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Bleeding Edge: New Deal Farm Labor Mediation in California and the Conservative Reaction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2013
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- Journal of Policy History , Volume 26 , Special Issue 1: Perspectives on Conservatism , January 2014 , pp. 48 - 72
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- Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013
References
NOTES
1. On the cotton strike, see Daniel, Cletus, Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers, 1870–1941 (Ithaca, 1981), 167–221Google Scholar; Weber, Devra, Dark Sweat, White Gold: California Farm Workers, Cotton, and the New Deal (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1994), 79–111CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor, Paul and Kerr, Clark, “A Documentary History of the Cotton Strike,” in Taylor, On the Ground in the Thirties (Salt Lake City, 1983), 17–158Google Scholar; McWilliams, Carey, Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California (Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City, 1978), 219–24Google Scholar; Jamieson, Stuart, Labor Unionism in American Agriculture (Washington, D.C., 1945), 100–105Google Scholar; Bernstein, Irving, The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933–1941 (Boston, 1971), 153–60Google Scholar; Starr, Kevin, Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California (New York, 1996), 74–80Google Scholar; Majka, Linda C. and Majka, Theo J., Farm Workers, Agribusiness, and the State (Philadelphia, 1982), 74–88Google Scholar; Acuña, Rodolfo F., Corridors of Migration: The Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600–1933 (Tucson, 2007), 215–85Google Scholar; and González, Gilbert, Mexican Consuls and Labor Organizing: Imperial Politics in the American Southwest (Austin, 1999), 122–58.Google Scholar
2. Quotes from Glassford report, reprinted in Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. Senate, 76th Cong., 3d sess. (Washington, D.C., 1940) (hereafter Lafollette hearings), part 55, 20148–49; and “Gen. Glassford changes mind and declares he will stay in Imperial Valley,” Los Angeles Times, 15 June 1934; “Judge hurls denial at Glassford after sensational Imperial Valley clash,” Los Angeles Times, 16 June 1934. On Imperial Valley, see Daniel, Bitter Harvest, 222–57; McWilliams, Factories in the Fields, 224–26; Jamieson, Labor Unionism in American Agriculture, 107–10; Bernstein, Turbulent Years, 160–68; Starr, Endangered Dreams, 157–60; González, Gilbert, “Company Unions, the Mexican Consulate, and the Imperial Valley Agricultural Strikes, 1928–1934,” Western Historical Quarterly 27, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 53–73Google Scholar, and González, Mexican Consuls and Labor Organizing: Imperial Politics in the American Southwest (Austin, 1999), 159–96.
3. See Daniel, Bitter Harvest, 167–77, 204–21, 255–57; Weber, Dark Sweat, White Gold, 106–11; González, Mexican Consuls and Labor Organizing, 193; and Acuña, Corridors of Migration, 242–43.
4. Finegold, Kenneth and Skocpol, Theda, State and Party in America’s New Deal (Madison, 1995), 140–44.Google Scholar
5. “Chronicle reporter has another pipe dream,” Visalia Times-Delta, 27 October 1933.
6. Some of the major works on postwar conservatism in the American west include McGirr, Lisa, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right (Princeton, 2001)Google Scholar; Perlstein, Rick, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York, 2001)Google Scholar; and Nixonland (New York, 2008); Dochuk, Darren, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism (New York, 2010)Google Scholar; and Dallek, Matthew, The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (New York, 2000)Google Scholar. See also Dochuk, Darren, “Revival on the Right: Making Sense of the Conservative Moment in American History,” History Compass: An Online Journal 4 (July 2006): 975–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Phillips-Fein, Kim, “Conservatism: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History 98, no. 3 (December 2011): 723–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7. Lafollette hearings, part 54, 19884.
8. Taylor, On the Ground in the Thirties, 14.
9. “Racial composition of farm labor supply, California, 1930,” in Lafollette hearings, part 54, 19859.
10. Lafollette hearings, part 54, 19890.
11. Johns, Orrick, The Time of Our Lives (New York, 1973), 329–33.Google Scholar
12. Letter to Henry Wallace, 11 November 1933, box 1, Philip Bancroft papers, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
13. “AAA Program Aids Farmer,” Imperial Valley Press, 1 March 1934; Edwin G. Nourse, Marketing Agreements under the AAA (Washington, D.C., 1935), 15.
14. Historical Statistics of the United States, millennial edition on line, series Ba4954–4964, 2–354; Morris, Austin P., “Agricultural Labor and National Labor Legislation,” California Law Review 54, no. 5 (December 1966): 1947n38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. The Reminiscences of Frances Perkins, Oral History Research Office (New York, 1976), book 4, 422 (hereafter Reminiscences of Frances Perkins). See also Woodbury, Robert, Introduction: Limits of Coverage of Labor in Industries Closely Allied to Agriculture under Codes of Fair Competition under NIRA (Washington, D.C., 1936).Google Scholar
16. See Morris, “Agricultural Labor,” 1947–51.
17. National Labor Board report, Lafollette hearings, part 54, 20048.
18. Letter from W. N. Cunningham, Department of Labor, U.S. employment service, to Mr. J. H. Fallin, assistant director, U.S. employment service, farm labor division, 19 July 1933, box 80, George Clements papers, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, UCLA.
