Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. L-Z

524 Pages·2004·16.428 MB·English

by  Robert S. McElvaine

egd_fm 10/21/03 9:50 AM Page lxi
G
E N C Y C LO P E D I A O F T H E
REAT
D
EPRESSION
egd_fm 10/21/03 9:50 AM Page ii
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Robert S.McElvaine
Millsaps College
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Tony Badger
Sidney Sussex College,Cambridge University
Roger Biles
East Carolina University
Patricia Sullivan
University of South Carolina
W.E.B.Du Bois Institute,Harvard University
Joe W.Trotter
Carnegie Mellon University
egd_fm 10/21/03 9:50 AM Page lxiii
G
E N C Y C LO P E D I A O F T H E
REAT
D
EPRESSION
VOLUME 2: L-Z, INDEX
ROBERT S. McELVAINE
EDITOR IN CHIEF
egd_fm 10/21/03 9:50 AM Page iv
Encyclopedia of The Great Depression
Robert S. McElvaine, Editor in Chief
©2004 by Macmillan Reference USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Cover photographs reproduced by permission
Macmillan Reference USA is an imprint of No part of this work covered by the copyright of Bettmann/Corbis (Hoover Dam), the FDR
The Gale Group, Inc., a division of hereon may be reproduced or used in any Library (Dust Bowl; Franklin Roosevelt; man
Thomson Learning, Inc. form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or in front of storefront; Okies), The Library of
mechanical, including photocopying, record- Congress (Works Progress Administration
Macmillan Reference USA™and ing, taping, Web distribution, or information poster), and Warner Bros./Archive Photos
Thomson Learning™are trademarks used storage retrieval systems—without the writ- (James Cagney in Public Enemy).
herein under license. ten permission of the publisher.
Since this page cannot legibly accommodate
For more information, contact For permission to use material from this all copyright notices, the acknowledgments
Macmillan Reference USA product, submit your request via Web at constitute an extension of the copyright
300 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor http://www.gale-edit.com/permissions, or you notice.
New York, NY 10010 may download our Permissions Request form
Or you can visit our Internet site at and submit your request by fax or mail to:
http://www.gale.com
Permissions Department
The Gale Group, Inc.
27500 Drake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535
Permissions Hotline:
248-699-8006 or 800-877-4253 ext. 8006
Fax: [phone] or 800-762-4058
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Encyclopedia of the Great Depression / Robert McElvaine, editor in chief.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-02-865686-5 (set : hardcover)—ISBN 0-02-865687-3 (v. 1)—
ISBN 0-02-865688-1 (v. 2)
1. United States—History—1933–1945—Encyclopedias. 2. United
States—History—1919–1933—Encyclopedias. 3. United States—
Economic Conditions—1918–1945—Encyclopedias. 4. Depressions—
1929—United States—Encyclopedias. 5. New Deal, 1933–1939—
Encyclopedias. I. McElvaine, Robert S., 1947–
E806.E63 2004
973.91’6’03—dc21
2003010292
This title is also available as an e-book.
