A central issue for our class is that many of our unions are, and have long been, in the hands of bureaucrats, grafters, and gangsters. Labor historian David J. Saposs on the blight of racketeers in labor’s organizations.

‘Cut The Racket’ by David J. Saposs from Labor Age. Vol. 19 No. 8. August, 1930.

LIKE all social institutions the Labor Movement is based upon morale, and when that is destroyed it loses its effectiveness and vitality. Of all dangerous tendencies sapping at the foundations of Labor, corrupting its social philosophy and idealistic purposes, the most sinister is the inroads which racketeering has made into various labor organizations. Judged by the standards of dollars and cents the racketeers in the Labor Movement are mere pikers compared to their brothers in other walks of life. While some labor racketeers have become wealthy the total amount of graft involved in labor racketeering is insignificant when we are told that some forms of racketeering run into the millions of dollars.

Turning on the Limelight

However, when judged by the moral effect upon labor and upon the social outlook of the workers and their sympathizers and allies, labor racketeering is the more pernicious and is fraught with more serious consequences. Exposing the labor racketeers, therefore, is not an attack on the Labor Movement but, on the contrary, is of distinct service to it and to humanity at large. This article is motivated by a desire to help cleanse the Labor Movement of those parasitic elements that are today working towards its ruin.

Indicting the racketeers does not mean to indicate that the Movement is totally bereft of idealism and sincerity. But we cannot and dare not blind ourselves to the fact that no other workers’ movement of the world is so plagued with racketeers as ours. Throughout the history of American labor there have been leaders who have sacrificed themselves for the cause. These heroes and heroines who surrendered all pleasures and comforts in order to serve Labor stand out as a sustaining inspiration. There are many such unselfish souls giving unstintingly of themselves today for the advancement of labor’s aims. It is in justice to the loyal leaders and the Movement itself that the limelight should be turned upon the grafters and betrayers who would use the good work built upon so many sacrifices for personal ends.

If the writer were not convinced that the Labor Movement has rendered invaluable service to the working class and to society and is the chief instrument for attaining social justice he would not waste his time discussing it even, to say nothing of criticizing it. It is for the purpose of directing the white light of exposure upon the ulcer that is undermining the strength and social significance of organized labor that this effort is undertaken with the hope that it may aid in divorcing the Movement from its racketeering leeches.

Fraudulent Elections

Every one is familiar with the common garden variety of racketeering in the Labor Movement. This glaring seamy side of organized labor is known even to the uninitiated. The graft and strong arm methods that persist in sections of the building trades, similar to that conducted under the guidance of such labor leaders as Sam Parks, Skinney Madden, and more recently Brindell, have been fully aired. The use of gangsters and the collusion with employers in order to drive out competitors and to hold up the consumer have also received the proper publicity. Perhaps less is generally known of the dishonest elections and the shameless rifling of union treasuries. Within the Movement it is common knowledge that in certain unions elections are a sham and a fraud. Under the leadership of John L. Lewis, the United Mine Workers, on the pretense of economy and retrenchment, have even failed to publish the last election returns as required by the mine workers’ constitution.

Expense accounts, or “swindle sheets,” as they are jocularly referred to, are gallantly padded. Many labor leaders, although married, charge their organization with expenses covering 365 days in the year, excepting leap year. Possibly this is additional evidence of the disintegration of the American family. At any rate, the expense accounts of these labor leaders approximate their salaries, usually quite adequate in themselves. There is even the case of the labor leader who is sufficiently impressionistic to have fallen prey to that enticing slogan, “Wire, Don’t write,” a slogan so fascinatingly flaunted by the Western Union Telegraph Company. In this instance, while practicing this laudable efficiency principle, the union official found it easy to run up telegraph bills equaling his stupendous salary. The rake-offs that certain labor leaders get in spending union monies are well known and space prevents specific mention of them.

This consideration of the every day variety of racketeering may be appropriately closed by describing how the cloak of respectability has been torn even from ranking labor leaders who have been and are esteemed and honored by the press, pulpit, employers and public officials as the embodiment of virtue and patriotism. While it may be unkind and perhaps unsympathetic to speak ill of the dead, examples should be cited even though they may involve the reputations of those who no longer can do wrong, because the subject transcends the character of any one individual. It deals with an institution that threatens the very existence of the Labor Movement and if not eradicated will bring it to final disrepute and ruin. The late Warren S. Stone of the Locomotive Engineers, the former darling of Wall Street and the Messiah who was permanently to coalesce capital and labor, was proved subsequently to be a man of easy economic virtue and a rather incompetent business man to boot. The same may be said about many of his distinguished former colleagues and present survivors. Another example is George Berry, President of the Printing Pressmen’s Union, arch patriot and liaison high muckey-muck between the American Federation of Labor and the American Legion. Some years ago he was exposed to the satisfaction of the courts as having misappropriated union funds for the promotion of personal business ventures. So far as it is known, the local union that was responsible for the law suit seems to have been cowed into not pressing the matter.

