1914–1915 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike

Labor strike in Georgia, US September 2021 September 2021 Atlanta, Georgia, United States 1914–1915 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike United Textile Workers of America Local 886 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills May 20, 1914 – May 15, 1915(05 20 1914 05 15 1915) * Union recognition Reinstatement of fired workers Decreased workhours Increased wages Abolition of child labor Improved living conditions Removal of employment contracts * Firing of employees for unionizing Poor working and living conditions Workers' unhappiness with their employment contracts * Picketing Strike action Walkout Strike ends in failure for union, many workers are not rehired and find work elsewhere The 1914–1915 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike was a labor strike involving several hundred textile workers from the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The strike, which involved about 500 millworkers, began on May 20, 1914, and ended almost a year later on May 15, 1915, in failure for the strikers. The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills was a cotton mill facility located in Atlanta's Cabbagetown neighborhood that began operations in the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, it was one of the largest mills in the American South and the largest industrial employer in the city. However, workers criticized many aspects of the mills, including several unpopular company policies, unsafe working conditions, and the use of child labor in the mills. In 1897, the mills saw two labor strikes that contributed to a greater push for unionization within the mills. In October 1913, following another brief strike, workers organized as Local 886 of the United Textile Workers of America (UTW). In response, the company hired private investigators to infiltrate the mills and report union activity back to the supervisors. On May 20, 1914, in response to the company firing over 100 union members, several hundred millworkers went on strike. Shortly after the outset of the strike, the company evicted striking families from their company-owned houses. Many found shelter in a boarding house rented out by the UTW. In addition to this, the UTW and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) provided abundant financial and organizational support for the strike, as they saw the success of this strike as an important gateway to further textile organizing in the southern states. The strike attracted many noted labor activists, including Sara Agnes Mclaughlin Conboy and Ola Delight Smith, and many public organizations in the city supported the strike. These groups included the Social Gospel-oriented Men and Religion Forward Movement and the Atlanta Federation of Trades. The former petitioned for federal intervention to arbitrate an end to the strike, while the latter provided several thousand dollars in financial support. However, despite the public support, the company took a hardline stance against the strike and refused to negotiate. Due to the labor surplus in the city at that time, striking workers were easily replaced and production levels quickly returned to pre-strike levels. Additionally, the company hired a private investigation firm to spy on the union, with one spy rising in the ranks of the union and corresponding regularly with the strike leaders. By August, with finances dwindling, the union opened a tent city in lieu of its rented boardinghouse. Several months later, however, the UTW and AFL restated their commitment to the strike and UTW President John Golden even traveled to Atlanta to lead the strike himself. However, by February 1915, Golden had returned to UTW headquarters and many strikers were pessimistic about their chances of securing a favorable outcome. While efforts persisted for several more months, on May 15, the strike was officially called off and the tent city was dismantled. Many of the strikers never worked for Fulton Bag and Cotton again. Historians contend that the strike was among the first major textile strikes in the Southern United States, with historian Gary M. Fink referring to it as "[t]he southern equivalent of the great 1912 "Bread and Roses" textile strike". Historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall stated that it was the first strike in the region that received significant support from the AFL and UTW, while historian Joseph B. Atkins considers it a precursor to other textile strike action in the region, including the 1929 Loray Mill strike and the 1934 Textile workers strike. Historians have also discussed reasons for the strike's failure, which they commonly attribute to the labor surplus caused by mass migration to Atlanta from the surrounding area, an emphasis on racial rather than class solidarity among the mills' white workers, a hardline anti-union stance from the company, and a lack of participation from rank and file strikers in strike decision-making. Background Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills alt=Black and white photograph of a large brick factory building|thumb|400x400px|The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills facility, 2015|left In 1868, businessman Jacob Elsas formed the Elsas, May and Company in Atlanta in order to produce paper bags for use in carrying dry goods, such as flour and sugar.Fink 1993 15 By 1870, the company was also producing cotton bags,Fink 1993 15 and in 1876, in an act of vertical integration, Elsas chartered his own textile mill in Atlanta.Fink 1993 16–17 This mill began operations in 1881, and in 1889, Elsas rechristened his business ventures the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills, Inc.Fink 1993 18 By this time, the company was the single largest industrial employer in the city.Bauman 2005 40 By the early 1900s, the mills were one of the largest in the Southern United States,Georgia Public Broadcasting with the company's facility including four textile factories and several warehouse and machine shops.Huber 2008 54 According to historian Mark K. Bauman, Elsas employed industrial paternalism within his company and the mills.Bauman 2005 40 In the Factory Lot neighborhood where the mills were located (later renamed Factory TownFink 1993 26 and now known as Cabbagetown),Hall 1993b 25 the company operated a clinic while Elsas supported a settlement house in the area and offered to build a school near the mills if the government of Atlanta agreed to maintain it.Bauman 2019 40 In addition, jobs at the mills offered above-average wages while rent for lodging near the facilities were fairly low.Georgia Public Broadcasting