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CHAPTER FIVE LABOR AS THE ALIEN OTHER – Ed Sebesta 10/10/2020 Sumners opposition to the foreign born, that is immigrants from Europe, labor unions, specifically the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.), civil rights for African Americans, and radicalism are all intertwined. His opposition to New York U.S. House Congressional Representative Vito Marcantonio, and clashes with him, and Marcantonio’s campaign for labor, African American civil rights, and immigrants is where all these things come together and Marcantonio is the personal manifestation of all of Sumners’ racist nightmares. ANGLO-SAXONISM Anglo-Saxonism is the belief that the British are Anglo-Saxon and there is a common Anglo-Saxon civilization of English speaking peoples. It also is the idea that some Europeans are superior to others. These racial theories can include Dutch, Scandinavians, and German nationalities in this superior racial group. This superior national group existed in opposition to Latins (Italians, French, Spanish, and Portuguese) and Slavic groups in Eastern Europe and other nationalities. Sumners included Germans in his superior group in his multiple speeches quoting Tacitus’ commentary on the ancient Germans as the origin of his fantasized AngloSaxon origins for the constitution. In a 1907 DMN article reports: Hatton W. Sumners, who recently returned to Dallas, states that the thing which most impressed him is the strength and unity of the German people. Mr. Sumners made a study during his tour of the European system of jurisprudence. “The Germans are freer from the evidences of decay than any other people whom I saw,” said Mr. Sumners. “Civilizations seemed old and tired in many sections, but in Switzerland, Holland and Germany there is a rugged strength, and just now an industrial activity which could hardly be expected in countries so old and crowded.” It isn’t the national policies of these individual governments which result in success, it is a racial aspect which is common to these nations and of which there isn’t “evidence of decay.”1 However, in a 1907 Farm and Ranch article, of a series of accounts which he wrote while traveling but were published after his return reveal Sumners’ concerns that he feared that the Germans would decay. He writes
1
No author, “Round About Town,” DMN, Sept. 16, 1907, page 14.
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The German nation has a solidity and compactness peculiar to itself. Its 65,000.000 people live in a territory some sixty thousand odd square miles less than that of Texas. Its army, its industries, its very national sentiment is solid and compact – Germanic to the core. Whether the stolid German character will weaken under the rapidly increasing wealth of Germany is a question, the answer to which will determine the matter of Germany’s supremacy on this side of the Atlantic. If she can preserve this character, within fifty years she can challenge the combined powers of Europe. My own opinion is that that character will be weakened. Luxury and idleness have always followed great wealth; close behind them has come decay. It seems to me that deteriorating influences are already at work.2 Though what might suggest to Sumners that decay is underway isn’t explained by him. Given that his future nemesis was born in the United States to two immigrant parents from Sicily, Italy, it would be instructive to read what Sumners thought of Italians. A letter of his observations of Italians was published in the Farm and Ranch in 1907 in which he shared his observations as follows: Most of you have seen Italians of the class of which I have written, working on our railroads and engaged in other similar employment. You have perhaps unconsciously formed an opinion of the Italian people and nation, from these. If so, your doubtless have an erroneous opinion. I have been forced to modify my opinion of the people as a whole, although I have written only of this class because it is only with this class we are concerned. However, as this is the last letter I shall write with reference to conditions in Italy, I will try to remove any incorrect impression which may have been created by what I have written. [The author can’t review the other articles in this series since the Dallas Historical Society is closed at the time of this writing. 8/15/2020.] Sumners goes on to explain what he sees are the differences between the northern and southern regions of Italy explaining the relative prosperity of the northern section versus impoverished southern sections. There seems to me to be three chief reasons for the difference which exists between these sections; they are difference of fertility of soil, in climate and racial differences; and there might be added, the proximity of northern Italy to the progressive sections of the more northern Europe, and the comparative isolation of southern Italy.
2
Sumners, Hatton W., “German Politeness,” Farm and Ranch, Oct. 19, 1907, Vol. 26 No. 42, page 1.
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After describing the poverty in Sicily and the intense agricultural efforts for meager rewards, he then states, “There are also vast social differences between the Italians of the South and of the North.” The first “vast difference” he seeks to describe are racial differences as follows: The Greeks originally colonized much of Southern Italy. They brought into the country captives and slaves from various quarters. It was the Romans, however, who did more towards mixing the blood of this section. It is claimed on very good authority that the peasantry of Southern Italy are largely the descendants of slaves brought from every quarter during Roman ascendancy, mixed, of course, with the old Roman stock. That would mean that these people are a mixture of Greek, Roman, Spanish, Saracens and other peoples. In the north of Italy the French and German blood predominates. The Italians in the southern regions are degraded by their poverty. Describing the efforts to make agricultural land through terracing he explains: Yet, I have seen many acres here where that has been done, and the soil has been largely built up behind the walls from dirt carried on the backs of men, women, and children. Where such a condition as this exists, it can be readily appreciated how supreme is the position of those who have control of the land, and how dependent the condition of those who have been too ignorant to know where to go to better their condition, and too poor to go, even should they know of such a place, and yet have continued to increase in numbers. There is no race suicide among this class of Italians. The climate has, of course, played its part. Hot climates have always tended toward intellectual as well as physical inactivity. For northern Italy Sumners explains, “… the body of her people will not suffer greatly by comparison with many other peoples …” After explaining the governmental system of Italy, Sumners than opens up a new topic on Italians who he thinks are undesirable are immigrating to the United States. Doubtless you would like to have explained why only that class least fitted for American citizenship comes to America. I have given a good deal of time to this phase, and while I may not be correct in my conclusions, I have arrived at an opinion which it seems to me is sound. Sumners presumes that his readers agree with him that Italian immigrants to America are undesirable. Sumners explains that the “educated Italian” and “peasants” in Northern Italy have opportunities and can do better in Italy than in the United States. Sumners then writes, “Now then, we come to the peasant of the South, and the inquiry there is not why do they come, but why do they come in such large numbers.”
