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Example research essay topic: Textile Mills In The South - 2,754 words

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... ted the TWUA was forced into submission by tricky lawmakers, the strike was ended with none of the original resolutions met (Hall 214). Soon afterward, another violent strike broke out in Gaston County North Carolina. Gaston County epitomized the phenomenal wartime growth of the southern textile industry, as well as its postwar instability (Hall 214).

This was the most violent and well known strike in the history of the textile workers battle. The strike ended with the police chief dead, a leading unionist, Ella Maye Wiggins, shot in the back, looting of union buildings conducted by police organizations, and the State militia intervening on the behalf of the mill. The strike fell with their Ella Maye Wiggins death, the acquittal of her killers, and a conviction of seven union members for the killing of the chief of police. Ella Mayes death became a flag for the union as this incident was reported throughout the entire industry. Another such battle in Marion, North Carolina stopped before it started. The company expected the strike and when the picketers arrived, the sheriff and his deputies were waiting.

They threw tear gas at them and when they turned to run they were shot in the back. It was later found out that the shooters had a list of men to kill and aimed specifically at them, the strike leaders (Hall 217). This wave of strikes was largely unsuccessful, but because of the extreme measures used to break the strikes it was obvious that unions were effective and supported. With the notoriety that came with these extreme cases the role of the TWUA and the voice of unionism spread. In 1930, the Dan River Mills (Dan River, North Carolina), the largest Textile Company in the south began its struggles. The vice-president of the TWUA went to the city, and hoping for support from the AFL poured all of the unions recourses into the workers.

However, as the AFL did not provide support the strike withered away. In 1932 hosiery workers in High Point, North Carolina walked out. They demanded and end to wage cuts and a few days later 15, 000 other textile workers struck beside them (Hall 218). The union was steadily spreading, but it had not wet reached its peak yet. Between the years of 1933 and 1934, the federal government finally stepped in on the workers side.

Under Franklin D. Roosevelt's new deal laws were established to protect the workers rights. A minimum wage was established and child labor was outlawed. However, in actuality, this had little effect on the lives of the workers. The little money that the workers made by the national minimum wage increase was taken back by the mills by raising the price of rent, workers were still evicted for joining unions (only excuses were used instead of reasons). However, despite all of this the union had its largest growth ever: from 40, 000 members in September 1933 to 270, 000 members in August of 1934 (Hall 304).

With the ineffectiveness of the NIRA, the workers were outraged. The President of one local branch of the union asked for federal help before, as he wrote it, WE HAVE TO CALL OUR UNION MEMBERS TO ARMS AGAINST THIS FORKED TAIL EVIL (Hall 307). The enraged unionists struck across the region again in 1933, much like they did in 1929. Along with the NIRA the New Deal relief programs for the unemployed also helped the stickers. Strikers were guaranteed relief when they went on strike.

Also, other New Deal programs were created. Discrimination because of union affiliation was prohibited. However, workers were still evicted for joining unions (Hall 300 - 301). A native of the Graniteville Mill in South Carolina said, she had never joined a union, for reasons that to her seemed the essence of common sense (Hall 306). There was no union whatever in Graniteville S.

C. before the National Industrial Recovery act was make law as the Employers would not allow it they would discharge anyone who joined a Union, but after the Law was passed and put in effect, we thought that we would be protected by the Federal Government [and] that no Employer could discharge any worker because they joined a Union of their own choosing. On June 19, 1933, just three days after Roosevelt signed the NIRA; she paid her dues and became a full member of the TWUA On August 8 the second hand got orders to fire her on the grounds that she couldnt keep up her work. If her work had not been satisfactory, she concluded, they would have fired her long before. They discharged me for joining the Union. (Hall 306 - 307) Among all of this, Communism also aided the spread of unionization. The communist backed NTWU (the National Textile Workers Union) began to concentrate their efforts on the south (Williams 28).

Although the NTWU had already made a showing in South Carolina in 1898, the turn-of-the-century wave of union activity began to recede after 1902. Its collapse was due in large part to strong management oppossitionwho took major steps to destroy unions The unions were hardly gone forever; indeed, as economic conditions changed in the 1910 s they enjoyed another burst of popularity among workers. For the time being, however, the threat was evanescent (Carlton 144). However, in 1929, after failings in the north to spread their Bolshevist ic ideology, the NTWU decided to make another attempt to gain support in the south. Most American were ignorant to what communism was. Many werent able to establish the differences between Socialism and Communism (Williams 30).

