Peter N.

Stearns

The Student as Strikebreaker: College Youth and the Crisis of Masculinity in the Early Twentieth Century Author(s): Stephen H. Norwood Source: Journal of Social History, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Winter, 1994), pp. 331-349 Published by: Peter N. Stearns Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3788901 Accessed: 10/01/2009 15:45
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=pns. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Peter N. Stearns is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Social History.

http://www.jstor.org

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER:COLLEGEYOUTH AND THE CRISIS OF MASCULINITY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY StephenH. Norwood Universityof Oklahoma

In March 1905, Columbia University students deserted their classes en masse to help breaka strike of subwayworkersagainstthe Interborough RapidTransit Company (IRT), the biggest strikeNew Yorkhad ever experienced.Almost immediatelyafterthe walkoutbegan, 300 Columbiastudentsvolunteeredtheir servicesto the IRT as motormen,conductors,ticket sellers,and ticket choppers. Marchingin squadsfrom the subwayexit at City Hall parkto the IRT employment office on Dey Street, they gave the Columbiacheer and sang their college songs.The contingent includedmanyof Columbia'stop athletes, with the football "eleven,"basketballand baseballplayers,crewmen, and bicycle racersall and well represented. The college boys'"joyousexuberance" "husky appearance" hurled at them by newsboys attractedconsiderableattention. Cries of "Scabs!" that the stuOne newspaperremarked only put "gingerinto their enthusiasm." dents were "sublimelyconfident in their own strength,"and "wouldhave been morethan pleasedto starta roughhouse."1By the afternoon,Columbia's lecture werecompletelydeserted.At day's roomsand laboratories end, the collegianshad alreadyachieved renown:the firstsubwaytrain to make a successfulrun along the whole length of the Broadwayline was one manned entirely by Columbia students.2 The IRT managementwas delighted that so many athletes had volunteered as strikebreakers, since it consideredtheir physical prowessinvaluablefor the violent clashes with strikersand their allies. BuckWhitwell, six-footexpected three-inch star of the Columbia "eleven," who volunteered as a conductor, boasted that he eagerlyanticipated fighting with his fists. As the EveningPost the were "bigfellows"who could "easilyhold noted admiringly, undergraduates the ticket choppers'gate"againstattacksby strikesympathizers.3 The IRTcompanyalso specificallyappealedto studentsat the New Yorkarea's majorengineeringschools, BrooklynPolytechnic Institute,Stevens Instituteof Technology in Hoboken, N.J., and the engineering colleges at Columbia and It New YorkUniversity, to enlist as strikebreakers. needed them especially to skilledmen involved with the subway's electricalpowersystem,who had replace walked off the job. Many engineeringstudentssigned on as strikebreakers, and several almost immediatelytasted combat. Stories circulatedaroundBrooklyn studentsworkingon the subwayshad "bested Polytechnic Institute that "Poly" roughsa dozen times."4 as theirstrikebreaking part commentedthat the studentsregarded Newspapers of the frivolity of college extra-curricular a "lark" life, equivalent to "stealing signs"or "classnumeralpainting."The collegians were surelynot workingon were struckby the fact the subwaysout of any dire need for money,for observers that many of them wore expensive attire. One policeman, for example, gaped

332

journalof social history

winter 1994

in astonishmentat the $75 overcoat and $6 tan boots of a young man fromthe University of Pennsylvania,up from Philadelphiato breakthe strike.5 Throughoutthe periodbetween 1901 and 1923, college studentsrepresented a major,and often criticallyimportant,sourceof strikebreakers a wide rangeof in industries services.Studentshad manyattributesthat employers and particularly valued. Their youth and strength made them highly suitable for the arduous physical labor usually requiredon the job. Many students also possessedthe kind of expertise much coveted by management. During a strike they often representedthe only availablepool of skilled labor. of Employersconsideredstudents to be the most reliable strikebreakers the were unemployed,or membersof racial or ethnic miera. Most strikebreakers norities shut out of the trade. Many were even transported the strike scene to As without being informedthey were to be used as strikebreakers. workersor formerworkers,they were more likely to develop sympathyfor the strikers,and deserttheir posts. But even studentsat state universitiestended to be relatively affluent,with little or no work experience. Most identifiedwith the privileged in their struggleagainst the workingclass. Collegians deliberatelyvolunteered their services as strikebreakers, and were the group least likely to be swayed that they were doing something by the pleas of strikersand their sympathizers wrong. Finally, students projected an image that was far more presentableto the middle-class public than that of any other group from which strikebreakers were perceivedas a menacing, semiwere drawn.Nearly always,strikebreakers criminalelement, recruitedfrom the lower class. The socialist editor and labor as OscarAmeringerdescribedthe "scabbrigade" composedof "riff-raff, organizer describedthe slumdwellers,rubes,imbeciles[and]college students."6 Journalists in fromWesterntowns to help breakthe 1905 New strikebreakers 1,500 shipped a YorkIRT strike as unkempt lumpenproletarians, "weirdappearinglot," with ... "holes in their shoes,"who "hadnot patronized[barbers] for severaldays."7 Clearly,the studentsstood out as the one groupwith which the middleclasswas comfortable.While the other groupstended to lessen the prestigeof the struck became company,the studentscould enhance it. Thus the studentstrikebreaker a significantfactor in capital'sstruggleagainstlabor. The College Versus the TradeUnion of Students'antagonismto laborwasnot surprising duringthe firstquarter the twentieth century,since college was then an exclusive upperand middle-class preserve, and few who attended had any understandingof the working-class experience. Throughthe 1920s college expenses remainedprohibitivefor most of the workingclass, even at state universitiesand polytechnic institutes.The vast majorityof college youth had adequatefinancialsupportfromtheir parents, and did not need to work.8 By 1900, businessleadersand middle-classparentsconsideredcollege highly importantin providingtheir sons with the higherlevel of trainingthey needed in an increasinglyspecializedand bureaucratic society. Perhapsmost importantly, college benefited the sons of the middle and upperclasses by providingthem