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Sumners sees forces working to push large scale immigration because he doesn’t think these peasants are otherwise not cognitively able to decide to immigrate on their own. Sumners explains: But their surroundings, bad as they are, do not explain the coming of these people. Unsolicited they would hardly know that such a country as America exists. Unaided they could not positively go there. There are two prime factors in the promotion of their emigration – the steamship companies and large American contractors. Sumners explains that there are Italian laws to prevent “artificial emigration” but that steamship companies make a lot of money from immigration and the laws are circumvented by contractors. It doesn’t occur to Sumners that the driving force is that these Southern Italians recognize the opportunities to escape grinding poverty for a better life for themselves and their children in America and that they are able to realize them through the demand for labor in America and the financial arrangements provided to get there. Instead it is some type of operation of financial interests luring individuals who otherwise would not go.3 In his mind, Sumners sees his Anglo-Saxon America being polluted by Southern Italians which their impure blood, Vito Marcantonio would be the manifestation of all his fears of these immigrants. IMMIGRATION & LABOR Sumners was outspoken about immigration early in his career. Notable is the same article on Sept. 16, 1907 DMN in which having returned to Dallas from a trip you Europe Sumners made the following comments. Sumners see Europe as having conserved resources and America having squandered them. In this commentary he makes known his views on immigration. (Boldface added.) We have gone so crazy in this regard that we call the man a fogy who dares to suggest that iron, coal and petroleum deposited in the earth are as valuable as gold deposited in the bank, and the virgin forests and fertile soil which may be enjoyed by coming generations of America, are just as good as exhausted farms and crowded cities thronged by a mongrel people. … but I know that something should be done to keep the present generation from robbing unborn generations of their share of our country’s wealth and from bring into this country the scum of Europe to compete with our working me today and to contaminate our body politic through the years to come. I don’t 3
Sumners, Hatton W., “People and Conditions in Italy,” Farm and Ranch, August 17, 1907, page 15. “Saracen” is a now obsolete term for people of the Middle East.
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want to be understood as objecting to honest, intelligent, selfrespecting immigrants who come to live among and be one of us. At least half of those coming are not of this class, and they are being brought to America directly and indirectly in violations of our laws.4 Sumners expands on the topic of resource plundering and foreign workers in an April 1908 Farm and Ranch article, titled, “Immigration to America: Aliens Imported to Help Plunder Our Resources Under the Name of Development.” In this article Sumners elaborates on his fear of European immigrants. The ideas of this article are the basic ideas behind anti-immigration sentiment in the 21st century. Sumner opens with: “America, the asylum of the oppressed of every land” – with this holy sentiment upon their lips, but all-consuming greed in their hearts, men are sending their emissaries throughout the world and at the rate of over one hundred thousand per month, men, women and children are being brought to America, not that they may be given greater liberty and may be the means of bringing greater happiness to those who live in the United States in the United States. They are imported just like work mules are imported into the sugar districts of Louisiana … These immigrants are seen by Sumners as being deficient since he feels that the “captains of industry” who seek immigrants don’t: He does not peer into their faces to see whether there are indications of character there, and whether there gleams in their eyes the look of intelligence and love for this land which would indicate a fitness to share with him the sublime privileges and great duties of American citizenship. No, he is not concerned about these things. Not intelligence and independence, but weakness, submission and dependence; not brain, but brawn interests him. Not whether they will make good citizens, but good laborers in his concern; not whether they will serve this country well in the discharge of their civic duties, but whether they will serve him well; not whether they will get good wages and will build for themselves comfortable homes and become in time public spirited citizens, … Sumners condemns societies created to encourage immigration into the Southern states and warns that all the resources are being consumed so the future is going to be deprived. But he links this to fear of immigration. We are so afraid that we won’t be able to do enough of this infamous work in our own life-time, by ourselves, that we must bring the very scum of all creation to help us rob, whom? Our own posterity. Think of that. Think of it a long time. 4
No author, “Round About Town,” DMN, Sept. 16, 1907, page 14.
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Think of it until you realize that it not some hideous dream which has come unbidden to disturb your slumbers... 5 [Boldface added.] This fear and dread of immigrant labor would be present and manifest in his rhetoric throughout his career. In 1908 a commission sent to collect information and testimony on farm life by congress was in Texas and as reported in a Nov. 1908 DMN article, Sumners spoke to them. Sumners was concerned that young people in the country were being directed towards the city and ought to stay in the country. This he thought would turn about because as there was the “realization came that the overpopulated cities afforded, as compared with the farm, only a hard and meager living.” In regarding farms Sumner discusses immigration. The “labor” problem Mr. Sumners attributed to the tendency of many farmers to leave all work to the hired hands, instead of themselves toiling. He thought that the immigration of Italians, Bohemians, Roumanians and others threatened the standard of the people. What this labor problem was is not defined in the article.6 In a Nov. 29, 1919 DMN article, “Foreign-Born Cause of Labor Troubles,” the article opens with: Labor troubles in the United States are being caused by people brought here because Americans were not willing to do the menial work in this country, Congressman Hatton W. Sumners said in an address to the members of the Lion Club at the weekly luncheon meeting in the palm garden of the Adolphus Hotel yesterday. Mr. Sumners cited the negro as an example of how people brought here for labor had resulted in a problem. Any person living in this country who is not willing to call the United States his homeland has no right to remain here, Mr. Sumner said, as the Nation was founded on the idea of its being the homeland of its inhabitants. This second part implies that this troublesome “foreign born” labor might not think of itself as American and hence not be American.7
5
Sumners, Hatton, W., “Immigration to America: Aliens Imported to Help Plunder Our Resources Under the Name of Development.” Farm and Ranch, Vol. 27 No. 16, April 18, 1908, pages 1,2. Weekly newspaper published in Dallas, Texas by 6 No author, “Request for Communications,” DMN, Nov. 21, 1908, page 4. 7 No author, “Foreign-Born Cause of Labor Troubles,” DMN, Nov. 29, 1919, page 4.