However, many workers worked long shiftsnote Until 1905, 66 hours per week was the standard workweek at the mills. This number gradually declined over the next few years, and starting in 1912, the standard was a 60-hour workweek, with 11-hour shifts Monday through Friday and a half-day shift on Saturdays.Fink 1993 36 in unsafe working conditions, and child labor was prevalent, with many children employed in the mills.Georgia Public Broadcasting Additionally, the company leveled fines against employees for a number of rules violations, further reducing their take-home pay,Fink 1993 36 while the comparatively high cost of living further reduced employees' purchasing power, and while other mills offered employees land to grow crops or raise livestock, Fulton Bag and Cotton did not, requiring employees to purchase all of their food.Fink 1993 46 Factory Town was also notorious for its poor living conditions, with a general lack of sanitation and overcrowding, and outbreaks of diseases such as pellagra and tuberculosis were common.Fink 1993 48 The town had been condemned as a health hazard by the Atlanta Sanitary Department.Fink 1993 48 Elsas also employed industrial espionage in order to maintain control over the mills' operations.Bauman 2005 40 Some workers in the late 1800s and early 1900s complained about a general lack of privacy within the mills and an abundance of workplace rules to follow.Georgia Public Broadcasting In addition, workers who had called out sick were sometimes visited by a company doctor to ensure that the worker was not lying about their illness.Georgia Public Broadcasting As part of a labor contract signed between the employees and the mills, Fulton Bag and Cotton took no responsibility for occupational injuries and reserved the right to fire and evict workers without notice,Hall 1993b 25 as well as to withhold the employee's last week of pay for quitting without giving the company a five-day notice before leaving.Fink 1993 41 At the time, no other mill in Georgia had such a provision,Fink 1993 45 and while it was disliked by the workers, a 1909 ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed its legality.Fink 1993 46 These conditions, among others, all contributed to a high rate of turnover, and the mills were regarded by workers in Atlanta as a "hobo mill".Hall 1993b 25Fink 1993 39 Early labor disputes and unionization at the mills In 1885, workers at the Fulton Cotton and Spinning Company (a precursor to the Fulton Bag and Cotton Company) organized as Local Assembly 4455 of the Knights of Labor.Kuhn 2001 20 In November of that year, 50 weavers went on strike due to a dispute with management over their wages. The strike affected a total of 150 workers and saw the destruction of some mill machinery, which caused the Knights of Labor to disavow the strike within a week of its beginning.Kuhn 2001 20 By 1888, Local 4455, having suffered from financial difficulties, ceased to exist.Kuhn 2001 20 In 1897, two labor strikes occurred at the mills.Bauman 2005 45 The first was caused by the hiring of twentynote Given as "20 to 25" in one source,Trotter 2019 64 25 in another,Huber 2008 13 and "a dozen or so" in yet another.Kuhn 2001 26 African American women to work in the mills' folding department in jobs that had traditionally been held by white Americans.Bauman 2005 46note At the time, a majority of the mills' workforce was made up of white women and children.Bauman 2005 45–46 Elsas had announced their hiring to the rest of the workers in the mills' folding department on August 3.DeVault 2004 125 The new hires would be physically segregated from the rest of the employees in the facility and were not hired to replace any existing jobs.Maclachlan 1993 18–19 The following day, he had the new hires arrive early, but when the white folding workers arrived at 6 a.m., they performed a walkout and were joined by the remainder of the white workers at the mills by 11:00 a.m.,DeVault 2004 126 causing the mills to shut down.The New York Times 1897 A group of about 1,400 workers gathered outside of the mills, with the police called to maintain order as the situation grew violent.DeVault 2004 126 By 3:00 p.m., a mass meeting was held where many of these strikers signed up to join the Textile Workers' Union.DeVault 2004 126note Given as the "Textile Workers Protective Union" in one source.Fink 1993 40 The name given in the text is used in a contemporary report written about the strike.The Cyclopedic Review of Current History 1897 649 Elsas, worried about the escalating situation, agreed to negotiate with the strikers,DeVault 2004 126 with former U.S. Secretary of the Interior M. Hoke Smith brought in as an arbitrator.The Cyclopedic Review of Current History 1897 650 On August 5,The Cyclopedic Review of Current History 1897 649 Elsas agreed to fire the new African American hires,DeVault 2004 126 and the strikers returned to work, with some working increased hours as overtime.Haberland 2015 63Marshall 1967 81 However, Elsas denied the strikers' demands to fire all African American employees at the mills,DeVault 2004 126 instead leaving them employed only in certain departments within the mills.Bayor 1996 8 Additionally, Elsas refused a demand that "no member of the Textile Workers' Union or anyone who participated in the strike should be discharged because of their union affiliation, or because they participated in the strike; and that all former employees should be reinstated in their positions".The Cyclopedic Review of Current History 1897 649 Despite the refusals, the white workers at the mills considered the strike a success, and the white women who had started the walkout were honored by being at the front of that September's Labor Day parade.Trotter 2019 64 Additionally, the union began to strengthen its position and affiliated itself with the Atlanta Federation of Trades (AFT),Fink 1993 40 the city's organization of local unions.Fink 1993 5 Several months after the first strike, management at the mills fired several workers who had acted as strike leaders that August, triggering another strike from the workers.Bauman 2005 46 In addition to the firings, the workers were also afraid that their wages were in danger of being decreased and that management might replace them with African American workers.Bauman 2005 46 On December 7, with support from the AFT, approximately 1,000 of the 1,200 millworkers went on strike.Fink 1993 41 After a brief meeting with some representatives of the striking workers, Elsas stated his refusal to rehire the fired workers.Fink 1993 41 Starting on the second day of the strike, the company began evicting strikers from company-owned houses,Marshall 1967 81 and Elsas performed a