May Day 1914 | Ep 10

Veracruz, the Ludlow Massacre, Bill Haywood, the IWW, and Rockefeller. All are "In the News" at the beginning of May - 1914.

After the Ludlow Massacre in April 1914, Picketers head down to Standard Oil headquarters at 26 Broadway to protest the Rockefellers. One of these protestors is famous novelist, Upton Sinclair.

Also protesting are Anarchists who, on May 1, 1914, get caught up in the stampede and chaos at the May Day rally in Union Square. 

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
• The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum
• The Poison Squad | American Experience | PBS
• Titan by Ron Chernow
• Macon Telegraph - “Enemies of the Country” - May 2, 1914
• The New York Times "Rockefeller Balks" - April 30, 1914
• The New York Times "5k Stampeded by Police Clubs" - May 2, 1914
• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• historycolorado.org

Transcript

Shannon 0:16

In 1904, the socialist paper Appeal to Reason sends one of their young writers to Chicago to write a series of articles on labor exploitation. The writer interviews stockyard workers, labor organizers, doctors, lawyers, people living in settlement houses. Then he goes undercover. Dressing in shabby clothes and carrying a lunch bucket, he's able to slip into Chicago's meatpacking plants. The author would go on to write, quote, there is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars and everything that he desires is outside. And there is another kind where the things are behind the bars and the man is outside. But it wasn't the labor exploitation that the public would end up being interested in. It would be the unsanitary practices at the meatpacking plant that would capture the public's attention. The series of articles were then turned into a book. From the book, there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage. There would come from Europe old sausage that had been rejected and that was moldy and white. It would be dosed with borax and glycerine and dumped into the hoppers and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor in the dirt and sawdust where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms, and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them. They would die. And then rats, poisoned bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke. The meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one. There were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poison rat was a tidbit. Unquote. The author was Upton Sinclair, and the series of articles he wrote would be turned into the book The Jungle.

Bobby 3:40

And I'm Bobby.

Shannon 3:41

And this is that American Century. So, Bobby. Shannon. That's pretty that's pretty gross.

Bobby 3:58

Pretty nasty. I hope nobody was eating anything while you were reading that.

Shannon 4:03

Oh gosh, I hope so too. Well, apologies. I probably should have issued a trigger warning.

Bobby 4:13

You should have. You should have.

Shannon 4:14

But I don't believe in trigger warnings.

Bobby 4:16

Oh, okay.

Shannon 4:17

I believe they exist, but I don't believe in doing them. Actually, I think I do have a trigger warning coming up in this episode.

Bobby 4:26

Hmm. Okay. So we shouldn't really take your the lines you draw in the sand too seriously.

Shannon 4:35

No, no, that line is always moving. One day it's here, the next day it's there.

Bobby 4:40

I don't believe in them, but well, actually, now that I think about it, there's one coming up in the episode I I just wrote.

Shannon 4:51

Upton Sinclair what else do you know about him other than that he wrote The Jungle?

Bobby 4:56

I read the jungle in high school, I was disgusted by it then. Disgusted. Remain disgusted by it now. And I know did he write something about standard oil? Or like that?

Shannon 5:08

Yes, he wrote the book called Oil, exclamation mark, which There Will Be Blood is loosely based on.

Bobby 5:17

Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I remember reading that actually a few weeks ago. Um really? Well, reading about it. Oh that it was based on his book.

Shannon 5:25

Because we've been talking about Rockefeller.

Bobby 5:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Shannon 5:29

Mm-hmm. Um he also wrote a book called King Coal, which is about coal mining in Southern Colorado.

Bobby 5:37

Mm-hmm. He's just not letting anyone off the hook, is he?

Shannon 5:40

He's not. He doesn't have as many biographies that I feel that he should. He ran for governor of California. He was the first celebrity to run for governor of California.

Bobby 5:51

He's kind of like the Ralph Nader of his time.

Shannon 5:54

In a way. Yeah. That's yeah. He was a socialist. And his socialist beliefs are obviously on display. In his novels and writings.

Bobby 6:06

Yeah.

Shannon 6:08

So the articles that would then become the jungle, they're published in 1905. And the book comes out in 1906. And that same year, 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act was passed. And these are the first consumer protection laws that are passed in the United States. The public, as I mentioned, was more appalled by the food packing practices that it learned about in the jungle than by the labor exploitation that Sinclair detailed in his book. And he would later say about it, quote, I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach. Unquote.

Bobby 7:01

But I guess he's sort of in the end, he's like, well, as long as I got some change, right? However, I got there.