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In a March 20, 1924 letter to George W. Walton, HWS expresses this fear of immigration: Government in this country rests upon the private citizens. Each one has his share of the weight of governmental responsibility to bear. It is an unwise public policy to admit into the body of our citizenship people unable to bear their share of governmental responsibility and it is also true that large groups of unassimilated peoples in the body of a citizenship causes trouble the same as indigested and unassimilated food in the human body causes trouble.8
CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS (C.I.O) With the story of Hatton Sumners the issues of race, anti-immigrant prejudice, labor unions, civil rights and his reputation as a supposed constitutional scholar are all entangled together as a part of Sumners and business interests forming an alliance of white supremacists and business interests against the New Deal. To understand these intertwining issues some of the separate components need a historical backdrop and to do this the section, “Congress of Industrial Organizations,” in this paper is written. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was for unionization along craft lines and was dismissive or in opposition to industrial unionization. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) is seen as starting with a speech at the AFL national convention on Oct. 19, 1935 by John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers (UMW) denouncing William L. Hutchison of the Carpenters Union and in another conflict there resulted in a fist fight in which Lewis knocked to the floor Hutchison. On Nov. 5, 1935 the Committee of Industrial Organizations was formed and latter would be known as the Congress of Industrial organizations. Another reason for its founding was that it saw the AFL as being too cautious.9 One major difference between the AFL and the CIO was their approach to racial discrimination. The AFL largely was a collection of unions that were appalling in their racist policies as was the AFL in general was, nor did they support non-discrimination in employment other than the most meaningless ineffective resolutions. When at their 1943 convention when A. Phillip Randolph denounced the racism of AFL unions they in turn denounced Randolph as a “professional Negro.”10 The AFL didn’t undertake to fight
8
HWS to George W. Walton, letter, March 20, 1924, DHS Box 71.1.13. Zieger, Robert H., “The CIO, 1935-1955,” Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 1995, Chapter 2 covers the founding, The day of the speech and the fight, pages 22-23. Founding date, page 29. Initial name of CIO page 24. 10 Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” International Publishers, New York City, 1981, page 251. 9
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“hate strikes,” that is strikes by white unionists to prevent African Americans from being allowed either work at a place or work at higher occupational levels. In one case at least they were working with hate strikers. The author found the AFL’s racism to be revolting. The CIO on the other hand had biracial unions, had a policy against racial discrimination in employment, strongly believed that unionization required the support of African American workers, and took decisive and effective measures against hate strike, and supported civil rights legislation and in some cases non-discriminatory public housing. The AFL had segregated unions and lesser status membership for African Americans, the CIO recruited African Americans into unions with equal status. Additionally, African Americans were officers in integrated unions.11 An alliance between the CIO and African American organizations, in particular the National Negro Congress headed by John P. Davis, starting in 1937, resulted in the organizations of 550,000 steel workers by 1937. The success was very much based on interracial cooperation and non-discriminatory practices of the CIO. Racial division in the steel industry was used to fight unionism. As Foner explains: Blacks occupied a crucial position in the emerging struggle. In 1936 there were 85,000 Negro steel workers, making up 20 per cent of the laborers and 6 per cent of the operators in the industry. Restricted to the worst jobs, they received the lowest wages, averaging between sixteen and twenty-two dollars a week for hazardous and degrading employment. The companies based wages on a differential pattern for whites and blacks, but they poured money into black churches and fraternal societies to buy their allegiance to the employer’s cause. With their support, the companies were relatively certain that the black steel workers would remain loyal and, as in 1919-20 reject overtures from the unions.12 Tobacco Workers in Virginia in 1937 not only eliminated wage discrimination at I.N. Co., but got African Americans awarded $1,250,000 in retroactive compensation for wage discrimination. Their labor action started out as a spontaneous protest. Their appeal to the AFL was rejected, but they got help from thee Southern Negro Youth
For a good one chapter summary of race and the labor unions see Chapters 6 and 7 in “Black Labor in America,” Michael Cantor, editor, Chapter 6, “Closed Shop and White Shop: The Negro Response to Collective Bargaining, 1933-135,” Raymond Wolters; Chapter 7, “Race, Class, and Progress: Black Leadership and Industrial Unionism, 1936-1945,” James S. Olsen, Negro University Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1969. “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” by Philip S. Foner is an excellent more in depth book regarding unionization and African Americans in the time period of interest. International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981. For a good book on the CIO overall including the issues of race, in less depth than the previously two mentioned books, is “The CIO, 1935-1955,” Robert H. Zieger, Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1995. 12 Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pages 218-221, quote from page 218. 11
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Congress and the National Negro Congress which transferred the seven locals to the CIO. 13 In the Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1943 strike against R.J. Reynolds forcing the company to the bargaining table with a CIO union mobilizing African American workers was ironic in that African Americans were able to vote to unionize in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election when they couldn’t vote in North Carolina. 14 Interracial cooperation resulted victory for the great 1934 West Coast strike of Longshore men unions whose locals later in 1937 joined the CIO’s International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU). The CIO National Maritime Union (NMU) formed in 1937 and campaigned against racial discrimination in employment. Ships crews were integrated. In 1939 NMU President Joseph Curran at their convention pointed out the success of this campaign and how there was not only success for all members in terms of increased wages, but equality for African Americans including them holding office.15 Employers had also adeptly used racial divisions similarly to pit one group of workers against another. Ford Motor Corp. had cultivated relations with the leadership in the African American community, in particular ministers, to successfully prevent unionization by having African American workers support corporation interests against unions. With the CIO’s strong support for racial equality in the unions and working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) they were able to get support of the African American workers at the Ford strike in 1941 and successfully unionize.16 There were other campaigns where the CIO successfully unionized industries with a key part of its strategy was interracial cooperation and the successful union effort depending on African American support. The CIO unionization efforts had resulted in the unionization of major and important section of the United States Economy. Prior to the CIO the slightly over 100,000 African Americans were members of any unions, and often the subject of discriminatory policies within them. By 1940 the CIO had 500,000 and whereas prior to the CIO an African American union official would be a rare occurrence, by 1939-1940 it would be a common thing in CIO unions.17
13
Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pages 224, 14 Zieger, Robert H., “The CIO, 1935-1955,” Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 199, page 153. 15 Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pages 224-227. 16 Both Philip S. Foner in his book, “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” pages 221-224, and James S. Olsen in Chapter 7, Race Class, and Progress,” in “Black Labor in America,” pages 159-163. 17 Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor & The Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pages 231.
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The economic impact of 400,000 more members earning union wages would be tremendous as this increased income would be spent in African American communities. There would be more funds for community organizations and material improvement of conditions and of course an increase in economic influence which would mean more political influence. Early in 1942 the CIO formed a committee to address the issues of discrimination faced by African American workers which became the Committee to Abolish Racial Discrimination (CARD). The following are some extracts from one piece of literature they distributed in 1943. The Social-Equality Taboo Common use of eating facilities frequently creates conflict which unions can guard against. In communities where restaurants, cafes, and other public eating places do not serve Negro patrons, there may be strong sentiment in favor of providing separate eating facilities in or near industrial plants … The position of the union in this respect should be firmly taken. It is not enough to point out that thousands of white people every day eat and enjoy food prepared by Negroes and other racial groups. It must be emphasized that separation or segregation of workers in any form is undemocratic and unnecessary. If segregation is tolerated by the union in one manner, it can be practiced by management without respect for the union’s wishes in other matters. Shop stewards and committee members can do much to encourage the friendly association of workers during lunch periods through frank discussions of these and other related problems.18 The CIO through CARD strongly supported the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) which was created in 1941 to act against discriminatory practices.19 Though it had a very limited budget and little ability to stop discrimination or implement its recommendations, it was good at documenting the extent of racism in employment practices. Southern congressional representatives were extremely hostile to the FEPC even with its limited powers. These anti-discrimination policies of the CIO were carried into action against what were called “hate strikes,” when there were strikes by labor against integration of the work 18
Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor and the Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pp. 256. Taken from CIO Committee to Abolish Racial Discrimination, “Working and Fighting Together: Regardless of Race, Creed, or National Origin, Washington D.C., 1943, pp. 14-16. 19 Zieger, Robert H., “The CIO, 1935-1955,” Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 199, page 157-158.