lockout.Fink 1993 41 After reopening, non-striking employees were allowed back to work, as were strikers who had abandoned the strike.Fink 1993 41 Additionally, strikebreakers were brought in to replace the strikers.Bauman 2005 46Marshall 1967 81 The strike lasted for over a month, but ultimately ended in failure for the strikers by early January,Fink 1993 41 with many of them losing their jobs.Marshall 1967 81 The union later dissolved the following year after another attempted strike action by weavers received little support from the rest of the millworkers.Fink 1993 41 Despite the failure for the strikers, the workers at the mills became more active in pushing for labor union representation, with historian Ileen A. DeVault stating that the "workers subsequently became some of Atlanta's most ardent unionists".DeVault 2004 127 This was during a time when the labor movement in the United States was experiencing a massive growth, with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) growing from 260,000 members in 1897 to 1,676,200 members by 1904.Fink 1991 15 In Atlanta during this time, many workers joined unions, with the percentage of workers who were unionized in the city greater than the national average.note In 1900, 4 percent of Atlanta's workforce was unionized, compared to 2.8 percent nationwide. By 1920, Atlanta's percentage increased to 12.4 percent, compared to 12.2 percent nationwide.Fink 1993 5 Also, between 1900 and 1910, the mills resumed hiring of African American women, and by 1914, they accounted for 11 percent of the mills' entire workforce.Maclachlan 1993 19 By 1918, Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills was the largest employer of African American women in Atlanta.Maclachlan 1993 21 However, racial violence continued to serve as a major social issue in Atlanta, reaching a peak less than a decade after the initial strike action with the 1906 Atlanta race riot.Hall 1993b 34 Prelude to strike action On October 23, 1913,Fink 1993 41 workers at the mills performed a work stoppage.Melnick 2000 17 The event involved about 350 loom fixers and weavers protesting against the firing of a loom fixer and a change in company policy earlier that year that saw an extension in the time needed to state one's intent to quit from five days to six days.Fink 1993 41 The stoppage lasted four days and succeeded in reducing the time needed to give your notice from six days to five days,Fink 1993 41 but failed to get the fired workers rehired.Fink 1993 41–42 Following the strike, the United Textile Workers of America (UTW), an affiliate union of the AFL, organized a union drive at the mills, and on October 31, the union chartered a local union for the workers,Fink 1993 42 UTW Local 886.Hall 1993b 25Fink 1991 16 At the time, the UTW was attempting to expand their union efforts into the Southern United States, driven primarily by a growth in the textile industry in the area and increased competition in textile organizing in the Northern United States from the more radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).Hall 1993b 26 They viewed Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills as a good starting place for these efforts based on the location of the mills in the regionally important city of Atlanta as well as the size and militancy of the workforce at the mills.Fink 1993 42 In addition to Atlanta, the UTW was pursuing organizing efforts in several southern cities, while the IWW, in a much smaller scope, was attempting to organize workers in Greenville, South Carolina.Kuhn 2001 99 The UTW assigned union organizer Charles A. Miles to the union efforts at the mills. Miles had previously been involved in unionization efforts throughout the Midwest and Northeastern United States, but this was his first involvement in organizing in the American South.Fink 1993 60 By early 1914, several hundred millworkers had joined the new local union,Fink 1993 42 but as with previous union organizing at the mills, the company refused to recognize this union.Hickey 2003 46 Through 1913 and into 1914, tensions continued to grow between the workers and management, with many voicing displeasure with new contract policies and increased fines levied by the company.Hickey 2003 46 Additionally, several historians note that a wave of antisemitism that had emerged in Atlanta following the 1913 trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan may have contributed to the increased tensions.Atkins 2008 28Bauman 2005 47 Speaking about this, historian Joseph B. Atkins stated that "[i]n Atlanta, anti-Semitism contributed to a fetid atmosphere" and that "[m]any Fulton millworkers likely saw in Jacob Elsas what they had come to hate in Leo Frank".Atkins 2008 28 However, according to historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, while "resentment against Elsas spilled over into the outcry against Leo Frank", "there is no indication that the Fulton Mills walkout was sparked by anti-Semitism".Hall 1993b 33 By 1914, there were approximately 1,300 people were employed at the mills, 12 percent of whom were children under the age of 16 and 35 percent of whom were women.Hall 1993b 25 By that time, Jacob Elsas had been succeeded as president of the mills by his son, Oscar Elsas.Hall 1993b 25Fink 1993 27 In light of the formation of the union, Elsas contracted the Philadelphia-based Railway Audit and Inspection Company (RA & I, a private investigation firm) to plant undercover agents within the mills to keep tabs on union activities.Hall 1993b 25–26Fink 1991 16Hickey 2003 46 Additionally, between October 1913 and May 1914, officials within the union alleged that Elsas had fired 104 union members, many of whom had been employed by the mills for a long time beforehand.Fink 1993 42 While Elsas countered that over 300 employees had been fired during that time and that it was irrelevant to him whether they were union members or not, though this statement was challenged by union members.Fink 1993 42 While Miles attempted to discuss these issues with Elsas, Elsas declined.Fink 1993 42 On May 5, union members met to discuss possible industrial action, but Miles asked the members to postpone any action until after he had met and discussed the situation with UTW officials in Washington, D.C.Fink 1993 42 On May 9, the union met again and voted to approve strike action against the company, but also decided to wait until after Miles had returned to act.Fink 1993 42–43 On May 15, President S. B. Marks of the Georgia Federation of Labor (a statewide federation of unions that typically represented unions of skilled workers) offered to act as an intermediary between the union and the company, and on May 19, in a secret