Shannon 7:09

However, there there was a pure food movement already underway in the United States prior to the publication of The Jungle. And there's a very good book in PBS documentary called The Poison Squad about a chemist named Dr. Harvey Wiley, who would be nicknamed Father of the Pure Food and Drug Act. And it was his work, Wiley's work, that would reveal chemical preservatives used in all types of foods and canning practices, chemicals like borax, salicylic acid, and formaldehyde. The removal of cocaine from Coca-Cola has been attributed to Dr. Wiley. So not all his work is good.

Bobby 7:56

I was gonna say he did let down some people there.

Shannon 7:58

He did let down some people. But the publication of The Jungle, it created public pressure. And the Pure Food and Drug Act was already trying to get pushed through Congress and other food safety acts. Nearly 100 by some estimates had been proposed since 1879. At the end of our last episode, I said we were gonna talk about May Day in 1914. What what does Upton Sinclair have have to do with any of this? I also said that we were gonna take a look at the fallout for the Rockefellers after the Ludlow massacre. I'm hoping, I don't know if I can do it, but I'm hoping I can merge our two big storylines. The invasion of Veracruz, oil in Mexico, and the Colorado Cold Wars, and Upton Sinclair. I don't know if I can do this.

Bobby 8:58

I don't think anyone's ever pulled anything off like that before.

Shannon 9:00

I don't I don't think so either.

Bobby 9:04

I wish you the best of luck.

Shannon 9:05

Thank you. You're looking all I'm asking for is support.

Bobby 9:10

You got it. I appreciate it. Let's go. Let's do it.

Shannon 9:13

Okay, here we go. Okay, we're off. We're gonna take a look at what's in the news. The date is May 2nd, 1914, the day after May Day, International Workers' Day, because this is this is when the stories about May Day are gonna be published, right?

Bobby 9:33

Okay.

Shannon 9:34

Okay.

Bobby 9:34

Okay.

Shannon 9:35

Now, about a week before May Day, 1914, there is an incident in the port city of Tampico where some soldiers get arrested, quickly released. A demand is made to president, really a dictator, Huerta. The demand is a 21-gun salute. Huerta does not deliver a 21-gun salute to the American flag. And then it's discovered that a ship carrying arms, munitions, guns is headed to the port city of Veracruz. And now Wilson wants to invade. U.S. sailors and U.S. Marines invade Veracruz. The people of Veracruz have to defend the city themselves, and they are sniping from roofs at American soldiers. American soldiers die. Citizens of Veracruz die. May 2nd, 1914. Our first story is from the Bayard transcript out of Bayard, Nebraska. It carries a story on Veracruz trigger warning. This is graphic. So if you're screamish, Bobby, don't listen for the next minute or so.

Bobby 11:05

Okay. I'm about to step outside the room.

Shannon 11:07

Okay. I'll give you a second. Step outside the room. Okay. Headline. Veracruz dead are burned in streets. Bodies mixed with wood and saturated with oil are burned by Mexican White Cross workers. Now the Mexican White Cross, also called La Cruz Blanca, was formed during the Mexican Revolution as a neutral relief and aid organization because the Red Cross refused to treat insurgents. So the White Cross, neutral, it will treat help anybody.

Bobby 11:51

Interesting.

Shannon 11:52

Mm-hmm. From the article, quote, Veracruz, smoke from funeral pyres, characterized one of the developments in the American occupancy of Veracruz, when the disposition of Mexican dead had become a problem, and Mexican White Cross workers had recovered 18 decomposed bodies from the ruins of the Naval Academy and the barracks last occupied by Brigadier General Gustavo Moss. The bodies, swollen under the heat of the tropical sun, were carried into the streets and piled in heaps. And the stench that rose from the ruins made men sick. The disposition of those dead was a problem to be solved only by the funeral pyre. And the Mexican White Cross organization workers here volunteered to do it. Also from the Bayard transcript. Same paper, same day. Headline.

Bobby 14:32

Pretending to chase butterflies.

Shannon 14:33

That's right. That's right.

Bobby 14:35

Who's gonna stop someone, you know, a man that's chasing butterflies? Who's gonna who's gonna kill that joy?

Shannon 14:41

I sure wouldn't.

Bobby 14:42

I wouldn't either. Carry on. Carry on, good sir.

Shannon 14:46

Also interesting in this story, um, Major Smedley Butler commands the Marines. And the article says how all of Smedley Butler's Marines have been trained as engineers and machinists.

Bobby 15:02

Yeah.

