Fairfield University
DigitalCommons@Fairfield
History Faculty Publications
History Department
9-1-1995
Workers and Politics in the Immigrant City in the
Early 20th Century United States
Cecelia F. Bucki
Fairfield University, [email protected]
© 1995 by Cambridge University Press. Original published version can be found at DOI: 10.1017/
S0147547900005329
Peer Reviewed
Repository Citation
Bucki, Cecelia F., "Workers and Politics in the Immigrant City in the Early 20th Century United States" (1995). History Faculty
Publications. Paper 7.
http://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/history-facultypubs/7
Published Citation
Bucki, Cecelia. "Workers and Politics in the Immigrant City in the Early 20th Century United States." International Labor and WorkingClass History 48 (Fall 1995): 28-48.
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at DigitalCommons@Fairfield. It has been accepted for inclusion in
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[email protected].
Early
in the
in the Immigrant City
and Politics
Workers
United
Twentieth-Century
States
Cecelia F. Bucki
Fairfield University
A
of workers
and politics
in the early twentieth-century
consideration
States must take into account a variety of changes that confronted
United
the working class in this era: the fashioning of a new national state role, the
and finally the remaking of the working
class itself.
remaking of politics,
era
in
has
of
been
dominated
this
American
Analysis
politics
particular
by
the paradigm of "The System of 1896" and the model of urban "machine
two concepts
framework
of
represent a widely accepted
politics." These
analysis
political
that demonstrates
the integration of the working
class into the
concerns
and
the
of
class
within
that
system
consequent muting
Our
system.
task
is to
these
investigate
to measure
concepts
their
useful
and its impact on politics.
in explaining working-class
consciousness
must
the
the
examine
of local-level
dynamics
investigation
Specifically,
had
where
activities
their
greatest strength and
politics,
working-people's
resonance. This essay will examine
these ideas and suggest an alternative
and especially of immigrants,
of the politics of workers,
in
understanding
ness
era.
this
States had recovered from the
the turn of the century, the United
and entered
turmoil of the 1890s depression
three
economic
and political
as
known
of
the
This
decades of political
1896."
system
"System
stability
after the 1896 defeat of the Democratic-Populist
fusion by the
emerged
and Walter Dean
party. As defined by E. E. Schattschneider
Republican
of the Republi
it was characterized
Burnham,
by the national hegemony
can party (outside the Democratic
"Solid South"); the narrowing of politi
cal debate; and a diminished
party vitality, which was replaced by an ex
state. In addition, as revealed in declining
rates of
panding administrative
the electoral
turnout for national elections,
system of 1896-1928 was one
of demobilization
of an alarmingly
large portion of the potential electorate
At
in the United
States.1
to a
electorate
This shrinking of the American
has been attributed
dominance
in both the North
and
of an extreme one-party
combination
and
in
of
institutional
South and the cumulative
the
change
changes
impact
in
and
Dem
the
North
rules of the game for voters. Republican
hegemony
in the South went hand in hand with what Burnham has
ocratic hegemony
of political parties as action instrumentalities."2
called "the decomposition
voters
of meaningful
rule
thus leading to a
choices,
deprived
One-party
decline
had
in voter
taken
over
turnout.
Moreover,
the political
functions
and Working-Class
International
Labor
History
No. 48, Fall 1995, pp. 28-48
Labor
? 1995 International
and Working-Class
as Burnham
argued,
of bringing
History,
Inc.
issues
interest
groups
to bear
on
the
Workers
and Citizenship
so the political
state,
concern
to
voters.
29
parties
no
themselves
a wave
Concurrently,
of
longer
electoral
issues
generated
as
such
reforms,
of
the
the reform
direct primary,
the
trilogy of initiative-referendum-recall,
Australian
and antifusion
had
ballot, nonpartisan
elections,
legislation
weakened
the partisan nature of politics.
In addition,
these reforms ham
in the
pered third-party challenges. The result was a decline in competition
on the part of the electorate.3
electoral arena and indifference
access to the ballot had a
in the rules governing
Moreover,
changes
re
thrust. Personal
deliberate
antidemocratic
laws, extended
registration
sidency requirements,
literacy tests, and, in the South, poll taxes were
intended to make voting more difficult for immigrants, African Americans,
and lower-class citizens generally.4 By 1920, a new pattern of class and age
in turnout appeared, with upper-class
stratification
and older voters the
more active participants.
The turnout also had a gender bias after the
lesser participation
granting of women's
suffrage in 1920, though women's
was not enough to explain away the overall lowered turnout. By the 1920s,
an entire generation,
had grown up
including waves of new immigrants,
under a system of lessening
in electoral politics.
involvement
this description
of the "System of 1896" belies the political
However,
tumult of the Progressive
Era, the range of issues brought to the electoral
and
the
and sometimes
successful
arena,
persistent
(on the local level)
third
the
This
like
Socialist
would
challenge by
party.
parties
suggest that,
while Burnham's
theory about the reshaping of the "political universe" can
be useful,
it may hamper rather than help our investigation
of working
class politics.
In particular,
it does little to explain the shaping of working
class party loyalties.
This was a time when
leaders of the American
of Labor
Federation
were
the
of
framework
and
(AFL)
accepting
corporate capitalism
attempt
their position within
the state through alliance with the
ing to cement
Democratic
party and with cooperative
employers
through the National
Civic
Federation.5
Native-born
American
workers,
stock" ethnic, were already deeply involved
al and local level. Moderate
craft unionists
politics,
and
the
AFL's
"voluntarism"
was
Yankee
as well
as
"old
in politics, both on the nation
to patronage
had acquiesced
aimed
at
a
pragmatic
accom
to gain favors from whatever
to attend to labor's
party promised
were at
While
Era
middle-class
reformers
political
agenda.
Progressive
to
limit
to
and
reform
munic
tempting
working-class
political participation
run
a
to
the
like
reform
of
allies
the
business,
government
ipal
city
working
class were pressing ahead with social and labor legislation. This "urban
or
to the Democratic,
liberalism" agenda linked "old-stock" workingmen
the Republican,
sometimes
urban political organizations.6
Urban politics was an area of decisive
for working-class
importance
as well as ideological
since
formation,
identity and mobilization,
political
much direct confrontation
between workers and the state occurred on the
local level. Through most of the nineteenth
to
century, workers attempted
modation
30
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
gain a measure
of political power at the municipal
level for instrumental
to
order
the
office-holders
who had not ad
purposes?in
punish
existing
or
to
hered to prolabor
state
curtail
local
of
policies,
police
repression
to achieve prolabor
to
labor activities,
the
enhance
legislation?or
quality
of life for workers and their neighborhoods
by providing services and pro
tection
from the ravages of the laissez-faire marketplace.
Sometimes
at
as chal
aimed
such
purposes
working-class
politics
larger ideological
control over government
and handing government
back
lenging corporate
to "the people" or "the producing
classes." This took the form of either
promoting worker candidates within the two major parties or, as was often
the case in the nineteenth
century, forming independent
parties.7
But these attempts were short-lived
(whether successful or not) and
workers
fell back on their reliance on the two-party arrangement
and its
local embodiment,
the political machine.
oriented po
Indeed, historically
litical scientists such as Amy Bridges and Martin Shefter, both using New
eras in the nineteenth
York City in different
century as their test case,
was
the solution to class crisis, defusing
argue that the political machine
class tensions by building an accommodation
among the various social and
economic
of working-class
groups in the city. Moreover,
party solicitation
and rewarding workers with
loyalty, while playing on class sensibilities
labor legislation,
of workers
shaped the consciousness
through appeals to
and
and
turned
thus
workers
away from strictly class
ethnicity
community
based politics. The creation of partisan
identification
among American
workers has been seen as a distinctively American
and
machine
trait,
poli
tics likewise has been viewed as a component
of American
exceptional
ism.8
as Richard Oestreicher
has pointed out, the seeming domi
However,
nance of ethnocultural,
rather than class-based,
in the
political preferences
and early twentieth centuries may have had more to do with the
nineteenth
structure of American
politics than with any measure of political conscious
ness among working
has argued, separate
or, as Ira Katznelson
people,
at home and at work. Three structural facts de
spheres of consciousness
fined the American
entrenched
system?an
political
two-party
system,
of power in the layers
winner-take-all
and relative fragmentation
elections,
of local, state, and national government?and
to the limited
all contributed
to make their impact on the
issues and organizations
ability of class-based
polity.9
An
additional
into the two
theory regarding working-class
integration
party system early in the history of the Republic was the "free gift of the
ballot." This, too, is part of a larger American
argument,
exceptionalism
the lack
which, along with such factors as American
ideological disposition,
of a feudal past, relative prosperity,
and chances for social mobility,
has
the "lack" of class consciousness
and a viable socialist party in
explained
the United
has to be qualified by
States.10 This "free ballot" formulation
were often disfranchised
the fact that paupers and the foreign-born
and
Workers
and
31
Citizenship
and registration
rules and poll taxes often
other
residency
impeded
men
from
franchise.
white
their
These
barriers
working-class
exercising
men had diffi
after the 1890s. African-American
grew more formidable
even
vote
the
in
after
the
before
1870,
regime of the New
culty
receiving
them by the 1890s.11 Working-class
South
succeeded
in disfranchising
did not receive
states until 1920.
of course,
the vote in most
women,
as Richard L. McCormick
notes, the new immigrants of the late
Moreover,
and early twentieth centuries were not as completely mobilized
nineteenth
into the dominant political
structure as were the Irish and German
immi
into the political
grants of an earlier era; thus they were less assimilated
Era.12 It was only in the 1930s that the white
parties of the Progressive
a
as
overcame
to its exercise of the
class
whole
the impediments
working
own
its
thus
internal splits. We
need to examine
the
franchise,
including
structures of voter mobilization
before we can assess working-class
ideas
about citizenship.