Lack of Moral Stamina

Of course, it is to be expected that every movement, whether social or organized for personal gain, will have its black sheep, occasionally occupying even the highest positions of trust. However, it would seem that the Labor Movement has its disproportionate share of such stamp. Certainly is this true in comparison with the Labor Movements of other countries. Yet the fact that now and again individuals will be discovered who use their high positions for personal gain is not the most serious aspect of the situation. What deserves attention and unmitigated condemnation is that the Labor Movement complacently shuts its eyes to this menace, as it does to many others, and makes no effort to abolish those vicious practices that have such an overwhelmingly demoralizing effect. So common has this form of racketeering become that accused labor leaders have brazenly acknowledged the charges and defiantly continued the even tenor of their ways with impunity. When Father McGowan, one of the staunchest friends of organized labor in general and of the highest A.F. of L. officials in particular, called upon that body at the New Orleans Convention in 1928 to cleanse itself of the racketeers, the delegates and officers only shuddered but neither denied nor affirmed his challenge. Worse still, Father McGowan’s appeal was as rapidly forgotten as the call some years earlier to rid the Movement of labor spies. Perhaps these charges hit too closely home. At any rate, these incidents not only reveal the constitutional weakness of the American Federation of Labor but what is more serious they manifest its lack of moral stamina.

Of greater harm to the Labor Movement are the more fundamental and subtler forms of labor racketeering that violate the basic ethical professions and principles of even conservative unionism. As a result, many of the important union activities have become rackets. A flagrant form of racketeering is the custom of issuing annuals and souvenir books on a variety of occasions or on no special occasion at all. These are used as a means of mulcting business and professional men, and politicians. Not infrequently the inducement offered is that this is a way of counteracting revolutionary ideas. It is also known that this form of advertising has chiefly a negative value in that it buys off some labor leaders from making trouble. The money raised in this form rarely reaches the union treasury.

The labor press, as well, is a beneficiary of this form of racketeering holding up politicians, business and professional men for advertisements and donations. This is particularly true of local labor papers owned by individuals but which are permitted to pose as official organs. Not only do these labor papers deliver the goods by subtly deadening the spirit of labor but they have been known openly to betray the Movement at crucial moments. The outstanding case is that of the official organ of the Pittsburgh Central Labor Union denouncing the steel strike on the very week it was declared. Naturally, a labor press that lives on the favors of the anti-labor elements will serve them openly or secretly.

The Advertising Racket

A more respectable racket is the practice of official union organs to solicit advertisements from the most notorious anti-union firms whose commodities are rarely bought by union readers. Even such a bona fide organ as the American Federationist is clotted with these advertisements. It not infrequently happens that labor papers will be running advertisements of labor baiting firms against whom either their own or other unions are conducting a bitterly contested strike. The question has often been raised why these firms advertise since the buying public catered to either does not read the publications or does not pay attention to the advertisements. The prevailing opinion is that these firms insert advertisements in order to profit in some tangible or intangible form. These firms, in other words, buy the good will of labor union officials.

The racketeering poison in the Labor Movement, in addition, directly perverts the fundamental trade union principles. The American unions, with a few notable exceptions, operate on the fringe of industry. The tendency is becoming ever greater for unions to sacrifice the interests of the masses of workers over whom they claim jurisdiction by becoming monopolistic and special privileged groups. This is achieved in several ways. One of them is to charge extortionate initiation fees, or to close the membership books to newcomers completely. The most common method, however, is to pick out a most tiny sector of the jurisdiction, usually that covered by the smaller employer who can least resist, and ignore the remainder. And although doing nothing to organize the neglected workers outside the small area the unions will resort to any means and use up much effort and money to prevent any one else from organizing them. The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers is an example. The union claims jurisdiction over practically all workers in the industry but it has been content with a small membership in tiny independent steel mills. Even when holding on to this minute niche the union has sacrificed the great majority of the workers by generally agreeing with the employers to organize only the skilled workers. During the great 19 18-19 organizing campaign and strike in the steel industry, the Amalgamated Association, although standing to gain most, was least cooperative. Some of its officials secretly sabotaged the campaign and strike.

An equally serious abuse of the union principle and trust is chargeable to most of the unions who rely chiefly on the union label. Fundamentally, the value of the label is based on the good will of the entire Labor Movement. Yet the unions receiving the most benefit from the label have become the most inert and parasitic organizations. They have learned that there is a limit to the demand for union label products. They have also learned that it is comparatively easy to sell the label to small manufacturers who do not have the resources to develop their own markets. Hence, instead of carrying on militant organizing campaigns the organizers of these unions become salesmen. They sell the label to employers who in turn require their workers to join the union. In order to keep the union label market from becoming flooded and prevent the loss of the label’s value, these unions limit the number of manufacturers to whom the label is granted. The workers over whom the label unions nominally claim jurisdiction but are excluded because of the above limitations remain unorganized. Through this procedure most of the unions relying on the union label are selfishly aggrandizing the good will of the Labor Movement in the interest of special privileged and parasitic little groups of workers.

