Your TR Source
This pamphlet provides a history of the conflict between the Los Angeles Times and the Typographical Union, which it says started in 1890 and continued for sixteen years.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-14
George von Lengerke Meyer had believed that revolution in Russia was improbable, but events of the past week have altered conditions. There have been strikes, the disturbances in Lodz, and the arousing by the socialists. Also, there is a general dissatisfaction among the people over the last mobilization.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-03
Ambassador Meyer describes to William Loeb revolutionary events such as strikes, disturbances, and a mutiny taking place in Lodz, Libau, and Odessa, Russia. Meyer cannot foretell what would happen if Japan does not agree to an armistice and conquers the Russian Army.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-03
George von Lengerke Meyer informs President Roosevelt of the strikes in Saint Petersburg. Meyer believes the tsar should have handled the situation better. There is some debate over who will be appointed ambassador.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-28
President Roosevelt holds his “big stick” as he is trapped below the “feathered bed of private life.” Meanwhile, Uncle Sam sits on him and holds up a “candidacy lightning rod” with multiple prongs on it: “peace of Portsmouth,” “rate legislation,” “Panama Canal,” “beef trust,” “post office cleansing,” “coal strike,” “railroad merger,” “New Orleans,” and “departmental investigations.” Lightning from the “Republican nomination 1908” storm cloud hits this rod. Three other men—Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and Leslie M. Shaw—hold up much smaller lightning rods with no success.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905
President Roosevelt pulls one football player off from another player. A group of “decent athletes” cheers. In the background is the “White House,” a dove carrying the “peace of Portsmouth,” a “hunting trophy,” “San Juan Hill,” “settling the coal strike,” “Panama,” and a “past performances” big stick. Caption: How the doctrine of the strenuous life goes hand in hand with the gospel of clean sport.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-11
This card that recommends an individual for employment with the Cripple Creek Mine Owners’ Association has been cancelled.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-27
Mary McDowell reports on the reasons behind the strike in the Packinghouse district of Chicago, which is more peaceful than previous strikes. Labor unions have been more successful in organizing. McDowell also discusses the living conditions of the district.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07
This newspaper article discusses the appeal of stockyard workers for President Roosevelt to intervene in the stockyards strike, including a copy of the resolution they addressed to Roosevelt. The article also mentions conflict between strikers and the local police department and assaults against a few individual workers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-30
Mary McDowell reports on the reasons behind the strike in the Packinghouse district of Chicago, which is more peaceful than previous strikes. Labor unions have been more successful in organizing. McDowell also discusses the living conditions of the district.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07
A larger-than-life-size man, the representative for the “Employers Union,” gestures toward a sign on a wall around a construction site. The sign states “Notice – The right to lock out is as absolute as the right to strike – Employer’s Union.” A labor union “Walking Delegate” is standing with two laborers. They are shocked at being locked out and unable to work.
At the same that unions were gaining recognition and rights to organize, business in the United States were also organizing to counter their efforts. Groups like the Employers Association and the Citizens’ Alliance were comprised of businessmen who worked, especially in parts of the country where labor strife was violent, for instance Colorado and on the West Coast, to work together. These groups used means ranging from court challenges to influencing legislation to hiring scabs and strike-breakers to advocating for open shops. The National Association of Manufacturers became a lobbying organization, and still exists today, although other groups died or merged.
A large, angry female figure representing Justice draws a sword labeled “Law and Order” as she strides toward striking union laborers who, taking the law into their own hands, are beating a “non union” worker and burning another tied to a tree. A factory is in flames in the background.
Largely forgotten today is the labor strife of the 1890s until World War I in America. A few famous clashes populate the history books: Homestead, the Pullman Strike, the Ludlow (Colorado) Massacre, in industries from mines to textile factories, and a radicalized labor movement, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) at the extreme, but there many local strikes and confrontations. Many of these resulted in deaths and injuries.
A “Labor Agitator” sits in the center with strings attached to marionettes or puppets from all walks of life and social classes. The vignettes around the central figure show these puppets in actual life situations as union leaders and labor agitators. Depicted are a “Walking Delegate” who is “willin’ ter arbitrate” with a school principal on behalf of his son, and “The Progressive Prisoner,” a “Labor Agitator,” an “Infant Class Agitator,” and “Madame President” of the “Marriageable Women’s Union,” as well as “The District President” of the “Cook Ladies’ Union,” also school-ground bullies who prevent children from getting an education.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1903-01-14
Two Irish women talk in a kitchen over a cup of tea. In the background, an old man is sitting in a rocking chair, reading the newspaper. Caption: Mrs. Kelly — Does your husband get good pay, Mrs. Rooney? / Mrs. Rooney — Well, he would, Mrs. Kelly, ef ut wasn’t fer shtriking so often fer better pay.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902-12-17
A man dressed as cartoonists of the day portrayed touts and swindlers is labeled, “Walking Delegate,” and wears sandwich boards that state “Notice to Businessmen – This is to certify that the Labor Trust, like all other Trusts, has been duly Incorporated.” A paper on the fence behind him states “Strike Order.” On the left, in the background, is a factory. Caption: Assume responsibility instead of shirking it.