It has been assumed
that urban machine
and
politics manipulated
into a consensual,
absorbed workers
order.
But
nonoppositional
political
while "machine politics"
is an appealing shorthand for the complex task of
and voter mobilization
in the nineteenth
ideological development
century,
the concept assumes what needs to be proved. "Machine politics" neither
and patterns of power
predicts nor reveals the dynamics of decision-making
in the city, nor does it reveal?indeed,
it denies?the
ideological motiva
a
tions for voting.
more
is
much
"Patronage
democracy"
apt, and less
term
for
the
of
deterministic,
pattern
party politics.13
nineteenth-century
a hegemonic
While
became
model
for urban
patronage
democracy
saw
and
radical
socialist
as one of
their
task
politics,
organizations
political
workers
from
this
model.
The
commodification
of
away
weaning
politics
was repeatedly challenged
in the nineteenth
century by class-based politics.
The Knights
of Labor, Greenback-Labor
party, and finally the Socialist
to gain a foothold
in the electoral
arena. The Socialist
party attempted
in the short term and had its greatest strength in areas
party was successful
of working-class
home ownership
and union power.14
From 1880 to 1920, the working
class itself was being remade by the
waves of new immigrants, mostly from Eastern and Southern Europe, who
came to the United
States in search of work. While
this free-flowing
immi
gration kept the class in flux until restriction
legislation after World War I,
their presence
to
known
in attempts
immigrant workers
began to make
in such industries as coal mining, meatpacking,
unionize
textiles, and gar
in radical organizations
like the Industrial Workers
of the World
ments,
federations
of the Socialist party. Contacts
(IWW), and in the nationality
between native-born workers from "old-stock" groups (British, Irish, Ger
and the new immigrants complicated
the process
man, and Scandinavian)
of
class
formation.
To
create
a successful
movement,
the working-class
cul
ture of "old-stock"
their unions and
ethnics, who had already established
built links to politics, had to accommodate
the emerging
class culture of
32
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
new
traditions. The
immigrants, who had their own labor and political
of
African
Americans
and
Mexicans
into
industrial
migration
regions dur
and
after
World
to
War
I
added
the
While
this process
ing
complexity.
could lead to "Americanization
from the bottom up," it also bred nativism
and
racism
native-born
among
over
workers.
This
turmoil
was
in union
reflected
of new workers, whether
by race, gender, or skill
in political debates over the role of unions in politics, and in the
categories,
stance the AFL
should take on immigration
restriction.15
The effort to secure the cohesiveness
and influence of immigrant com
munities
within
this political
structure was shaped by their own internal
class dynamics. We need to historicize
the social construction
of ethnicity in
the early twentieth-century
States in order to comprehend
United
how
saw themselves
inAmerican
immigrant workers
society and how they "fit"
into an emerging American
citizenship.16 The patterns of ethnic identity
ele
building and their relation to American
society have quite different
ments before and after World War I. World War I is a watershed
both
debates
because
inclusion
immigration
heightened
aspirations
era
each
in
restricted
after
and
the
war
and
the
because
war
at the same time as nationalist
being realized. We will examine
turn.
Immigrant
oneers
was
coercive American
patriotism
for European
immigrants were
group
economic
leaders?in
notables
who
the early period
usually
were
to
committed
community
long-term
pi
residence
in this era of "birds-of-passage"?presided
over the myriad
fraternal and
welfare-oriented
and
raised
the
banner
of
self
organizations
community
The
web
of
created
to
1914
help.
organizations
by immigrant pioneers prior
served the collective
survival needs of immigrants and preserved
family and
in
on
cohesion
the
New
World.
Old
World
community
Drawing
organiza
tional traditions, people built on the kinship- and village-based
chain mi
from
and
to
Eastern
Southern
create
the
mutual
benefit
gration
Europe
mutuo
soci?t?s
di
ten,
soccorso,
organizations,
Landsmanschaf
religious
and athletic and singing
ladies' sodalities,
communities,
parish councils,
societies that dotted immigrant colonies.
In the absence of national govern
ment social-welfare
these provided
sickness and accident insur
programs,
ance and death benefits. They also promoted
and social activ
recreational
ideals of the community,
the moral
and often monitored
ities, embodied
the conduct of community members. At this level of organization,
associa
tions were based on shared identities of kinship,
and
customs,
dialect,
often religion. These
the regional and religious
mirrored
organizations
within
differences
thus reinforcing
small-scale
homelands,
immigrants'
cohesion. Group
life in the personal worlds of family and com
community
and leaders whose primary focus was in
munity
generated
organizations
ward.17
The
politics
ship,
that
and
formation,
public world of opinion
group representation,
a distinct level of leader
in the larger American
society generated
of
"brokers"
or mediators
who
"Janus-like
. . . face
in two
direc
Workers
and Citizenship
33
Eric Wolf has observed.18 The points
tions at once," as the anthropologist
of contact between
the immigrant and American
worlds bristled with cul
tural and political conflict and thus required the services of ethnic spokes
a fine line be
The brokers walked
persons as buffers or intermediaries.
tween doing their job of integration so well that the particularistic
needs of
or so poorly that they were unable to func
their community
disappeared
tion as bridges. This was a task fraught with contradictions,
as working
class disputes
threatened
the delicately managed
relations between
immi
local elites, as working-class
grant elites and American
immigrants often
rebelled against the leadership of their "betters," and as the insistent pull
of nationalism
raised questions
about immigrants'
loyalty to the United
States.
All
these
issues directly affected the intersecting and overlapping
rela
workers,
tionships among immigrant workers,
immigrant elites, American
and American
elites. Here
the tensions inherent in being ethnic and be
reveal
American
The contradiction
themselves.
between
the collec
coming
tivist mores of the immigrant community
and the individualist
ideals of the
world confronted
American
all ethnics during the adaptation
process. No
one more
this
embodied
contradiction
than the ethnic leader. The
fully
success of this ethnic middle
business
class?merchants,
saloonkeepers,
immigrant bankers, some fraternal officers, and a new group of profession
als (including clergy)?was
due, of course, to the ready consumer market
the immigrant community
a fact that kept this middle
class
represented,
to these communities.
bound
But leadership of one's ethnic group de
not only on one's financial
links to the
pended
standing and perceived
American
world but also on a community
one re
about
how
judgment
and
lived
the
culture.
success
The
men
of
these
spected
immigrant
required
that they express both their loyalty to their community and their agreement
with the basic aims of the American
mainstream.19
for their community's well-being
Concern
could lead to ethnic elites'
awareness
of working-class
in heavily blue-collar
cities
issues, especially
and towns. "My people do not live inAmerica,
live
underneath
Amer
they
Greek Catholic
told social worker
ica," a Ruthenian
priest in Yonkers
...
"America does not begin till a man
is earning
Emily Greene Balch.
two dollars a day. A laborer cannot afford to be an American."20
Finding
work and negotiating with the American
legal system were two areas where
and other labor brokers were of
Padrones
immigrants needed assistance.
ten able to use entrepreneurial
defense of the community,
skill, economic
and contact with Americans
to reach an esteemed
among their
position
own. Clergy
and fraternal
leaders could be rallied through community
to the cause of workers'
but it was more often
pressure
self-advancement,
the case that elites provided a moderating
influence on their community.
In the immigrant years, ethnic notables
often encouraged
ethnic
in
to
nationalist
overcome
their
localism and rally their
identity
people
ideals like independence
and citi
communities,
using American
political
34
zenship.
mechanism
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
Ethnicity
against
in the American
a hostile
host
context,
community,
rather
was
an
than being
assertive
a defense
awareness
of
connections
among immigrants and was related to the rising tide of nation
alism in Europe,
especially among minority peoples. The "imagined com
was a new force that expressed
of
the
nation
itself in the United
munity"
States as "new-ethnic"
federations
rallied around the goal of carving inde
from the existing empires. These feder
pendent nations in their homelands
local
fraternal
societies
into a national organiza
ations, merging
existing
the socioeconomic
combined
both
of their
tion, often
aspirations
awareness
members
and a new political
both of the United
proletarian
States and the Old Country. They also became organizational
weapons
with which ethnic elites could both confirm the "ethnic" unities of their
communities
and represent those ethnics to the American
host society even
as they retained ties to the homeland.21
The histories and cultures of the regions of Europe gave a distinct spin
to each nationalist
vision and created divisions within these communities.
It is a serious mistake
to assume that these communities
were monolithic,
either in class or in definitions
of ethnicity, or that they all made
similar
uses of American
ideals. We can discern
three main
political
types of
nationalist
impulses in the American
immigrant case: (1) a pluralist nation
to common geographic
alism that appealed
origins and history irrespective
an
of religion or even mother
that de
tongue; (2)
integral nationalism
or
a
manded
and
nationalism
socialist
that
language
religious unity;
(3)
to
nationalist
tied
class
different
nation
These
explicitly
aspirations
goals.
in the ethnic federations
alist models were reflected
set up in the United
States between
the 1880s and World War I.
For example,
the Polish Roman Catholic Union
(PRCU), which was
founded in 1873 and dominated
to Catholic
who
tied
Polishness
by priests
an integral nationalism.
In opposition,
other Polish com
ness, represented
in 1880 to found the Polish National
leaders gathered
in Chicago
munity
saw
Alliance
which
the
American
Polish immigrant communities
(PNA),
as
Province
of
Poland."
the
The Fourth Province's
"Fourth
("Polonia")
mission was to combine with the three partitioned
parts of historic Poland
to fight for a free and unified homeland.
In this pluralist-nationalist
mod
even allowing Jews to join
el, the PNA was secular and nondiscriminatory,
few did). The PNA was the more popular organization
(though doubtless
in Polonia; after 1896 the PNA always had a significantly
larger member
in the Polish case stemmed
Further complications
ship than the PRCU.
from religious differences: An independent Catholic movement,
the Polish
and contended
National
Catholic
that Polish
Church,
split from Rome
were not nationalist
or democratic
a
Roman
Catholics
enough. With
founder who espoused a democratic
creed and a peasant-populist
rhetoric,
the Polish National
Church had its greatest
support in the coal-mining
little is known, however, about its relation
region of eastern Pennsylvania;
there. The Polish Socialist Alliance
ship to the budding union movement
Workers
35
and Citizenship
a small segment of Polonia,
of a future of
dreamed
(PSA), admittedly
an
"In view
Poland.
of
reconstruction
and
economic
independent
political
in the political
life of this country
of our weak direct participation
[the
them
that
its
should
members
the
PSA
United
prepare
argued
States],"
selves for their place in the new Poland.22
to create American
citizens of these masses was the nub of the
How
for both American
in pre-World War I immigrant communities
problem
to
for ethnic elites was whether
officials and ethnic elites. The dilemma
which would
enhance
settlement
and American
encourage
citizenship,
issues. Politi
their influence inAmerican
politics, or to focus on homeland
and absorb new
ethnic elites in order to encourage
cal parties approached
was the famous urban machine
at work, and yet it met with
era.
voters in the
success
the
in
this
First,
already-mobilized
only limited
room
were
to
for
both
the
make
mainstream
reluctant
newcomers;
parties
were
a
to
the
here.
factors
limit
and
key
patronage
bounty
prejudice
in this
their own people
Second, ethnic elites found it difficult to mobilize
era.
to
involve
who
could
also
tended
those
Moreover,
only
they
migrant
be trusted to vote "the right way."
Most Eastern
and Southern European
immigrants did not expect to
rates of return
in the United
settle permanently
States. Indeed, estimated
to
the
for these turn-of-the-century
States
United
migrants
ranged between
50 percent of southern Italians and 35 percent for Poles; even 20 percent of
returned be
Eastern European
Jews (the most
likely to be permanent)
tween 1880 and 1900. Thus community
turnover in U.S. cities was high.23
rates lagged, even though growing nativist senti
naturalization
Moreover,
voters.
Here
ment
that immigrants assimilate,
and immigra
after the 1890s demanded
in 1921. Of the adult foreign-born
in 1920,
tion was restricted
population
a
were
at
the
49
decade
of the
later,
naturalized;
percent
only
beginning
Deal realignment,
that figure had only risen to 57.6 percent.24
At this point, we must turn to evidence
the
from one city to examine
as
out
in
of
communities
these
immigrant
played
particular dynamics
poli
a midsized
tics. The case of Bridgeport,
industrial city, pro
Connecticut,
on ethnic political
vides a wealth of information
activity in this era. An
base that empha
had a diversified
economic
immigrant city, Bridgeport
center dur
It was the foremost American
sized metal-working.
munitions
Its
it the nickname
"The Essen of America."
ing World War I, earning
led to national concern over both its ethnic commu
wartime prominence
nity activities and its labor disputes.25
com
in Bridgeport
Ethnic elites rose to prominence
new-immigrant
concern
for
their
of
the
usual
munities
paths
entrepreneurship,
through
For
the
and
savvy.
padrone
well-being,
political
example,
community's
as he advertised himself in the city's Ital
Louis Richards
(Luigi Ricciardo
turned a rivalry with a Boston
into a crusade
ian newspapers)
padrone
on behalf of Bridgeport
and succeeded
in getting state
Italian workers
New
legislation
passed
that regulated
padrones.
He
turned
these contacts,
plus
36
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
his court
for immigrants,
interpreting
into a role
in the local Republican
party.
three Hungarian
consequences,
Similarly, but with more conservative
a
leaders
resolved
in
labor
1907.
One
thousand Hun
community
dispute
workers
led
the
Industrial
Workers
of
the
World
garian
by
(IWW) had
struck the American
a
Tube & Stamping Company
in
(AT&S)
dispute over
cause. After a
wages and hours. The strike soon became a solid community
stalemate
in which managers
refused to meet with IWW orga
prolonged
businessmen
to meet with AT&S
three Hungarian
volunteered
nizers,
of the strikers and a
management.
They gained only the reinstatement
intense debate and a
promise for arbitration on wages in the future. After
slim majority
vote, the strikers decided to return to work. The three nota
their mediating
bles, however, had demonstrated
ability and their moderat
ing influence. They all went on to roles in the local Republican
party.26
Thus through business acumen, sensitivity
to the economic
survival needs
of the group, and astute maneuvering
within political-party
spheres, immi
their community's
structure and negotiated
their
grant leaders molded
members'
with the local state.
relationships
Ethnic notables were instrumental
in maneuvering
their compatriots
to
the
become
As Louis Richards,
citizens.
the "pap
through
legal process
Italian community,
pa" of the Bridgeport
explained:
When
I started
to
push
many
of
them
some
of
people
these
would
to go
take
of matters
hold
through.
through
make
darned
the
strict
good
of
were
There
the
times
[citizenship]
even
citizens
Italians
that
in this
I knew
test,
if they
but
could
I was
city
how
I also
not
hard
knew
read
to
able
it was
that
and
for
these
write
well.27
Ethnic
leaders had to urge their communities
to pay attention
to the posi
tive effect of political clout. As one New York City Italian paper argued,
"We must organize our forces as the Jews do, persist in exhausting
that
which
constitutes
gain
for
our
race
over
the Anglo-Saxon
race."28
Here
we
have
evidence
that the American
system of patronage
politics, with its
on
or
over
individual
enhancement
that
of
the public good,
group
emphasis
had been learned well by these ethnic leaders.
But these efforts were insufficient
in the immigrant era, because immi
to stay in the United
States took an average of ten to
grants who decided
twelve years from their arrival to make application
for citizenship.29 The
large numbers of sojourners among them made the immigrant era a diffi
cult one for ethnic political
clout. This does not mean
that immigrant
or at least their notables, were devoid of American
communities,
patrio
were so taken with the United
tism. Italian pioneers
in Bridgeport
States's
in the Spanish-American
War
that they named
their new
participation
fraternal society?the
first Italian one in the city in 1898?the
George
Sick
Benefit
the Polish Falcons national head
Dewey
Society. Similarly,
Workers
37
and Citizenship
not to join the American
their members
army in
quarters had to persuade
enthusiastic
but rather to
support of democratic
goals in the Caribbean
to enlist in the democratic
wait patiently
for their opportunity
liberation of
Poland. Here we cannot separate out intentions?either
the goal of gaining
his tour
instant American
citizenship
(available to anyone who completed
of duty), the enthusiasm
for democracy
that seems to have animated
the
or the simple thrill of military adventure.30
Falcons' membership,
status in America,
identification
and organization,
outsider
Group
of
nota
domination
the majority
community
proletarian
by middle-class
a
awareness
were
and
intensified
bles, and
growing nationalist
challenged
caused aliens to re
during World War I. The nationalist
impulse?which
spond to call-ups from imperial armies or to volunteer for their homeland's
to raise money
liberation armies, and moved
their communities
for Eu
a
of
the
with
victims
American
conflict?clashed
coercive
ropean
patrio
tism that heightened
nativism. Complicating
the picture were the waves of
strikes that involved hundreds
of thousands of workers,
both American
and immigrant, skilled and unskilled. This situation panicked ethnic nota
bles who tried to maneuver
between
the rocks of nativism and intolerance
in American
and
of
class conflict.
the
shoals
society
Ethnic
notables worried
that mounting
class grievances
within
the
to
class
threatened
mix
with
nationalist
and
immigrant working
aspirations
to supercede
issues entirely. Radical
ethnic
leaders
possibly
nationality
to
lead
and
these
moderate
middle-class
leaders
times,
appeared
during
retreated. Unionizing
workers
to assert
used the rhetoric of democracy
even before the United States entered the
themselves and their grievances,
war and provided Americans
with democratic
rhetoric to use. Strikers
mixed
of
with
ethnic
nationalism
For example,
Americanism.
in
symbols
1915 striking Italian workers marched
downtown
carry
through
Bridgeport
ing both Italian and American
flags.
Once the United States entered the war, immigrants whose homelands
were U.S. allies had an easier time justifying their dual loyalty than those
who were from the Central Powers. Ethnic
leaders pressed
the cause of
homeland
independence,
influencing President Woodrow Wilson's
foreign
policy. It should be noted that "old-stock"
groups?Germans
uniformly
the U.S. alliance
suspected of being traitors and the Irish caught between
with Britain and their own hopes for an independent
Ireland?were
part of
this process as well. All, however, were urged to proclaim
loyalty to the
even before
United
States alone. As one Bridgeport
editorial proclaimed
the United
States entered
the war, "If you are in America
now, whether
born here or not, stand by the American
flag, the American
people, or get
out.
. . . You
can't
not American."31
serve
two
This was
countries.
You
must
be
either
American
or
in the "100% Americanism"
echoed
drives
whom
of
announced
that they would only
sponsored by employers, many
States citizens or those who had taken out "first papers."
employ United
on Public Information,
The government's
Committee
which managed
the
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
38
effort
propaganda
less
for the war, had a less coercive
but nonethe
approach
Americanization.
encouraged
At war's end, debate over the Treaty of Versailles
and the League of
as well as immigrants' concern for the fates of family in the Old
Nations,
Country, kept attention riveted on Europe. At the same time, both native
in the largest strike wave to date to
born and immigrant workers engaged
in basic industry. Only
keep their wartime gains and to push for unionism
with resolution of European
issues and the defeat of the postwar strikes by
a combination
of the Red Scare and Open Shop Drive did the American
era. The
class settle into a (remarkably)
working
quiescent
immigrant
workers who had briefly found interethnic unity in the 1919 strikes were
left to retreat to their separate nationalist
tents.32
After World War I, middle-class
ethnic leaders found it safer to con
centrate on ethnicity
and citizenship
in the American
setting since Eu
affairs
had
and since immigration was now
ropean
changed
drastically
restricted. The immigrant communities
took on the task of Americaniza
to retain their own ethnic identity.
tion themselves,
while still attempting
Rather
than a simple dualism of ethnic versus American,
the 1920s wit
as immigrant culture, heritage,
nessed
the redefinition
of ethnicity
and
mass
behaviors mingled with American
and
culture.
expectations
emerging
On the most particularistic
of ethnicity meant
that
level, this redefinition
ethnics would pick and choose which
to
of
culture
aspects
immigrant
to cook traditional or cook "American,"
a
from
retain?whether
local
buy
of
grocer
one's
ethnic
group
or
from
an American
store,
or
to
whether
into an all-encompassing
ethnic fed
merge regional/provincial
eration. On the broader
level, they had the task of both justifying their
ethnic heritage and claiming a permanent
place inAmerica.
Finally, ethnic
institutions had to create various ways of attracting the second generation.
new values, ones that subtly
In the 1920s this question of generating
moved away from the collectivist working-class
value system of many mem
to uphold them, was contested
bers even as they appeared
terrain. On the
of
American
toward
and American
radicalism
hostility
plane
high politics,
with the results of the Versailles Treaty dovetailed with the
disillusionment
concerns of ethnic elites over the political and ideological
issues that had
a safe
leaders now championed
split communities
prior to the war. Ethnic
nationalism
that jibed well with mainstream
middle-class
American
inter
as a rallying call in their
ests. Ethnic elites used a "fashionable
nationalism"
from within.33 The pre-war tensions, such as secular
battles with opponents
versus assimilationist,
versus religious,
nationalist
support for American
sensibilities
business
For
or
most
for
trade
Eastern
unions,
European
continued.
community
leaders,
there
was
no
choice
but to take sides in the postwar political struggles in the homeland.
To be
on the "right" side was also to be in alignment with, or at least not in overt
Thus they
with, U.S.
government
disagreement
foreign-policy
positions.
could express alarm over events in the homeland while urging their coun
Workers
and Citizenship
39
lead
trymen to settle into their new home. For example, Polish-American
in
ers, dismayed over the politics of the "socialist" Pilsudski
government
the 1920s, turned inward and focused on making
their way in American
dla wychodztwa"
for themselves,"
"the emigrants
society. "Wychodztwo
became
the dominant Polish-American
slogan, wielded
by Polish grocers
as an expression
and businessmen
of their desire to keep their community
close about them. It might usefully have served as well as a slogan for most
East European
ethnic elites in the 1920s. Similarly,
the dispute over sup
port for Poland became mixed with union agitation within the Polish Na
tional Alliance.
for national office against
Here, Polish socialists contended
"the Polish bankers,
who ran the PNA
lawyers, doctors, and businessmen"
and won one election
in 1927. The Left-Right
splits in the PNA continued
until the early 1930s. Moreover,
ethnic elites were also sorting themselves
out into new groupings based on ethnicity and social status,
highlighting
class stratification within their communities.
Ironically, ethnic leaders who
were decidedly
even those
nondemocratic
but of middle-class
standing,
as in the Hungarian
who supported restored monarchies
and Russian com
were given great attention by the American
munities,
press and politicians
not because
"American"
democratic
values but because
they championed
an
antilabor
bulwark.34
antiradical,
they represented
If the 1920s was the Golden Age of ethnicity, as the proliferation
of
ethnic organizations,
was
ad
a
it
also
newspapers,
indicates,
memberships
time when ethnic leaders of Eastern and Southern European
groups began
their presence
known
in American
Some ethnic politi
making
politics.
those of the up-and-coming
second generation,
cians, including
sought
further recognition
from the traditional American
parties by forming their
own partisan clubs within
the parties. Other community
leaders formed
as
clubs
of
the
Americanization
general citizenship
part
process. For exam
a
in
direct
of
the
Na
ple,
repudiation
patronage
politics,
Chicago-based
tional Slovak Alliance,
with the slogan "All for Good Citizenship,"
aimed
to educate "progressive
citizens who place the general welfare before per
sonal aggrandizement."
the Bridgeport
Civic Club
Similarly,
Hungarian
aimed to promote
awareness.
The
Arctic
Street
nonpartisan
citizenship
Civic Club hoped to do the same in its Slovak neighborhood.
Some groups
rejected ethnic appeals; as one leader of a Bridgeport
lodge of B'nai B'rith
in 1925, "The Jews vote as American
citizens only?and
not as a
explained
class or religious body," while the Bridgeport
Swedish-American
Associa
tion declared that "A plea to national pride or prejudice
is un-American."
These
statements
reveal that ethnics were particularly
to being
sensitive
viewed as mere "interest groups," even as ethnic interest in politics was
rising and ethnic issues loomed large in the Tribal Twenties.35
of immigrants
remained
unmobilized
Nonetheless,
large numbers
a
and
second
electorally,
generation was coming of age. The 1928 presiden
tial campaign came at the right time to generate an upsurge in voter inter
est and voter registration.
for the Democratic
Al
candidate,
Support
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
40
As
Smith, was as much an effect as the cause of this new mobilization.
a
Allan Lichtman has discovered,
rather
than
holistic
ethno
alone,
religion
correlated most strongly with the Smith vote, as did
cultural worldview,
status.
socioeconomic
The
large
number
of
newly
engaged
foreign-stock
to be absorbed by the
the electoral system still waited
to do using a
party after 1928, a task that proved difficult
were often unwilling
to part
since local Irish Democrats
patronage model
to make
with patronage
rewards and the Great Depression
intervened
voters who
Democratic
economic
entered
issues
paramount.36
this new generation
With the onset of economic difficulties,
of citizens
and the antipa
mixed their notions of the public good, "good citizenship,"
tronage
sensibility
of
working-class
reform.
Foreign-stock
voters
de
free of partisan favoritism, from the disas
was the
At stake in the early depression
in
the
of
face
de
government"37
upper-class
manded government
protection,
trous effects of unemployment.
of organized
"serviceability
mands
for pared-down
and privatized
relief. In Bridgeport,
government
homeowners
foreign-stock,
working-class
supported a Socialist party mu
a
in
ticket
their
vision
of
nicipal
public good that included expanded work
relief and other city services, fair taxation, support for unionization,
and
for
elected
The
Socialist
public accountability
representatives.
Bridgeport
This
message.
party won on these themes combined with an antipatronage
tax
the
for
further
of
the
other
of
need
suggests
investigation
examples
see
to
revolts and successful working-class
whether
municipal
campaigns
an alternative political culture of working-class
citizenry was being shaped,
which in turn helped to shape the emerging New Deal.38
The rhetoric of industrial democracy
that animated
the labor legisla
tion of the New Deal era, language that had its origins in the labor de
mands of World War I and in the repudiation of Hoover's
"rugged individu
in the call for expanded political democracy.
alism," had its counterpart
citizens demanded entry into the political process, resisted the
Foreign-stock
call for removal of citizenship
rights from people on relief (a throwback to
and demanded
their rights in the work
the nineteenth-century
practice),
one
as
of
well.
observer
of
the
Industrial Organizations
As
Congress
place
new
at
not
does
the
formal lodge meeting.
"This
unionism
noted,
stop
(CIO)
It sees the union as a way of life which involves the whole community."39
If class-based
voting emerged during the 1930s, it was in competition
to include the new eth
with traditional patronage
politics, now expanded
it
nics. The "machine" has received much attention
(mostly asking whether
re
but ethnic appeals to partisanship
disappeared
during the New Deal)
in this era of foreign-stock mobiliz
mained
strong and were even enhanced
ation. Patronage democracy was bolstered by the growing government wel
used by local and state politicians
fare programs, which were deliberately
to cement voter allegiance
and to undercut
independent
parties.40
In addition,
forced the foreign-born
federal regulations
who applied
to
for relief to become
the
citizens,
thereby adding
eligible electorate.
Workers
and
41
Citizenship
cam
first flexed during the 1928 presidential
New-ethnic
political muscle,
same
at
the
time
local and state politics in the mid-1930s,
paign, reordered
as ethnic pride swept immigrant cities. Building
on the ethnic political
of the pre-war era and the 1920s, traditional ethnic leaders,
arrangements
and the
who were being threatened with displacement
by class politics
now secured their links with the new
of the second generation,
assimilation
political order.
A growing Americanism
during
pervaded many ethnic communities
In 1932, at a Pulaski Day celebration
held by the
the early depression.
one leader proclaimed
branch of the Polish National Alliance,
Bridgeport
had
his pride that his countrymen Casimir Pulaski and Thaddeus Kosciusko
the
in
American
Revolution,
participated
and
thereby
right of our
which
who
this
have
on
carved
countrymen
nation
come
and
here
the
of
enjoyment
its vast
territory
to develop
and
of our
stones
foundation
to the
offers
finally
the
to
possess
the
structure
national
liberties
various
and
the
people
the
birth
opportunities
of Europe,
it.
then went on to list the attributes
that makes Poles "good citizens":
the
of
labor"
of
that built America,
"great army
being part
building
a growing number of business and
churches and schools, and contributing
professional men.41 Similarly that same fall, Hungarians,
noting that two of
their ancestors had taken part in the American
in
Revolution,
participated
He
the city's George Washington
Bicentennial
Birthday parade. For their part,
the Washington
with the anniversary
Slovaks combined
cele
bicentennial
bration of their Czecho-Slovakian
constitution.42
Republic
and democracy mixed with a concern to
The rhetoric of Americanism
the Polish language
in the move by some to desert the Roman
preserve
Catholic
in Bridgeport
for the Polish National
Polish parish
Catholic
Church. Citing the practice of demanding money
for religious services as
well as the past alliance between
the Polish Roman Catholic
pastor and
local Republicans,
"the smarter people,"
those "against all the hockus
"
and those "believ[ing]
in greater
pockus
religion,
[sic] of the Catholic
to the National
in the Church" moved
Catholic Church where
democracy
the Mass was in Polish, not Latin.43
A growing pluralism accompanied New Deal politics and local socialist
The 1935 Connecticut
in Bridgeport.
in Bridgeport
politics
Tercentenary
and the 1936 Bridgeport
Centennial
and
celebrated
ethnic diver
portrayed
with
ethnic
and
mixed
with
Yankee
colonial
sity,
days
nationality
parades
In subsequent years, various ethnicities continued
memorials.
their Annual
and to bridge the
in America
their existence
Day as a way to celebrate
the various organizations
within their group. Politicians
distances between
from all parties dutifully attended.44
A variety of new ethnic veterans' organizations
Jewish
sprang up?the
War Veterans,
Veterans
Slovak
American
of
Czecho-Slovak
Legionnaires,
42
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
of America?that
Italian War Veterans,
Lithuanian
Extraction,
Legion
in either the U.S. military or the liberation
celebrated
their participation
to make the world "safe for democracy."
In 1934,
army of their homelands
the
of
the
celebrated
Czecho-Slovakians
anniversary
signing of
Bridgeport
as
success
"its
the
the Czecho-Slovak
constitution,
only democracy
praising
This observance
is all the more mean
among neighboring
dictatorships."
political values, since in the 1920s
ingful and indicative of this community's
the Catholics
who had
Slovaks had been split between
the Bridgeport
an autonomous
who supported
Slovakia and the Protestants
the
wanted
1918 constitution.45
More problematic,
bration of the entrance
not
here
today
only
1935 cele
however, was the Italian War Veterans'
of Italy into the war twenty years earlier. "We are
an
to celebrate
. . . but
anniversary
to
celebrate
also
on the earth,"
a
of a new Italian civilization
proclaimed
The
Italian
for
Italian
notable.
Mussolini,
support
community's
Bridgeport
who arguably was the first to tap southern Italians' sense of nationalism,
was acceptable
to many American
businessmen
and politicians who were
a worrisome
of Mussolini,
but it represented
also supportive
trend for
Italian-American
leftists and unionists who set up national antifascist com
the
birth
rallies held in Italian-American
The massive
communities
when
and the ardor with which women gave up their gold
Italy invaded Ethiopia,
hinted that Italians were a
wedding
rings to IIDuce's military adventures,
in
the
States.
Italians were never a
volatile
United
community
politically
secure part of the New Deal coalition.
monarchists
in the Hun
Similarly,
as
as
some
well
Slovak
autonomists,
pro
disgruntled
garian community,
and conservative
in
vided a base for a growing anti-Semitism
politics
cut
two
could
both
Ethnic
in
the
late
identification
1930s.
ways,
Bridgeport
mittees.
liberal and right-wing.46
in the fall of 1937, the
As the electoral campaign season got underway
its
local
"Do
asked
Times-Star
readers,
People Vote by Racial
Bridgeport
both class-based
Blocs at Present?" The answer was equivocal,
evidencing
mixed with ethnic
which protested
generation,"
rationales
rather
"pro-nationality,
than
finding its place via a redefined
as legitimate
ate Americans"
American
steelworker, mused
of the Monongahela
Valley,
in the U.S.A.,
Made
or how
way
you
equality
and
poor,
you
made
thought
of men
for
and
and
in the First Ward.
felt
about
certain
the
importance
you
from the "new
that they were
second
was
generation
one that accepted "hyphen
Americanism,
citizens. As Dobie,
the fictional Slovak
in Out of This Furnace, Thomas Bell's saga
or where
the people
The
American."47
name
your
spelled
and responses
propensities
that the question
implied
liked
your
things.
of having
and
But
it wasn't
father
About
one
the people
freedom
law?the
you
you were
where
come
had
didn't
from.
of
same
It was
speech
law?for
like.48
and
born
the
the
rich
Workers
and Citizenship
43
Thus by the 1930s, foreign-stock,
had moved
Americans
working-class
to be part of a growing
from citizenship
exclusion
and unionism
en
industrial union movement
that provided an avenue for a class-based
trance into electoral politics. However,
this vision of the worker-citizen,
in a language of industrial democracy, was challenged by a more
expressed
to politics, which spoke the language of patronage
traditional
approach
and used ethnic appeals to incorporate working-class
citizens
democracy
into a web of clientilistic
ethnic leaders. While
relationships with bourgeois
some ethnic-affiliative
networks provided the backbone for the CIO efforts
in many northern cities, ethnicity was also a pathway for cross-class
alli
ances with reactionary
A
national and international
ideologies.
pluralist
vision of America mixed uneasily with an internally intolerant ethnic ideal,
of the pre-World War I integral nationalism.
reminiscent
The defeat of
era
was
in
in
the
rooted
the
mixed
postwar
working-class
politics
legacy of
this pattern of inclusion, along with the racial dynamic that still excluded
African Americans
and other people of color.
This investigation
of one industrial city's experience
with working
class politics during the Progressive
Era and early New Deal
suggests a
to the "System of 1896" thesis. First, the System
number of qualifications
of 1896 was not as stable and secure as its theorists have contended.
It was
from
repeatedly
challenged
by third parties, and the issues that these challenges
to
the
brought
public sphere reshaped working-class
political
loyalties and
in the process
the
the
mainstream
reshaped
general policies pursued by
there is little room for immigrant working-class
parties. Second,
politics
within
this framework.
Scholars have argued over the nature of the labor
of the early twentieth century and especially
consciousness
the 1930s, par
that
are
seen
of
workers
who
to
be motivated
ticularly
new-immigrant
more by the search for security than the search for power in the work
in Bridgeport
and
place.49 The political demands raised by working people
other cities during the 1930s regarding democracy,
social policy,
taxes,
and unemployment
relief demonstrated
their search for "social
budgets,
which reflected a consciousness
that combined
the goals of
citizenship,"
consciousness
security and power. This working-class
played a major role
in the shaping of social legislation
in the mid-twentieth
century. However,
the dual nature of working-class
inclusion in the American
polity, that of
or of class, limited the effectiveness
of working-class
patronage
political
eras.
power in this and subsequent
The colloquium
raised a number of issues that are seen more clearly
when
a
case?which
through the lens of the American
provides
both
and
structure
and
The
of
instructive.
perspective
experience
unique
in the United
levels of local, state, and
States, with its distinct
politics
to exercise active citizenship
national government,
at the
allowed workers
local level, arguably
level
the most
the
until
twentieth
important
early
the process of inclusion or exclusion of workers
in
century. In particular,
viewed
44
ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
the American
polity was related to the shaping of the American
working
of the state and of parties emphasized
class by immigration. The machinery
ethnicity and ethnic voting power and could be used to fashion successful
to local political
authorities.
of the
the malleability
challenges
Finally,
as
was
it
of
the
and
social
"American,"
concept
shaped
by
political activ
ities of immigrant workers,
in the United
gave the notion of citizenship
States a flexibility
that it has had in few other nations.
NOTES
1. The high partisan
turnouts
in
loyalty during the Gilded Age was marked
by electoral
the North
voters
of 80-84
of eligible
for presidential
After
elections.
the critical
percent
contest of 1896, voter turnout in 1900-1916
to 77 percent
declined
in the North,
and then to a
dismal 56 percent
for 1920-24.
Voter
in the South,
lower,
participation
always historically
a 1920-24
reached
nadir of 20 percent
after the political
and
disfranchisement
of poor
are calculated
that these percentages
African-American
citizens.
Note
voters"
for "eligible
the increasingly
of immigrant
only and so do not take into account
large adult male population
workers.
Paul Kleppner,
Who Voted? The Dynamics
1870-1980
Turnout,
of Electoral
(New
1-12, 55-82.
Dean
Critical Elections
and the Mainsprings
Politics
Burnham,
of American
(New York,
1970), 175.
3. For an overview
of the System of 1896, see E. E. Schattschneider,
The Semisovereign
View of Democracy
in America
Dean
People: A Realist's
(New York,
1960), 78-85; Walter
"The Changing
of the American
Political
American
Political
Burnham,
Universe,"
Shape
Review
Science
59 (March
of 1896: An Analysis,"
in The
idem, "The System
1965):7-28;
ed. Paul Kleppner
Evolution
Electoral
Conn.,
of American
Systems,
(Westport,
1981). Peter
H. Argersinger,
"A Place on the Ballot':
and Antifusion
Fusion
Politics
Laws," American
Review
85 (April
Historical
that antifusion
laws were
argues
1980):287-306,
consciously
crafted
in this era to disrupt opposition
revise traditional
and ensure
parties,
voting practices,
are
Other
of
the
of
traditional
covered
in
Republican
aspects
party politics
hegemony.
decay
Michael
E. McGerr,
The Decline
Politics:
The American
1865-1928
North,
of Popular
(New
York,
York,
1982),
2. Walter
1986).
4. One clear example
of the deliberate
was New York State's
intent to limit participation
new personal
to New York City and other immigrant
laws which applied
cities but
registration
not to upstate
and rural areas. Burnham,
those states,
"System of 1896," 190. In addition,
in the Midwest,
that had permitted
alien voting or so-called
alien-intent
mostly
provisions
(which allowed voting to those who had taken out first papers) had all now restricted
voting to
Who Voted?
citizens.
1-12.
Kleppner,
5. For an older account
of AFL-Democratic
American
party links, see Marc Karson,
Labor Unions
and Politics,
1900-1918
is Julia
1965; orig. 1958); a new perspective
(Boston,
"'The Strike at the Ballot Box1: The American
Federation
of Labor's Entrance
into
Greene,
32 (Spring 1991): 165-92. On the National
Electoral
Labor History
Civic
1906-1909,"
Politics,
see Marguerite
The National
Civic Federation
and the American
Labor
Federation,
Green,
1900-1925
Movement
The Fall of the House
D.C.,
(Washington,
1956); David Montgomery,
The Workplace,
the State, and American
1865-1925
Labor Activism,
of Labor:
(Cambridge,
1987), 275-81.
6. Michael
"Voluntarism:
Functions
of an Antipolitical
The Political
Doctrine,"
Rogin,
Industrial
and Labor Relations
15 ( 1962):521-35;
Review
Samuel
of
P. Hays,
"The Politics
in Municipal
Reform
in the Progressive
Government
55
Era," Pacific Northwest
Quarterly
J. Joseph Huthmaeher,
and the Age of Reform,"
"Urban Liberalism
(October
1964): 157-69;
49 (September
Urban
Review
; John D. Buenker,
Valley Historical
Mississippi
1962):231?41
Liberalism
and Progressive
"The Progressives
and
Reform
(New York,
1973); John L. Shover,
in California,"
the Working
Class Vote
Labor History
10 (Fall 1969):584-601.
7. Leon Fink, Workingmen's
The Knights
and American
Politics
Democracy:
of Labor
Jules Oestreicher,
and Fragmentation:
(Urbana,
1983); Richard
Solidarity
People
Working
and Class Consciousness
in Detroit,
1875-1900
"Labor
(Urbana,
1985); David Montgomery,
Workers
and
Citizenship
45
Le Mouvement
Social
111 (April-June
in Industrial America:
the Republic
1860-1920,"
Worker:
The Experience
in the United
States
idem, Citizen
1980):201-215;
of Workers
with Democracy
and the Free Market
the Nineteenth
Century
during
(Cambridge,
1993),
145-57.
8. Amy
A City
in the Republic:
New
Antebellum
York and the Origins
Bridges,
of
Machine
Politics
American:
The Working
Classes
in the
(Ithaca,
1984); idem, "Becoming
in Working-Class
United
the Civil War,"
Formation:
Pat
States before
Nineteenth-Century
terns in Western
and Aristide
R. Zolberg
and the United States, ed. Ira Katznelson
Europe
"The Emergence
of the Political Machine:
An Alternative
Shefter,
(Princeton,
1986); Martin
on Urban Politics,
in Theoretical
ed. Willis D. Hawley
View,"
Cliffs,
Perspectives
(Englewood
and Political Machines:
The Organization
and Disorganiza
N.J.,
1976); idem, "Trade Unions
tion of the American
in the Late Nineteenth
in Katznelson
Class
and
Working
Century,"
and
Zolberg.
9. Richard Oestreicher,
"Urban Working-class
Political Behavior
and Theories
of Amer
ican Electoral
74 (March
Journal
Politics,
1870-1940,"
History
of American
1988): 1257-86;
Ira Katznelson,
in the United States
and the Patterning
Urban Politics
City Trenches:
of Class
of the Political Machine."
(New York,
1981); Shefter,
"Emergence
10. While
each of the explanations
for the "no socialism"
has some
given
question
the answer
leads to a consensus
view of American
merit,
explanatory
inexorably
political
that cannot
address
the realities
of conflict
in American
development
adequately
history.
a new perspective
on the exceptionalism
class consciousness
has provided
argu
Redefining
ment. Two excellent
are Eric Foner,
overviews
and critiques
is
There
No
Socialism
in
"Why
the United
17 (1984):57-80;
and Sean Wilentz,
Journal
States?," History Workshop
"Against
and the American
Class Consciousness
Labor Movement,"
International
Exceptionalism:
26 (Fall 1984): 1-24, along with critiques
Labor and Working-Class
History
by Nick Salvatore
and Michael
25-36.