ballot, union members voted to go on strike at 10 a.m. the next day.Fink 1993 43 Following this, President Marks sent a letter to Elsas requesting a meeting, which was ignored.Fink 1993 43 The following day, a representative of the AFT also sought an audience with Elsas, but was also refused.Fink 1993 43 Following this, several hundred millworkers commenced strike action.note Sources vary on the exact number of strikers who walked out on the first day of the strike. Several sources give the number as "several hundred" workers,Hickey 2003 46Huber 2008 56 while a documentary aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting about the strike gives a more exact number of 500 workers.Georgia Public Broadcasting Historian Gary M. Fink states that sources varied considerably at the time depending on the method of accounting used. Oscar Elsas claimed that only 78 workers went on strike, while organizers of the strike estimated that 450 to 500 had walked out, which rose to 850 by May 25 and continued to increase over the course of the strike.Fink 1993 58 UTW President John Golden stated that initially, 200 workers walked out, but they were joined by several hundred more in the following days and, by the end of the first week of striking, 92 percent of the mills' workforce was on strike.Fink 1993 58 However, Fink states that AFT member Louis Marquardt most likely gives the most accurate estimate, saying that 100 workers had stayed home the day of the strike in anticipation of it, 100 walked out following the announcement, and another 100 workers had put in their quitting notice on May 18 and began striking after that period was up.Fink 1993 58–59 A 1916 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that, from the beginning of the strike to Jun 30, 1914, the strike directly affected 450 workers.Bureau of Labor Statistics 1916 25 Course of the strike Beginning of the strike and the union's demands alt=A black and white photograph of a child laborer working in a textile mill|thumb|240x240px|At the time of the strike, children represented approximately 12 percent of the mills' workforce.Fink 1993 52 The walkout on May 20 consisted primarily of loom fixers and weavers.Fink 1993 45 Picketing commenced shortly thereafter, and several strikers went to the Atlanta Union Station and Terminal Station to inform new arrivals into the city of the strike.Fink 1993 45Kuhn 2001 107 Pickets were also staged at an underpass on Boulevard that served as an entryway from the north to the mills.Kuhn 2001 127 Additionally, strikers visited the homes of other workers to try to convince them to join.Kuhn 2001 107 Elsas took a hardline stance against the strikers from the beginning, and in some cases even refused to acknowledge the strike, referring to it at one point as a "little disturbance".Fink 1993 68 While the initial cause of the strike concerned the reinstatement of fired union members, the strikers' demands also included reduced workhours, increased pay, improved living conditions in the company-owned housing, and end to both child labor and the employment contract at the mills.Fink 1993 45Hall 1993b 26 With regards to the employment contract, the strikers especially took issue with the required notice in order to receive their last week of pay.Fink 1993 45 Elsas was unwilling to change this policy, and even later stated that that requirement was what had kept more workers from joining the strike.Fink 1993 46 At the time of the strike, the company saved approximately $2,500 annually by keeping wages from employees who had quit without properly notifying the company ahead of time.Fink 1993 46 Additionally, Elsas was unwilling to compromise on the system of fines, arguing that it incentivized workers from making mistakes and promoted productivity.Fink 1993 51 Between 1913 and 1914, the company had collected over $1,500 in fines, compared to the $90.35 that the Atlanta-based Exposition Cotton Mills had collected.Fink 1993 51 Concerning the workhours, union leaders pushed for a reduction from 60 to 54 hours per week, though they were pessimistic about the chances of this being implemented, as the 60-hour workweek was considered fairly standard in the textile industry at that time.Fink 1993 50 However, they considered that it could be a useful bargaining tool in negotiations.Fink 1993 50 On the issue of child labor, state law prohibited anyone under ten years old from working and had certain restrictions on children under the age of fourteen working.Fink 1993 51 However, enforcement of these laws were lax, and many loopholes existed that allowed children to work illegally.Fink 1993 51–52 Fulton Bag and Cotton, compared to other mills, had a fairly decent reputation in abiding by the law, and Elsas was actually supportive of more stringent child labor laws in the state.Fink 1993 51–52 However, the union sought to generate more public support for the strike by tying it to the issue of child labor, as the strike coincided with increased activism for the issue.Fink 1993 52 At the time of the strike, there were 144 children working at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills,Fink 1993 52 constituting 12 percent of the workforce.Hall 1993b 25 alt=A black and white photograph of a woman, Ola Delight Smith, shot from the chest up, wearing a hat|left|thumb|Ola Delight Smith was hired by the union shortly after the strike began.Hall 1993b 26 On May 28, the AFT held a meeting to discuss the strike, wherein they arranged for the local government to not intervene in the strike, which was accomplished because union members held several positions in the local government, Atlanta Chief of Police James Beavers was a friend of one of the strike organizers, and the mayor of Atlanta at the time (James G. Woodward)Fink 1993 4 was also a union member.Fink 1993 59–60 Additionally, the group agreed to levy a weekly $0.15 due on every member of the organization for the duration of the strike to build up its strike fund.Fink 1993 59 These dues generated approximately $525 per week for the AFT.Fink 1993 59 In addition to these payments, that UTW agreed to provide $500 per week to the strike fund, and additional funds were solicited from local organizations and donors both in Atlanta and nationwide.Fink 1993 60 During the initial months of the strike, the strikers' fund received over $1,500 a week, a large sum for strikes at that time.Fink 1993 60 Shortly after the start of the strike, the UTW sent two more union organizers to help orchestrate the strike: Sara Agnes Mclaughlin Conboy and Mary Kelleher.Fink 1993 60, 63 Conboy had been an activist for the Women's Trade Union League in Boston and was the highest-ranking woman within the UTW's leadership.Hall 