19. Jamieson, Labor Unionism in American Agriculture, 87.
20. Quoted in Weber, Dark Sweat, White Gold, 89. See also Acuña, Corridors of Migration, 240–41.
21. Lafollette hearings, part 54, 19932.
22. See Weber, Dark Sweat, White Gold, 88; Acuña, Corridors of Migration, 238; and “A Scene from the Cotton Strike,” Western Worker, 30 October 1933.
23. Interview with Tom Carter, folder 48, carton 14, Paul S. Taylor papers, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
24. Broken jaw: Dorothy Healey, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party (New York, 1990), 44.
25. See Weber, Dark Sweat, White Gold, 101; Daniel, Bitter Harvest, 196; and Acuña, Corridors of Migration, 245–48.
26. Creel, George, Rebel at Large: Recollections of Fifty Crowded Years (New York, 1947), 275.Google Scholar
27. See Creel to Frisselle, 7 November 1933, Records of National Labor Board, Record Group 25, box 1, case 3, National Archives, College Park, Maryland, and “Non-union workers ordered to cotton fields,” Los Angeles Times, 28 October 1933.
28. Creel to Frisselle, 7 November 1933.
29. “Plague fear stiffs Creel to end strike,” San Francisco Chronicle, 19 October 1933.
30. Ibid.
31. Jamieson, Labor Unionism, 104.
32. Porter M. Chaffee, “A History of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union” (Oakland, Calif.: Federal Writers Project, year unknown), 2:39, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley; Taylor, On the Ground in the Thirties, 95–96.
33. Letter, E. J. Hanna, Ira B. Cross, Tully Knoles, to George Creel and James Rolph, 23 October 1933, Records of National Labor Relations Board, Record Group 25, box 1, case 3, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
34. Interview with Hill, folder 48, carton 14, Taylor papers.
35. Interview with Buckner, folder 48, carton 14, Taylor papers.
36. Taylor and Kerr, On the Ground in the Thirties, 112; Chaffee, “A History of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union,” 2:60.
37. Worster, Donald, Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West (New York, 1985), 208.Google Scholar
38. National Labor Board Report, Lafollette hearings, part 54, 20051; Exhibit 8903, Lafollette hearings, part 55, 20288–89.
39. Lafollette hearings, part 54, 20039.
40. McWilliams, “The Farmers Get Tough,” American Mercury, October 1934, 241.
41. On the absence of media attention to the strike, see Reminiscences of Frances Perkins, book 4, 419; on grower control of the local media, see Glassford to Wyzanski, 28 April 1934, folder 2, box 26, Pelham Glassford papers, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, UCLA.
42. Healey, Dorothy Healey Remembers, 45.
43. “Valley quiet today after hectic night during which Brawley stages abduction,” Imperial Valley Press, 24 January 1934. See also Chaffee, “A History of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union,” 2:10.
44. Pat Chambers oral history, interviews on the organization of the CAWIU, audiotape, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
45. National Labor Board report, Lafollette hearings, part 54, 20050; anonymous letter to Glassford, 16 June 1934, folder P–91, carton 34, Federal Writers Project collection, Bancroft Library; “Glassford’s charges of deliberate ‘red scare’ in Imperial bring hot reply,” Los Angeles Times, 27 June 1934.
46. Quoted in MacCulloch report, Lafollette hearings, part 54, 20039. See also MacCulloch to National Labor Board, 25 January 1934, Records of the National Labor Relations Board, Record Group 25, Region 15, file 15-37, box 3, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
47. National Labor Board report, Lafollette hearings, part 54, 20049.
48. Charles Wyzanski to Pelham Glassford, 27 March 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers; Simon Lubin to Campbell MacCulloch, 13 April 1934, Records of the National Labor Relations Board, Record Group 25, Region 15, file 15–37, box 3, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
49. “Activities of various peace officer groups, citizen groups, and disaster emergency plans, in California, 1933–1938,” typewritten manuscript, no date, 24, folder 58, carton 14, Taylor papers.
50. Clarke A. Chambers, California Farm Organizations: A Historical Study of the Grange, the Farm Bureau, and the Associated Farmers, 1929–1941 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1952), 41.
51. Nelson A. Pichardo, “The Power Elite and Elite-Driven Countermovements: The Associated Farmers of California during the 1930s,” Sociological Forum 10, no. 1 (March 1995): 40.
52. “Anti-radical group plans big meeting,” Imperial Valley Press, 20 March 1934.
53. “Activities of various peace officer groups, citizen groups, and disaster emergency plans, in California, 1933–1938,” 11. See also folder labeled “Redbaiting” in Carey McWilliams papers, box 18, Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, UCLA; and “Communists condemned by speakers at mass meeting,” Imperial Valley Press, 24 March 1934.
54. Letter from Guernsey Frazer to Parker Frisselle, 20 November 1934, in LaFollette hearings, 20256–57.
55. Memo from Arnoll to Clements, no date, “Milk strike,” in unnamed folder, box 64, Clements papers.
56. “Too much flirting with radicals,” Brawley News, 23 May 1934.
