Table Of ContentLABOR'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.