“Walking delegates” were roving union organizers and representatives to locals from union headquarters. They invariably were portrayed by cartoonists of the day as corrupt, greedy, selfish thugs; almost always depicted in gaudy clothes and ostentatious counterfeit jewelry. Cartoonist Pughe prods both this strutting walking delegate and industrial moguls as well, to realize that they play each others’ game.
An angry mob of strikers with clubs, guns, and bricks pursues a man labeled “Independent Labor” who has fallen near his wife and child in front of the statue of Justice. Justice is bound with red tape labeled “Politics.” Her scales and fasces lie on the ground next to her feet.
Sixteen years previous in 1886, another year of labor strife, cartoonist Keppler’s father Joseph Senior drew a similar double-page cartoon of a worker being pummeled by strikers. In that cartoon, titled “Between Slavery and Starvation,” the worker was also a “scab” (someone who agreed to work despite strikers boycotting the factories and shops) and in that cartoon the radical Catholic priest and labor agitator father Edward McGlynn gave his blessing to the violence. In this powerful cartoon, drawn in 1902, another year labor strife, Keppler Junior alludes to the “scab,” not critically but otherwise using a term of approbation. And the fettered figure of Justice implicates merely a violated principle but the system comprised of the courts and the larger political establishment. Especially with the Anthracite Coal strike settlement of that year, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s enlistment of presidential influence, labor saw the pendulum begin to swing its way.
A man labeled “Labor” sits on a huge firecracker labeled “Capital” which he is igniting with a torch labeled “Strikes” giving off fumes labeled “Discontent.” The fuse of the firecracker is labeled “Wages.” There are factory buildings in the background.
Despite the factories in the background, Pughe’s cartoon likely was inspired by labor strife and occasional violence in the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania at this time. Union organizing, strikes, and labor clashes had been growing for several years, but the scale of the coal strike in 1902, and the prospect of a lack of coal during the upcoming winter months, put this issue on the public’s mind.
An angry capitalist labeled “Commercial Trust” confronts an angry laborer labeled “Labor Trust” holding a club labeled “Strike.” Between them is a diminutive man labeled “Consumer” on his knees, possibly praying for a favorable resolution. Caption: The consumer suffers when these two trusts fall out.
There is a substantial back-story to this cartoon. Keppler’s drawing depicts a matter that likely was on the mind of every reader: the increasing labor strife in America. He posed the possible incidence of societal distress, and the cartoon sets the theoretical stage for intervention from an unprecedented source: the Chief Executive. For several years labor strife had been growing more common, and more violent. Both trusts and unions were consolidating their growth and power. In 1901, in New York City, the mishandling of its monopoly by the Ice Trust posed a real threat as a heat wave loomed. In May of 1902, a month before Keppler’s cartoon was printed, the miners in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite region struck for higher wages, shorter hours, and the right to organize under the United Mine Workers. The mine owners (J. P. Morgan at the top of the “chain”) were represented by a railroad manager, George Baer. The workers were represented by John Mitchell. President Roosevelt did intervene, against advice of his Attorney General and others, including Republican leaders who feared that the party would be associated with any sort of negative outcomes. In a labyrinthine series of councils, initiatives, negotiations (including with Morgan), proposals and threats, and even a serious injury to his his leg in a carriage accident, Roosevelt cudgeled and cajoled the parties — he was immensely frustrated with the owners who sat on a large supply of coal in reserve — a compromise was reached, and production resumed in October. A winter heating crisis was averted. Miners received a 10 per cent raise in hourly pay, their workdays were reduced from 10 to nine hours per day, and union recognition was not agreed to at the time. Roosevelt scored another personal victory, only a year after assuming office, and displaying skills of foresight and persuasion, and placed another cornerstone in the establishment of presidential power, not dictating but wisely intervening.
A female figure labeled “Arbitration” stands between a soldier labeled “Law & Order” and a laborer labeled “Strike” who is holding a bomb and about to throw a brick, with the words “Riot” and “Arson” appearing in the smoke billowing from a fire behind him.
This cartoon reflected the growing incidents of labor strife, some of them violent, as organized labor attempted to assert itself as a bargaining force in the American economy. Specifically the cartoon foreshadows a major confrontation that occurred later in the year, known as the U. S. Steel Recognition Strike. As J. P. Morgan consolidated his steel and tin holdings under the new trust, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers (The AA) feared that their bargaining positions would be diminished or denied (as it turns, out, they were, by secret vote of the U. S. Steel board). The AA had tenuous agreements with one of the few surviving independent steel makers, Sheet Steel, but lost ground as it suffered from competition by Morgan. In 1903 it was swallowed by U. S. Steel, and Morgan’s corporation asserted itself as a closed shop that did not allow union organization.
President Roosevelt in rough rider garb is holding back labor and capitalism from a fight. A woman representing the public holds up the price of coal above them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-06-13