Striking workers, striking fears
One hundred years ago today … While in Europe, Russia, and the U.K., laborers were using the weight of railway strikes and general strikes to achieve greater equity, in New York, the strikes were smaller, and the idea of a general strike was cause for alarm.
The Evening World, March 4, 1920, p.3. Newspapers.com.
New York Tribune, March 4, 1920, p. 7. Nespapers.com.
A quick scan of the March 4th New York newspapers turns up a number of strikes under negotiation. The Evening World reported on a towboat workers strike. The Tribune addressed an imminent strike of building trade workers.
Construction workers in New York City, 1910 or 1920. Courtesy Granger, NYC / The Granger Collection in collaboration with Granger Art on Demand.
The Sun and New York Herald had other angles on striking workers. In an article about the ongoing hearings about the five state legislators expelled for being members of the Socialist Party, the paper exploited fears of political unrest, taking Attorney Morris Hiliquist’s defense of the Socialist Party, his reference to the general strikes of Europe, as a threat.
The Sun and New York Herald March 4, 1920, p. 4. Newspapers.com
The same newspaper featured, a few pages later, an odd little story about vandalism of glass storefronts that made thinly veiled accusations that the culprits were the striking glass setters union.
The Sun and New York Herald March 4, 1920, p. 20. Newspapers.com