This module consists of a wide range of collections documenting the American workers and labor unions in the 20th century, with a special emphasis on the interaction between workers and the U.S. federal government. Going chronologically, the collection opens with Strike Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, records of the Woodrow Wilson Administration and American Workers and records on U.S. government surveillance of radical workers. Strike Files of the U.S. Department of Justice provides a remarkably complete record of the Department of Justice's evolving policies of intervention in labor disputes and documentation on the major strikes during the period from 1894-1920. The Wilson Administration files consist of Papers of the National War Labor Board (NWLB), Papers of the President's Mediation Commission, and records of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations. The NWLB records provide a remarkable window into the daily operations of private industry during a time of radical social change. The Papers of the President's Mediation Commission cover labor struggles by Arizona and Montana copper miners, the infamous deportation of Industrial Workers of the World-affiliated miners in Arizona in July 1917, and the tumultuous situation among workers in the Chicago meat-packing industry. The government surveillance files consist of U.S. Military Intelligence Reports on radicals from 1917-1941 and Department of Justice investigations of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Communist Party, and the use of military force by the federal government in domestic disturbances between 1900 and 1938. The U.S. Military Intelligence Reports contain significant files on IWW strikes and organizing efforts during and immediately after World War I. There are also files on anarchist, socialist, social democratic, and libertarian groups. The other collections in this module covering unemployment relief in the 1930s, farm tenancy, labor strife during World War II, and records on migratory labor in the 1950s and 1960s.
Content Types: books, court documents, government documents, legislation, periodicals, professional correspondence, reports, statistical data, and more.
Subjects: communism, employment, government investigations, Great Depression, industrial workers, J. Edgar Hoover, labor, labor unions, military, National War Labor Board, public welfare programs, race relations, radical politics, strikes, World War I, and more.
Keyword Search Examples: American Federation of Labor, Bisbee deportation, Commission on Industrial Relations, Communist Party, Department of Labor, machinists, migratory labor, General Electric, Industrial Workers of the World, President's Organization for Unemployment Relief, U.S. v. United States Steel Corp.
Bulletins of the U.S. Bureau of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1895-1919
TheBulletinsof the U.S. Department of Labor and of the Bureau of Labor Statistics include many of the most penetrating and comprehensive reports made by the U.S. government on a wide array of issues affecting labor in the United States and around the world. Until 1912, each of the bulletins featured scholarly essays as well as statistical compilations, digests of legislation, court decisions, arbitration proceedings, reports of private- and public-sector labor agreements, wholesale and consumer price reports, and other data. By 1912, the specific studies and statistical compilations became so large that separate bulletins were assigned to each of them.
Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part I: The Industrial Workers of the World
In June and July 1905 leading American Socialists, left-wing trade unionists, and assorted radicals met in Chicago to found a new labor organization that would serve as an alternative to the more moderate and exclusive American Federation of Labor (AFL). During the sessions, which featured the contributions of such famous American radicals as Eugene V. Debs, William D. "Big Bill" Haywood, Daniel DeLeon, Lucy Parsons (the widow of Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons), and Mary "Mother" Jones (the coal miners' angel), the participants created a new revolutionary labor organization committed to the destruction of capitalism. The Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW and Wobblies, as the new organization came to be better known, amalgamated an unlikely and fractious group of radical men and women. Apparently the parents of the IWW were able to sublimate their often rancorous and divisive personal and political differences in order to reject unanimously AFL-style trade unionism. The result of their common effort was the creation of the most radical, mass labor organization in United States history.
Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part II: The Communist Party
When the United States entered World War I, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a campaign of surveillance, infiltration, and prosecution of American radicals that would have a profound impact on the political outlook of the American Left. When the DOJ initiated this campaign, provoked by radical involvement in protests against the war, the American Left was a vibrant and contentious mixture of organizations--democratic, undisciplined, filled with rebellious spirit. Composed of immigrants and natives, farmers, workers and intellectuals, it found organizational expression in two large groups, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Socialist Party, which were decentralized in structure and which projected their views through public, legal activity--strikes, marches, rallies, the dissemination of literature, and, in the case of the Socialist Party, election campaigns. The Justice Department's campaign of arrests and prosecutions, imitated with equal fervor by state and city governments, made such open agitation difficult to sustain. Newspapers were suppressed. Rallies were broken up. Headquarters were raided and organizational files seized. Key leaders were jailed. The prosecutions not only weakened the Left's two strongest organizations, but also helped change the organizational and philosophical outlook of American radicals. In particular it helped set the stage for the rise of the American Communist Party, a hierarchical, centralized organization, as the dominant force on the American Left.
Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part III: The Use of Military Force by the Federal Government in Domestic Disturbances, 1900-1938
Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part III: The Use of Military Force by the Federal Government in Domestic Disturbances, 1900-1938contains a variety of telegrams, letters, reports, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and background materials that provide insight into the U.S. government's use of federal troops to restore and maintain order in cases of domestic disturbance, particularly race riots and strikes.
Labor Strife and Race Relations during World War II: Records of the Provost Marshal's Internal Security Division
Labor Strife and Race Relations during World War II: Records of the Provost Marshal's Internal Security Divisioncovers the U.S. Army's interest or involvement in conflict between labor and management that could impede war production. Spanning approximately 7,000 pages across 123 folders, most of the documents cover the period from March 18, 1941 through December 28, 1945.