ISBN 0-02-865908-2
Contact your Gale sales representative for ordering information.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
L
LABOR’S NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE Not surprisingly, such major labor unions as
the AFL and the Committee (later Congress) of
Industrial Organizations (CIO) and most of their
constituent members considered Roosevelt’s re-
With the approach of the presidential election of
election critically important to the labor move-
1936, labor unions in the United States offered
ment. Roosevelt was only too eager to get their
President Franklin D. Roosevelt their undivided
support. In April 1936, John L. Lewis, head of
support. Never before in American history had a
president been so sympathetic to their needs and so the United Mine Workers as well as the CIO,
willing to convert that sympathy into protective founded Labor’s Non-Partisan League. Sidney
legislation. The National Industrial Recovery Act of Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers
1933 had provided the country’s first minimum union and George L. Berry of the Printing Press-
wage law, had guaranteed the right of unions to man joined Lewis in the effort. Labor’s Non-
bargain collectively, and had outlawed “yellow- Partisan League, Lewis bluntly said over and over
dog” contracts, which required employees to again, existed for one reason: to secure reelection of
pledge that they would not join a union. The Na- the president. To make sure that the League did not
tional Labor Relations Act of 1935 went even fur- appear to be a front organization for the Democrat-
ther, establishing the National Labor Relations ic Party, the term Non-Partisan was used, but few
Board as an independent federal agency with the were fooled. Labor’s Non-Partisan League raised
power to investigate disputes between labor and more than $1 million for the president’s reelection
management, and enforce legal and judicial regula- campaign. On election day, the League provided
tions regarding labor union rights. The 1935 act also funds to get Democratic voters to the polls. Finally,
guaranteed majority rule and exclusive representa- the League established the American Labor Party
tion, outlined unfair practices, and required man- in New York. Many socialists and other left-wing
agement to bargain with the labor unions of their voters wanted Roosevelt reelected, but they were
employees’ choice. William Green, head of the ideologically opposed to supporting the Democratic
American Federation of Labor (AFL), found the Party. When the American Labor Party nominated
National Labor Relations Act of 1935 so extraordi- Roosevelt as its presidential candidate, left-wingers
nary that he labeled it the “Magna Carta of the could cast a vote for Roosevelt without smudging
labor movement in the United States.” their virtue.
545
L A F O L L E T T E , P H I L I P
The effectiveness of Labor’s Non-Partisan era. In appearance, demeanor, and ambition, he re-
League will never be accurately measured. Public sembled his father, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., a for-
support for President Roosevelt and the New Deal mer Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator. Phil La
was already overwhelming. The last thing a sub- Follette was educated in Madison and Washington,
stantial majority of Americans wanted in 1936 was D.C., schools and at the University of Wisconsin,
to have a Republican back in the White House dis- where he also obtained a law degree. After engag-
mantling the New Deal. When the votes were tabu- ing in private practice, serving for two years as dis-
lated, the president won with 27,252,869 popular trict attorney of Wisconsin’s Dane County, and
votes to Landon’s 16,674,665; at 523 to 8, the vote doing some teaching at the University of Wisconsin
in the Electoral College was even more lopsided. law school, La Follette was elected governor on the
William Lemke of the Union Party received 882,479 Republican ticket in 1930. Although he persuaded
popular votes and no electoral votes. Labor’s Non- the legislature to pass the nation’s first unemploy-
Partisan League claimed that their assistance gave ment compensation law and several other signifi-
the president his margin of victory in Ohio, Illinois, cant measures, he, like many other incumbents that
and Indiana. The 1936 election, however, was the year, lost in his bid for reelection during the desper-
high water mark for the League. Leaders quickly
ate economic circumstances of 1932. After spurning
fell into ideological squabbling, rendering the
offers of a high-level job in Franklin Roosevelt’s
League useless in terms of marshaling political sup-
Democratic administration, he allied himself politi-
port.
cally with the president during the early New Deal
John L. Lewis’s decision in 1940 to oppose years. La Follette played the leading role in launch-
Roosevelt’s reelection, and his endorsement of Re- ing the new Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934
publican nominee Wendell Willkie, spelled the de- and recaptured the governorship that fall, while his
mise of Labor’s Non-Partisan League. In 1944, the brother Bob went back to the U.S. Senate on the
CIO formed its own Political Action Committee, same ticket.
spelling the end of the league. Although Labor’s
La Follette’s focus during his second term as
Non-Partisan League had a short life span, its lega-
governor was on a massive public-works program.
cy—a constituency forming a political action com-
His cooperative relationship with Roosevelt en-
mittee to promote its interests—became standard
in American politics. abled the state to administer federal relief monies
outside the normal bureaucratic channels of the
See Also: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL); Works Progress Administration. During his third
CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS term, with Progressives commanding a tenuous
(CIO); ELECTION OF 1936; ORGANIZED LABOR. majority in the legislature and amid great acrimony,
La Follette rammed through measures for govern-
mental reorganization, a labor relations act, an agri-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
cultural authority, and a public power plan that col-
Bernstein, Irving. Turbulent Years: A History of the Ameri-
lectively constituted a “Little New Deal” for the
can Worker, 1933–1941. 1970.
