The Great Depression in United States History Read Free Page A

the 1935 convention of the American Federation of Labor, (A.F.L.) he proposed that the federation enlist workers in mass production industries such as steel, rubber, and automobile manufacturing. The A.F.L., composed mainly of crafts workers, voted down the idea.
    A few weeks later, Lewis formed the Committee (later renamed Congress) of Industrial Organizations within the A.F.L. This C.I.O. was more of an activist group than the A.F.L., and the parent organization ousted it in 1936. Lewis’s C.I.O. fearlessly challenged the giant industries, including the nation’s largest automaker.
Flint, Michigan
    Residents of the industrial city of Flint, Michigan, were awaiting the next day’s Christmas activities when they heard the news. Second-shift workers at a General Motors plant there refused to leave their posts or let others enter. The Christmas Eve, 1936, sit-down strike would make headlines throughout the country.
    At first, Lewis opposed a General Motors strike. But once it began, it received his complete backing. He declared in a speech that if National Guard troops shot at the strikers, they would have to shoot him first.
    Plant managers tried to freeze the workers out by shutting off the plant’s heat. The workers stood their ground. Realizing that frozen pipes might cause mechanical problems when the plant reopened, the managers turned the heat back on.
    Next, police stormed the building. Workers, using whatever they could find as a weapon, beat back the assault. After forty-four days, General Motors executives settled the strike. The United Auto Workers, affiliated with the C.I.O., became recognized as the workers’ bargaining agent.
    Strikers rejoiced at their victory. One organizer commented, “Those people sang and joked and laughed and cried, deliriously joyful. . . . Victory . . . meant a freedom they had never known before.” 7 They were not the only ones with reason to rejoice. After the Flint strike settlement, C.I.O. membership exploded from eighty-eight thousand to four hundred thousand in only eight months.
Memorial Day Massacre
    The Flint sit-down strike sent shock waves throughout American industry. It produced some astounding results. U.S. Steel, the nation’s largest manufacturer, had vowed not to deal with the C.I.O. But secret negotiations brought about a March 1, 1937, announcement. The behemoth steel company recognized the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, an arm of the C.I.O.
    Other large steel companies, together known as “little steel,” hardly followed the U.S. Steel example. Bethlehem, Republic, National, Inland, and Youngstown Sheets and Tube refused to sign C.I.O. contracts.
    Tensions hit their peak at Chicago’s Republic Steel plant. On Memorial Day of 1937, workers there tried to demonstrate for better conditions. Police, fed at company expense, refused to allow peaceful picketing. Workers threw rocks and sticks at police, and the officers answered with gunfire. They shot ten dead and wounded a hundred more. Evidence showed that those slain were trying to run from the police, not toward them to attack.
    The “Memorial Day Massacre” scared off many of the would-be organizers. It would be another four years before Ford Motors, Goodyear Tires, and many steel companies would recognize C.I.O. unions.

Chapter 10
    “THE GREAT ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY”
    While America reeled from the Depression in the 1930s, Germany lay in ruins. After being defeated in World War I, the Germans were forced to make reparations (huge payments) to the allied victors. Inflation struck so hard that the nation’s currency became nearly worthless. The Germans blamed the reparations for their plight.
    One German politician took advantage of the discontent. Adolf Hitler was a hotheaded extremist who tried to overthrow the government in 1923. His efforts landed him in jail for eight months. During this time, he wrote a book titled Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). It detailed his plans for extermination of Jews,