Papers of the National War Labor Board, 1918-1919
Because President Woodrow Wilson's Mediation Commission of September 1917 was unable to eliminate strikes or to achieve labor-management cooperation, the federal government in January 1918 still lacked an effective wartime labor policy. Thus the president authorized his secretary of labor, William B. Wilson, to systematize federal labor policies. Secretary Wilson immediately established a War Labor Conference Board (WLCB) consisting of five representatives from business chosen by the National Industrial Conference Board (NICB), five representatives from labor chosen by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and two co-chairs representing the public. Wilson charged the Board with proposing a new set of labor policies to be implemented by the federal government. In March, the WLCB made its formal recommendations, largely endorsing the principles of labor relations suggested by the President's Mediation Commission and proposing the appointment of a new federal agency to enforce them. Following those recommendations, in April 1918, President Wilson appointed the National War Labor Board (NWLB). ThePapers of the National War Labor Board, 1918-1919as well as records of the President's Mediation Commission and Commission on Industrial Relations are included as part of History Vault's Module "Workers, Labor Unions, and the American Left in the 20th Century: Federal Records." NWLB records span more than 22,000 pages in nearly 3,000 folders.
Papers of the President's Committee on Migratory Labor, Part 1: Correspondence with States, 1955-1963
John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, portraying the Joad family's experiences as migrant farm laborers in California, pushed the issue of migrant labor into the national conscience when it was published in 1939. By the 1950s, migrant labor issues were gaining political ground, and Dwight D. Eisenhower created the President's Committee on Migratory Labor. This committee urged individual states to create governor's committees on migratory labor in order to address the major issues of migrant transportation and housing within each state. Letters from the president's committee to state governors and the ensuing creation of state committees begin this collection, the Papers of the President's Committee on Migratory Labor, Part 1: Correspondence with States, 1955-1963.
President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-1937
President's Special Committee on Farm Tenancy, 1936-1937 consists of reports from special committee members, hearings on farm tenancy, and correspondence between committee members and from farmers and the general public. Spanning approximately 11,000 pages, within 86 folders, this collection chronicles the struggles of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, migrant workers, and other laborers. Subjects range from poverty to home ownership as well as government attempts to mitigate the harsh realities of tenant farming during the Great Depression and Jim Crow era in the South.
Records of the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief, 1930-1933
History Vault collection Records of the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief, 1930-1933covers the work of the temporary organization set up at the request of President Herbert Hoover in August 1931 "to cooperate with the public authorities and reinforce the national, state and local agencies which will have responsibility for the relief activities arising out of unemployment" (104828-002-0787 pg. 26). The collection also contains documents of its predecessor organization, the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, whose chairman was Arthur Woods.
The President's Mediation Commission, 1917-1919
The President's Mediation Commission represented a partial federal response to two vital aspects of wartime labor policy: 1) the spreading wave of strikes, which interfered with the production of goods deemed vital to the war effort, and 2) the growth of labor radicalism associated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which precipitated widespread state and local repression of labor's rights and murderous vigilantism. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), feared both the growth of the IWW and the ensuing vigilantism, which threatened AFL unions. Gompers desired a federal policy that would simultaneously curb the IWW and protect "legitimate" trade unions. As vigilantism against labor spread throughout the American West in July-August 1917, Gompers used his influence in Washington to urge the appointment of a special presidential commission to investigate labor-capital relations. In August, William B. Wilson, secretary of labor, began to urge the same policy on President Woodrow Wilson. The secretary desired a commission that would effectively mediate the substantive issues causing labor discontent and would also eliminate the IWW. To cloak his proposed commission's true purposes, which included the destruction of the IWW, Wilson suggested that it investigate labor disputes unrelated to IWW strikes. On August 31, he recommended to the president a five-person commission to consist of the following members: J. L. Spangler, a Pennsylvania Dutch coal mine operator with a reputation for dealing fairly with the United Mine Workers (UMW); Verner Z. Reed, a Colorado entrepreneur and a liberal Roman Catholic; John H. Walker, a former UMW official and then president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor; E. P. Marsh, a conservative AFL unionist and president of the Washington State Federation of Labor; and Wilson as the chair. More important than any of the five suggested commission members was the person Wilson selected as his secretary, Felix Frankfurter.
The Strike Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, Part 1, 1894-1920
History Vault collection The Strike Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, Part 1, 1894-1920documents the changing policies of the federal government in labor disputes from the Pullman strike in 1894 through 1920. The general policy was one of federal intervention in strike situations only if interstate commerce or the operation of the mails were affected. In certain basic industries, such as railroads or coal mines, this rationale for intervention became particularly compelling. In other cases, where the judgment as to whether a stricken industry affected interstate commerce was less clear, federal officials debated among themselves whether to intervene. With the advent of World War I labor policies, the federal government's role in labor disputes was significantly broadened to encompass the large category of war production industries. Postwar-era documents in this collection show a new range of questions as to the appropriate role of the federal government in labor disputes.
U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, 1912-1915, Unpublished Records of the Division of Research and Investigation: Reports, Staff Studies, and Background Research Materials
This collection reproduces the complete holdings at the National Archives of the Division of Investigation and Research of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR) from 1912 to 1915. These CIR records span more than 16,000 pages across nearly 600 folders. History Vault's Module "Workers, Labor Unions, and the American Left in the 20th Century: Federal Records" also documents two other labor-related bodies during the Wilson presidency: the President's Mediation Commission and the National War Labor Board.
U.S. Military Intelligence Reports: Surveillance of Radicals in the United States, 1917-1941
U.S. Military Intelligence Reports: Surveillance of Radicals in the United States, 1917-1941spans approximately 34,000 pages, and is pulled from the records of the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Division. History Vault selected the most significant reports on American radicals filed between 1917 and 1941. The reports document the activities of so-called subversive and radical individuals and organizations stretching across the political spectrum, from anarchism, fascism, and Nazism to socialism, communism, and bolshevism. A wide swath of Americans were swept up in the government's investigations, including students and faculty, immigrants, labor unions and workers, and social activists and advocacy groups.