1993b 26 Miles also convinced the union to hire Ola Delight Smith to help with the strike effort.Hall 1993b 26 Smith, known as the "Mother Jones of Atlanta", was a labor activist who had moved to Atlanta several years prior, and served as both an editor for the AFT's Journal of Labor publication and the president of the ladies' auxiliary of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers.Hall 1993b 26Fink 1993 61, 63Hickey 2003 47 Hall referred to her as "a boundary-crossing New Woman"Hall 1993b 29 and "the most prominent female member of Atlanta's white labor community",Hall 1993a 166 while Fink states that Smith "quickly became the driving force in the strike" and names Miles and Smith as the primary strike leaders.Fink 1993 61, 63 In addition to the UTW representatives, strike leadership also included H. Newborn Mullinax, the president of Local 886 and the only millworker serving as a strike leader.Fink 1993 63 Company evicts strikers Within the first week of striking, Elsas ordered that striking workers and their families be evicted from their company-owned houses.Huber 2008 56 In total, this affected about 218 workers making up 78 families in Factory Town.Fink 1993 66 Deputies from the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, with African American workers hired by the company,Hall 1993b 27 began evicting families en masse.Fink 1993 66 Of note, singer Fiddlin' John Carson, who at the time was working at the mills, was evicted along with the rest of his family, who were also millworkers.Huber 2008 56 Carson would later serve as something of a minstrel for the strikers.Atkins 2008 30 Led by Smith,Fink 1993 67 strikers and union representatives took ample photographs of the evictions,Hall 1993b 27 and these photos and testimonials from evicted strikers were used to generate public sympathy for the strike.Fink 1993 67 Local publications such as The Atlanta Georgian and The Atlanta Journal published many of these images in pro-child labor law articles.Kuhn 2001 152–153 Additionally, strikers created and showed movies showcasing their living and working conditions.Ross 1998 102 Photographs of African American men evicting the strikers were widely circulated in an effort, as Hall later stated, to "[appeal] to white racial solidarity".Hall 1993b 27 Similar appeals were repeated by the UTW in publications released to other labor unions requesting assistance in the strike,Fink 1993 68 and strike supporters framed the strike as a fight against "white slavery".The Carpenter 1915 38Fink 1993 68Hall 1993b 27 Many of the evicted workers found lodging at the Textile Hotel, a boarding house the union had rented for strikers in preparation for the evictions.Fink 1993 67Kuhn 2001 162 In addition, the union also operated a commissary.Fink 1993 92 Strike continues While the strikers had planned to shut down operations at the factory, this proved unattainable. Within several days, Elsas had leased skilled workers from other mills in the area and Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills was operating at or near the levels it had been operating at before the strike.Fink 1993 64–65 As a result, the strikers instead pushed to pressure Elsas to bargain with them by garnering public support for their cause.Fink 1993 65 In doing so, strike organizers urged the strikers to remain peaceful and not resort to violence, which could jeopardize their public support.Fink 1993 65–66, 102 Undercover agents hired by Elsas attempted to counter this public support by gathering unsavory information on strikers and union leaders, painting them as immoral and in the wrong.Hall 1993b 27–28 Within the first few weeks of the strike, the company had ten undercover agents, and both the union hall and Miles's hotel room had been bugged by the RA & I.Fink 1993 91 However, on June 9, the bug at the union hall was discovered, raising suspicions about spies within the union.Fink 1993 91–92 Additionally, on June 9, Smith discovered two spies who had been active within the union and, while she had intended to have them arrested, both returned to Philadelphia before that could happen.Fink 1993 93–94 One of the agency's more successful operatives, Harry Preston, managed to stay hidden for much longer and even rose the ranks within the local union, at one point serving as the union's song leader, opening meeting sessions with a singing of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and leading a rally at the Georgia State Capitol.Fink 1993 107 Preston was so successful in his covert operations that UTW President John Golden once met with him and asked him for his opinion on the strike, and the Massachusetts Federation of Labor treated him as a delegate and guest of honor at one of their meetings.Fink 1993 126, 133 Despite the spies' efforts, the strike received support from the Men and Religion Forward Movement, a progressive Social Gospel group led by the Evangelical Ministers' Association, which represented the clergy in roughly one hundred Protestant churches in Atlanta.Fink 1993 78–79 The group criticized Fulton Bag and Cotton for its unsanitary living conditions and poor working conditions and on June 28, strikers and strike supporters held a mass meeting at DeGive's Grand Opera House that saw speakers from the Evangelical Ministers' Association.Fink 1993 104 The event helped renew enthusiasm for the strike,Fink 1993 104 and strikers continued to organize parades through the city to rally additional public support for their cause,Hall 1993b 26–27Fink 1993 108 often prominently featuring striking women and children in the events.Kuhn 2001 151 In an attempt to foster arbitration between the union and the company, on July 7,The Commercial Telegraphers Journal 1914a 255 the ministers petitioned the Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR) and the U.S. Department of Labor to send representatives to Atlanta.Fink 1993 79, 81 Both the commission (headed by Frank P. Walsh) and the department (headed by William Bauchop Wilson) were considered fairly sympathetic to organized labor, with Wilson having previously served as a leader of the United Mine Workers of America.Fink 1993 82 Ultimately, the U.S. Federal Government obliged and sent two individuals to Atlanta in an attempt to hold conciliation services between the union and company: W. W. Husband and Herman Robinson of the Department of Labor, with Robinson leading the efforts.Fink 1993 82 The two spent a week in Atlanta and met with Elsas on both July 16 and July 21. In both meetings, they urged him to submit to arbitration, but Elsas steadfastly refused, arguing that the mills were operating fine and that there was nothing he needed to arbitrate with the