerted effort to oppose methods used by employers and compliant courts to end strikes by issuing injunctions. In 1904 the AFofL planned a campaign to persuade the public and lobby the federal government; in 1906 there would be important meetings with President Roosevelt, cabinet members, senators, and representatives on the issue.

Gompers and Mitchell were also in forefront of specific support of the anti-injunction and anti-conspiracy bill written to deny restraining orders that regarded unions advocating strikes as illegal combinations. The bill arose from complaints voiced by a Pennsylvania local of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen whose work action was suppressed as a conspiracy; and which union argued for the equal right as individual citizens — frankly, to have the law differentiate between organization and conspiracy.

The Anti-Injunction bill that excited Puck Magazine’s ire was the Hoar-Grosvenor bill, named for its sponsors Senator George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts, and Representative Charles Grosvenor of Illinois. But Gompers and Mitchell were so active in this battle — and so familiar to the public, particularly and most recently Mitchell’s role in the Anthracite Coal Strike — that the bill was popularly nicknamed the Gompers-Mitchell Bill.

There was tremendous opposition to the bill and related reforms. The stance of Puck, a representative journal otherwise liberal in many areas of public affairs, was typical. A bi-monthly organ of manufacturers, American Industries, wrote subsequent to this cartoon’s salvo, “A compulsory Eight-Hour [workday] bill would ruin the ship-building industry.”

The measure passed the House but died in the Senate. Despite incremental progress for their points of view, and growing public accommodation to labor’s grievances, it would be a decade before the Clayton Anti-Trust Act legalized unions and union activities including strikes and boycotts in most situations.

A ironic aspect of Ehrhart’s cartoon and its evocation of anarchy and ruin is the fact that the two provocateurs, Gompers and Mitchell, were among the most conservative of labor leaders. Gompers barely supported “political action,” by which he meant voting, supporting candidates, and lobbying elected officials. A growing element in organized and unorganized labor at this time, led by people like “Big Bill” Haywood and Eugene V. Debs, and manifested by groups like the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW or “Wobblies”) which was formed a year after this cartoon was published, were far more radical.

An obscure reference today highlights the divisions in the labor movement that, contrary to this cartoon, pitted Gompers and Mitchell against the emergent radical elements. Sam Parks was a rough-hewn ex-convict (for strike-related extortion), but an effective leader of a Bridgemen’s Union local in New York City who expanded his workers’ grievances with a local construction company into calls for nationwide work stoppages and boycotts, followed by lockouts. In February of 1904, shortly before this cartoon was published, dramatic court fights, internal union battles, and episodes of violence connected to the New York bridge-building industry were concluded. “Parkism,” therefore referred to direct action and latent domino effects from the tactics of such as Sam Parks.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-03-16

Creator(s)

Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937

Period

U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation