Reform or Repression
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Historians have characterized the open-shop movement of the early twentieth century as a cynical attempt by business to undercut the labor movement by twisting the American ideals of independence and self-sufficiency to their own ends. The precursors to today's right-to-work movement, advocates of the open shop in the Progressive Era argued that honest workers should have the right to choose whether or not to join a union free from all pressure. At the same time, business owners systematically prevented unionization in their workplaces. While most scholars portray union opponents as knee-jerk conservatives, Chad Pearson demonstrates that many open-shop proponents identified themselves as progressive reformers and benevolent guardians of America's economic and political institutions. By exploring the ways in which employers and their allies in journalism, law, politics, and religion drew attention to the reformist, rather than repressive, character of the open-shop movement, Pearson's book forces us to consider the origins, character, and limitations of this movement in new ways. Throughout his study, Pearson describes class tensions, noting that open-shop campaigns primarily benefited management and the nation's most economically privileged members at the expense of ordinary people. Pearson's analysis of archives, trade journals, newspapers, speeches, and other primary sources elucidates the mentalities of his subjects and their times, rediscovering forgotten leaders and offering fresh perspectives on well-known figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, Booker T. Washington and George Creel. Reform or Repression sheds light on businessmen who viewed strong urban-based employers' and citizens' associations, weak unions, and managerial benevolence as the key to their own, as well as the nation's, progress and prosperity.
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Reform or Repression
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Of course, not all open-shop advocates resided in the North, and this study devotes much attention to Thompson and the South. Thompson—the Middle Tennessee-born former Klansman, diehard temperance activist, editor of the boosterish and widely circulated Tradesman, and CIAA leader—was the region’s most effective and recognizable open-shop developer and spokesperson. He played a critical role in luring steel mills, textile factories, and railroads to several southern cities, including Birmingham, Huntsville, and Chattanooga, insisting that these communities—headed by forward-looking paternalistic managers who oversaw racially divided workforces—were largely free of labor troubles, which contrasted with much of the North. Thompson, who had earned a considerable amount of attention nationally for delivering an electrifying anti-union speech before the U.S. Industrial Commission in 1900, offered a simple solution to northern industrialists: flight rather than fight. As the president of the Thompson Land and Investment Company, an industrial real estate concern, Thompson and his regional allies were actually, this chapter demonstrates, beneficiaries of the mostly northern-based labor problem. Exploring Thompson’s life helps us to better recognize the connections between southern economic development and the northern labor problem.
The process of confronting the labor problem was often difficult and complex. And indeed, this work underlines the ways in which a diverse set of employers and their partners in the areas of law, journalism, higher education, and politics approached a challenging set of questions, including how best to respond to labor unrest, how to effectively build organizations, how to secure state support, and how to establish public legitimacy. Of course, employers and their allies did not always meet their goals, but they won far more battles than they lost. It is my hope this study provides a deeper understanding of their ideas and struggles, as well as a better appreciation for the enduring power, elasticity, and significance of the open-shop principle.
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