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place or the admission of African Americans into certain job classifications or occupations at a work place which had been previously reserved exclusively for whites. In 1940 at the Curtiss-Wright aircraft plant in Columbus, Ohio 500 white workers struck when an African American was promoted to the tool and die department. The CIO removed the local union official and ordered workers back to work and ended the strike.20 During World War II in Baltimore, Maryland not only did the CIO insure that African Americans got jobs in industry, but also got skilled jobs where they were qualified breaking down the Jim Crow labor practices of the past. In June 1943 when hate strikes hit the Bethlehem shipyards at Sparrows Point the CIO unions acted to end the strikes and enforce non-discriminatory policies. In December 1943 when a strike for separate toilet facilities at the Western Electric Company at Point Breeze plant occurred the CIO when they couldn’t convince the workers to return to work called on President Roosevelt to intervene stating that the issue of race was being used “in the interest of the nation’s enemies.”.21 On March 14, 1944 the CIO Transportation Workers Union (TWU) won the election for the representation of the workers of the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC). The AFL union had also campaigned to represent these workers on the promise of continuing racist employment policies. On August 3, 1944 in Philadelphia the worst hate strike of the war was staged by white street care workers over the employment of eight African Americans as motormen by the PTC. The city was without a transit system for six days at a time when public transportation was a primary means of transportation. The strike was supported by the PTC employer, the old company union, and was done with the cooperation of the AFL union which had previously represented PTC workers. The strike opposed city leaders and by the press. It was also resolutely opposed by the CIO. Roosevelt sent the army on August 7, 1944.22 Very uncharacteristically of Roosevelt in the face of racism he intervened decisively in both cases with the army to take over the facilities and end the hate strike.
20
Olsen, James. S., “Race, Class, and Progress: Black Leadership and Industrial Unionism, 1936-1945,” Chapter 7, in “Black Labor in America,” Milton Cantor, Editor, Negro University Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1969, aircraft strike mentioned on pages 155-156. 21 Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor and the Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pp. 264-265. 22 Foner, Philip S., “Organized Labor and the Black Worker,” International Publishers Edition, New York City, 1981, pp. 265-266.
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In 1939 the Georgia Ku Klux Klan declared war on the CIO Textile Workers Organizing Committee because of its interracial programs.23 What would have been obvious to any observer, and certainly Hatton Sumners would perceive this, the CIO was willing and able as a private group to demolish racist practices in the work place and when they weren’t able had the political clout to get Roosevelt to actually take effective actions against racism. The CIO union didn’t always win their battles against discrimination and often locals had to be strongly directed regarding the policies of non-discrimination regarding race. However, the CIO was a powerful force not only in unionizing workers, but leading a campaign in the community and in politics against racism and was working at unionizing in the South, and could be expected to continue to make major efforts to unionize in the South which would bring its anti-discrimination policies there.24 Sumners might as chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and with his nonsensical theories about the American Constitution might keep the federal government from taking action to secure any civil rights, but the CIO, a nongovernmental organization, was on its own implementing civil rights in the work place and in society with its own resources and power and applying pressure on the federal government to act on behalf of civil rights also. Sumners could hardly have not recognized a mortal danger to white supremacy. What would also be obvious would be that the nation’s business interests and the system of white supremacy in the South had a common mortal enemy, the CIO. Even before the CIO was formed the Anglo-Saxonism of Sumners would be good to discredit the unions who as working class organizations would have large numbers of immigrants. As previously mentioned Sumners attacked European immigrants as being the cause of labor problems in 1919. Again the nation’s business interests and Anglo-Saxon supremacist Hatton Sumners would share a common enemy.
The collusion of business interests and allied groups with white supremacist Hatton Sumners to defeat labor and civil rights will not be in discussed in this chapter, but in another chapter. This chapter will focus on Sumners opposition to labor and his use of anti-immigrant and Anglo-Saxonism to do so.
23
Olsen, James. S., “Race, Class, and Progress: Black Leadership and Industrial Unionism, 1936-1945,” Chapter 7, in “Black Labor in America,” Milton Cantor, Editor, Negro University Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1969, aircraft strike mentioned on pages 155. 24 For hate strikes in Detroit where the CIO faced problems with its locals and also with the opposition of local CIO workers in Mobile, see Zieger, Robert H., “The CIO, 1935-1955,” Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 199, page 154-155. It later launched a major initiative to unionize in the South in 1946 which was largely unsuccessful, see pages 227-241 in Zieger’s book.
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VITO ANTHONY MARCANTONIO25 One of the major acts of Hatton Sumners political career was the blocking of New York City Congressional U.S. House Representative from being appointed to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee which Sumners was the chair. As an aside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or someone on her staff, would do well to study Marcantonio’s history for it was the Democrats who brought him down. Marcantonio was born on December 12, 1902 to Sicilian immigrant parents. He represented East Harlem in New York City, largely a community of Sicilians and a growing community of Puerto Ricans as well as a shrinking Jewish community, in the U.S. House.26 He was elected to the 74th, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th , 80th and 81st Congresses spanning a period of time from 1934 when he won his first election to the end of his last term in 1951. Given the complex politics of New York City in five elections he ran on two tickets and in two he ran on three tickets. In his first term he was elected and served as a Republican. The other six times he was an elected representative of the American Labor Party, a leftist party. He was willing to work with different leftist groups including the American Communist Party which gave him their strong support.27 Marcantonio read speeches in Spanish and took a strong interest in the welfare of Puerto Rico earning a popular appellation as the Congressman for Puerto Rico which didn’t then as now have any representation in the U.S. House.28 He was a strong supporter of the labor movement in the United States. His efforts for civil rights were extensive. 25
I found there are three books of use for learning the biography of Vito Marcantonio and in each book there is substantial amounts of information not found in the other. Meyer, Gerald, “Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902-1954,” State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989, has a strong focus on electoral politics. Schaffer, Alan, “Vito Marcantonio, Radical in Congress,” Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, New York, 1966, goes into depth about the political views and legislative activities of Marcantonio. “I Vote My Conscience, Vito Marcantonio,” Vito Marcantonio Memorial, 1956, has the text of the more important speeches he gave in Congress and some other items. Though a person might not agree with all his views, he was an extraordinary person and it is sad to report that all three books are out of print. 26 Meyer, Gerald, “Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902-1954,” State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989, pp. 6. 27 Meyer, Gerald, “Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902-1954,” State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989. For years elected and political parties, pages 22,23. For working with political parties in general, Chapter 3, “Marcantonio and Political Parties, 1934-1950,” pp. 22-52. For his working relationships with the Communist Party see, Chapter 4, “Marcantonio and the Communist Party,” pp. 53-86. 28 Meyer, Gerald, “Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902-1954,” State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989, Chapter 7, “Marcantonio and El Barrio,” pages 144-184. About giving speeches in Spanish, page 172.
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The son of Sicilian parents, and not Anglo-Saxon, and as Time magazine stated, “swarthy,”29 dark complected, Vito Marcantonio, of a people Sumners said had “Saracen” and the “blood of other peoples,” was the embodiment of Sumners’ nightmares.30 Whereas Sumners is famous for helping to block the Supreme Court expansion, Marcantonio called for a constitutional convention when the Supreme Court struck down New Deal legislation in 1935, and in 1936 when the Supreme Court struck down another important New Deal legislation he gave a speech asking for an expansion of the Supreme Court referring to an expansion of the Supreme Court done in 1863 by the Republicans during the Civil War.31 Where as immigrants were called “the scum of Europe” by Sumners, Vito Marcantonio had a long record of defending the rights of immigrants in general, usually referred to as the “foreign born,” and the rights of Italian Americans and Puerto Ricans and against the defamations and prejudices against those groups. Marcantonio was a tireless defender of the unions as befitting the only American Labor Party member in Congress. He was clearly in alignment with the CIO. Marcantonio undertook numerous efforts to attempt to have civil rights legislation passed. He worked to eliminate the poll-tax, supported the Fair Employment Practices Committee, and pushed for desegregation.32 When Hatton Sumners was one of the few to vote against the legislation founding Social Security, a vote of 372 to 33, Sumners was one of the opponents.33 Marcantonio’s understanding of American history was also a refutation of the Southern Democrats neo-Confederate ideology which they would be well aware of. On April 22, 1942 Marcantonio asked the Speaker of the U.S. House into the Congressional Record The word “swarthy” in dictionaries is given as dark or dark complexioned. This doesn’t mean someone who is of African ancestry, it means that they are dark complected white people relative to other white people, or to white people, and they are of Latin or Greek origin. This dark complexion may only be dark relative to rather pale white people or perhaps more. 30 Meyer, Gerald, “Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902-1954,” State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989, pp. 20. 31 Schaffer, Alan, “Vito Marcantonio, Radical in Congress,” Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, New York, 1966, pp. 4041. Convention speech, Cong. Rec. 74th Cong. 1st Sess. 1935, p. 8372. Expansion, Cong. Rec. 74th Cong. 2d Sess. 1936, p. 1850. 32 All three books mentioned extensively discuss his activities in defense of the foreign born, Italian Americans, and Puerto Ricans, as well has his extensive and tireless efforts to defend labor. There is described his many efforts to advance civil rights legislation. I think though Schaffer’s book and the Vito Memorial book are best for his civil rights efforts. 33 No Author, “Social Security Bill Gets Great Majority in Passing,” DMN, April 20, 1935, page 1, 9. 29
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an extension of remarks an April 15, 1942 letter to the Editor of the New York Sun in response to criticism by a George Sokolsky in that paper of a speech he had made comparing World War 2 to the American Civil War. The following are some extracts: Mr. Sokolsky explains in shocked tones that in this address I had the temerity to say: 1. This is an international civil war. 2. That the people of India are just as important to the successful outcome of this war as the people of West Virginia and Maryland were to the she successful outcome of our Civil War. 3. That the people of China are just as important to the successful out of this war as the people of the Border States were to the successful outcome of our Civil War. 4. That this is a war against fascism. 5. That the anti-Fascist people of Italy will some day rise and overthrow the Dictator Mussolini. 6. That in this international civil war the oppressed and conquered people of the world are translating their struggle for freedom into an all-out effort for the military destruction of Hitlerism. Later in the letter: If Mr. Sokolsky will recall, this war was forced upon the world by Hitler and his Axis partners. The perpetrators of slavery today are responsible for this international civil war, just as the perpetrators of slavery in our own country were responsible for our Civil War.34 This is a direct comparison of the Confederates of the American Civil War to the Nazis in World War 2. Sumner who was a supporter of the Lost Cause as will be detailed in another chapter and spoke at the dedication of the Robert E. Lee statue in Dallas in 1936 as well as the rest of the Southern Democrats in Congress would find this outrageous. Though this is a common place comparison in 2020 and has been for a few years, less than ten years ago, a close colleague delivered to me a stern lecture that if I publicly compared the Confederates to Nazis he would publicly reject that assertion. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a solicitous letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Roosevelt spoke at the 1936 dedication of the Robert E. Lee statue in Dallas, Texas. President Jimmy Carter signed a bill restoring Robert E. Lee’s citizenship and in 2000 had the Sons of Confederate Veterans visit his presidential library where he used the terms, “War Between the States.” President Bill Clinton sent no less than three letters of congratulations to the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the 1990s. President Barack Obama sent a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument each year of the
34
“I Vote My Conscience, Vito Marcantonio,” Vito Marcantonio Memorial, 1956, pages 161-162.
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eight years of his presidency.35 To assert this in 1942 was seventy-some years, generations, ahead of his time. When as previously mentioned, Marcantonio advocated the expansion of the Supreme Court he referred to Dred Scott and a Supreme Court blocking the efforts of the Lincoln administration.36 When the U.S. House Democratic leadership proposed Marcantonio to be a member of House Judiciary Committee Southern Democrats seethed with rage and in caucus threaten revolt throwing the House to the Republicans.37 SUMNERS COUNTER-REACTION The CIO and Marcantonio represented very real dangers to the continuation of white supremacy in the nation and in particular in the South. Also, white supremacist Southern Democrats and American businesses and industrialists clearly had a common enemy in both the CIO and Marcantonio. Sumners campaigned against the CIO and Marcantonio using red baiting, prejudice against the foreign born, and appeals to white supremacy. The DMN in an Associated Press (AP) article dateline Jan. 16, 1943, “Southerners Protest Democrats’ Big Job For Foe of Poll Tax,” reports that Marcantonio a, “sponsor of antilynching and antipoll tax bills,” possible appointment to the judiciary committed “aroused a storm of protest at the Capitol Saturday.” The article reports that U.S. Rep. McKenzie pointed out that antilynching and anti-poll tax legislation would come before this committee and that Marcantonio’s appointment would be, “just another new deal effort to sabotage the white people of the South.” Sumners is reported to have “expressed opposition” but “without elaborating.” The article concludes that, “Several Southern members said vehemently that they would fight Marcantonio’s selection in the Democratic caucus and later on the House floor if necessary.”38
35
Democrats, I am not interested in your rationalizations for the actions of these presidents or your whining that I have brought it up. 36 Schaffer, Alan, “Vito Marcantonio, Radical in Congress,” Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, New York, 1966, pp. 4041. Expansion, Cong. Rec. 74th Cong. 2d Sess. 1936, p. 1850. 37 Schaffer, Alan, “Vito Marcantonio, Radical in Congress,” Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, New York, 1966, pp. 131132 38 Associated Press, “Southerners Protest Democrats’ Big Job For Foe of Poll Tax,” DMN, Jan. 17, 1943.
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Schaffer writes in his book, using as his source the New York Times, “in a session marked by shouted speeches, implied threats, and a well-organized revolt against party leadership.”39 In another AP article, “Marcantonio Loses Key Position, Democratic Rebellion Prevented,” dateline Jan. 19, 1943 run in the DMN reports, “Southerners led the opposition to Marcantonio who has supported antilynching and anti-poll tax legislation.” The action to reject Marcantonio was in a two-hour closed-door meeting with a voice vote in which Southern Democrats threaten to revolt. Faced with the rage of white supremacy the Democrats backdown, but maybe there really wasn’t much of a will to fight for civil rights and maybe the Southern Democrats served to be the convenient group to blame for not appointing a civil rights fighter to the Judiciary Committee. Sumners characteristically avoided references to white supremacy and instead framed it as a rejection of machine politics, the same article reports: Chairman Hatton W. Sumners of the judiciary committee, said he had told the caucus that the choice was the result of a deal made in New York, and that it amounted to a political pay-off in return for Marcantonio’s support of some Democratic candidates “We cannot afford to be making this sort of political deal,” Sumners said, “It’s a time for a Democrat to play the role of stateman. If the Democratic party is to hold is position of power, it will be through the exercise of statesmanship and not through political deals.” 40 A United Press (UP) story, dateline Jan, 16, 1943, reported that, “Three Southern Democrats told United Press they had been informed Sumners will resign “if Marcantonio is forced down his throat.” Also, that Sumners stated, “we are being called upon to endorse the coalition of Democrats and Communistic-Socialists in New York.”41 In a letter to Mrs. L.B. Tillet of Dallas, Feb. 12, 1943 wrote: We had a really first-class scrap over the attempt to force Marcantonio on the Judiciary Committee as a political payoff. I haven’t the slightest doubt that my opposition saved the Democratic party from great embarrassment because to have place Marcantonio on the Judiciary Committee under the circumstances 39
Schaffer, Alan, “Vito Marcantonio, Radical in Congress,” Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, New York, 1966, pp. 131132. He gives as his source The New York Times, Jan. 20, 1943. It used to be that you could individually purchase articles from the New York Times archive, but now you have to subscribe. 40 Associated Press, “Marcantonio Loses Key Position, Democratic Rebellion Prevented,” DMN, Jan. 20, 1943, page 2. 41 United Press, dateline Jan. 16, 1943, “House Control Threaten by Marcantonio Showdown,” run in The Miami News, Jan. 17, 1943, page 7.
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would have amounted to a coalition with the Socialist-Communist party in New York, which he represents. Unfortunately the whole executive personnel is honeycombed with that sort of people already.42 As will be discussed in another chapter, Sumners believed that white supremacy could only be preserved if its defense was presented in general terms moderately expressed and not mentioning white supremacy in heated terms to appeal to people outside the South. In September 1937 at a three-day celebration in Dallas, with a parade, William Green, AFL President, in a Labor Day address at the Cotton Bowl, carried by local television channel WFAA, denounced attacked the CIO as Communist sponsored. Green in his address praised Sumners as a, “great public leader,” and “I hope the people of Dallas and this congressional district will continue to send him to Congress so he can continue to serve the public.” Sumners was also a speaker at the event speaking on how he thought liberty was threaten and stating, “Organized capital, with too much power, or organized labor, with too much power, should not be given free rein to dominate.”43 Later in 1938 William Green sent an envoy to help with Sumner’s re-election campaign. The envoy, William C. Hushing, the AFL’s national legislative representatives, declared about Sumners: “I know him to be a true friend of labor and this friendship has been proven by his votes of which we keep a correct record. He has the unqualified endorsement of the American Federation of Labor, as has been set forth by in letters and telegrams from President Green to officials of labor here.” Hushing also said that Sumners was opposed by the CIO and that was, “the best recommendation I can think of for his re-election.” Hushing also stated that re-electing Sumners would, “be rendering an extraordinary service to all labor in the United State.”44 Given that Sumners was an enemy of the New Deal and hardly a friend of labor is quite a surprising statement. However, the AFL and Sumners had a shared commitment to white supremacy so it is perhaps not so surprising. Sumners introduced in Sept. 1940 a bill that was to modify a sabotage act to apply during peace time as well as war time regarding national defense materials, premises or
42
HWA to L.B. Tillet, letter Feb. 12, 1943. DHS Box 48.3.3. No Author, “Green Declares Communism in C.I.O.; Promises Labor’s Help for Farm Parity,” DMN, Sept. 7, 1937, pages 1, 4. 44 No author, “Green’s Envoy Sent Here to Help Sumners,” DMN, July 22, 1938, page 14. 43
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utilities. CIO president John L. Lewis saw the modification to go after strikers during peace time as if it was wartime.45 Jan. 1941 Sumners announced that the House Judiciary Committee of which he was chair was considering a plan to investigate labor stoppages at plants working on defense contracts.46 However, the strikes continued, and Sumners, likely enraged by these immigrant nonAnglo-Saxon enemies of white supremacy for conducting strikes, in a speech in the U.S. House calls for their execution by the electric chair. In his March 27, 1941 U.S. House speech Sumners states: I believe the sentiment of the Committee on the Judiciary is to bring in whatever legislation is necessary; and if it is necessary to send them to the electric chair in order to preserve the liberty of this country, I do not believe there is a member of the Committee on the Judiciary who would hesitate one split second to do it.47 Though in the speech he refers to a minority in labor who are disloyal, as opposed to the majority of labor which he states is loyal, clearly, he is talking about executing the leadership of the unions. However, interestingly enough, when the U.S. House in April 1943 ordered a major investigation into strikes in the defense industries Sumners was advising the states to handle the violence of strikes themselves. A DMN article reports: In the House, Representatives Hatton W. Sumners, (Dem.) Texas, chairman of the House judiciary committee, who has been considering antistrike legislation, contented that the states should handle such problems as that in Wisconsin and should not dependent on the federal government. After an exchange with a representative from Pennsylvania Sumners stated: “I want to express the judgment to the people and to the states that the situation is one in which they have got to come into major responsibility themselves.” “I do not believe Washington is going to handle this job, and probably it is the best thing in the world for us that it does not happen. If the states reach their sovereignty and their place in our scheme of government, they have got to tend to their own business. The idea of a Governor of a sovereign state appealing to
45
No author, “CIO President Flays Guard, Sabotage Bills,” DMN, Sept. 24, 1940, page 13. Associated Press, “Bill Proposes U.S. Inquiry Into Strikes,” DMN, Jan. 28, 1941, page 5. 47 Congressional Record, 77th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 87 Part 3, March 27, 1941, page 2682. 46
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Washington in order to protect himself against being stoned is just something that does not work out under our system of government.” However, later in the DMN article there is reported that Sumners has restated his views that the states must try as much as they can to solve the problem before appealing to the federal government, but that Congress and federal government has an obligation, though what that is in not stated, in the issue of strikes.48 Sumners very likely saw that empowering the federal government to intervene with force and stop a strike set a precedent of federal intervention and police actions in areas previously taken care of by the states. It would set a constitutional precedent for the federal government to intervene against white supremacist violence or enforcement with troops or federal agents of civil rights legislation. Likely someone explained to Sumners that states’ rights was acceptable when it was employed to deny African Americans civil rights, but not to impede the war effort and hence the modification of Sumners’ views. In his campaign for his election in 1944 Sumners realized that the CIO was targeting him for defeat, but also realized that there was an opportunity for him to gain support as someone fighting communism, upholding white supremacy in the South against attacks by the CIO and protecting America from alien influences. Sumners in an April 29, 1944 letter to A.H. Bailey in discussing the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) working with groups to prevent his re-election mentions Sidney Hillman, one of the founders of the CIO with this comment, “(CIO Political Actions Committee, who as you know is Russian born …)”.49 In June 1944 in his formal announcement of his candidacy, as reported in the DMN, he attacked the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) as trying to force socialism and communism on the United States, and calls them carpetbaggers. In a continuity of his thinking about foreign born workers being a menace he states in reference to a political action committee of the CIO. The committee is not so much interested in labor as it is interested in getting control of labor in order to use the political power of its members and their money to help them to get control of the government and establish in lieu of our form of government, the Communist type of rule under which many of them were born.50 [Boldface added.]