Hanagan,
11. Alexander
"The Free Gift of the Ballot? The American
Class and
Keyssar,
Working
to Vote,"
the Right
Annual
North American
Labor History
Con
address, Fifteenth
Plenary
October
Citizen Worker,
J. Steinfeld,
ference,
Detroit,
1993; Montgomery,
13-25; Robert
and Suffrage
in the Early American
41 (January
"Property
Republic,"
Stanford Law Review
1989):335-76.
12. Richard
L. McCormick,
"Public Life in Industrial America,
in The New
1877-1917,"
American
ed. Eric Foner
History,
1990).
(Philadelphia,
13. Terrence
J. McDonald,
"The Burdens
of Urban History:
The Theory
of the State in
Recent
American
Social History"
and Ira Katznelson,
in American
Studies
"Comment,"
Political Development
3 (1989):3-55;
Jon C. Teaford,
"Finis for Tweed
and Steffens: Rewrit
of Urban Rule,"
in American
Reviews
10 (December
ing the History
History
1982): 133-49;
Terrence
J. McDonald
and Sally K. Ward,
eds., The Politics of Urban Fiscal Policy
(Beverly
and Charles
N. Halaby,
"Machine
in America,
Politics
Calif.,
Hills,
1984); M. Craig Brown
Journal
17
1870-1945,"
of Interdisciplinary
History
(Winter
1987):587-612.
14. David
the Politics Factory: Labor Radicalism
and the New York
Scobey,
"Boycotting
Election
of 1884," Radical History
Review
28-30
Bruce M.
City Mayoral
(1984):280-326;
and the Cities (Port Washington,
Stave, ed., Socialism
N.Y.,
1975); Richard W. Judd, "Social
ist Cities: Explorations
into the Grass Roots
of American
Socialism"
(Ph.D. diss.,University
of California,
C. Pratt, "The Reading
A Study of
Socialist Experience:
Irvine, 1979); William
Class Politics"
and
diss., Emory University,
Nash,
Working
(Ph.D.
1969); Michael
Conflict
Accommodation:
Coal Miners,
Steel Workers,
and Socialism,
1890-1920
Conn.,
(Westport,
1982).
15. James R. Barrett,
from the Bottom
"Americanization
and the
Up:
Immigration
of the Working
in the United
Class
Journal
States,
1880-1930,"
Remaking
of American
79 (December
David Montgomery,
in America:
Workers'
Control
History
1993):996-1020;
in the History
Studies
and Labor Struggles
of Work,
Technology,
1979), 32-47,
(Cambridge,
A. T. Lane,
"American
Mass
and the Literacy
Test:
1900
91-112;
Unions,
Immigration,
25 (Winter 1984):5-25;
Robert Asher,
"Union Nativism
and the Immi
1917," Labor History
Labor History
23 (Summer
The classic study of nativism
and
grant Response,"
1982):325-48.
restriction
is John Higham,
in the Land: Patterns
Nativ
immigration
Strangers
of American
ism, 1860-1925
(New York,
1965).
16. Subsequent
in more detail
in Cecelia
F. Bucki,
of
"The Pursuit
points are covered
Power: Class, Ethnicity,
and Municipal
Political
Politics
in Interwar Bridgeport,
1915-1936"
of Pittsburgh,
of
diss., University
(Ph.D.
1991), chap. 3. Similar points about the historicizing
46 ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
et al., "The Invention
of Ethnicity:
A
Neils Conzen,
ethnie
identity are raised in Kathleen
12 (Fall 1992):3?41.
from the U.S.A.,"
Ethnic History
Journal
of American
Perspective
formation
is vast. For example,
17. The literature on immigrant patterns
and community
in Urban America
see John Bodnar,
A History
The Transplanted:
(Bloom
of Immigrants
P. Weber,
Lives of Their Own:
and Michael
Simon,
Roger
ington, Ind., 1985); John Bodnar,
in Pittsburgh
and Poles
ed., Ethnic Leader
Blacks,
Italians,
1982); John Higham,
(Urbana,
A History
of Italian &
1978); Judith Smith, Family Connections:
(Baltimore,
ship in America
Rhode
Island 1900-1940
Lives
in Providence,
Jewish
(Albany, N.Y.,
1985); Josef
Immigrant
and Slovaks
in an American
and Strangers:
F. Barton,
Peasants
Italians, Rumanians,
City,
in Urban America:
1890-1950
ed., Self-Help
Mass.,
1975); Scott Cummings,
(Cambridge,
Business
Patterns
N.Y,
(Port Washington,
1980), esp. the essays by
Enterprise
of Minority
and Stipanovich.
Renkiewicz,
Stolarik,
in a Complex
Ameri
of Group Relations
18. Eric R. Wolf,
Society: Mexico,"
"Aspects
on 1076.
can Anthropologist
58 (December
1956): 1065-78,
quotation
"The Historical
of Political
19. See Sharon
Clientelism,"
Development
Kettering,
on patron-broker
18 (Winter
Journal of Interdisciplinary
esp. 425-26
1988):419-47,
History
in the East Euro
"The
Internal
Ewa Morawska,
client
Status Hierarchy
relationships;
Communities
of Johnstown,
Journal
1890-1930's,"
Pa.,
pean
of Social History
Immigrant
Peasants
"Pursuit of Political
16 (Fall 1982):75-107;
and Strangers;
Barton,
Bucki,
Power,"
chap. 3.
20. Emily Greene
Balch, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens
(New York,
1910), 419. Ironically,
and AFL
that politicians
this idea was remarkably
close to the argument
leaders were using to
who were not capable of commanding
and appre
of undesirable
limit immigration
ethnicities
an American
of becoming
of living and thus not capable
citizens.
standard
good
ciating
Workers
and
ed., In the Shadow
Debouzy,
of the Statue of Liberty:
Immigrants,
1880-1920
in the American
(Paris, 1988), 194-99.
Republic,
on the Origin and Spread of
Benedict
Anderson,
Reflections
Imagined Communities:
on ethnicity
E.
and assimilation
is Robert
Nationalism
(London,
1983). The classic statement
Also
A. Miller,
Park and Herbert
Old World Traits Transplanted
(New York,
1921), 259-308.
see Victor Greene,
Leaders
1880-1910:
American
and Identity
(Bal
Immigrant
Marginality
in Ethnic Leadership
in
"Eastern and Southern Europeans,"
timore,
1977), 2-3; Josef Barton,
ed. John Higham
America,
1978).
(Baltimore,
137-38.
22. Quoted
in Park and Miller,
Similar profiles
Old World Traits Transplanted,
the exception
of Italians
for most
other "new-immigrant"
could be assembled
groups, with
local or regional
societies.
"Pursuit
of
into small
and fractured
who were
secular
Bucki,
in Immigrant
Pastor:
S. Buczek,
The Life of the Right
175-94.
Daniel
Political
Power,"
Connecticut
Reverend
Britain,
Conn.,
Lucy an B?jnowski
(Waterbury,
of New
Monsignor
a fascinating
account of one Polish priest's battles with community
evils of all
1974), provides
causes.
Given
the prescriptive
and their trade-union
sorts,
socialists,
atheists,
including
seem that socialist
and atheist appeals
had more
it would
went,
lengths to which B?jnowski
Marianne
Citizens
21.
in Polonia
than has been assumed.
inA Centu
"Return Migration:
Theoretical
and Research
Ewa Morawska,
Agenda,"
J. Vecoli
and Suzanne M. Sinke
ed. Rudolph
1830-1930,
ry of European
(Ur
Migrations,
bana,
1991).
to 1970 (Washington,
Times
24. Historical
Statistics of the United States, Colonial
D.C.,
strength
23.
1975), vol. 1, 116.
near New York City. Of its population
is located on Long Island Sound,
25. Bridgeport
another 30-40 percent were
their
in this era, one-third were foreign-born,
of 100,000-150,000
around 2 percent.
and the African-American
hovered
American-born
children,
population
Workers
in Bridgeport,
Connecti
F. Bucki,
"Dilution
and Craft Tradition: Munitions
Cecelia
ed. Herbert
Class and the New Labor History,
in The New England Working
cut 1915-1919,"
M. Bell
and Donald
G. Gutman
(Urbana,
1987).
see Robert
J. Embardo,
'"Summer
184-85. Also
"Pursuit of Political Power,"
26. Bucki,
30 (Fall 1989):518-35,
Labor History
in Bridgeport,"
1907: The Wobblies
though
Lightning,'
of the strike, far from being a repudiation
The outcome
differs significantly.
my interpretation
a strong radical presence
in the Hun
of radicals as Embardo
contends,
actually established
Labor
of the Socialist
active histories
The subsequent
party, the Socialist
garian community.
can be traced back
party in this community
party, the IWW, and even the postwar Communist
to effects of this strike.
December
interview by V. Frazzetta,
27. Richards
1938, Box 114, RG 33, Works Project
Workers
and Citizenship
47
Connecticut
Connecticut
State Archives,
Federal Writers
State Li
Administration
Project,
brary, Hartford.
in Park and Miller,
from Bolletino
Traits
28. 1907 quotation
d?lia Sera,
Old World
240.