Two Viewpoints

In the light of the higher aspirations and objectives of the International Labor Movement, with its belief in the historic mission of attaining social justice through a new social order, the American Labor Movement is indeed betraying the cause. To the radicals the Labor Movement is a faith. In their eyes those who align themselves with the Movement are dedicating their lives to a task of self-sacrifice and devotion as inspired believers and leaders. To the conservatives, on the other hand, the Labor Movement is just a concentration of persons and organizations for the furtherance of the material aims of isolated individuals. Hence it is not regarded as a betrayal of the aspirations of labor when its leaders endorse politicians who have openly shown themselves hostile even to the ordinary social reform demands, as though organized labor has no interest in the general social welfare. But many labor leaders have even gone further. They have supported politicians commonly known to be hostile even to the narrow demands of the conservative unions. The disgraceful scramble of the leaders in the last Pennsylvania primary to support Grundy and other avowed enemies of labor is still fresh in the minds of all. A few years ago in Illinois the outstanding leaders supported a successful candidate for the U.S. Senate who was subsequently denied his seat and who was also shown to have received his chief support from the Insull power interests.

The open alliance of the municipal Labor Movements and the corrupt political machine in the large urban centers needs no elaboration. The situation is not much better in state and national affairs where labor leaders unblushingly support the most reactionary political machines. Similarly, the alliance of union officials with the most reactionary and chauvinistic forces, as the National Civic Federation, is but another instance of the refusal to understand labor’s historic role in capitalistic society.

The ease with which labor leaders abandon the Movement is the most conclusive evidence of the demoralized situation in the labor world. The recent history of labor reveals a long procession of leaders, high and low, who, after having been selected by their fellow workers because of their devotion to the cause of Labor, have lightly abandoned it for lucrative positions with employers, or for business careers, as the changing from serving Labor to other pursuits is merely a shifting of jobs rather than a discarding of fundamental principles based upon the deepest convictions. And the sad part of it is that the Labor Movement continues to esteem and even honor such renegades, and not infrequently they continue to exercise influence in the affairs of the Movement.

Frank Farrington’s case in Illinois is not an isolated one.

The explanation of this tragic situation has already been partly revealed in this article. Since American business and professional life is permeated with the racketeering spirit it is taken for granted that the Labor Movement, as a cross section of American civilization and culture, finds it difficult to avoid being tainted. To be sure, it is expected that there will be weak sisters and even weak links, but that does not explain why the entire movement has become tainted. This is to be attributed to the perverted desire of the American leadership, since the American Federation became the dominant organization, to lose themselves within the capitalist culture. In this respect it is the only dominant labor organization of any country that idealistically attempts to fit itself perfectly into the capitalist system.

How to Develop Labor Loyalty

In other countries the dominant Labor Movements, although working within the system in order to ameliorate conditions for the workers, have consistently resisted becoming a hand maiden of capitalism by surrendering culturally. Instead those Labor Movements have concerned themselves with the creation of a counter labor culture so as to offset the engulfing encroachments of capitalist culture. For this purpose they have developed a rounded out Labor Movement so that the immediate and ultimate aspirations of organized labor could be propagated in connection with all important human activities. They have organized themselves into separate political parties, unions, cooperatives, fraternal societies, educational, dramatic and sport groups, and other auxiliaries such as an effective labor press. Through these culture carriers the Labor Movements of other countries have imbued the workers with a labor loyalty that is incorruptible.

The American Federation of Labor, on the other hand, generally has contented itself with merely organizing unions that operate on business principles only while accepting the present business system as permanent. This has had a two-fold effect. It has left the workers a prey of all capitalist propaganda, and not having a guiding ultimate ideal, it has permitted the Movement to degenerate into a purely business venture with all its attendant evils. Only the sincere effort to build a rounded out Labor Movement based on a labor culture will save the American Labor Movement from the racketeering spirit which now possesses it.

Labor Age was a left-labor monthly magazine with origins in Socialist Review, journal of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Published by the Labor Publication Society from 1921-1933 aligned with the League for Industrial Democracy of left-wing trade unionists across industries. During 1929-33 the magazine was affiliated with the Conference for Progressive Labor Action (CPLA) led by A. J. Muste. James Maurer, Harry W. Laidler, and Louis Budenz were also writers. The orientation of the magazine was industrial unionism, planning, nationalization, and was illustrated with photos and cartoons. With its stress on worker education, social unionism and rank and file activism, it is one of the essential journals of the radical US labor socialist movement of its time.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/laborage/v19n08-Aug-1930-Labor-Age.pdf