strikers.Fink 1993 82 The two would later submit a report to Labor Secretary Wilson that was sympathetic to the strike, but stated that there was little the agency could do.Fink 1993 108 Shortly before leaving Atlanta, two representatives of CIR arrived: Alexander M. Daly and Inis Weed.Fink 1993 83 Weed (a progressive labor activist) interviewed with Elsas on July 24, during which Elsas stated that he would be open to arbitration when he felt he might lose the strike, referred to the Men and Religion Forward Movement as being composed of fanatics, and expressed interest in using violence to end the strike, though he said he would not do so because of the women and children on strike.Fink 1993 83–85 These statements were later widely published in the Atlanta press.Fink 1993 86 Meanwhile, Daly had composed a 49-page report on the strike and conditions at the mills, which, in addition to criticisms of the company's policies and working and living conditions, questioned the legality of the employment contract on the grounds that it lacked mutuality.Fink 1993 86 Trouble within the union However, around the same time that these federal representatives were meeting with Elsas, the union was facing its own issues. Local 886 had continued to accept new members into its ranks, many of whom were transient workers who joined in order to take advantage of the union's benefits.Fink 1993 104 According to Preston, "not a quarter" of the total members of Local 886 had ever worked for the mills.Fink 1993 105 By mid-July, the union had made changes to its acceptance policy in order to screen out these freeloaders, as at the time, over 1,600 people were using the union commissary, costing the union $1,000 per week.Fink 1993 105–106 Additionally, around the time that Daly and Weed had arrived in Atlanta, Conboy and Kelleher were recalled to New York City by UTW President Golden, which weakened the leadership in the local union.Fink 1993 109 Conboy and Kelleher had recently become at odds with fellow strike leaders Miles and Smith, causing a division amongst the strike's leadership.Fink 1993 109 At the advice of one of the RA & I agents, the company announced that after July 25, no person involved in the strike would ever be employed at the mills again.Fink 1993 108 Also around this time, the UTW feared that the IWW were planning to send operatives to try to take over the strike, as had occurred during the 1912 Lawrence textile strike, but this never occurred.Fink 1993 117 By August, with production levels matching those before the strike, Elsas defiantly claimed that the strike was over.Fink 1993 65 Also around that same time, citing financial difficulties and a lack of optimism with the strike's progress, the AFT pulled their support.Fink 1993 117–118 With reduced financial support, the union shifted to housing striking workers in a tent city near the mills,Fink 1993 117–118 on property owned by a police officer who was sympathetic to the strikers.Fink 1993 123 These tents had been purchased from the Georgia National Guard, which had previously condemned them.Fink 1993 118, 121 While images and stories from the tent city generated increased support and elicited donations from several unions around the country, reports of immoral and illegal activities within the camp generated some negative publicity in the local media.Fink 1993 119 On September 2, a large thunderstorm struck Atlanta and flooded the tent city, but afterwards, the strikers made repairs and cleaned up the area, showing that despite the difficult situation and Preston's predictions, the workers were determined to the continue the strike.Fink 1993 121, 123 On October 21, the UTW held their national convention in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the labor union planned to enact some changes to the leadership within the Atlanta strike.Fink 1993 135 While Miles was widely criticized for reimbursement agreements he had made with the AFT (which had gone in debt over the course of supporting the strike), the strike itself still garnered wide support from the union, with many still seeing a successful resolution there as the gateway for further unionizing efforts in the region.Fink 1993 135–136 Following the AFL's convention,Fink 1993 137 (which was held November 9–21 in Philadelphia)The Commercial Telegraphers Journal 1914a 416 UTW President Golden arrived in Atlanta to take charge of the strike and improve the relationship within the strike leadership.Fink 1993 120 To this end, he also sought to squash rumors of a romantic relationship between Miles and Smith.Fink 1993 120 Smith had been the subject of an intense smear campaign during the strike, with company officials attempting repeatedly to catch her in a compromising situation with another man (at the time, Smith was married). During the strike, Smith's husband initiated a divorce, which further damaged the organizer's public reputation.Hall 1993b 28 Golden hoped to reinvigorate the strike and carried out several reforms, including banning alcohol in the tent city, spending hundreds of dollars purchasing shoes for the strikers, covertly sending union agents into the mills to recruit more strikers, and evicting non-strikers.Fink 1993 137–138 By December, only slightly over 200 people lived in the tent city, of which about 35 were part of the original group of strikers.Fink 1993 137 Additionally, company spies reported rumors that Golden was planning a walkout in January 1915 to coincide with action from the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.Fink 1993 137–138 That union's labor contract with Southern Railroad was set to expire on January 1, and the plan was that they would refuse to handle business for the mills until a conclusion to the strike was reached.Fink 1993 138 End of the strike Despite the actions taken by Golden, the next several months saw no real progress in winning the strike.Fink 1993 138 An inability to effectively organize within the mills, combined with a labor surplus and a failure with organizing efforts at the nearby Exposition Cotton Mills, led to many seeing the strike as a hopeless situation.Fink 1993 138–139 On February 1, 1915, Golden returned to UTW's headquarters in Fall River, Massachusetts and was replaced by Conboy and Thomas Reagan, a noted union organizer.Fink 1993 138 Reagan attempted to boost morale and held several rallies, but as time went on, the situation became increasingly hopeless, and on May 15, 1915, 360 days after it had started, the strike ended.Fink 1993 139 The tent city was taken apart, the commissary closed, and the union provided transportation fare for remaining strikers to either return to their homes or to where they had found new employment.Fink 