state. Meanwhile, political ambition led him to dis-
JAMES S. OLSON tance himself from the president and launch the
National Progressives of America in April 1938. The
new party went nowhere and La Follette lost in his
run for a fourth term that fall. After service on Gen-
LA FOLLETTE, PHILIP eral Douglas MacArthur’s staff during World War
II, La Follette practiced law, dabbled in business
Philip Fox (“Phil”) La Follette (May 8, 1897–August and politics, and wrote his memoirs.
18, 1965), three-term governor of Wisconsin
(1931–1933, 1935–1939), was one of the most cre- See Also: ELECTION OF 1930; LA FOLLETTE, ROBERT
ative and controversial politicians of the Depression M., JR.; WISCONSIN PROGRESSIVE PARTY.
546 E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F T H E G R E A T D E P R E S S I O N
L A F O L L E T T E C I V I L L I B E R T I E S C O M M I T T E E
BIBLIOGRAPHY ing relief, public works, and tax legislation. In 1934,
La Follette, Philip F. Papers. State Historical Society of he somewhat reluctantly went along with the for-
Wisconsin, Madison.
mation of a new state Progressive party, deserting
La Follette, Philip F. Adventure in Politics: The Memoirs of the Republicans, and winning reelection to the
Philip La Follette, edited by Donald Young. 1970.
Senate that fall. Between 1936 and 1940, as chair-
McCoy, Donald R. Angry Voices: Left-of-Center Politics in man of the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, he
the New Deal Era. 1958.
investigated activities of businesses and other
Miller, John E. Governor Philip F. La Follette, the Wisconsin
groups that were inhibiting labor’s right to orga-
Progressives, and the New Deal. 1982.
nize, earning considerable publicity for his efforts.
JOHN E. MILLER A staunch isolationist before the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor in December 1941, La Follette backed
the war effort once the country entered World War
II, becoming an early critic of the country’s wartime
ally the Soviet Union. Out of politics after 1947, La
LA FOLLETTE, ROBERT M., JR.
Follette died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in
1953.
Robert Marion (“Young Bob”) La Follette, Jr., (Feb-
ruary 6, 1895–February 24, 1953) was a prominent
See Also: LA FOLLETTE, PHILIP; LA FOLLETTE CIVIL
United States senator from Wisconsin. He replaced
LIBERTIES COMMITTEE; MEMORIAL DAY
his illustrious father upon the latter’s death in 1925
MASSACRE; WISCONSIN PROGRESSIVE PARTY.
and was succeeded by another famous political fig-
ure, Joseph R. McCarthy, in 1947. During twenty-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
two years in Congress, La Follette became known
Auerbach, Jerold S. Labor and Liberty: The La Follette Com-
as a hardworking legislative craftsman who was de-
mittee and the New Deal. 1966.
voted to Senate tradition, gaining respect from col-
Johnson, Roger T. Robert M. La Follette, Jr., and the Decline
leagues and journalists. He and his younger broth-
of the Progressive Party in Wisconsin. 1964.
er, Wisconsin Governor Philip La Follette, carried
La Follette Family Papers. Manuscript Division. Library
on the La Follette progressive tradition in Wiscon- of Congress, Washington, D.C.
sin and dominated state politics during the 1930s.
Maney, Patrick J. “Young Bob” La Follette: A Biography of
Robert M. La Follette, Jr., 1895–1953, 2nd rev. edition.
La Follette attended the University of Wiscon-
2002.
sin for two years, but health problems prevented
him from graduating. He served as his father’s chief JOHN E. MILLER
aide in the Senate from 1919 until 1925, when, at
the age of thirty, he became the youngest Senator
since Henry Clay. Inheriting his father’s progressive
instincts, he emerged during the late 1920s as a LA FOLLETTE CIVIL LIBERTIES
major critic of conservative Republican policies and COMMITTEE
one of a group of liberal-minded Midwestern politi-
cians referred to as the “sons of the wild jackass.”