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

333

with the social contacts that facilitated success in businessand the professions aftergraduation.9 Not only was college inaccessibleto workingpeople, but the college culture was foreign as well. The students' world was so different and so distant from that of the worker,that relatively few ever developed any empathy for labor's toil. They often laboredten plight. Workersfaced a life of grim,back-breaking or twelve hoursa day;for most, vacations were unknown.Students,by contrast, evil" and consideredcollege a period regardedacademic work as a "necessary The of"gracefulleisureand gay irresponsibility."10 absenteeism,indolence, and frivolitypermittedin college were never toleratedin the workworld.11 The labor and socialist press were particularly contemptuousof student soand culture. They constantly ridiculedstudents as "rahrah sissies."This ciety term deprecatedstudents'enthusiasmfor frivolousathletic and social pursuits, and denied their masculinity,suggestingthey lacked the maturityand workexperience of "realmen." The labor press also mocked students' indifferenceto tutordetailing learning,publishing,for example, an article by a formerHarvard the methods the "little plutish boys"used to avoid studying.He claimed it was common practicefor studentsto pay tutorsto attend their classesand take their notes, and to write their term papers,while they lay in opulent rooms,beneath "silkensheets."A 1904 editorial in The Worker, revealinglyentitled "The Barbariansof the Schools," asserted:"of intellectual atmospherethere is less ... or on the campusthan in many a Germanbeer-garden ... dingy workingman's LowerEastSide."The New YorkCall clubroomon New York's poverty-stricken claimed that students' conversationsconsisted only of trivialities like, "What Or are our chances to win the ball game next Saturday?" "Howmany positions on the Boardought to come to our frat?"12 The portraitdrawnby these observerswas quite accurate,for most students activities. Not spent the bulk of their time vigorouslypursuingextra-curricular learning,but social and athletic pursuitslay at the heartof"college life"as these students defined it. Eschewingthe solitarylife of the scholar,they spent their time in numerousgroup activities, participatingfrenetically in class "rushes," ribaldparties,and drunkenparadesor riots to celebrate athletic victories. Occasionally they joined their classmatesin building bonfiresin vacant lots, into To which they threwtheirschoolbooksandeffigiesof professors.13 these students, was strikebreaking just another group extra-curricular activity. As newspapers as consistently reported,the studentssaw strikebreaking a "lark." Most college administrators faculty consideredstudents'extra curricular and life frivolousand their behaviorimmature,but they stronglyencouragedstrikeTheir hostility to laborwasthe resultof corporate business'assumption breaking. of financialcontrol over the college and university.By the earlytwentieth century, the boardsof trustees of America's institutions of higher learning "read like a corporatedirectory."14 obvious was big business'influence in higher So educationthat tradeunionistsreferred leadinguniversitiesby nicknamesthat to suggestedthey were mere instrumentsof their wealthydonors:the Universityof Oil Chicago became "Standard University,"Stanfordwas known as "Southern the PacificUniversity," University of Minnesotawas "Pillsbury and University," so on.

334

journalof social history

winter 1994

Many wealthy donors and boardsof trusteesin the early twentieth century displayed little understandingof, or commitment to, academic freedom, and to administrators dismissprofessors with pro-laborviews. While some pressured universitypresidentsbecame amenableto facultytenure in the 1920s, it wasnot could never feel secure.15 institutedon a wide scale until after1938, so professors As Any statementthat displeasedthe donorsor trusteescould resultin dismissal. were common. EdwardBemis, early as the 1890s, firingsof pro-laborprofessors at economics professor the Universityof Chicago, was droppedfromthe faculty in 1895 for publicly criticizing the railroadcorporationsduring the Pullman strike. President William Rainey Harper informedhim: "Yourspeech ... has caused me a great deal of annoyance. It is hardly safe for me to venture into Scott Nearing was fired from the faculty of the any of the Chicago clubs."16 University of Pennsylvaniafor makingpublic speeches againstchild labor.17 In 1919 HaroldLaski,then a young instructorat Harvard,came underfierce attack from prominent donors, alumni, and studentsfor publicly declaringhis a supportforstrikingBostonpolicemen.The Harvard Lampoon, studentpublicaand and tion, calledLaskia "Bolshevik" "scum," ransixteen pagesof anti-Semitic mockinghim. Harvard's poems,parodies,and caricatures president,A. Lawrence Lowell, refusedto fire Laski,but told him, in confidence, that he would never be promoted.Soon after,Laskiresignedhis position at Harvard.18 Manyof the nation'sleadingcollege presidentsrivalledthe corporate"robber barons" their antagonismtowardlabor.CharlesW. Eliot, Harvard's in president from 1869 to 1909, waslabelledin the laborpress"thegreatestlaborunion hater in the country." Eliot openly denouncedthe closed shop and the union label and offeredpanegyricsto the workerwho brokestrikes.In 1904 he pronouncedthe strikebreaker "fairtype of hero,"a man possessedof an abundanceof courage, a who was even "willingto risk his life."Thus throughoutthe 1900s and 1910s, as trade union newspapersregularlyreferredto strikebreakers "Eliotheroes."19 Eliot'ssuccessor,A. LawrenceLowell, aggressivelyrecruitedstudents to break the Boston policemen'sstrike in 1919. Columbia'spresidentNicholas Murray while Yale'spresident Butlerdenounced the strike in generalas "anact of war," Arthur Twining Hadley declared he did not see much hope "as to the good possibilitiesof labororganizations."20 Absorbed in their extra-curricular activities, college students in the early twentieth centuryseemed rarelyto think aboutpolitics, but whenever they did expresstheir views, they tended to be conservativeand anti-labor.Yale'sfreshman class conveyed not only its immaturity,but also its conservatism,in its responseto a speech William JenningsBryandeliveredon their campusduring his 1896 presidentialcampaign."99out of 100 of the studentsof this university," intoned Bryan,"arethe sons of the idle rich."Bryanhad inadvertently called out the class's"magicnumber," and the freshmenshouted down the "GreatCommoner"by booming the class chant "9, 9, 99" over and over again.21Malcolm Ross, who attended Yale in the 1910s, recalled that "9 out of 10" of his fellow students subscribed"to anti-laborattitudeswith fervor," did students at as "Harvard [and]California."There were students who became involved in the burgeoningsettlement house movement,whose sympathieswerewith labor,but these constituted a small minority.More common were those who complained that moder society was "rottenwith altruism."22 Students voted like their fa-

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

335

In thers,althoughnot as often or as enthusiastically. October 1924 a nationwide straw vote among college students showed them to be "overwhelmingly conservative."They backedthe RepublicancandidateCalvin Coolidge even more heavily than did the electorate that November.23 or American Progressives frequentlycomparedthe "reactionary" "apathetic" studentsto their Europeanand Asian counterparts, whom they credited college with makingmajorcontributionsto the liberationmovementsof their countries. In an articleentitled "WhyDon'tYour HaroldLaskiportrayed YoungMen Care?" the American student as the complete opposite of the Europeanand Asian student. The American student was a "non-politicalanimal,"indifferentto the oppressed,whereas the Russian, French, Spanish, and Chinese students had all made "outstandingcontributions"to progressivemovements. (Laski even than the American,although consideredthe Britishstudentsfarmoreprogressive most notably in the 1926 general they on occasion engaged in strikebreaking, strike.) Laskipraisedthe heroism of the Russianstudent, who put his/her life on the line to defeat reaction: "I think of how the one cry which could drive back the Black Hundredsin pre-warRussiato their dens was the cry that the An studentswere coming."24 American socialist travellingto Russiain 1906-07 our noted that "Russian studentsarea seriouslot. They can't understand interest in athletics."25 Even Samuel Gompers,president of the American Federation of Labor,joined in the denunciation of the American collegian, claiming they welcomed the opportunity"to exhibit themselves as scabs."26 To be sure,duringthe 1910s some dissidentvoices were heard in the student ranks. A "Bohemianrevolt" developed on some Easterncampuses,involving such youth asJohn Reed and RandolphBourne,but it focusedlargelyon cultural concerns like modem literatureand avant-gardedrama.There also appeareda smallradicalstudent group,the IntercollegiateSocialist Society (ISS). The ISS was, however, founded and led largelyby nonstudent adults.The twenty-nine yearold novelist JackLondon was elected its presidentat its founding in 1905, and a six-personexecutive committee was establishedthat included only one student. The ISS functioned mostly as a lecture and discussiongroup,and gave In little attention to strikesupport.27 fact, most radicalsconsideredyouth more conservative than adults. Emma Goldman, for example, looking back on the prewarperiod in 1934, claimed that findinga rebel in America underthe age of thirty-fivehad been like coming upon a "pin in a haystack."28 In the 1920s there also appeared national liberalstudentmagazine,TheNew a Student,but it openly admittedthat most collegianswereconservativeand antilabor.Even the greatestliberal crusadeof the 1920s, the movement to defend Sacco and Vanzetti,arousedlittle interest among students.29 From the Fieldhouse to the Roundhouse: Strikebreaking and the Cult of Muscularity Studentsenthusiasticallyembracedstrikebreaking duringthe earlytwentieth century not just to display antagonism to labor but, even more importantly, to prove their manhood. Strikebreaking provided the collegian with his best shortof militarycombat,to test his strengthand nerve, by exposing opportunity, him to severe dangerand providinghim with the opportunityto fight.

336

journalof social history

winter 1994

Bythe turnof the century,America's upperand middleclasses-the classesfrom which the students were drawn-were in the midst of a "crisisof masculinity." Men of the old elite were increasingly anxiousaboutbeing displacedin a rapidly changing and highly competitive society by newly-made and more energetic men of wealth. The genteel norms of their class, the languor that came of theirassertiveness abilityto compete. and beingbor into affluence,undermined They felt ineffectual,even superfluous. Manyreactedby cravingintense, violent experiencesthat providedfeelings of powerand mastery. This gave rise in the upperclass to a "cult of muscularity," emphasison an male virility and the "strenuouslife," typified by America'spresident during the century'sfirst decade, Theodore Roosevelt. It requiredthat men perform daringdeeds, court danger,and undergotests of fortitude-like hunting in the wilderness,and most importantly, participatingin violent sports.30 Justas insecurein its masculinitywas the emergingmiddleclass,white-collar salariat,consisting of clerks,professionals, engineers,and managersin the new Unlike the old "pettybourgeois," these men were not corporatebureaucracies. Insteadthey weresubordiself-employedand controlledno productiveproperty. nates in an elaboratehierarchy,and their initiative was strictlylimited by their Their sedentary, often routinizedworkdid not permitthem the opporsuperiors. to displayany traditionally"masculine" tunity qualities, like strength,courage, and autonomy.Like the old elite, these men compensatedfor their "lossof maslife" culinity"by involvement in the "strenuous and the nation'sviolent sporting culture.31 The upperand middle-classcrisis of masculinitygave rise to the "Muscular Christianity"movement, which commandedsignificant influence by the turn of the century. Protestantismhad become increasinglyfeminized during the nineteenth century;women vastly outnumberedmen in most congregations. Long concerned about their inability to reach adolescent boys and men, some clergymenembracedan exaggeratedmasculinityand stronglyendorsedviolent sports, arguingthat they built character and were consistent with Christian principles.32 Strikebreaking, performedin groups and providing the opportunityfor intense male bonding, served the same purposesas violent sportsand other "daring deeds."And it toughened college youth by introducingthem to the work environment of the working-class male, where the traditionalmasculinequalities remainedentrenched. Indeed, the single attributeof the workingmanthat the upperand middle classesenvied was his masculinity,shown in physicaland drinkingprowessand exposureto dangerat work.33 Earlytwentieth-centurynewspapersand magazinesglamorizedthe courage and rough masculinityof the professionalstrikebreaker, who had emerged as America's"last frontiersman," the "daringof the desperado" with combining the "acumenof the businessman." Men like "Boss" Farley,who specialized Jim in breakingstreetcarstrikes,and Ed Reed, who had played football at Yale in the 1890s, maintained their own private armies, and could send thousandsof "soldiers" acrossthe countryat a moment'snotice to breaka strike.Farleytook greatpridein having takenthe firststreetcarout in a multitudeof strikes,braving "howling," stone-throwingcrowds.By 1905 he had been shot at 100 times, and

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

337

carried a bullet in his body. But, like the marshalon the vanished Western frontier,he stareddown strikerswith "mankiller eyes";his jaw ran "straight... as the barrelof a Colt's forty-five."34 Male college youth devoted a considerableamount of their leisure time to the nation's most violent team sport, football, which had emerged in the elite Easterncolleges duringthe 1880s. Even after the "brutality crisis"of 1905-06, sparkedby a mounting toll of deaths and crippling injuries on the gridiron, forcedrule changes, football remainedan exceedinglydangeroussport.In 1911 a physicianreferred it as "aprizefight multipliedby eleven."35 to Footballwas, in fact, frequentlyequatedwith militarycombat.WalterCamp, the "fatherof football," saw a "remarkable likeness"between "greatbattles" and the "contestsof the gridiron." contemporaries His talked of "fieldgenerals" on and "soldiers" the gridiron;after World War I, football linemen were said to "battlein the trenches."By 1900, college football stadiumsfrequentlycommemoratedthe nation'swardead. Stephen Crane, who had never gone to war, claimed his experienceplayingfootball allowed him to portraymilitarycombat so realisticallyin The RedBadgeof Courage.36 not Collegians became heavily involved in strikebreaking just because they experiencedsevere anxiety about their masculinitybut also becauseadministrators at the turn of the centuryeliminated "canerush"and other campusrituals that had allowed mass student participationin violence. Football was not an adequatesubstitutefor the banned rituals, since it relegatedmost students to the role of passivespectator.By contrast,cane rush,intended to "cementa class union,"had involved nearlythe entire freshmanand sophomoreclasses.It representedthe ultimate test of manlinessat both privateand state colleges during the late nineteenth century.37 contest." Throngs Cane rush had been conceived of as a mass "gladiatorial of students, faculty, and alumni gathered at an open field, which became the The "battleground." contest lasted from five to ten minutes. The freshmanand in sophomoreclasseswereeach arranged a line, with the heaviestmen (Robustae) in the middle. Every man was strippedto the waist, producinga "gladiatorial effect."At the signal, the two lines, consisting of hundredsof students,charged at each other, all reaching for a cane lying halfway between the lines. The object wasfor a class to have moreof its men touching the cane at the end of the contest than the opposingclass.Seconds aftercoming togetherwith a "crash and a crunch,"the combattantsresembled"animmenseoctopuswhose tentacles are humanlegs."Pullers(Avelli),stationedaroundthe edge of the pile, werecharged with reachinginto the massof humanflesh, draggingout opponentsby the legs, and delivering them to the wrestlers(Palustrae).These men then pinned their of captives down for the duration,thus providing"arealisticrepresentation the dead gladiatorsof the Colisseum."Midway through the contest the jumpers (Salturae)entered, springing"high over the mass,"driving "headlonginto the centralpit of heads,"thrustingtheir handstowardthe cane. At the judges'signal, the struggleceased, and the combattantswent to their rooms "displaying their battle scars."Victory gave the winning class the privilege of carryingcanes for the year.38 Not surprisingly,students were often seriously injured in these debacles.

