Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed the
growth of two transformative but intertwined forces: massive waves of
immigration from 1880 to 1920 and the roiling discontent of labor. Few
organizations struggled to balance these developments more than the American Federation of Labor, one of the nation’s premier labor organizations.
The recently digitized records of the AFL in the Manuscript Division
of the Library contain letterpress books of correspondence of Samuel
Gompers and William Green, presidents of the organization, and by
numerous other officials. The records serve as a window into the AFL’s
struggle to guarantee workers’ rights, particularly those of immigrants.
The collection also reveals the complexities of the organization as it
struggled with race and ethnicity.
Established under the leadership of Gompers in 1886, the AFL
represented 140,000 workers in 25 national unions, whose members were a
polyglot of laborers speaking numerous languages and dialects. These
newly arrived workers strove for “a healthy family, a steady job, the
purchase of a house, and ‘respect among people,’ ” writes historian
David Montgomery.
Even if the industries and immigrants’ origins have changed, this
dynamic remains true today. In 1890, more than 140,000 employees labored
in steel and ironwork – and 41 percent of those workers were born in
Europe, largely from Germany, Britain and Ireland. After 1900,
immigrants from Southeastern and Eastern Europe, mostly Slavs and
Italians, worked alongside or replaced this earlier wave. The same
proves true of other industries. Responding to a 1906 request by John
Roach, secretary of the Amalgamated Leather Makers of America, that the
AFL help organize workers in Hambleton, West Virginia, Gompers noted
that they mostly consisted of Poles, Italians and Austrians.
Such ethnic diversity was not unique to the East Coast and Midwest.
Mining interests in western states employed Greeks, Italians, Croats and
Mexicans among other ethnicities. While dependent on this labor source,
officials at places such as the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. disparaged
both the intelligence and hygiene of these workers. One official
described them “as drawn from the lower class of immigrants.”
Gompers and the AFL sought to expand worker protections across
industries, but the organization and its leadership had its own racial
prejudices.
For example, Gompers was asked to intervene in a 1902 racial dispute
involving the Stockton California Federal Trade Councils. The issue was
that an African American delegate had been “ordered” off a dance floor
by white members at a council picnic.
Gompers began his response by advocating for organizing all workers
regardless of nationality, sex, politics, color, race or creed. Yet he
followed with a far less heroic qualifier. “[W]e cannot attempt to
regulate the social intercourse of the races … as organized labor it
would be most unwise to stir up strife and prejudice rather than peace
if we make these questions subject to decision by our organization.”
So while the AFL might have helped organize African American workers, it did far less – and in the case of some locals, absolutely nothing – to protect them.
In regard to Asian workers, Gompers and the AFL proved unequivocal in
their racism. “We cannot permit the Chinaman with his prejudices, his
peculiar ‘civilization’ … with his low moral standard of living and his
poor conceptions of our institutions, and his racial antagonism to our
hopes and aspirations and ideals to have free and unrestricted access to
this country,” Gompers wrote to Oliver Werts of Parsons College in
Fairfield, Iowa. Any attempt to assimilate Asians into America’s white
population “would be most ruinous to us.”
Over time, the AFL’s stance on immigration grew even more
complicated. Though the organization exerted little influence in shaping
actual legislation, it supported immigration restrictions passed by
Congress in 1917 and 1924.
The AFL records demonstrate the complexity of historical actors, be
they individuals or organizations. Even a cursory review of the
collection reveals this on a range of issues including socialist
challenges to Gompers’ conservative leadership, the role of women, and
electoral politics. Immigration serves as only one example among many,
but it does signal to researchers the richness contained within.
via https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2020/01/american-federation-of-labor-history-now-digital/
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