The La Follette Civil Liberties Committee
During the Great Depression La Follette became a
(1936–1940) was a subcommittee of the Senate
leading advocate of federal spending for public
Committee on Education and Labor set up to inves-
works and relief for the unemployed and a spokes-
tigate the heavy-handed methods employers used
man for national economic planning.
to prevent labor unions from organizing and bar-
Though he often cooperated with the Roosevelt gaining collectively. Chaired by Senator Robert M.
administration during the early New Deal, La Fol- La Follette, Jr., it was the most extensive congres-
lette frequently criticized the president for moving sional inquiry ever conducted into civil liberties vio-
too timidly in addressing the nation’s social and lations. In the process, it helped galvanize liberals
economic problems. He played a major role in pass- and supporters of organized labor and drew atten-
E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F T H E G R E A T D E P R E S S I O N 547
L A G U A R D I A , F I O R E L L O H .
tion to the work of the new National Labor Rela- ond round of hearings, attention focused on the
tions Board. Little Steel Strike of 1937, union-busting tactics
used by employers’ associations, and the violence-
For years, the American Civil Liberties Union,
ridden farm-labor situation in California. These in-
the American Federation of Labor, various religious
vestigations proved less dramatic and more com-
organizations, and other groups had urged govern-
plex than the earlier ones, and press coverage
ment probes of civil liberties violations and oppres-
dwindled. Though failing to generate new legisla-
sive labor practices. Senator La Follette, a Progres-
tion, the committee in the end issued seventy-five
sive from Wisconsin and one of organized labor’s
volumes of transcripts and documents and more
staunchest defenders, introduced the Senate reso-
than twenty reports, and its work led to a lessening
lution that created the investigatory committee in
of strong-arm practices by businesses during labor
the spring of 1936. Along with La Follette, who be-
disputes and helped undergird a growing govern-
came its chairman, the committee consisted of two
mental commitment to the cause of civil liberties.
Democrats—Elbert D. Thomas of Utah and David
I. Walsh of Massachusetts (who did not join until
See Also: CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES; LA
1939, three years after the original appointee died
FOLLETTE, ROBERT M., JR.
in a car accident).
Although La Follette and Thomas were the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
most visible representatives of the committee,
Auerbach, Jerold S. Labor and Liberty: The La Follette Com-
much of the work of amassing evidence, identifying mittee and the New Deal. 1966.
witnesses, and preparing questions was done by
Maney, Patrick J. “Young Bob” La Follette: A Biography of
committee staff. In general, staff employees were Robert M. La Follette, Jr., 1895–1953. 1978.
liberal and pro-labor in orientation and tended to
JOHN E. MILLER
blame business for tensions that existed between
labor and management. The Wagner Act (National
Labor Relations Act) had been passed the year be-
fore, and part of the work of the committee was to
LA GUARDIA, FIORELLO H.
ensure that it succeeded. The first phase of the
committee’s work during the fall of 1936 and the
following spring concentrated on four anti-union Fiorello Henry La Guardia (December 11,
weapons: the employment of strikebreakers, the 1882–September 20, 1947) was born in New York
use of private police forces, the hiring of private de- City to immigrants Achille (Italian) and Irene Coen
tectives and labor spies, and the stockpiling of mu- (Jewish) La Guardia. He grew up in Arizona, where
nitions, such as tear gas, nauseating agents, billy his father was a bandmaster in the U. S. Army. Dur-
clubs, and even machine guns. ing the Spanish-American War, Achille became se-
riously ill, probably from eating tainted beef. His
By May 1937, with the labor situation improv-
health broken, Achille was discharged and returned
ing, the Committee for Industrial Organization
with his family to Europe.