1993 139 Many of the strikers never worked for the mills again,Georgia Public Broadcasting while many workers who had gone on strike had by this time already moved on to new jobs.Hall 1993b 37 Aftermath and analysis Discussing the aftermath of the strike, Historian Gary M. Fink stated, "the first volley in the American labor movement's campaign to organize the South's major industry did surprisingly little damage to the seemingly impregnable industrial fortress that was southern textiles".Fink 1993 157 Further stressing the size and importance of this strike, he refers to it as "[t]he southern equivalent of the great 1912 "Bread and Roses" textile strike", which had been a watershed moment for organized labor in northern textiles.Fink 1993 3 Offering a slightly different take on the strike, historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall contends that while the strike was not the "first big strike" for southern textile mills, it was the first such strike in which the UTW and AFL significantly contributed.Hall 1993b 26 Historian Joseph B. Atkins considered the strike a forerunner to later textile strikes in the south, including the 1929 Loray Mill strike and the 1934 Textile workers strike, both primarily taking place in North Carolina.Atkins 2008 27 While the 1934 strike did see some workers at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills participate, there is no clear link between the two.Kuhn 2001 230 In discussing the failure of the strike, Fink compares the social and economic environment of the textile industry in the American South to that of the northern states. In particular, Fink notes that, while government authorities and public groups were either neutral or supportive of the strike effort and that national union groups such as the UTW and AFL provided an abundant amount of resources and support,Fink 1993 142–144 several factors made the strike difficult to win from the start. Notably, he stated that the millworkers were more concerned with racial rather than class solidarity, as evidenced in the successful 1897 strike action, and that this played to undermine the overall solidarity of the strikers.Fink 1993 150 Knowing this, Elsas made no effort at using African American strikebreakers during the strike, for fear of stoking solidarity among their ranks.Fink 1993 150 This sentiment is shared by historian Mark K. Bauman, who stated that "[t]he company successfully used race to counteract class", something that would also occur in the 1916 Atlanta streetcar strike.Bauman 2005 46 Bauman, referencing both the Fulton Bag strikes and the 1906 Atlanta race riot, further states that "both the riot and the strikes have been viewed in part as attempts by whites ... to put African Americans "in their places"".Bauman 2005 47 Additionally, the divide between long-term millworkers and the more transient employees created an irreparable rift between the strikers, which was further damaged as more people joined the union despite having never worked at the mills before.Fink 1993 150–153 The mills' location in Atlanta also meant that there was an abundance of new workers to be hired to replace the strikers.Fink 1993 153 Union efforts were also hurt by a noticeable separation between the union organizers and the rank and file union members,Fink 1993 104 with actual employees not having too much say in the strike's operations compared to organizers like Miles and Smith.Fink 1993 153 Over the course of the strike, the local union had four different presidents,Fink 1993 153–154 with the first president ultimately resigning after becoming disillusioned with the strike and finding employment at another mill.Fink 1993 153 While the CIR had collected extensive testimony from many individuals involved in the strike, the U.S. Congress, at the urging of then-Congressman M. Hoke Smith, voted to restrict the publication of this testimony and limit the publication solely to the CIR's final report on the strike. Smith stated that he had "not the slightest respect for anything the Commission did" and criticized the reliability of the testimony, calling it "so much junk". As a result, despite efforts from organized labor groups, only the final report was ever published.Kuhn 2001 214 Oscar Elsas, who died in 1924, kept an extensive collection of records relating to the strike in a vault at the mills.Kuhn 2001 230 In late 1985, historians found these company records, including reports from the hired undercover agents, in the basement of the abandoned mills,Hall 1993b 24 prompting renewed historical interest and analysis in the strike.Kuhn 2001 230 Prior to this, reflecting on the legacy of the strike, historian Clifford M. Kuhn said there had been a collective "amnesia" regarding the strike, due in part to the transient nature of the textile workers.Kuhn 2001 230 Smith, however, later called the strike a pivotal moment in her history as a labor activist while speaking about the event in 1950.Kuhn 2001 230 Notes note References Sources 30em yes Atkins Joseph B. https://books.google.com/books?id=o6AfWT79t2MC Covering for the Bosses: Labor and the Southern Press University Press of Mississippi 2008 978-1-60473-325-9 Jackson, Mississippi en Bauman Mark K. https://books.google.com/books?id=AipW0-_ElVEC Politics and Religion in the White South University Press of Kentucky 2005 978-0-8131-7173-9 Feldman Glenn Lexington, Kentucky 35–56 en Factionalism and Ethnic Politics in Atlanta: German Jews from the Civil War through the Progressive Era Bauman Mark K. https://books.google.com/books?id=T6STDwAAQBAJ A New Vision of Southern Jewish History: Studies in Institution Building, Leadership, Interaction, and Mobility University of Alabama Press Foreword by Ronald H. Bayor 2019 978-0-8173-2018-8 Tuscaloosa, Alabama en Bayor Ronald H. https://books.google.com/books?id=5-iqKnr9lN8C Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-century Atlanta University of North Carolina Press 1996 978-0-8078-2270-8 Chapel Hill, North Carolina en July 1916 Conciliation Work of the Department of Labor, March 14, 1913, to June 6, 1916 https://books.google.com/books?id=ua93yR5PrIsC Monthly Review of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics III 1 Google Books Bureau of Labor Statistics 1916 January 1915 "White Slaves" of the Cotton Mills https://books.google.com/books?id=Jn5IAAAAYAAJ The Carpenter Indianapolis United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America 38 Google Books The Carpenter 1915 July 1914 Church Men In Fight Against Child Labor https://books.google.com/books?id=EvhKAAAAYAAJ The Commercial Telegraphers Journal Chicago Commercial Telegraphers Union of America XII 7 255–256 Google Books The