© 2002 Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
United States. President's Mediation Commission. Records, 1917-1919.
Collection Number:
5751 mf
Creator:
United States. President's Mediation Commission.
Quantity:
3 microfilm reels.
Forms of Material:
Microfilm.
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Included are all of the Commission's records housed in the National Archives; these are, however, incomplete and officially
described as fragmentary. This collection consists mainly of testimony of witnesses before the Commission in hearings held
in Globe, Clifton, and Bisbee, Arizona and in Salt Lake City, Utah. Also included are reports, correspondence, and other general
materials of the Commission.
Language:
Collection material in English
ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY
The President's Mediation Commission represented a partial federal response to two aspects of wartime labor policy: 1) the
spreading wave of strikes which interfered with the production of goods deemed vital to the war effort, and 2) the growth
of labor radicalism associated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) which precipitated widespread state and local
repression of labor's rights.
On the urging of A.F. of L. President Samuel Gompers and of Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, the Commission was appointed
by President Woodrow Wilson on Sept. 19, 1917. The Commission consisted of two representatives of management, two labor officials
and Chairman William Wilson. Most important in establishing the guidelines on which the Commission operated was Felix Frankfurter,
appointed as Commission secretary. These included the promotion of A.F. of L.-style trade unions and industrial democracy
and the elimination of "subversive" IWW locals.
Among the areas investigated by the Commission were the copper mining areas of Arizona and Montana, the lumber industry of
the Pacific Northwest, telephone operators in San Francisco and packinghouse workers in Chicago. The Commission's findings
were subsequently published as a special bulletin by the Dept. of Labor.
COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
Included are all of the Commission's records housed in the National Archives; these are, however, incomplete and officially
described as fragmentary. This collection consists mainly of testimony of witnesses before the Commission in hearings held
in Globe, Clifton, and Bisbee, Arizona and in Salt Lake City, Utah. Also included are reports, correspondence, and other general
materials of the Commission.
Witnesses include representatives of various trades as well as local businessmen, mine operators, and citizens' groups, notably
the Loyalty League and the Citizens' Protective League. The testimony includes discussions of labor relations and strikes,
primarily involving western mining companies, the Bisbee, Arizona deportation of IWW members, longshoremen, lumbering, farm
labor, and railroads, as well as legislation and union relations with law enforcement agencies.
SUBJECTS
Names:
United States.
Boehm, Randolph.
Dubofsky, Melvin, 1934-.
Industrial Workers of the World.
Subjects:
Anarchism--United States.
Anarchists--United States.
Deportation--United States.
Governmental investigations--United States.
Labor policy--United States.
Subversive activities--United States.