(later called the Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions) growing in strength, and the Supreme Court
having validated the Wagner Act, it appeared that EARLY CAREER
the La Follette Committee might soon complete its There, Fiorello obtained a position with the
task. Then a clash between police and company de- U.S. Consular Service, becoming fluent in five lan-
tectives on one side and striking workers on the guages, which he used in political campaigns in
other on Memorial Day at the Republic Steel Com- polyglot New York. In 1906, La Guardia quit his job
pany’s South Chicago plant, which left ten strikers and returned to the city of his birth. Employed as
dead and more than one hundred wounded, led to an interpreter at Ellis Island immigration station by
demands for further probes, extending the life of day, La Guardia studied law at night at New York
the committee for three more years. During a sec- University, gaining admission to the bar in 1910.
548 E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F T H E G R E A T D E P R E S S I O N
L A G U A R D I A , F I O R E L L O H .
The short (5’ 2”), rotund attorney represented pri-
marily poor immigrants and embattled labor
unions. He joined the Republican Party because he
could not stomach the graft-ridden Tammany
Democratic machine and because an Italian-
American’s chance of political advancement in the
Irish-dominated organization was miniscule.
In 1914, La Guardia, running as a Republican
for a U.S. House seat from a lower Manhattan dis-
trict, almost beat his Tammany opponent. Two
years later he won. He remained in Congress until
1919, with a brief absence during World War I for
army service. That year, he was elected president of
New York’s board of aldermen and married Thea
Almerigotti. He lost this municipal office in 1921.
Tragically, that same year, Thea and their infant
daughter died of tuberculosis. The grief-stricken La
Guardia blamed New York’s airless tenements for
their deaths.
Winning reelection to congress as a progressive
Republican from a mostly working-class Italian and
Jewish district in East Harlem, La Guardia joined a
Fiorello La Guardia with his wife, Marie, and Eleanor
small bloc of urban liberals and midwestern and
western progressives in bucking the policies of the Roosevelt (center) in New York City in May 1934. FRANKLIN
business-dominated Republican administrations of
DELANO ROOSEVELT LIBRARY
the 1920s. He denounced prohibition, Secretary of
the Treasury Andrew Mellon’s tax-cuts for the
wealthy, and electric power monopolies. A New THE DEPRESSION YEARS
Dealer before there was a New Deal, he advocated Despite his progressive record, La Guardia lost
federal development of public power, child labor his House seat to Tammany’s James Lanzetta in the
laws, old-age pensions, and unemployment insur- 1932 Democratic landslide. He decided to run again
ance. Once the Depression started, he demanded for mayor in 1933. When La Guardia had charged,
government insurance of savings bank deposits, in 1929, that the Walker administration was riddled
regulation of the stock market, and federal relief for with corruption, New Yorkers, still basking in the
the destitute. La Guardia’s most important legisla- afterglow of prosperity, didn’t care. By 1933, things
tive achievement was the Norris-La Guardia Act, were different. The city, with a million jobless, was
which curtailed the use of yellow-dog contracts devastated by the Depression. There had also been
(agreements that employers forced their employees three investigations of the municipal government,
to sign, swearing that they would not join unions led by Samuel Seabury, that revealed the truth of La
or strike) and injunctions against labor unions. In Guardia’s accusations. Walker resigned in Septem-
1929, the crusading congressman made an ill-timed ber 1932, but Tammany continued to run the city
run for mayor against the popular incumbent, under his successor, John P. O’Brien, who proved
James J. Walker and was badly beaten. He also incapable of handling the economic crises. To stave
married his devoted secretary, Marie Fisher, with off bankruptcy, first Walker and then O’Brien had
whom he subsequently adopted two children. borrowed money from New York bankers, who ex-
E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F T H E G R E A T D E P R E S S I O N 549
L A G U A R D I A , F I O R E L L O H .
acted control over municipal finances as a condi- prepare blueprints for thousands of projects.
tion. Whatever relief funds the city had, Tammany Thanks to their quick initiative, by October 1935 the
dispensed to its loyal supporters. These dire cir- metropolis was receiving more than one-seventh of
cumstances finally brought together anti-Tammany the WPA’s expenditures, and 208,000 New Yorkers
Democrats, good-government reformers, and Re- were employed.