Commercial Telegraphers Journal 1914a December 1914 Urgent Appeal For Aid https://books.google.com/books?id=EvhKAAAAYAAJ The Commercial Telegraphers Journal Chicago Commercial Telegraphers Union of America XII 12 416 Google Books The Commercial Telegraphers Journal 1914b September 30, 1897 A Race Strike https://books.google.com/books?id=ufrNAAAAMAAJ The Cyclopedic Review of Current History 7 3 649–650 Google Books The Cyclopedic Review of Current History 1897 DeVault Ileen A. https://books.google.com/books?id=OpVlDwAAQBAJ United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism Cornell University Press 2004 978-1-5017-2707-8 Ithaca, New York en Fink Gary M. https://books.google.com/books?id=zw-oyYn5TmkC Organized Labor in the Twentieth-century South University of Tennessee Press 1991 978-0-87049-697-4 Zieger Robert H. Robert Zieger Knoxville, Tennessee 13–33 en Efficiency and Control: Labor Espionage in Southern Textiles Fink Gary M. https://books.google.com/books?id=wsnXDwAAQBAJ The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Strike of 1914–1915: Espionage, Labor Conflict, and New South Industrial Relations ILR Press 1993 978-1-5017-3455-7 Ithaca, New York en Dreams Never Realized: The Strike of 1914-15 https://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/stories/dreams_never_realized_the_strike_of_1914-15 live https://web.archive.org/web/20201025114621/https://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/stories/dreams_never_realized_the_strike_of_1914-15 October 25, 2020 September 9, 2021 Georgia Public Broadcasting en Georgia Public Broadcasting Haberland Michelle https://books.google.com/books?id=FYiDBgAAQBAJ Striking Beauties: Women Apparel Workers in the U.S. South, 1930-2000 University of Georgia Press 2015 978-0-8203-4742-4 Athens, Georgia en Hall Jacquelyn Dowd https://books.google.com/books?id=LBJpg6OUuXUC Visible Women: New Essays on American Activism University of Illinois Press 1993a 978-0-252-06333-6 Hewitt Nancy A. Nancy A. Hewitt Urbana, Illinois 166–198 en O. Delight Smith's Progressive Era: Labor, Feminism, and Reform in the Urban South Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Lebsock Suzanne Suzanne Lebsock Hall Jacquelyn Dowd Winter 1993b Private Eyes, Public Women: Images of Class and Sex in the Urban South, Atlanta, Georgia, 1913–1915 https://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/digital/collection/AHBull/id/18424 Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South Atlanta Historical Society XXXVI 4 24–39 Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Atlanta History Center Hickey Georgina https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQcp01cfBU4C Hope and Danger in the New South City: Working-Class Women and Urban Development in Atlanta, 1890-1940 University of Georgia Press 2003 978-0-8203-2723-5 Athens, Georgia en Huber Patrick https://books.google.com/books?id=RR_O2AR_8BUC Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South University of North Carolina Press 2008 978-0-8078-3225-7 Chapel Hill, North Carolina en Kuhn Clifford M. https://books.google.com/books?id=ebTqCQAAQBAJ Contesting the New South Order: The 1914-1915 Strike at Atlanta's Fulton Mills University of North Carolina Press 2001 978-0-8078-7530-8 Chapel Hill, North Carolina en Maclachlan Gretchen Winter 1993 Atlanta's Industrial Women, 1879–1920 https://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/digital/collection/AHBull/id/18416 Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South Atlanta Historical Society XXXVI 4 16–23 Atlanta History Center Marshall F. Ray https://books.google.com/books?id=gYZEAmC0y9oC Labor in the South Harvard University Press 1967 978-0-674-50700-5 Cambridge, Massachusetts en Ray Marshall Melnick Jeffrey Paul https://books.google.com/books?id=xQyzSumSD38C Black-Jewish Relations on Trial: Leo Frank and Jim Conley in the New South University Press of Mississippi 2000 978-1-60473-595-6 Jackson, Mississippi en August 5, 1897 Negro Help Causes a Strike en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1897/08/05/archives/negro-help-causes-a-strike-six-hundred-white-operatives-leave-work.html September 9, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210909111530/https://www.nytimes.com/1897/08/05/archives/negro-help-causes-a-strike-six-hundred-white-operatives-leave-work.html September 9, 2021 0362-4331 The New York Times 1897 Ross Steven J. https://books.google.com/books?id=rdLgDwAAQBAJ Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America Princeton University Press 1998 978-0-691-21464-1 Princeton, New Jersey en Trotter Joe William Jr. https://books.google.com/books?id=IjgHEAAAQBAJ Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America University of California Press 2019 978-0-520-37751-6 Oakland, California en Joe William Trotter Jr. Further reading Harte Tiffany May 2, 2022 A Tale of 3 Strikes https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/blog/a-tale-of-3-strikes/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20240509072117/https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/blog/a-tale-of-3-strikes/ May 9, 2024 August 30, 2024 Atlanta History Center Longworth April April 26, 2011 Behind the Strike: How Atlanta Responded to the Investigation of the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill https://aasujournalofhistory.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/behind-the-strike-how-atlanta-responded-to-the-investigation-of-the-fulton-bag-and-cotton-mill/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20210909120459/https://aasujournalofhistory.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/behind-the-strike-how-atlanta-responded-to-the-investigation-of-the-fulton-bag-and-cotton-mill/ September 9, 2021 September 9, 2021 Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History Armstrong Atlantic State University en External links https://exhibit-archive.library.gatech.edu/fulton_bag/index.html Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Digital Collections, Georgia Institute of Technology https://archivesspace.library.gsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/1409 Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills collection, Georgia State University Category:1910s strikes in the United States Category:1914 in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1914 labor disputes and strikes Category:1915 in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1915 labor disputes and strikes Category:United Textile Workers of America Category:History of Atlanta Category:Labor disputes in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Textile and clothing labor disputes in the United States