338

journalof social history

winter 1994

Columbia's 1896 cane rush, for example, ended with four students lying on the ground unconscious; one "tossed in convulsions."39By 1905, nearly all colleges and universitiesforbadetheir students from engaging in "this relic of barbarism."40 Other similarlybloody rituals,like Yale's"Passof Thermopylae," were abolished at the turn of the century.Thermopylaehad requiredfreshmen to run the gauntlet between long lines of upperclassmen. class sizes increased,this As became extremelydangerous.41 was Strikebreaking the perfectreplacementfor the banned violent rituals.It providedstudentswith the opportunityfor massparticipation,denied in organizedcollege athletics,and satisfiedtheirpressingneed fora "testof masculinity." And unlike cane rush and Thermopylae,it carriedthe blessingsof college administrators faculties. and The student strikebreaker appearedin 1901, eager to take on a "man's first job" on the docks of San Francisco.University of California at Berkeleystudents, including membersof the "eleven,"boardedthe brig WilliamS. Irwin, desertedby strikers,and unloaded its cargo.One of the athletes remarked that the workallowed the team to "hardenup for football season."None of the students appearedin need of employment;one noted delightedlythat the money he earnedwould be spent on "tobacco ... for many days to come."After a day and a half of labor,excitement, and conditioning, the studentshad finishedtheir task, and left the ship giving the Californiayell.42PresidentBenjaminWheeler of the Universityof California,answeringthe protestof the San Francisco Labor Council againstthe students'strikebreaking, announcedthat he fully supported what his studentshad done.43 In 1903, Great Lakesshippersrecruitedreplacementsfor their strikingship stokersfrom the training camp of one of America'sleading "Muscular Christians,"University of Chicago football and track and field coach Amos Alonzo and Stagg.Severalfootballplayers,high jumpers, sprinters, shot putterswent on boardthree grain ships bound for Buffalo.One of the students summedup his manly adventureby declaring"It was more fun than a track meet." Like Cal's presidentWheeler, Chicago'spresidentWilliam Rainey Harperrejectedlabor's appealthat he orderhis studentsto desist fromstrikebreaking.44 Studentsdemonstrated few months laterthat thereweremassivenumbers a on the campuswilling to risklife and limb for the employingclass, when hundreds answeredthe Minneapolisflourmillers'call for strikebreakers. Among the first to volunteerwere varsityathletes fromthe Universityof Minnesota,who with a "lustyShi-U-Mah"(the Minnesotacheer) formeda wedge,and blastedthrough the picket line at the Pillsbury-Washburmill. Mill representatives establisheda Christian" hiringofficeat the universityYMCA (the nation'sleading"Muscular organization),and by the end of the week, over 100 studentshad "donnedthe white raiment"of the millers and were at work on six-hour shifts. After only a few days, University of Minnesota students made up fully one-quarterof the force.45 strikebreaking While universitypresidentCyrusNorthrupapprovedof the strikebreaking, the school newspaper, Minnesota The Daily, expressedconcern that Minnesota's trade unions might pressurethe state legislatureto deny appropriations the to for university.It arguedthat it was "welland proper" studentsto become strike-

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

339

breakersif they needed the money to pay for school, but stated that "the great majorityare not of this class."But few, if any,were influencedby the Daily'sappeal, and once again college studentswere instrumentalin breakinga strike.46 Yalestudentsin 1903 and 1905 found the opportunityto displaytheir virility by helping to break strikes of team driversand railroadworkers,occupations associatedwith a tough, physicalmasculinity.In 1903 the New Haven Evening noted that "the spectacle of well-dressedcollegianson the seat of drays Register attracted attention wherever they went."47Two years later, Yale contributed 200 students, including severalfootball players,to the New York,New Haven, Yale'spresident and HartfordRailroad,about 15 percent of the strikebreakers. ArthurTwiningHadley supportedthe students'actions both times.48 Collegians learned that strikebreaking providedthe opportunityto imagine at they were "soldiers war"in 1912, when they joined the militia companiessent in to quell the Lawrencetextile strike. Some of the battalions were composed Institute of Technology (MIT) students. entirely of Harvardand Massachusetts Studentsenjoyedthe opportunity precipitateviolence, asthey enthusiastically to disruptedpicketing and strike parades.Militia service also swelled the young collegians' sense of power. MIT'sstudent newspaperclaimed the news of the Tech battalion'sarrivalin Lawrenceso frightened strike leader Joe Ettor that to he counselled "retreat the Hills of WellesleyCollege,"where Professors Vida Scudderand Ellen Hayes had made speeches for the strikers.49 did Student strikebreakers not have to don the militiaman'suniformto feel they were "at war";many strikesprovided a sense of being in a combat zone. During the 1919 New England telephone operators'strike, for example, male sympathizersof the women strikersunleashed probablythe bloodiest assault ever staged against collegians. In riots in the streets of Boston, Cambridge, of Providence,and Malden, which were sparkedby the strikebreaking students from Harvard,MIT, Tufts, and Brown, the working class took its revenge on the collegians, badly mauling several. In Boston, for example, some student strikebreakers were beaten unconscious and one had his teeth knocked out. A union officialin Providencegloatedthat a "goodbeating"administered strike by had to sympathizers convinced some of the student "sapheads" reconsidertheir new careersas strikebreakers.50 The strikingoperatorswagedpsychologicalwarfare againstthe students,who eagerlysoughtto provetheir manhood,by constantlyimpugningtheir masculincalled out "Hellored ity. In Providence,when a BrownUniversity strikebreaker head!" to a young woman on picket duty, she retortedwith contempt, "Hello yellow!"And at the daily strikemeetings in Boston, when pickets reportedthe numberof strikebreakers each exchange, Telephone Operators' at Union president JuliaO'Connor invariablyasked"Menor boys?" The assembledoperators roared"Lizzies!" suggestingthey did not considerthem membersof the male sex. The women operatorsused the same approachto student strikebreakers during the 1923 New Englandtelephone strike, labelling them "powder puffboys" and subjectingthem to applicationsof women'sface powderwhen they left the exchanges.51 The 1919 Boston policemen'sstrikeprovidedstudentswith probably closthe est approximationto the atmosphereof combat for which they longed. Here, students were cast in the role of the "thin blue line" that protected "civiliza-