publicans in the Fusion Party. The backing of Sea-
La Guardia presided over the repair of two
bury and Roosevelt brain-truster Adolf A. Berle, Jr.,
thousand miles of streets and highways and con-
secured the Fusion nomination for La Guardia, who
struction of fifty miles of expressways, three major
in a three-way race against O’Brien and Recovery
bridges, one hundred smaller bridges, and the New
Party candidate Joseph V. Mc Kee, won the elec-
York City Municipal Airport-La Guardia Field,
tion, aided by an outpouring of Italian voters, eager
which was renamed La Guardia Airport in 1947.
to see one of their own as mayor.
Five thousand acres of new parks were developed
La Guardia took office on January 1, 1934, de-
and seventeen public swimming pools built, as well
termined to revitalize his city. The federal govern-
as ninety-two schools, 255 playgrounds, fifteen
ment’s willingness to spend on pump-priming and
clinics, and additions to municipal hospitals that in-
employment-creating programs, as well as La
creased bed capacity by eight thousand. Old tene-
Guardia’s special relationship with President Roo-
ments were razed and thirteen public housing proj-
sevelt, provided the opportunity. La Guardia’s co-
ects, surrounded by landscaped grounds and play
operation with the Roosevelt administration had
areas, provided apartments with bathrooms, heat,
begun when, as a lame-duck congressman, he had
and electricity for 17,000 working-class families.
introduced bills for the president-elect. As early as
While La Guardia captured the lion’s share of New
November 1933, Mayor-elect La Guardia helped
Deal largess for his city, he also, as president of the
Federal Emergency Relief Administrator Harry
U. S. Conference of Mayors from 1935 to 1945, be-
Hopkins plan the Civil Works Administration
came the recognized spokesman for more aid and
(CWA) and presented him with a host of carefully
closer ties between Washington and urban Ameri-
drawn projects. As a result, by January 1934 New
ca. La Guardia helped convince President Roose-
York’s unemployed held 20 percent of all CWA jobs
velt that rescuing cities was a federal responsibility.
and 4,000 CWA projects were rehabilitating the
city’s neglected parks, streets, and playgrounds. Besides promoting the federal-urban connec-
However, the CWA lasted only four months, and tion, La Guardia cleaned New York’s government.
the metropolis needed much more aid. Mayor-elect Inefficient and grafting political appointees were
La Guardia had approached Secretary of the Interi- driven out and replaced with energetic, capable
or Harold Ickes for Public Works Administration people. The proportion of city jobs filled through
(PWA) funding, only to be told he must first bal- civil service competitive examinations rose from 55
ance his budget. By slashing municipal payrolls percent in 1933 to 74 percent by 1939. In making
through layoffs and salary cuts, and imposing new appointments not covered by civil service, La Guar-
taxes, the city managed to balance its 1934 budget. dia did reward supporters, but rarely compromised
This enabled La Guardia to renegotiate earlier his insistence that they must be as dedicated, hard-
loans, reducing the rates of interest and returning working, and honest as he was. He also attempted
control over fiscal policies to elected officials in- to open municipal employment to minorities, who
stead of bankers. Ickes then loosened his purse had been largely ignored by Tammany Hall. The re-
strings. By June 1940, New York had obtained more sult was a major shift in the ethnic and racial com-
than $250,000,000 from the PWA. The Mayor fared position of New York’s bureaucracy; the previously
even better with the freer-spending Hopkins and dominant Irish gave way to Jews, Italians, and
his Works Progress Administration (WPA), blacks. In 1934, the city had three black firemen; by
launched in 1935. Anticipating the new program, 1941, there were forty-six. After La Guardia took
La Guardia instructed his parks commissioner, over the subways, African Americans were hired for
Robert Moses, and his engineering committee to the first time as conductors, dispatchers, and mo-
550 E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F T H E G R E A T D E P R E S S I O N