Communists looked for methods of expanding their party into the southern states. The Communist Party of the United States of American finally settled on the distress of the textile industry as an opportunity. The Communists moved into the south headed by Fred Beal, a newcomer to the party, but chosen because of his connection with northern mills (Cope and Wellman 167). Beal first came to Charlotte, North Carolina and studied the region looking for the best place to strike. He found Gastonia, North Carolina.

The town was already in a state of unrest and the workers were ready to strike. Beal wanted publicity and he new Gastonia was the place to get it. The Loray mill in Gastonia was the largest textile mill in the world (Williams 32). Fred Beal sent for support from the party and went into Gaston County. Beal said, If you organize the workers at Loray, you can organize the south, and his Communist associate George Pershing noted that, The key to the South is North Carolina; the key to North Carolina is Gaston County; and the key to Gaston County is the Loray Mill (Williams 31). The Party established their own textile union, the National Textile Workers Union.

The textile workers of Gaston (Williams 31). Although the strike failed and the NTWU was relatively unsuccessful, they remained a prominent union in the south throughout the thirties. Communist organizers were sent to gain union members, and spread communist handbills and speeches across the region. The workers did not know the difference between one union and another. This fact, along with their ignorance regarding communism made the NTWU a prominent organization in the south.

The TWU came back to Gastonia in 1934 and another strike incurred with much the same results (Salmond 185). The unions efforts in Gastonia seemed futile, and even when the TWUA, the newly named union consisting of the Textile Workers Organization Committee and the United Textile Workers of America (Smith 492), attempted to sway the workers of Gastonia in 1946, they retreated finding almost no interest in the city. The state once again interfered, and the 1, 500 went back to work under the bayonets of guards from the state militia (Salmond 187). However, the TWUA still continued its work. Tensions eased up for a period between 1935 and 1940.

A depression in the southern textile industry came about. Many mills went bankrupt, and even the famous Loray mill was sold to Firestone, Inc. for the manufacturing of tires (Salmond 189). The TWUA moved on the great Dan River Mills Corporation in 1939. The Union finally began to win success. The union and the mill negotiated from 1939 to 1943 when the dispute was taken to the national war labor board.

The dispute was settled in the favor of the union; granting higher wages and smaller work loads (Smith 495). After World War II the federal government played a more prevalent role in controlling the mill bosses, and ensuring the rights of the workers to protest and enabling them to safely invest in collective bargaining. The last major textile labor battle was in 1983 in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina between the TWUA and J. P. Stevens and Company. The TWUA joined with the ACWU to form ACTWU and together they battled the company.

The battle went to the supreme court where the union finally won the battle, ensuring wage rights and work load restrictions (Conway 119). The textile battle of the twentieth century was a roller coaster ride that stretched from local city governments and organizations to the federal level. These strikes led to success, disaster, death, discrimination, patriotism, fellowship, and even legal battles. This roller caster ride began with strikes in the nineteenth century, and by 1900, there were nearly sixty local organizations around the south, but by 1914 because of strong opposition by the mill owners these numbers dwindled. Only one textile union still existed and it had only forty-six members. Then in 1929 came the wave of textile strikes across the south that resulted from the depression and labor surplus.

Many of theses strikes were organized by the TWU, others by the NTWU (a communist based union set on spreading ideas of socialism), and still others were simply local walkouts that spread to engulf as much as an entire county. More of these battles were lost than won. This was due to state supported aid that favored the rich owners. In attempt to protect traditional southern economy, state governments in the south jumped at any chance to throw down organized labor attempts. Yet the workers were bound together by common strife and kept on fighting. The depression hit the industry in the late thirties and tensions settled as plants closed and mills idled by.

President Roosevelt issued his New Deal plan which supposedly protected workers rights. However, his actions were largely ignored. Only thirty-two percent of men in the southern textile industry saw a raise in pay. (Hall 306). The TWU had a scarce spreading of members before the depression, but as a result of hope ignited by the New Deal, its membership jumped to forty thousand, the largest textile union at that time. In the forties the newly formed TWUA began its campaign across the south.