Shannon 15:02

Now they had come from Panama, where they for years had been overseeing the construction of the Panama Canal. And this year, 1914, is when the Panama Canal will open. So here's a connection we have with Smedley D. Butler, Panama Canal, which we will talk about in future episodes. It's very important. Yeah. Very important, huge part of the American century. So, Bobby.

Bobby 15:34

Shannon.

Shannon 15:36

I have a story that I'd like you to read from the Jasper County Democrat, which is a paper out of Missouri, and it has an update for us on the Eparanga, which is the ship that I know has been a great point of frustration for you.

Bobby 15:54

Yeah.

Shannon 15:55

Because I haven't been quite forthright as to its whereabouts.

Bobby 16:00

You have not.

Shannon 16:01

No, I've been teasing it for a long time.

Bobby 16:04

Yeah.

Shannon 16:05

And so now we're gonna we're gonna find out uh a little bit, a little bit about what's been going on with the Yipparanga. Are you ready?

Bobby 16:12

Is it finally yes?

Shannon 16:14

Finally, finally.

Bobby 16:15

Okay.

Shannon 16:15

Okay, and it I wanted to note for the listeners that the Brian being talked about is Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. Oh my god. I know how you feel about William Jennings Bryan.

Bobby 16:28

Yeah.

Shannon 16:28

All right. Do you think you could read this without like as a neutral party? Do you think you can uh separate your personal feelings for William Jennings Bryan?

Bobby 16:38

I think it's gonna creep in there a little bit. Okay because they're just so strong. Of course. But Okay, here we go. Alright. Headline Brian Thanks Germany. Thanks from the American government to Germany has been informally conveyed to Germany through Secretary Bryan for its friendly action in recalling the steamer Iparanga with war munitions in its cargo from Veracruz and for the energetic assistance given by the commander and crew of the cruiser Dresden in rescuing American refugees at Tampico. The Secretary assured Ambassador Bernstorff that a formal note of appreciation and thanks would follow in due course.

Shannon 17:19

That was that was great. I think, you know, it was as neutral as we're gonna get it.

Bobby 17:24

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Think so.

Shannon 17:26

So a German ship rescues American refugees at Tampico. Now, originally it was thought that the US would invade at Tampico. But then word arrives that there is a ship, the Eperanga, filled with arms, munitions, all types of weapons for Huerta that's headed to Veracruz. So then the plans change, and the U.S. invades at Veracruz. And the Americans and for all foreigners from Britain, Germany, all types of places, they're abandoned. Tampico, all the ships go to Veracruz, so they have no coverage. And then this German ship comes in to get them out.

Bobby 18:14

So rescues them and also is not delivering its weapons.

Shannon 18:19

Right.

Bobby 18:19

Yeah.

Shannon 18:20

But these are two separate ships. The I Peranga.

Bobby 18:23

Oh, the the cruiser Dresden is rescued them. Oh, I see, I see.

Shannon 18:26

Yeah. The cruiser Dresden gets these refugees out. The I Peranga is recalled. Mm-hmm.

Bobby 18:34

Without making its delivery.

Shannon 18:35

Correct. The Lima News, a paper out of Ohio, reports that the Iparanga has left for Germany on April 30th. Quote: The German steamship I Peranga sailed for Europe today with a number of German refugees on board. It was the approach of the Iparanga to this port that led to the hasty seizure of Veracruz so that the war supplies on board could be prevented from reaching Huerta. The dictator of Mexico. But Bobby, have I got news for you? The Iparanga is not going to make it to Europe to unload these munitions. And the provenance of these munitions is un uncertain. Uncertain. The this was just a this was a German ship, but these are not German arms.

Bobby 19:38

Where are they coming from?

Shannon 19:39

The United States of America. The United States of America, US companies are not allowed to sell arms, munitions to the current regime in charge in Mexico. These US arms are put on a ship to go to Europe, put on a European ship to come back down to Mexico.

Bobby 20:04

So it's like we're not selling them to the Mexican uh government. We're selling them to Europeans who then we don't know what they do after that.

Shannon 20:12

That's right.

Bobby 20:13

It's not our business.