340

journalof social history

winter 1994

tion" againsthordes of thugs and ruffiansintent on murder, rape, and robbery. Like soldiersat war,the studentswere energizedby massivepublic support;few believed the policemen were justifiedin walking off their jobs when it meant Boston might lapse into barbarism. the atmosphereof hysteriathat prevailed In the "RedScare"of 1919, much of the public also consideredthe students during to be combatantsin the waragainstBolshevism. Over 200 Harvard studentsansweredthe appealof their universitypresident, A. LawrenceLowell, to volunteer as strikebreakers and patrol the streets of had a city againstwhich criminals(and some said"Bolsheviks") declared Boston, with all gatesbarricaded.52 Yard war.Harvard itselftook on a martialatmosphere, The strikebreakers footballteam.Coach Bob includednearlythe entire Harvard Fisherdeclared,"Tohell with football, if the men are needed."53 Like generals visiting their troopsat the front, PresidentLowelland Dean ChesterGreenough Comtouredthe streetsof Boston, offeringencouragementto their students.54 force, the students' intervention prisingfully 15 percent of the strikebreaking was a significantfactor in the patrolmen's defeat. was Reinforcingstudents'feeling that strikebreaking a "testof manhood"was the fact that women collegians almost never participatedin it. This was in partdue to the dangerinvolved, and to women students'aversionto violence. College restrictionson women students' leaving campusalso remainedmuch more stringentthan at men'sschools; as a resultthey were much less confident aboutexploringthe outsideworldthan men were.The WellesleyCollege student newspaperobservedthat "9 out of 10 girlsknow only the shoppingdistrictand theatersand would be quite lost anywherein the city [Boston]."55 In addition, duringthe 1910s women'scolleges were more open to pro-labor views than were men'scolleges, and there wereeven a few casesof strikesupport finallybeby women students.Duringthe decade 1909-19, women'ssuffragism came a massmovement and women'slabormilitancy reached its all-time peak. The suffragists, who commandedsignificantsupportin many women'scolleges, women into their moveplacedconsiderableemphasison drawingworking-class ment. As a result,some college women came into contact with women workers; this exposureled them to develop greatersympathyfor labor.The settlement house movement, in which women studentswere disproportionately involved, instilledpro-laborviews in them, as it drewthem into directcontact with working people. Finally,the Women'sTradeUnion League(WTUL), a coalition of middle-classreformers, includingsettlement house leaders,and workers,established in 1903 to organize workingwomen,developedinfluenceat some women's colleges, although mostly among faculty. Settlement house work and the open-air suffragerallies that began in 1909 encouragedsome women collegians to venture out from"'neath the oaks"into and the publicrealm.In 1909-10, studentsfromVassar, Wellesley,Barnard, Bryn MawrColleges left their campusesto demonstratesolidaritywith New York's striking women garment workers.The collegians raisedfunds, gave speeches, picketed, and observed arrestsin an effort to protect the strikersfrom police brutality.The Wellesley student newspaperopenly announced its supportfor the "Uprisingof the 20,000," noting that the strikerswere "girlsjust our own age."56 Duringthe 1912 Boston Elevatedstrike,Wellesley studentschallenged their

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

341

male counterpartsfrom Harvardand Yale, who signed on as strikebreakers, by rallyingto the carmen'scause. Responding to an appeal from professors Emily Balch and Vida Scudder,both membersof the WTUL, 100 Wellesley students donated $1000 to the strike fund and agreed not to ride the streetcarsuntil the strikewas won. The studentsdonned buttons that read "WeWalk to Help Organizethe Car Men."57 However,the women who engaged in strikesupportworkrepresentedonly a small proportionof the students at women'scolleges, most of whom remained the staunchlyconservative.As late as 1911, studentsat Wellesley,probably most liberalwomen'scollege, voted down women'ssuffrage a campusreferendum in by a nearlytwo to one margin.In 1924 TheNew Student editorialboardemphatically declaredthat the college woman was "highlyconservative."58 Women had little involvement in strikebreaking even in the 1920s, when commitment to reformcauses declined sharply.The 1920s "co-ed"was indeed often willing to defy college rulesthat limited her access to the worldawayfrom the campus,but her energieswere mostly devoted to social activities with men. strike,which occurred Only duringthe 1923 New Englandtelephone operators' during the summer,when the usual opportunitiesfor social interaction with other collegians were not available,did significantnumbersof women students engage in strikebreaking.59 even with pro-labor Workingwomenwerenever comfortable collegians,viewing them as dilettantes and resentingtheir condescension.Helen Taft,daughter of the president,and partof a BrynMawrstudent delegation that came to New Yorkto assistthe garmentstrikersin 1910, gapedat the pickets as though they And were animalsat the zoo, describingthem to reportersas "poorcreatures." with that, she and her partytook off for the opera.60 Workingwomen who had never known childhood, toiling long hours from an early age, perceived the collegians as self-centered and immature,drawn to the labor movement only because they felt bored and saw workersas exotic. They expected that the students would quicklyreturnto lives of frivolityand materialcomfort.New York garmentworkersput on a play that portrayedthe pro-laborcollege woman as a scatter-brained child; a "College Girl"asks WTUL leader Pauline Newman: "Couldyou please tell me all about the labormovement?I must have it for my paperat school. I'd like to organizethe South or something."61 The Engineering Student as Strikebreaker new Engineeringstudentsweredrawninto strikebreaking their profession's by antipathy towardlabor,not just by anxiety over masculinity.The engineering professionwas now elaboratingobjectives that clashed directly with those of trade unions. And the engineering schools had begun to train their students in industrialmanagement as well as in applied science. By the early years of the twentieth century the ideas of FrederickWinslow Taylor,the leading proponent of "scientificmanagement,"had attained wide influence in large-scale industry.For Taylor,efficiency in productionrequiredsystematicmanagement control over all aspectsof production.Engineers,trained in scientific management techniques, restructured work processby determining the "one best the way"to performany task.Their systemunderminedthe autonomyof the crafts-

