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Unionized Teamsters and the Struggle over the Streets of the Early-Twentieth-Century City

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

David Witwer
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Extract

Two political cartoons from the 1905 Chicago Tribune portrayed how some elements in society viewed the rise of a powerful Teamsters Union.On 29 April 1905, the front page cartoon depicted a husky teamster engaged in a sympathetic strike while the caption read, “The Dictator in His Old Act of Blocking Commerce” (Figure 1). A month later, on 3 June 1905, a cartoon played on the coincidence of the June 1905 uprising in Russia and a grand jury investigation of Teamster strike leaders in Chicago. The title caption read, “The Grand Dukes of Russia and the Grand Dukes of Chicago” (Figure 2). Both cartoons emphasized the theme of irresponsible power—either that of a dictatorship or of an unprincipled grand duke. Teamster leaders were tyrants, these images said.The sphere in which this irresponsible power was wielded extended beyond the realm of union affairs, and the relay the true menace conveyed by these images.They asserted that Teamster leaders held it in their power to stop the flow of business activity in Chicago.

Type
Special Issue: The Working Classes and Urban Public Space Edited by Elizabeth Faue
Information
Social Science History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , spring 2000 , pp. 183 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2000 

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