Reform or Repression

Examining the professional lives of a variety of businessmen and their advocates with the intent of taking their words seriously, Chad Pearson paints a vivid picture of an epic contest between industrial employers and labor, and challenges our comfortable notions of Progressive Era reformers.

Historians have characterized the open-shop movement of the early twentieth century as a cynical attempt by business to undercut the labor movement by twisting the American ideals of independence and self-sufficiency to their own ends. The precursors to today's right-to-work movement, advocates of the open shop in the Progressive Era argued that honest workers should have the right to choose whether or not to join a union free from all pressure. At the same time, business owners systematically prevented unionization in their workplaces.

While most scholars portray union opponents as knee-jerk conservatives, Chad Pearson demonstrates that many open-shop proponents identified themselves as progressive reformers and benevolent guardians of America's economic and political institutions. By exploring the ways in which employers and their allies in journalism, law, politics, and religion drew attention to the reformist, rather than repressive, character of the open-shop movement, Pearson's book forces us to consider the origins, character, and limitations of this movement in new ways. Throughout his study, Pearson describes class tensions, noting that open-shop campaigns primarily benefited management and the nation's most economically privileged members at the expense of ordinary people.

Pearson's analysis of archives, trade journals, newspapers, speeches, and other primary sources elucidates the mentalities of his subjects and their times, rediscovering forgotten leaders and offering fresh perspectives on well-known figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, Booker T. Washington and George Creel. Reform or Repression sheds light on businessmen who viewed strong urban-based employers' and citizens' associations, weak unions, and managerial benevolence as the key to their own, as well as the nation's, progress and prosperity.

Introduction. Reformers and Fighters: Employers and the Labor Problem

PART I. NATION
Chapter 1. Fighting "Union Dictation": Birth of the Open-Shop Movement
Chapter 2. "For the Protection of the Common People": Citizens, Progressives, and "Free Workers"

PART II. REGION
Chapter 3. A Tale of Two Men: Class Traitors and Strikebreaking in Cleveland
Chapter 4. Avenging McKinley: Organized Employers in Buffalo
Chapter 5. Making the "City of Prosperity": The Poetry of Industrial Harmony in Worcester
Chapter 6. "A Solid South for the Open Shop": N. F. Thompson and the Labor Solution

Conclusion. Creating the "Common Good": Individual Rights, Industrial Progress, and Virtuous Citizenship

Notes
Index
Acknowledgments