Not Viable

Obstetricians have only to look at certain misshapen infants to know they cannot long survive. Specialists in labor troubles last week took one glance at San Francisco's general strike and turned their heads away, giving the verdict: "Not viable." Four days later San Francisco's monster-birth was dead.

Prime reason for its swift extinction was that it lacked the vital organs necessary to make a general strike succeed. It did not shut off the city's light, water, or food supplies. It did not silence the newspapers, throwing the city into a state of rumor-ridden ignorance about what was going on. If Labor had dared to go to these extremes, it would have had a frantic San Francisco by the throat. As it was, instead of paralyzing, the strike only pinched, inviting citizens and Government to rise and stamp out their tormentor.

Second reason for failure was that its leaders did not favor the strike. These oldtime professionals had called it reluctantly when their hot-headed followers had threatened to throw them out if they did not. No strike, big or little, succeeds whose leaders lack heart. Moreover, most of the rank & file had no desire or intention to strangle San Francisco; their eagerness was to display Labor's solidarity. After four days of half-measures they lost their desire for a futile enterprise.

Third reason for the strike's collapse was the newspapers which got together and bellowed "Revolution!" at the top of their lungs. John Francis Neylan, chief Hearst counsel, was recalled from Hawaii to direct the publishers' campaign against the general strike, arouse public opinion. Editorials harped on the idea that Communists were to blame for the city's plight, that radicals were directing the strike, that Labor must purge itself of such Red leadership before there could be any arbitration or settlement. The publishers got little or no support from Washington for their tubthumping. When General Johnson arrived in San Francisco, he was taken in hand by Mr. Neylan and made to see the Red menace.

This incessant bombardment by the San Francisco Press not only helped to break the strike but turned an angry citizenry loose against the supposed revolutionaries. Husky young men wearing union buttons and proudly called "vigilantes" by the newspapers began making raids on Communist headquarters. First raid was on the Western Worker, Communist daily. Five carloads of raiders drew up before the building, hurled rocks through the windows, smashed down doors, made kindling wood of every stick of furniture, tore down red banners, smashed typewriters, destroyed pamphlets and papers. A pleased and approving populace looked on from a safe distance. Five minutes after the raiders left police arrived on the scene to clean up. One Communist meeting place after another was similarly visited by the "vigilantes." In each case police arrived immediately afterward to mop up. Police arrested over 300 men and women found in Communist quarters. Of the first no tried, five proved to be aliens without proper admission papers or with criminal records, were sent to Angel Island for deportation. Some 20 U. S. citizens with criminal records were sentenced to jail up to 90 days as vagrants. Others were released with warnings.

Aside from press blasts, two public utterances helped to turn the tide of labor sentiment and end the general strike. One came from General Johnson, after his "conversion" by Mr. Neylan. Said he at Berkeley where he went to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from the University of California: "The right of dissatisfied men to strike against a recalcitrant employer is inviolate. . . . But the general strike is quite another thing. It is a threat to the community. It is a menace to the Government. It is civil war. . . . When the means of food supply-milk to children, necessities of life to the whole people--are threatened that is bloody insurrection. . . ."

The second potent utterance came from President William Green of the A. F. of L. Said he, disavowing the whole strike: "Through an assumption of authority growing out of certain autonomous rights conferred upon local organizations, their representatives ordered the strike and must accept full responsibility for this action. The American Federation of Labor neither ordered the strike nor authorized it. At no time has its counsel or advice been solicited or its services requested."

After the strike was settled Mr. Green added: ". . . No sympathetic strike of any consequence or possessed of any national significance was ever won. . . ."

Though the general strike petered out in four days, the strike of the longshoremen and marine workers which had started all the trouble did not. Employers agreed to arbitrate all grievances with longshoremen and marine strikers. The National Longshoremen's Board headed by Archbishop Hanna proposed that the striking longshoremen, not only of San Francisco but of the whole Pacific Coast, vote by secret ballot on whether to accept arbitration. Harry Bridges, radical Australian strike leader, opposed the vote but he was overruled and the strikers went to the polls to decide the issue.

What many a labor sympathizer feared was that the general strike would ruin the cause of Labor in San Francisco for years to come. If the strike had gone on long enough to require martial law in the city and forceful suppression of the strike San Francisco's Labor Unions might have been crushed. But enduring bitterness against Labor had not yet been built up when the unions about-faced. The city rejoiced that Labor had admitted its mistake, had voluntarily changed front. Real loser by the general strike was Harry Bridges, who lost his ten weeks domination over Labor's rank & file.

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