Shannon 20:15

The Central New Jersey Home News carries a couple paragraphs on Big Bill Haywood. We met Big Bill Haywood in our Mountain Meadows Massacre episode, Bobby. He is the leader of the IWW, the International Workers of the World, also called the Wobblies. A union representing all workers. And a union that sought to represent not just skilled labor, but also unskilled labor. Big Bill Haywood is one of its founders. Mother Jones, also one of its founders. A very controversial figure in 1914, and considered by some to be a professional agitator, an anarchist, a traitor. He's also considered a hero of the working man by others. And when the U.S. invaded Veracruz, Mexico in April 1914, Haywood called for a general strike. The Central New Jersey Home News has this story on Haywood and the IWW. Headline. Police clash with mob parading to hear Haywood. Police and IWW paraders clashed here. One policeman was injured, and a riot call was sent in. The marchers were bound to West End Park, where Big Bill Haywood was to speak. Now, cities would brace. themselves for possible violence and rioting on May Day. And I found an editorial in the Macon Telegraph titled Enemies of the Country that sums up how a lot of people felt about Big Bill Haywood in 1914. And I'd love for you to read it for us, Bobby. Now this author is very salty about Haywood, so if you can bring that into your reading.

Bobby 22:31

Mm-hmm. Okay. I think I got this.

Shannon 22:34

Right.

Bobby 22:37

Enemies of the country. It is gratifying, but not surprising, to learn that laboring men throughout the country have resented the proposal of Bill Haywood that labor take advantage of the Mexican disturbance to inaugurate violent strikes in all parts of the United States. Be traitors, Haywood is said to have advised. It is better to be a traitor to your country than a traitor to your class. You working men have no quarrel with the working men in Mexico. Haywood poses as a leader of the IWW, but the real workers of the world, who live not by self-seeking agitation but by honest labor, are neither anarchists nor traitors. Such men as Haywood never speak for the masses of the laboring people, but only for a small and dangerous class of professional agitators and incendiaries who, if they received their just desserts, would be banished from a country to which they contribute nothing but strife and in which they continually abuse the personal liberty belonging by inalienable right only to the good citizen.

Shannon 23:49

Thank you, Bobby.

Bobby 23:50

You're very welcome. Was that laced with enough acid?

Shannon 23:55

Plenty.

Bobby 23:56

Okay.

Shannon 23:57

Thank you. So May Day versus Labor Day. Why why is Labor Day the federal holiday and not May Day?

Bobby 24:05

Hmm. That's a great question.

Shannon 24:07

Oh I happen to have found out.

Bobby 24:09

Oh great.

Shannon 24:12

Labor Day celebrations actually predate May Day celebrations. And the first parade and celebration meant to honor workers happened in 1882. May Day, or International Workers' Day, is tied to the fight for an eight-hour workday, which was a global movement. And on May 1st, 1886, in the United States, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike, including workers in the city of Chicago. A few days into the strike, on May 4th, 1886, a labor rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago turned deadly. The rally had been called to protest police violence against strikers. And the rally then turns into police violence against strikers. The police attempt to break up the crowd, and that's when somebody throws a bomb, and police then open fire. Eight Chicago police officers die, and four civilians die. Anarchists and labor activists are arrested, many of whom had not been directly tied to the bombing, and four end up being executed. And this becomes known as the Haymarket Affair. To labor radicals and many workers worldwide, the Haymarket defendants become martyrs. In 1889, an International Socialist Congress in Paris declared May 1st a day of international worker solidarity, partly in memory of Haymarket, but also in support of the eight-hour day. And that is why May Day becomes a major labor holiday across Europe, Latin America, and much of the world. In the US, though, May Day becomes politically uncomfortable because it's associated with socialism, anarchism, and immigrant labor movements and later communism. So American officials and business leaders aren't interested in embracing it as the official national labor holiday. So that is why Labor Day becomes the official US holiday in 1894. In Union Square. Headline 5,000 stampeded by police clubs. Women and children felled in flight at Union Square May Day Rally. Chief Inspector Stops Panic, hurling back clubbers and shouting orders to stop. Anarchists stir trouble.

Bobby 27:26

Sounds very chaotic.

Shannon 27:51

The police charge caused a stampede of 5,000 of the 13,000 persons in the square. Clubs flew right and left, the police jumping over the bodies of prostrate women, men, boys, and even two babies to reach people beyond them. Schmidtberger, an acting Inspector Morris, rushed to the foremost police clubber, grabbed him by the collar, and threw him back upon the other patrolman. Schmidtberger's powerful voice was heard above the din of the stampede and the screams of women and children who had been bowled over. Back to your stations, you men! Down with your clubs! Stop this! Stop it at once! The big inspector called out, and his message seemed to bring the excited policemen to their senses. While labor union leaders said the trouble started in a clash of working men in the suit and cloak making trades. Unquote. So, Bobby, the socialists and the anarchists, they don't get along. One is blaming the other for the agitation. Schmidtberger, who is the chief inspector, sees his men bringing down their clubs on these socialists and anarchists, and he yells at them to stop. He doesn't want chaos to erupt. It does, but he seems like he does a pretty good job of then getting it under control.

Bobby 29:48

Point it back in, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Shannon 29:51

Now, I think you're going to appreciate this next part of the story. I will stop after the point that I think you're gonna like. Okay. Subhead. Quirrel between orators. Deputy Commissioner Rubin and friends were attracted to the point where the trouble began by two speakers standing in adjoining automobiles. An Italian in one automobile shook his cane at an Italian in the other automobile and both talked together as loudly as they could. Only a small part of the crowd was interested in either speaker. They continued their quarrel, while an Italian who spoke English remarked to a detective that he needn't worry, as Italian speakers often looked as if they were about to kill each other when they were merely trying to emphasize points.

Bobby 30:47

That's fantastic. I enjoyed that. I did enjoy that.

Shannon 30:50

Yeah, I knew you would like that.

Bobby 30:51

Yeah.

Shannon 30:52

Such passion.

Bobby 30:52

Yeah.

Shannon 30:53

As Italians.

Bobby 30:54

Just they're just having a passionate dialogue.

Shannon 30:57

The story continues. Subhead Anarchists Stir Up Trouble. From 10:30 in the morning, when the first police detachments and the first celebrators reached Union Square until 5:20 when the stampede occurred, the police had an anxious day. The source of the trouble always turned out to be Alexander Berkman's group of anarchists who were bent on breaking up any movement except their own. Now, Alexander Berkman is a Russian American anarchist and author, and he will appear again in future episodes. But note for now that he is a very prominent leader of the anarchist movement in the United States in 1914. The story continues. A few minutes later, a noisy, brawling, yelling group of IWW men and anarchists arrived at Union Square from Mulberry Park, where they had been for two hours. Berkman was at their head with Sweet Marie Gans on one side of him and Becky Edelson on the other side. The brawlers carried banners containing slogans such as these. Rockefeller is a good Christian. He murders our women and children. And wanted volunteers to go to Colorado and fight. And Huerta and John D. Rockefeller, two bandit enemies of the people.

Bobby 32:39

Those are pretty good. Well, especially the the first one. Rockefeller is a good Christian. He murders our women and children.

Shannon 32:45

Yeah. Putting somebody's brand of Christianity on blast.

Bobby 32:52

Yeah.

Shannon 32:54

Is certainly nothing new. It is not special to our times at all.

Bobby 33:00

Right. Exposing the hypocrisy.

Shannon 33:02

Yeah. And what which which brand of Christianity is the correct brand of Christianity. Huerta as dictator of Mexico. And John D. Rockefeller, who has a controlling interest in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, the company that owns the Ludlow mines where the Ludlow massacre occurred about a week prior, April 20th, 1914, are being compared with one another by these three anarchists, Berkman, Becky Edelson, and Marie Ganz. Now, the day before the May Day rally in Union Square, these three were down at 26 Broadway. And do you remember from our last episode that 26 Broadway is where Standard Oil's headquarters are located? They were down there protesting. And the New York Times from the day before, May 1st, 1914, says that Marie Gans threatened to kill Rockefeller. And she shouted, quote, kill Rockefeller. Shoot him down like a dirty dog. Now I don't like how we're shooting dirty dogs. I don't agree with that.

Bobby 34:27

No, and she's really, if she really said that, uh, she's really opening herself up to some trouble.

Shannon 34:35

Yeah. From all the dog lovers.

Bobby 34:38

Yeah, and the law and Rockefeller.

Shannon 34:40

Right, because it's also a threat. Yeah, it's a threat. I see.

Bobby 34:43

Okay, okay. Yeah.

Shannon 34:45

Gans and Berkman were then able to get up to the 14th floor of the Standard Oil Building. Where again she shouted, Tell Rockefeller that I come on behalf of the working people. And if he doesn't stop the murders in Colorado, I'll wake this town up. I'll shoot him down like a dog. The story in the New York Times says, quote, The excitement of getting Miss Gans and Alexander Berkman, who followed her to the Rockefeller offices out of the Standard Oil building, had hardly subsided when Becky Edelson arose on a sandbox near the Bowling Green subway station, close to 26 Broadway, and commenced an oration, which made her the center of a crowd bent on mobbing her and gave the police plenty to do in the way of protecting her. Charles Mastrode of 284 Smith Street, Brooklyn, was fined a dollar by Magistrate Sims in the Tombs Court after policemen had testified that he stuck his tongue out at Becky Edelson during her bowling green speech making.