57. “Pea strike collapses,” Los Angeles Times, 20 February 1934.
58. Johnson testimony in LaFollette hearings, part 55, 20158–62. See also Johnson to Glassford, 22 June 1934, folder P–91, carton 34, Federal Writers Project collection, Bancroft Library.
59. Reminiscences of Frances Perkins, book 4, 422.
60. Ibid., 405–6.
61. “Heroes: Break Up?” Time, 18 July 1932.
62. See Lisio, Donald J., The President and Protest: Hoover, Conspiracy, and the Bonus Riot (Columbia, Mo., 1974)Google Scholar, chap. 12; and Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen, The Bonus Army: An American Epic (New York, 2006).
63. “Brig.-Gen. Glassford named federal conciliator as Imperial Valley demurs,” Los Angeles Times, 28 March 1934. See also the grower-backed Phillips report, reprinted in the LaFollette hearings, part 55, 20053–63.
64. Reminiscences of Frances Perkins, book 4, 432.
65. Ibid., 418.
66. Bulletin, “To all Mexican workers in Imperial Valley,” 30 April 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers; Richard Bransten, “Glassford in the Imperial Valley,” New Masses, 15 May 1934.
67. Glassford to Wyzanski, 28 April 1934, and Glassford to Wyzanski, 31 May 1934, both in folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
68. Glassford to Wyzanski, 28 April 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
69. Richard Bransten, “Glassford in the Imperial Valley,” New Masses, 15 May 1934.
70. “Federal labor moves fought,” Los Angeles Times, 6 May 1934.
71. Telegram, Glassford to Secretary of Labor, 14 April 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
72. Wyzanski to Glassford, 16 April 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
73. Glassford to Wyzanski, 20 June 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
74. Glassford to Wyzanski, 31 May 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
75. Letter, Lucille Painter to “Uncle Ernie,” 12 July 1934, folder P–91, carton 34, Federal Writers Project Collection, Bancroft Library.
76. Chaffee, “History of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union,” 2:22–23; “Assault on attorney Ernest Besig of Los Angeles, Calif., Imperial Valley, June 8th, 1934,” in folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
77. Chaffee, “History of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union,” 2:22–23; Glassford to Wyzanski, 13 June 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
78. “General Glassford charges intimidation by official,” Imperial Valley Press, 14 June 1934.
79. “Gen. Glassford changes mind and declares he will stay in Imperial Valley,” Los Angeles Times, 15 June 1934.
80. “Recommends investigation by grand jury of alleged attacks on Wirin-Johnson,” Imperial Valley Press, 26 June 1934.
81. Wyzanski to Glassford, 12 June 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
82. “The strike crumbling,” Los Angeles Times, 19 July 1934.
83. “The Red Menace,” Los Angeles Times, 16 June 1934.
84. Telegram, Wirin to Wyzanski, 14 June 1934, folder P-85, carton 34, Federal Writers Project Collection.
85. “Government lets canal contract,” Imperial Valley Press, 23 June 1934.
86. “Additional water supply arrives in Valley,” Imperial Valley Press, 12 July 1934.
87. Open Forum, 7 July 1934, folder P-91, carton 34, Federal Writers Project Collection, Bancroft Library.
88. “Heald condemns statement made by Taft,” Imperial Valley Press, 3 July 1934.
89. Address by Philip S. Bancroft, “The Farmer and the Communists,” to the Commonwealth Club of California, 26 April 1935, in folder P-1, carton 32, Federal Writers Project Collection.
90. Glassford to Wyzanski, 14 June 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
91. Glassford to Besig, 20 June 1934, folder P-91, carton 34, Federal Writers Project Collection.
92. Glassford to Wyzanski, 14 June 1934, folder 2, box 26, Glassford papers.
93. Reminiscences of Frances Perkins, book 4, 411, 418.
94. Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s (New York, 1991), 43.
95. As a member of a House Labor subcommittee, Nixon opposed workers trying to organize a union at DiGiorgio Farms near Bakersfield. Robert DiGiorgio became one of his most important financial backers. See “House raps union film on DiGiorgio farm,” Los Angeles Times, 11 March 1950; and Galarza, Ernesto, Spiders in the House and Workers in the Field (Notre Dame, Ind., 1970), 42–48Google Scholar. On DiGiorgio’s support for Nixon, see Morris, Roger, Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician (New York, 1990), 572Google Scholar; and Mitchell, Greg, Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon v. Helen Gahagan Douglas—Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950 (New York, 1998), 97Google Scholar, 124, 246. As governor, Reagan ridiculed Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and drew support from California agribusiness. See Bruns, Roger A., Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Movement (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2011), 73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
96. Philip Bancroft oral history, 461, Bancroft Library.
97. On Camp, see Wartzman, Rick, Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (New York, 2008), 226Google Scholar; on Combs, see Rosenfeld, Seth, Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power (New York, 2012), 40–41Google Scholar, 49, 63, 283; on Sherrill, see Arax, Mark and Wartzman, Rick, The King of California: J. G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire (New York, 2003), 129.Google Scholar