342

journalof social history

winter 1994

man, and eliminated any workerinitiative. As Taylorhimselfput it, "Underour systemthe workmanis told minutelyjustwhat he is to do and how he is to do it." He and his associateswere generallyantagonisticto the tradeunion, viewing it as protectingworkers'restrictionof output.62Engineersalso made every effort to emphasizetheir social distance from mechanics. By identifyingwith unions they would have blurredthis distinction in status.63 During the early twentieth century,engineering colleges entered into close strikebreakers out of that relationgrew supplying cooperationwith corporations; conductedresearchon a contractualbasisfor industry, ship. Engineeringcolleges often acting like privateconsulting firms.Duringthe 1910s,for example, MIT's electrical engineering departmentdid researchfor American Telephone and Telegraph,the Boston and Maine and the New York,New Haven, and Hartford railroad companies,and variouselectricalcompanies.At the sametime business madeheavy financialcontributionsto engineeringcolleges'researchfacilities.64 While the numberof engineers expanded fivefold between 1900 and 1930, the professionremainedpredominantlythe preserveof native-bornProtestant middleand upper-class men. By 1900 engineeringschools like MIT werealready the elite liberalartscolleges as a traininggroundfor America'scorchallenging porate leadership.In the 1920s, for example, the chief executives of General most powMotors,GeneralElectric,Du Pont, and Goodyear,fourof the world's erfulcorporations, been classmatesat MIT aroundthe turnof the century.65 had in as Engineeringstudentsmadetheir firstappearance strikebreakers the 1901 national machinists'strike, and they made a critical contribution to crushing the walkout in several localities. Steel, automobile,and shipbuildingplants in Chicago and Detroit hired University of Michigan studentsto replacestrikers. The Detroit FreePressnoted that the studentswere attractedby the "element of danger" was certainthey wouldbe "rightin"the fighting.66 and The CrockerWheeler Works in Ampere, N.J., the "stormcentre"of the strike in the New Yorkarea,hired 100 ColumbiaUniversitystudents,with the full approvalof the "A school'spresident,Seth Low.As the FreePressproclaimed: new factorha[d] entered into the battle between capital and labor.It is student labor."67 Since it was extremely difficult to find skilled machinistswilling to replace like strikers,the students were a godsend. Manufacturers R. E. Olds, president of Olds Motor Works,ratedthe workof the student strikebreakers highly.68 In 1913, the skills of engineeringstudentsfrom Stanfordand the University of Californiaat Berkeleyprovedinvaluableto the PacificGas and ElectricComwalked pany after its machinists, electrical and gas workers,and boilermakers out. After the strike was lost, labor leadersconceded that the students'contribution had been critical to the company's victory.David StarrJordan,president of Stanford,and BenjaminWheeler, presidentof the University of California, not only rejectedlabor'sappealthat they ordertheir studentsto returnto their but creditfortheirworkas strikebreakers.69 campuses, gave them a full semester's Engineeringstudents were in the forefrontof the massive collegiate strikebreakingeffortagainstthe railroadworkersin 1920 and 1921, when the student struggleagainstlaborreached its peak. The yearsimmediatelyfollowing World War I constituted a period of unparalleledclass conflict, causing near hysteria among the middle and upper classes. Although the "Red Scare"subsided somewhat after 1919, many affluentAmericansstill equated strikeswith "Bol-

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

343

shevik insurrection."As a result, when railroadworkersthreatened to strike acrossthe East, students volunteered in massive numbersto assist the railroad companies.Likethe Boston policemen'sstrike,these walkoutscreateda sense of public emergency-in this case the threat of food shortagesin majorcities-that resembledthat of wartime.And studentsfound glamorin the dangerof railroad work. recruitedstudents for strikebreaking College and university administrators more openly and aggressively than ever before.At some schools in 1920 nearly as the entire student body answeredthe call for strikebreakers, at MIT,Stevens and Princeton. Institute, Columbia, desiredengineeringstudents to fill in The railroadcorporationsparticularly as engineers, firemen, brakemen, switchmen, and repairmen,although other studentswerehired in some of these positions, and also as trainmenand porters. In 1920 Stevens Institutesuspendedall classesas its studentsrushedto save the railroadsfrom what the school newspapercalled "Bolshevism." MIT's faculty jobs;they stronglyendorsedthe decision of 3,000 studentsthere to take strikers' were certain they could "fillin efficiently."70 Administratorsand the pressacted as though the students were being summoned for military combat. The New York Tribunedeclared that Princeton memoriesof that April dayin 1917 when warwasdeclared." Princeton's "brought presidentJohn GrierHibben notified the PennsylvaniaRailroadthat his undergraduateswere "readyto serve,"and that full academic credit would be given for strikebreaking. Dean HerbertHawkesof Columbiahelped recruit5,000 student strikebreakers telling them they wereneeded to fightan "insurrectionary by movement."71 The railroadcorporationsfully appreciatedthe students'valuable contribution to breaking the strike less than ten days after they began volunteering. and and "aptitude" declaredthey were Corporationheads praisedtheir "vigor" a "marvelto their supervisory officers."72 The colleges went a step furtherthe next year, establishingspecial courses in railroadengineering on the campusesto help breakthe strike. MIT led the work.The Boston and Maine way,introducingthe first"shortcourse"in railroad for whom MIT had long done consultingwork,placed a railroadtrack Railroad, and a passengercar on campusfor use in instructingstrikebreakers.73 Harvard establisheda similarcourse for 700 student strikebreakers. Engineeringprofessors at Johns Hopkins University had no difficultypersuadingtheir students to gain "practicalexperience"in railroading,which they claimed would prove more valuable than "theoreticalwork."74 Williams, the student newspaper At clamoredfor the college to set up special coursesin railroadengineering.75 This vast armyof students,readyto don overallsfor the corporations, helped underminethe unions' resolve. The railroadbrotherhoodscalled off the strike before it began.

Students continued to engage in strikebreakingafter the early 1920s, but never on a scale resemblingthat of the firsttwo decades of the twentieth century.Labor'squiescence from the early 1920s to the early 1930s providedfew

344

journalof social history

winter 1994

but opportunitiesfor strikebreaking, the tradeunion movement experienceda dramaticrevival after 1933. The most prominent case of student strikebreaking during the 1930s occurredduringthe 1934 San Franciscolongshoremen's strike,when a sizeablecontingent fromthe Universityof Califoria at Berkeley's football team, at their coach'surging,went to workon the docks.University of Southern Californiafootball playersalso took strikers'jobs on the San Pedro docks. HarryBennett, the ex-navy boxer who headed FordMotor Company's "Service Department,"a private army of thugs whose purposewas to spy on workersand beat up union organizersand strikers,also hired college athletes from the University of Michigan.76 the However, the Great Depression transformed campusesin ways that diminished strikebreaking's many appealto students. Forone thing it radicalized students, instilling sympathyfor labor'splight. Beginning in 1932, when several busloads of collegians left the campus of Columbia University to bring aid to strikingminers in Harlancounty,Kentucky,studentson many campuses And more working-class demonstratedsolidaritywith strikers.77 youth enrolled in college during the 1930s, who were less likely to engage in strikebreaking than their more affluent counterparts.Hard times also turned students away from frivolousextra-curricular towardgreaterempursuits,like strikebreaking, on academics.Facultymembers,with greaterjob securityafterthe onset phasis views of the tenuresystemin the late 1930s,weremorelikely to impartpro-labor to their students. But most importantly, studentstrikebreaking declined in the decadesafterthe early 1920s because of the shift on campusesfrom a homosocial to a heterosocial leisurelife. The proportionof studentsattending coeducationalresidential institutions increaseddramaticallyin the 1920s, so that they enrolled nearly two-thirdsof all college and universityyouth. In fact, the term for woman colwith men and lege studentbecame "co-ed."Insteadof men socializingprimarily women with women, college social life centeredaroundheterosocialactivitiesof and like "playand pleasure," dating,dancing,and fraternity sororityparties.This was the case even at single sex colleges, where social life focused on weekend encounterswith studentsof the other sex fromother schools.78Strikebreaking, performed men in groups,an activity of intense male bonding,diminishedas by homosociabilitydeclined. College men continued to engage in frivolousextracurricularactivities in the decades after 1920, but these focused much more on interactions with women than on contacts with each other. The changing secularbase, more than shifts in collegiate politics or class base, ended the era. strikebreaking Department History of Norman,OK 73019-0535 ENDNOTES I wouldliketo express appreciation Eunice Pollack, to H. G. Robert Zieger, the and my two anonymous for funded referees theirvaluable comments. Research partially was by a University Oklahoma of Summer from Research and Junior Faculty Fellowship a grant Council. the University Oklahoma of Research

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

345

1. New YorkJournal,7 March 1905; New York EveningPost, 7 March 1905; Daily People,8 March 1905. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. New YorkHerald,8 March 1905; New YorkWorld,8 March 1905. New YorkEvening Post, 7 March 1905; New YorkJournal,11 March 1905. BrooklynDailyEagle,9 March 1905. New York Post, 7 March 1905. Journal,7 March 1905; New YorkEvening The Lumberjack [Alexandria,La.],30 January1913. BrooklynDailyEagle,7 March 1905.

8. Median parentalincome for the 1920s at privatecolleges was about $5,000, and at state universitiesabout$3,000, farmore than even skilledworkersearnedin a year.Colin B. Burke,American A View(New York,1982), Collegiate Populations: Testof theTraditional American Youth the 1920s (New York, in p. 228; PaulaFass,TheDamnedandtheBeautiful: 1977), pp. 134-35. By the 1890s the state universitieshad shifted their focus to trainingbusinessmenand and ratherthan plain farmers mechanics,leadingmany to chargethat they professionals, had become "dudefactories." OscarHandlin and MaryF Handlin, Facing and Life:Youth theFamilyin American History(Boston, 1971), p. 189. 9. Robert Wiebe, The Search Order,1877-1920 (New York, 1967), p. 121; James for Hulme Canfield,The CollegeStudent His Problems and (New York,1902), p. 83. 10. Fass,Damnedand Beautiful,p. 172; SeymourDeming, The Pillarof Fire:A Profane Baccalaureate (Boston, 1915), p. 28. 11. ChristopherJencks and David Riesman, The AcademicRevolution(Garden City, N.Y., 1968), p. 49. 12. California 30 24 Social-Democrat, March 1912; The Worker, February 1904; The Call [New YorkCall], 24 August 1919. Magazine 13. Samuel Eliot Morison, ThreeCenturies Harvard,1636-1936. (Cambridge,MA, of 1946), p. 401; New YorkHerald,30 May 1903. 14. The University of Chicago, for example, was establishedlargelyas a resultof a $34 million gift fromJohn D. Rockefeller,founderof the StandardOil Company;Stanford University received $24 million from the estate of the Southern PacificRailroadhead. in Walter P. Metzger,AcademicFreedom theAge of the University (New York,1955), pp. The and 139, 141. See alsoJ. E. Kirkpatrick, American (New York,1926), College its Rulers pp. 96, 99-100. 15. Metzger,Academic and Freedom, 213; MauriceCaullery,Universities Scientific p. Life in the UnitedStates(Cambridge,MA, 1922), p. 53. 16. Metzger, Academic Freedom, 153. p. 17. BudSchultzandRuth Schultz,It DidHappen Here:Recollections Political of Repression News [Worcester, in America(Berkeley,1989), pp. 8-9; Labor MA], 10 September1915. 18. Isaac Kramnick,"The Professorand the Police," HarvardMagazine,SeptemberOctober 1989, pp. 42, 44; Harvard Lampoon,16 January1920.

346

journalof social history

winter 1994

19. International Brotherhood Teamsters, and November Chauffeurs, Stablemen, Helpers, of 1914, p. 8; Henry James, CharlesW. Eliot:President HarvardUniversity,1869-1909, of and Volume 2 (Boston, 1930), pp. 154-56; Hugh Hawkins, BetweenHarvard America: TheEducational W Eliot's Leadership Charles Eliot(New York,1972), p. 151;"President of Latest,"The WeeklyBulletinof theClothing Trades,12 February 1904, p. 11 in Box 298, CharlesW. Eliot Papers,HarvardUniversityArchives, PuseyLibrary, MA. Cambridge, 20. Morison, ThreeCenturies,p. 466; Nicholas MurrayButler,Across the Busy Years: and Vol. 2 (New York, 1940), p. 365; Arthur Twining Hadley Recollections Reflections, to Paul Kennaday,23 February 1905, Box 107, ArthurTwiningHadley Papers,Sterling YaleUniversity,New Haven, CT. Library, 21. Henry Seidel Canby,American Memoir(Boston, 1947), pp. 144-45. 22. Malcolm Ross, Deathof a YaleMan (New York,1939), p. 377; "Diaryof Algernon Lee," 17 May 1916, Reel 58, Socialist PartyPapers,Duke University Library, Durham, NC. Lee, while expecting college students to be "prettyignorant,"expressedshock at hearingstudentsmake this complaint when he lecturedat New YorkUniversity. 23. Fass,DamnedandBeautiful, 343; "CollegeWomen Not RadicalBut Highly Conp. servative,"The New Student,1 November 1924, p. 1. 24. HaroldLaski,"WhyDon't YourYoungMen Care?The Political Indifferenceof the American Undergraduate," July 1931, pp. 129, 133. Harper's Magazine, 25. Albert Edwards,"The Spirit of the Russian Student,"The Intercollegiate Socialist, October-November 1913, pp. 14, 25. 26. Samuel Gompers, "Editorial: The Students' Debasement,"AmericanFederationist, April 1905, pp. 217-18. 27. At its peak in 1917, the ISS boastedno more than 60-70 undergraduate chapters. MorrisHillquit, LooseLeavesFroma BusyLife (New York,1934), p. 61; Lewis S. Feuer, The Conflictof Generations (New York,1969), pp. 342-44. 28. John Chalberg,EmmaGoldman: American Individualist (New York,1991), p. 170. 29. CharlesDenby, "MereMan and Student,"TheNew Student,30 December 1922, p. " 1924, p. 7; "College 1;WilliamRoss,"StudentandWorker, TheNew Student,2 February The Women Not RadicalBut Highly Conservative," New Student,1 November 1924, p. 1; Feuer,Conflict,p. 351. in 30. Elliot J. Gom, The ManlyArt: Bare-Knuckle Prize-Fighting America(Ithaca, NY, Male Desireand the 1986), pp. 185-91; Michael C. C. Adams, The Great Adventure: WarI (Bloomington, IN,1990), pp. 36-37, 43. Comingof World Middle Classes 31. Gom, ManlyArt, p. 192;C. WrightMills, WhiteCollar:TheAmerican (New York,1951), pp. 75, 98-99. 32. Gor, Manly Art, p. 180; Benjamin Rader,AmericanSport:Fromthe Age of Folk Gamesto theAge of Televised Sport(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ, 1990), pp. 24-25, 215. 33. PeterN. Steams, Be A Man! Malesin Moder Society(New York,1979), pp. 59, 77. as Public 34. William BrownMeloney,"Strikebreaking a Profession," Opinion,25 March Leslie's 1905, pp. 440-41; B. T. Fredericks, Monthly Maga"James Farley,Strikebreaker," zine, May 1905, p. 108; San FranciscoChronicle,15 May 1907.