48
King, John E., “House Orders Sweeping Investigation of Defense-Delaying U.S. Strikes,” DMN, April 3, 1941, page
2. 49 50
HWS to A.H. Bailey, letter, April 29, 1944. DHS Box 106.2.6. No author, “Sumners Hits CIO’s Political Unit,” DMN, June 29, 1944, page 4.
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In correspondence with at least three individual constituents in June 1944 Sumners used the same whole paragraphs in different letters. One was about the CIO which he portrayed as an un-American menace. At the present time there are two definite trends moving in opposite directions in this country. One is under the leadership of the CIO Political Action Committee, and the other is a revival of the good old-fashioned American purpose to govern in this county.51 In a July 1944 speech in which Sumners stated he saw a victory coming over the CIO Political Action Committee which opposed his re-election he emphasized the CIO being alien. Into this typical American picture, an organization alien to its philosophy and bent upon political domination, has entered the field of American politics.52 However, Sumners comments about foreign immigrants in general as being bad for the nation had started in 1924 with the letter to George W. Walton. The earliest public attack on immigrants in general is found in the 1919 DMN article previously mentioned. Sumners however, continues to use xenophobic rhetoric, but more narrowly focuses it. When he attacked the CIO in the June 1944 DMN article previously mentioned he was careful to make sure that he was not attacking the general membership of the CIO. The DMN reported as follows: I want it distinctly understood that I am not talking about the rank and file of the CIO,” he said. “The Dallas working people and the CIO membership generally are as fine, upstanding citizens as we have.”53 In Sumners 1944 campaign brochure he both portrayed the leadership as alien and the rank and file as not. In a warning about the CIO he says, “I want it distinctly understood that I am not talking about the rank and file of the CIO.” Regarding the leadership he warns that they are seeking political power “to get control of the government and establish, in lieu of our form of government, the communist type of rule under which many of them have lived.”54 Anglo-Saxonism and talking about the “scum” of Europe is no longer something that can be said directly in public political discourse. Though since the rank and file elects the
51
HWS to D.M. Jones, June 23, 1944; HWS to R.B. Beaver, Mayor of Farmersville, June 23, 1944; HWS to Margaret Fisher, June 23, 1944; all in DHS Box 51.4.2. 52 No author, “Sumners Sees Victory Over CIO Forces,” DMN, July 21, 1944, Page 6. 53 No author, “Sumners Hits CIO’s Political Unit,” DMN, June 29, 1944, page 4. 54 HWS campaign brochure, 1944 campaign. DHS Box 135.6.7.
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leadership of their unions, individuals might conclude that the membership of the CIO isn’t so “fine” or “upstanding,” but Sumners wasn’t going to say it. The campaign flyer argues that the CIO is both a communist menace and a menace to white supremacy in the South, mixing together Lost Cause rhetoric, red baiting, and white supremacy. The flyer has one panel with a headline, “Don’t Let the C.I.O. Political Action Committee Oust Hatton W. Sumners.” This is next to the front panel which has a picture of Sumners urging voters to vote for him in the Democratic primary June 22nd which the statement, “A vote for Hatton W. Sumners is a vote for States Rights and Constitutional Government.” The inside four panels have a letter from Sumners titled, “To the People of the Firth Congressional District,” as follows: It is with gratitude and a deep sense of responsibility that I am announcing for reelection, realizing that the next two years probably will be the most crucial, decisive years in our nation’s history. The indications are that the European war, and possibly the Asiatic war, will be concluded before many more months. The difficulties of readjustment, the great difficulties of decentralization of governmental power, which power has now reached a completeness and a fixedness not dreamed of in World War I, must be dealt with. We must determine during that time whether we will move back to constitutional government, tested through the centuries, or towards the socialistic, communistic philosophy of government which the CIO Political Action Committee is trying to force upon the United States. Post-War Reconversion We must, following this war, establish our Democracy upon a firm foundation, governed by basic principles of democratic government which the people can understand – the sort of government which our boys are fighting for. Increase in Federal power when we believed we were getting something for nothing, and emergency war measures for the prosecution of the war have resulted in many new bureaus which, when the war is won, we must abolish. We must move these powers back to the States and striped the Federal Government down to Federal business. You are being told that I am doing nothing in Washington and that the Committee on the Judiciary, of which I am Chairman, is of no importance to Dallas County. You who know the facts are not misled by such falsehoods.
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Even while these malicious stories were being circulated, the Judiciary Committee under my chairmanship put through the House the War Contracts Termination Bill, the most important of all post-war economic legislation. This bill, passed on June 22, 1944, just before my return to the district, is of paramount importance to every war plan, small and large, in Dallas County and the nation, and to every man and woman employed in war work. It provides for a quick settlement of all war contracts immediately after the war, so that these factories can quickly convert to peacetime production, thus preventing a general economic paralysis and unemployment of millions. I have worked earnestly to procure amendments to the OPA bill so as to give greater protection to the private citizen and relief to businesses without weakening the line against inflation. We did procure some substantial amendments, part of which the Senate permitted to remain in the bill. These OPA regulations to control inflation are among those of which I speak purely emergency wartime measures, which must be abolished as quickly as possible after our national emergency is over. States Rights Another important item of recent legislation from the Judiciary Committee was the bill by which we undertook to maintain States Rights to control insurance which obtained before the recent unfortunate decision of the Supreme Court. I made the concluding argument in behalf of this bill, and the House supported us by a vote of 283 to 54. This bill is to prevent Federal control over the millions of insurance policies held by Americans, and is of vital concern to all policy holders, employes, and officials in Dallas, the great insurance center of the Southwest. I am still fighting to maintain community property rights in Texas, by which every married couple in the State is being saved tax money. I have worked constantly to maintain Dallas’ place as a major aviation center. I have helped obtain for Dallas County the $1,250,000 Veterans Hospital in Lisbon, and the million dollar Federal Institution at Seagoville. In the interests of our men who have left their homes and families to fight America’s war, I have helped to pass the G.I. Bill of Rights, the bill for mustering-out pay, vocational rehabilitation of veterans, benefits for servicemen’s dependents, including the raising of allowances for children, and other important measures. To Win the War Our real job now is to win the war and to get as many of our boys back as we can as soon as possible to a country worthy of their sacrifices.