Bobby 36:02

That's just low.

Shannon 36:03

It's crass. It's disgusting.

Bobby 36:06

I learned not to do that when I was like six.

Shannon 36:08

Exactly. I I think he should have been locked up in the tombs.

Bobby 36:15

Yeah. Sent up to Sing Sing, if that was around then?

Shannon 36:18

It sure was.

Bobby 36:19

Send him up there.

Shannon 36:20

Oh my gosh, that's so funny that you say that.

Bobby 36:24

Really?

Shannon 36:24

You'll find out in a moment.

Bobby 36:26

Yeah, okay.

Shannon 36:28

Also, in these days, they would publish somebody's address in the newspaper.

Bobby 36:32

When they were arrested?

Shannon 36:34

Yeah, or for, you know, a lot of things. Even if even if it was a good story about you, your address was published in the paper. You know? The story continues. Charles Mastrode was one of a group of several hundred men and boys who threw paper bags, hooted, and otherwise tried to discourage Miss Edelson, Marie Gans, and Alexander Berkman when they tried to denounce Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company as the cause of both the trouble in Mexico and in Colorado. Unquote. Is this true, Bobby? Is the Standard Oil Company the cause of the trouble in Mexico and in Colorado?

Bobby 37:25

I don't know. Is it?

Shannon 37:28

Yes. But also no.

Bobby 37:32

Okay.

Shannon 37:35

Standard Oil was big business. There are few businesses as big as Standard Oil. And it was big business that had been pressuring the Wilson administration to invade Mexico in order to secure and protect U.S. mining and oil claims from the instability in Mexico. And it is big business that puts down labor strikes, intimidates union members, or people thinking about unionizing. And it is big business that perpetuates this divide of the haves and have-nots in the United States. All this on the eve of the Great War. And who will get rich off of the Great War? It will be big business.

Bobby 38:33

Yeah, I was just gonna say big business.

Shannon 38:35

American big business. The Great War, considered the first oil war, whoever has the oil has the advantage. And who will supply the Allies with the majority of their oil? It will be Standard Oil of New Jersey. Followed by Texaco. Followed by Gulf Oil, a U.S. company. Followed by Edward Doheny's Mexican Oil Company. We briefly talked about Edward Doheny, episode two of the series, I believe. Fifth big provider is Wheatman Pearson, Lord Calder's Mexican Eagle Company, which was a British company, which we also talked about in the Tampico Incident episode. These are the two biggest companies which have oil wells set up on Mexico's Faja de Oro, which is the area between Tampico and Veracruz. US Steel and Bethlehem Steel will supply the Allies with steel during the Great War. DuPont supplied over 40% of standard explosives used by the Allies. Kennecott is a copper company that supplied most of the copper to the Allies. And copper is just as important to warfare as steel or oil. Every shell requires a brass casing. Military communication systems depend on copper wire. Meat and food is exported out of the U.S. Grain, trucks, machinery, all types of metals will be supplied to the Allies during the Great War. U.S. exports rose from 2.4 billion in 1913 to 6.2 billion in 1917.

Bobby 40:50

That's a lot.

Shannon 40:51

And who is making and mining all these exports? The American laborer. So what of Upton Sinclair? At this moment, May Day 1914, Upton Sinclair is in jail on a hunger strike. After Upton Sinclair hears of the Ledlow massacre, he starts protesting down at 26 Broadway, the headquarters of Standard Oil. He gets arrested. He gets thrown in the tombs. And he goes on a hunger strike.

Bobby 41:43

Wow.

Shannon 41:45

And he says to his followers, I do this thing because Mr. Rockefeller is here at the very headquarters of the invisible government with all his prestige and his power and his control of the press and the police. The newspapers printed his statement in full, but the public does not hear the miners' side. The miners have no high-priced corporation lawyers to help them draw up statements. I have studied the situation for a year and a half. The public does not understand that after posting promises to pay better wages and to grant shorter hours, the company set about destroying all the leaders of the men and blackmailing them out of their jobs and even hired gunmen to harass them. Until the murder of a union organizer precipitated the present war. He is speaking, Bobby, of the murder of Louis Tikas. He continues.

Bobby 43:31

Okay.

Shannon 43:33

All this and more next time. On that American Century. Sources for this episode include The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair, Titan by Ron Chernow, The New York Times, and for a list of all sources, please see the show notes for this episode.