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

347

35. MorrisJosephClurman,"The American Game of Football:Is it a Factorfor Good or Evil?" Medical Record (7 January1911): 19. 79 36. E. Anthony Rotundo, AmericanManhood:Transformations Masculinity of from the Revolution theModemEra (New York,1993), p. 240; RobertaJ. Park,"Physiology to and Anatomy are Destiny?!Brains,Bodies, and Exercisein Nineteenth Century American Thought, "Journal SportHistory18 (Spring 1991): 32. of 37. MalcolmTownshend,"A Cane Rush"in Norman W. Bingham,Jr.,ed., The Bookof Athletics Out-of-Door and Sports(Boston, 1895), p. 296. 38. Ibid., pp. 226-36. 39. New YorkHerald,25 October 1896;New YorkTribune, October 1896. 25 40. The Triangle,19 December 1901, University Archives, Bobst Library, New York University,New York,NY. 41. Arthur Twining Hadley to Henry ParksWright, 9 May 1900, Box 1, Henry Parks Yale University,New Haven, CT; YaleDaily News, 18 Wright Papers,Sterling Library, May 1903. 21 42. San Francisco Wheeler Dodges,"Coast Examiner, and 22 August 1901;"President Seamen's Journal,11 September1901, p. 2. to CoastSeamen's 43. "Labor the University," Journal,28 August 1901, p. 10; "President Wheeler Dodges, " Coast Seamen's Journal,11 September1901, p. 2. 44. Chicago Tribune, 13,14,17, and 18 April 1903;Chicago Socialist,11 April 1903. 11, 26 45. TheMinnesota Daily, 26 and 29 September1903;MinneapolisJournal, September 1903. 46. MinneapolisJournal,28 September1903; The Minnesota Daily, 1 October 1903. 11 47. New Haven Evening Register, May 1903. 19 26 48. New YorkTribune, February 1905;TheWorker, February 1905;ArthurTwining 23 Hadleyto H. S. Nicholls, 9 May 1903, Box 104 and Hadleyto PaulKennaday, February YaleUniversity. 1905, Box 107, Hadley Papers,Sterling Library, 49. New York Call, 31 January 1912;LaborNews,10 February 1912;TheTech,2 February Instituteof Technology,Cambridge, MA. 1912, MIT MuseumCollection, Massachusetts 50. Stephen H. Norwood, Labor's Youth: and MiliTelephone Flaming Operators Worker tancy, 1878-1923 (Urbana, 1990), pp. 189-90. 51. Ibid., pp. 189, 285. 52. "Announcement of A. Lawrence Lowell," 9 September 1919, Folder 1087, A. LawrenceLowell Papers,HarvardUniversity Archives, Pusey Library; "Harvard Men in the Boston Police Strike,"School Society,11 October 1919, p. 425. and 53. Boston EveningGlobe, 9 September 1919. Even more students would have volunfall teered, but Harvard's termdid not begin for anotherweek. The football team arrived The 1919 BostonPoliceStrike(New York,1975), early.FrancisRussell,A City in Terror: pp. 142-43.

348

journalof social history

winter 1994

12 54. Boston Evening Transcript, September1919. 55. Wellesley 1911. CollegeNews, 15 February 56. The phrase"'neath the oaks"is from MaryBamett Gilson, What'sPast is Prologue WhenWorkers New York (New York,1940), p. 10;Melvyn Dubofsky, Cityin the Organize: Era Violence: Progressive (Amherst, 1968), pp. 55, 83; GrahamAdams,Jr.,Ageof Industrial TheActivities Findings theUnitedStates and Commission Industrial on Relations (New York, of 1966), p. 109;Indianapolis News, 20 January 1910, clipping,WellesleyCollege Archives, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; Wellesley MargaretClapp Library, CollegeNews, 26 January1910. Science 6 57. Harvard Crimson,13 June 1912;Christian Monitor, and 10 June 1912;New York Times,10 June 1912. 58. Wellesley 1911;"CollegeWomen Not RadicalBut Highly News, 15 February College Conservative,"The New Student,1 November 1924, p. 1. 59. Norwood, Labor's Youth, 283-84. Flaming pp. 60. Adams, Industrial Violence,p. 109; New York Times, 16 January1910. 61. Untitled play, n.d., p. 4 in New YorkWomen'sTradeUnion LeaguePapers,New YorkState Departmentof LaborLibrary, New York,NY. 62. ChristopherLasch,"Forward" David Noble, Americaby Design:Science,Technolto (New York, 1977), p. xii; David Montgomery, ogy, and the Riseof Corporate Capitalism Workers' Controlin America:Studiesin theHistoryof Work,Technology, LaborStrugand America, gles (New York,1979), pp. 26-27; Daniel Rodgers,The WorkEthicin Industrial 1850-1920 (Chicago, 1978), p.55. 63. Noble, Americaby Design,p. 41. 64. Ibid., pp. 139, 144. 65. Ibid., pp. 39, 51. 66. Detroit FreePress, 15 June 1901. 67. New YorkHerald,3 June 1901; TheWorker, October 1901;Detroit FreePress,15 27 June 1901. 68. Detroit FreePress, 16 June 1901. 69. San FranciscoChronicle,12 May 1913; Upton Sinclair,The Goose-Step: Studyof A Academic Education (Pasadena,CA, 1922), p. 135. 70. TheStute[Studentnewspaper Stevens Instituteof Technology],5 May 1920;New of YorkTribune,14 April 1920; PhiladelphiaInquirer, April 1920. 14 71. New York 14 14 Tribune, April 1920;DailyPrincetonian, and 15 April 1920;Columbia 15 Spectator, April 1920. 72. The Stute,5 May 1920. Collegians fromLehigh (an engineeringschool), Lafayette, Franklinand Marshall,Swarthmore, Universityof Pennsylvania,and Rutgers,especially engineeringstudentsand athletes, joined those from MIT,Stevens Institute, Princeton, and Columbia in helping to breakthe strike. PhiladelphiaInquirer, April 1920;New 14 YorkTribune,14 April 1920.

THE STUDENT AS STRIKEBREAKER

349

Review23 (November 1921): 73. "The Institute and the RailroadStrike,"Technology 585; The Tech,28 October 1921, MIT MuseumCollection. 74. HarvardCrimson,24 October 1921; New York Times, 19 October 1921; Baltimore Sun, 18 October 1921. The New YorkTimesnoted that Johns Hopkins students had "volunteeredand performedefficient service" during a railroadstrike in the autumn of 1919. They held down every job on the regularruns from Baltimoreto New York, and Times,19 Philadelphia,Harrisburg, Washington except that of engineer.New York October 1921. 25 75. Williams Record,22 October 1921; North Adams [MA] Evening Transcript, October 1921. on and in 76. BruceNelson, Workers theWaterfront: Seamen,Longshoremen, Unionism the 1930s (Urbana,1988), pp. 133, 169;LloydMorris,Not So LongAgo (New York,1949), p. The 361;John McCarten,"TheLittle Man in HenryFord's Basement," American Mercury, May 1940, pp. 8-10. 77. Feuer,Conflict,p. 353. in From 78. Fass,DamnedandBeautiful, 130, 205; MaryRyan,Womanhood America: pp. ColonialTimesto thePresent(New York,1983), p. 220.