Transplanted,
The Creation
1928-1936
29. Kristi Andersen,
of a Democratic
Majority
(Chicago,
1979),
40-41,
88; John P. Gavit, Americans
by Choice
(New York,
1922), 236-38.
30. Gavit, Americans
255-95.
The Falcons
by Choice,
(Sokol) was a gymnastic
society,
set up a formal military
In 1911, the Falcons
in "nationalistic
culture."
engaged
physical
to train its members
for eventual
in the liberation
of Poland.
school
participation
Joseph A.
in the Organization
"The Role of Pittsburgh's
Polish Falcons
of the Polish Army
Borkowski,
in France," Western Pennsylvania
54 (October
E.
Historical
Donald
Magazine,
1971):359-74;
One Hundred
Years Young: A History
1887-1987
Pienkos,
of the Polish Falcons
of America,
Co.,
(Boulder,
1987), 91-104.
31. Bridgeport
October
Herald,
22, 1916.
32. Bucki,
"Pursuit of Political
and Craft Tradition";
Power,"
idem, "Dilution
194-208;
on Wilson's
Peace Policies
ed., The Immigrants'
Joseph P. O'Grady,
Influence
(Lexington,
America
Creel, How We Advertised
200-207;
Ky., 1967); George
(New York,
1920), 166-83;
American
and Class Consciousness
David Montgomery,
"Nationalism,
Patriotism,
Among
in the United
in the Epoch
of World War I," in "Struggle a Hard
States
Immigrant Workers
on Working-class
ed. Dirk Hoerder
Battle": Essays
111., 1986); idem,
Immigrants,
(DeKalb,
370-464.
of the House
of Labor,
is from Barton,
see Wil
33. The phrase
"Eastern
and Southern
157. Also
Europeans,"
liam Wolkovich,
for an example
Mass.,
Bay State "Blue" Laws and Bimba
(Brockton,
n.d.),
of how Lithuanian
Bimba
communist
leader Anthony
two rival
became
between
caught
Lithuanian
in a dispute with anti-Soviet
fraternal
and secular versus clerical
organizations
overtones.
on the PNA
34. Report
from L. Krzycki,
"A Letter Not
convention
for Publication,"
Fall
for the Amalgam
Advance,
30, 1927, 5. Krzycki was the ranking Polish organizer
September
ated Clothing Workers
of America
and prominent
in the Socialist
For the
party of America.
see Pienkos,
debates
in the PNA,
Years Young,
One Hundred
119-50;
Joseph A. Wytrwal,
America's
Polish Heritage:
A Social History
in America
of the Poles
(Detroit,
1961), 227-35.
John J. Bukowczyk,
in "The Transformation
of Working-Class
Control,
Ethnicity:
Corporate
and the Polish Immigrant Middle-Class
in Bayonne,
Labor
Americanization,
NJ, 1915-1925,"
25 (Winter
that the search for customers
and accommodation
History
suggests
1984):53-82,
to corporate
to create
anti-unionism
this conservative
in Polonia
milieu
merged
during and
after World War I. He contends
that rivalries between
Polish and Jewish grocers
immediately
in their search for Polish customers
the war contributed
to anti-Semitic
in the
during
activity
a parallel with later Hungarian
Polish community.
This suggests
and Slovak anti-Semitism
in
and elsewhere
in the mid-1930s.
"Pursuit of Political
Bucki,
Power,"
Bridgeport
210-43;
"Eastern
and Southern
also see Ewa Morawska,
For Bread with Butter:
Barton,
Europeans";
The Life-Worlds
in Johnstown,
1890-1940
of East Central Europeans
Pennsylvania,
(Cam
a New Deal:
In contrast,
Lizabeth
Industrial Workers
Cohen, Making
bridge,
1985), 171-79.
in Chicago
1919-1939
in the
communities
1990), paints a portrait of immigrant
(Cambridge,
1920s that is politically
monolithic.
35. Bucki,
"Pursuit of Political
267-84.
Power,"
36. Alan
J. Lichtman,
and the Old Politics:
The Presidential
Election
Prejudice
of 1928
The Future of American
Politics
1979); Samuel Lubell,
(Chapel Hill,
(New York,
1952).
37. The phrase
is from a pamphlet
of Milwaukee.
Daniel
Hoan,
by the socialist mayor
Taxes and Tax Dodgers
12.
(Chicago,
1933), 3-4,
of Political
38. Bucki,
"Pursuit
the Public Good:
Power,"
idem, "Defining
285-421;
in the Early Depression"
Finance
Class, Taxes, and Municipal
paper,
(unpublished
1994). I do
not wish to imply that the Bridgeport
Socialist
party was a "radical" party (by contemporary
as a party based
standards
it was not). Rather,
in old-immigrant,
com
skilled-worker
AFL,
an alternative
from new-immigrant
munities
it reflected
to
(but with support
communities),
traditional
patronage
politics. The flurry of activity on behalf of a labor party in the 1930s has
much
from labor historians,
whose
attention
studies have usually
ended
in disap
occupied
at the decision
to endorse FDR
of the CIO Labor's Nonpartisan
in his 1936
pointment
League
see Eric Leif Davin
bid. For one example,
reelection
and Staughton
"Picketline
and
Lynd,
Ballot Box: The Forgotten
Radical
1932-1936,"
Legacy of the Local Labor Party Movement,
22 (Winter
Review
For the grassroots
connection
between
CIO
History
1979-80):43-63.
48 ILWCH, 48, Fall 1995
see George
and Democratic
Cradle of Steel Unionism:
Powers,
organizing
party organizing,
"The Littlest New
Ind., 1972); and Eric Leif Davin,
Monongahela
Valley, Pa. (East Chicago,
SWOC Takes
in Steeltown,
A Possibility
Deal:
Power
of Radicalism
in the Late
1930s"
paper,
(unpublished
1989).
39. Mary Heaton
Vorse, Labor's New Millions
292; also see
(New York,
1938), quotation
275-84
for the CIO's political
agenda.
New Deal
40. Much
has noted
the persistence
literature
of the "machine."
Lyle W.
D. Roosevelt
Franklin
and the City Bosses
Dorsett,
N.Y,
(Port Washington,
1977); John M.
Machines
and Urban Politics
Bosses,
N.Y,
Allswang,
(Port Washington,
1977); Bruce M.
Politics
Stave, The New Deal and the Last Hurrah:
Pittsburgh Machine
1970). For
(Pittsburgh,
of manipulation
of New Deal
see Charles H.
relief funds for political
examples
advantage,
the Great Depression,
and the New Deal
Trout, Boston,
(New York,
1977), chaps. 7-8; and
"Pursuit of Political
Bucki,
Power,"
chap. 6.
41. Bridgeport
October
went on: "There
is a
23, 1932. The parallels
Sunday Herald,
between Americans
and Poles. Neither
union has fought for aggression
great deal in common
and both nations have not only fought for their own liberty but also for the liberty of others."
Ibid., October
16, 1932.
42. Bridgeport
October
Post, August
21, 1932; Sunday Herald,
30, November
6, 1932.
43. Vincent
Frazzetta MSS, Bridgeport,
December
1939, Box 25, File 109:19; Interview
with CIO
WPA
Federal
leader, New Britain,
n.d., Box 49, File 153:7, both in Connecticut
Writers
Ethnic Groups
and Archives,
of
Project
Survey, Historical
Manuscripts
University
Connecticut
Storrs.
Libraries,
44. Bucki,
"Pursuit
of Political
look at the contested
Power,"
chap. 6. For a further
of "Americanism"
discourse
in this era, see Gary Gerstle,
Americanism:
The
Working-class
Politics
in a Textile City, 1914-1960
of Labor
(Cambridge,
1989).
45. Bridgeport
"Pursuit of Political
228.
Post, October
29, 1934; Bucki,
Power,"
on right-wing
46. For another
influences
of ethnic
and antitolerant
attitudes,
example
see Ronald H. Bayor, Neighbors
in Conflict:
The Irish, Germans,
Jews, and Italians of New
York City, 1929-1941
The Italian Vote in Philadelphia
(Baltimore,
1978); and Hugo V. Maiale,
Between
1928 and 1946 (Philadelphia,
1950).
47. Bridgeport
October
29, 1937.
Times-Star,
48. Thomas
Bell, Out of This Furnace
1976; orig.
(Pittsburgh,
1941), 411.
49. John Bodnar,
and the Rise
of Working-class
Realism
in
"Immigration,
Kinship,
Industrial America,"
Journal of Social History
14 (Fall 1980):45-59,
argues that the search for
rather than the search for power, was the goal of ethnic workers
in the 1930s. Steve
security,
"The 'Labor Question,'"
in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order,
ed.
Fraser,
1930-1980,
Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle
offers a similar argument.
(Princeton,
1989), 55-84,