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I have supported the war effort one hundred per cent, and the legislation for the benefit of our people fighting this war and of our returning veterans, not only in the Congress but also throughout the nation. I have done it from the beginning, as the following letter, written to me by the Under Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, indicates: “June 9, 1942. “Dear Judge Sumners: “I wish to express to you the warm appreciation of the War Department for the constructive work you have done recently in carrying the Small Business Bill to a successful conclusion in Congress. Your assistance in this matter, as in many others, has been of great value to the war effort. “I am also mindful of the good work you have done over the past two years, in Congress and out of Congress, to arouse the nation to an awareness of the perils forced upon us by the ambitions of the dictators who control the Axis powers. Sincerely yours, /s/ ROBERT P. PATTERSON Under Secretary of War.” There were delicate diplomatic situations in which I was useful. Following is a letter which was written me by the Secretary of State, the Honorable Cordell Hull: “June 10, 1942. “Dear Hatton: “Let me take this occasion to express my deepest appreciation to you for your intelligent interest in and exceedingly helpful attitude towards many of the most important phases of our foreign affairs. This cooperation on your part has been of the greatest help and service to the State Department and to me personally. Sincerely yours, /s/ CORDELL HULL Secretary of State.” I have done my best to take care of the interests of individual citizens, giving as careful attention to the smallest matter of the humblest citizen as to the biggest matter of the most important, as many of our people can testify. I have attended to the affairs of our district, and my general legislative duties. I have a record of constructive service which will compare with that of any Member of Congress in either the House or the Senate. Threat to Democracy
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The CIO Political Action Committee has organized a far-reaching campaign to defeat me and other Congressmen who will not do their bidding. Congressman Costello of California, a Member of the Dies Committee made a statement recently, printed in the Congressional Record of June 23, 1944, from which I quote: “They are only interested in defeating those who will not do their bidding. You have not hear the CIO Political Action Committee boat that it has elected anyone, but they have made loud boats about those they have defeated, thus building up a psychological intimidation against those who defy their wishes. It is a strange commentary upon our democratic system when an organization with headquarters in New York can reach down into the State of Alabama and … bring about the defeat of one of our distinguished Members.” We are now moving into another violent anti-Southern sectional attack similar to that which followed World War I. I had major responsibility for defending the South against the attacks which took place at that time, just as now I am fighting against the FEPC and other influences in the government which are creating friction between our white people and our colored people over the nation, and particularly in the South, to the hurt of our unity and the interests of both races. The fact that the Judiciary Committee, of which I am Chairman, has jurisdiction over many of the legislative propositions through which these attacks are being made enables us to stop some of them in the Committee. Others we must fight from the floor of the House. I must warn you also that the CIO Political Action Committee is muscling into this district. I want it distinctly understood that I am not talking about the rank and file of the CIO. Dallas members of organized labor and the CIO membership generally are as fine, upstanding citizens as we have. But these modern carpet baggers are bragging about how many of these people’s votes they control. The CIO Political Action Committee is attempting to use them for their own selfish purposes. The CIO Political Action Committee is not so much interested in labor, in order to use the political power of its members and their money to help them get control of the government and establish, in lieu of our form of government, the communistic type rule under which many of them have lived. From a booklet gotten out by the Education Department of UAW-CIO under date of December, 1943, the following quotation is taken: “Once labor played a prominent part in politics of the South … this was during the Reconstruction years, 1866 to 1876, when the common man voted in the South and passed some of the most progressive legislation that region had ever known … In 1877 the last Federal troops … were withdrawn … Consequently, in the 67 years since 1876 Democracy in the South has greatly declined.”
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Anytime they can put a man out of office who has accumulated standing and influence in Congress and in the nation and who, through experience, knows their strategy and their tricks, and can replace him with some new inexperienced man who cannot skillfully fight them, they have accomplished what they desire. The CIO Political Action Committee would make a pretty good trade if they could remove me, as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and thereby move the Chairmanship of this Committee to New York, or the ranking minority membership if the Republicans control the House. Crisis Ahead I am confident that Dallas County will not let them have their way here. We will pass the crisis in our nation’s fight to restore Democracy, in the next Congress. The understanding of government which I have acquired through the years in your service, the influence in the Congress, in the Government and throughout the country, which I have accumulated during the years of that employment, I feel belong to you, and are needed now as never before by the people of our section and by the country at large. If I may speak without egotism I believe it is conceded in the Nation that I have made as thorough and fundamental examination of democratic government, and am as well prepared to defend it, as anybody in Congress. I will continue this job until the war is over and we have a chance to return our nation to the constitutional form of government and the Democracy our forefathers founded. I will continue in the next two years to serve you with the same loyalty and steadfastness that I have done in the past. HATTON W. SUMNERS On the remaining two back panels one is a list of endorsing statements, and the last panel is how the CIO has a plan to take over politics in Dallas.55 For Sumners opposition to the CIO, the New Deal, and fear of communism is integral to the maintenance of white supremacy in the South. Opponents of the CIO and the New Deal outside the South have with Sumners and other Southern Democrats. who are also opponents of the CIO and the New Deal, potential allies. With these allies Sumners can hope to achieve the necessary support to defeat civil rights initiatives without making explicit appeals to white supremacy, and be successful even though as he pointed out in letters the South only has one-quarter of the representatives in Congress. Sumners can 55
Campaign Flyer for 1944 election, DHS Box 135.6.7.
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do this my framing his opposition to civil rights in terms of opposition to centralized empowered central government that might take initiatives to support unions, civil rights or New Deal programs. The conflict over the Supreme Court expansion in 1937 was the advocates of the New Deal versus anti-New Dealers. The C.I.O. was a prominent part of the New Deal advocates. In discussing the Supreme Court expansion the focus will be how the opponents saw it as threatening the racial order of the South in regards to African Americans, but it needs to be kept in mind that it would also be seen as an effort of nonAnglo-Saxons threatening Sumners’ Anglo-Saxon order.