With the aid of the Textile Workers Organization Committee, the TWUA became the first truly successful campaign of organization against the mill bosses. When the organization combined with the ACWU an already established union with members in excess of 400, 000 the mill owners had no choice but to subside. A full eighty year battle that began with friendly protest which led to mass violence, then subsided with federal assistance changed more about southern culture and identity than anything in American history except the Civil War, yet there is relatively little known about it, and hardly anything written on the subject. The collection I did find was very selective and difficult to obtain. Many books were out of print, and only available in local libraries in cities of interest. The only book I found to be truly reliable was written by professors at the University of North Carolina, Like a Family...

As far as I can tell they had no reasons or motives to be biased. Also, many of their sources of information were primary sources that originated from interviews with actual mill workers (partly for the lack of alternate source material. Many of the views in the book were backed by actual quotes, which made the information nearly incontrovertible. I did notice that they did not give the view of the owners, but the invaluable information they did donate about the actual conditions and lives of the workers was essential. Because of the lack of owners opinion I did locate two very interesting books on mills which included owner opinions. One was a biography of Robert Schoolfield, the owner of Dan River Mills.

This gave me much information on actual local events in the mills. In certain cases I could use this information to generalize and interpret wide spread happenings across the region. However, the information on the owner was very biased and obviously attempted to justify the conditions put upon the workers, so I purposely neglected to include much of that information. Mill on the Dan also provided me with very similar information, but I found it more reliable, telling both sides of the story and giving a very detailed account of the year to year history of the mill. I found a short excerpt in the book, The County of Gaston that was extremely useful. It stressed the importance of the mills to the city because the textile industry was tied into every chapter of the book.

However, I found that the information tilted in the mill executives favor. The book condemns communism and blames it solely for the cause of the Gaston County uprising, while neglecting to mention the workers actual conditions. I mainly blame this on the fact that the book was written by prominent citizens of Gaston County, was published by the County's historical society. As the authors probably lived through the strike, the events and prejudices regarding the strike were more than likely still prevalent in he authors memories.

I found two books on the actual 1929 general strike in Gaston County, The Thirteenth Juror and The Story of the Loray Mill Strike. The Thirteenth Juror mainly focuses on Fred Beal and the communist influence regarding the strike. Since simply an interested bystander (Forward) wrote it, there is no reason to expect bias. The Story of the Loray Mill Strike is a more historical account, telling the events from no particular points of view.

Facts as well as quotes are offered from both sides of the issue, and no blame seems to be placed on either side. The book establishes a history of the Gastonia textile industry from the start of labor organization up until the plants closing in 1993, but the bulk of the book concerns the issue of the 1929 strike; its causes and its effects. The final book I used mainly gave me information on mill conditions. Although it was based on conditions in the latter half of the century, Rise Gonna Rise was an invaluable source on conditions in the mill villages as well as the final years of the labor struggles up until 1980. I researched in many other books, but I found this selection to be the most valuable and unbiased. Although the authors of some of these books may be opinionated, facts are facts and if one can get through the persuasive tone the authors use, facts cannot be altered, and facts are what I based my research upon.

Bibliography: Bibliography Carlton, David L. Mill and Town in South Carolina: 1880 - 1920. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1982. Conway, Mimi. Rise Gonna Rise: A Portrait of Southern Textile Workers. New York, NY: Nachor Books, 1979.

Cope, Robert F. and Manly Wade Wellman. The County of Gaston: Two Centuries of a North Carolina Region. Gastonia, NC: Gaston County Historical Society, 1961. Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, James Leloudis, Robert Korstad, Mary Murphy, Lu Ann Jones, and Christopher Daly.

Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987. King, Robert E. Robert Addison Schoolfield (1853 - 1931): A Biographical History of the Leader of Danville, Virginias Textile Mills During Their First 50 Years.

Richmond, Virginia: William Byrd Press, 1979. Rhyne, Jennings J. Some Southern Cotton Mill Workers and Their Villages. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

Smith, Robert Sidney. Mill on the Dan: A History of dan River Mills, 1882 - 1950. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1960. Salmond, John A.

The Story of the Loray Mill Strike: Gastonia 1929. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995.


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Research essay sample on Textile Mills In The South

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