That American Century

Sinclair v. Rockefeller | Ep 11

• SNB Media • Season 1 • Episode 11

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 36:03

Upton Sinclair, Ronald Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All three were celebrities first then California gubernatorial candidates second. 

Sinclair and Reagan also have something else in common - they were both players during crucial moments in American labor history. Reagan v. PATCO and Sinclair v. Rockefeller after the Ludlow Massacre.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

Speaker 1

What you mentioned before about no political experience, maybe that's what we need is something fresh and something new.

Speaker 2

I think he can be effective because what you need is someone with leadership qualities and someone who also quite frankly surrounds himself with pretty smart people, and I think he can do that.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

I've heard your voices loud and clear. We have tough choices ahead. The first choice that we must make is the one that will determine our success. Shall we rebuild our state together? Or shall we fight amongst our simulates, create even deeper division, and fail the people of California? Well, let me tell you something. The answer is clear. For the people to win, politics as usual must lose. I want to be the governor for the people. I want to represent everybody. Do solemnly swear. To solemnly swear. That I will support and defend. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies. Against all enemies. Foreign and domestic. Foreign and domestic. That I take this obligation freely. That I take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. Or purpose of evasion. Or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge. And I will well and faithfully discharge. The duties upon which I am about to enter. The duties upon upon which I am about to enter. Congratulations, Governor. Thank you. Thank you.

Shannon

American century. So Bobby, that was Arnold Schwarzenegger winning the governorship and then being sworn in as California governor in 2003.

Bobby

Yeah. Govern governor.

Shannon

That's right. I I I remember this. It sure was something, wasn't it? What what do you remember?

Bobby

It was something. It was it was something. It was seen as ridiculous, right? That this movie star, even though Ronald Reagan had done it before.

Shannon

Right.

Bobby

Became the governor of California.

Shannon

Right, right. And you know, I I'm so sorry. This I just realized this is an episode on Upton Sinclair. So I'm not I'm not quite sure why Arnold has shown up.

Bobby

Oh. Maybe maybe he's a big fan of Sinclair.

Shannon

Um hold on. Let me I just have to quick log in to the That American Century mainframe.

Bobby

Okay.

Shannon

I just have to VPN into the That American Century servers to see if this is right or if this is a mistake. Hold on, please. I just have to check something. I hope there's no scheduled maintenance happening by the Technology Resource Center. I didn't get an email on it.

Bobby

Oh yeah. The TRC.

Shannon

So I hope there's no TAC TRC happening.

Bobby

Yeah, the Sunday crew.

Shannon

Okay, I'm in. Hold on. Episode 11. Upton Sinclair Arnold opening clip. Huh, okay. Well, this seems to be right. I guess I'm just gonna have to trust the work and trust that we're gonna get back to 1914.

Bobby

I mean, I I I I believe you can, but this this one is gonna be tough.

Shannon

They've all been tough, but this this seems particularly tough.

Bobby

It does.

Shannon

We gotta get back to 1914 and Upton Sinclair trolling Rockefeller after the Ludlow massacre. I mean, I promise that at the end of our last episode.

Bobby

Yeah. Let's see if we can do it.

Shannon

Let's see if I can do it. Bobby, as you so astutely mentioned, Schwarzenegger was not the first celebrity with zero elected official experience to win the governorship of California.

Bobby

Right.

Shannon

Ronald Reagan, also a celebrity governor, actor first, elected in 1966. And he may have had a little more experience because he was elected president of his union, the Screen Actors Guild, in 1947.

Bobby

That's right, yeah.

Shannon

And he was re-elected every year through to 1952.

Bobby

Okay.

Shannon

During this time, the 50s, 60s, his politics are moving to the right. He's becoming fiercely anti-communist. He testifies before the House on American Activities, which I don't know if you've ever seen a clip of that or the footage of that, but he seems quite, quite pleased and and delighted to be there in front of the House on American activities. I haven't seen that. To help in the rooting out of alleged communists. So his politics are moving to the right. He becomes more government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem with his politics. And in 1980, Reagan gets elected as president. He's sworn in on January 20th, 1981.

Ronald Reagan

I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.

Shannon

17 days shy of his 70th birthday, he was at that time the oldest president ever to be sworn in. Sworn in on January 20th, March 30th, he shot. He tells Nancy, I forgot to duck. And then on August 3rd of that year, he's been in office a little over six months. 13,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATGO, walk off the job after contract negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration broke down. And a mere four hours later, Reagan gives the following press conference.

Ronald Reagan

This morning at 7 a.m., the union representing those who man America's air traffic control facilities called a strike. This was the culmination of seven months of negotiations between the Federal Aviation Administration and the Union. At one point in these negotiations, agreement was reached and signed by both sides, granting a $40 million increase in salaries and benefits. This is twice what other government employees can expect. It was granted in recognition of the difficulties inherent in the work these people perform. Now, however, the union demands are 17 times what had been agreed to: $681 million. This would impose a tax burden on their fellow citizens, which is unacceptable. At National Airport, a traffic controller told a newsperson he had resigned from the union and reported to work because, quote, how can I ask my kids to obey the law if I don't? End quote. This is a great tribute to America. Let me make one thing plain. I respect the right of workers in the private sector to strike. Indeed, as president of my own union, I led the first strike ever called by that union. I guess I'm maybe the first one to ever hold this office who is a lifetime member of an AF of L CIO union. But we cannot compare labor management relations in the private sector with government. Government cannot close down the assembly line. It has to provide without interruption the protective services which are government's reason for being.

Bobby

Oh, well, thank you.

Shannon

You're welcome.

Bobby

Too kind.

Shannon

Yeah.

Bobby

Learned the air controllers will probably strike Monday morning. That's against the law. I'm going to announce that those who strike have lost their jobs and will not be rehired.

Shannon

Pat Co. didn't think that Reagan was going to fire all of them because there's a lot of them. They have a very specialized skill. It would be very difficult to replace them. And also they had supported him in the 1980 election. Reagan had even written a letter to the president of PATCO a few weeks before the election. Bobby, if you would read the letter that he wrote to the president of PATCO.

Bobby

Sure.

Shannon

I'd be very grateful.

Bobby

I have been thoroughly briefed by members of my staff as to the deplorable state of our nation's air traffic control system. In an area so clearly related to public safety, the Carter administration has failed to act responsibly. You can rest assured that if I am elected president, I will take whatever steps are necessary to provide our air traffic controllers with the most modern equipment available and to adjust staff levels and work days so that they are commensurate with achieving a maximum degree of public safety. Such harmony can and must exist if we are to restore the people's confidence in their government. Sincerely, Ronald Reagan.

Shannon

Had come to visit us on the That American Century set.

Bobby

Imagine what what it how how great it could have been if I had put a little grease in my hair. Pomade. That would have been so good. Yeah. That would have helped me. And he has he has a better hair of uh a better head of hair than I do.

Shannon

It's not easy to admit, I'm sure, for you.

Bobby

No, it isn't.

Shannon

You're so brave.

Bobby

I'm I'm doing I'm saying these things were all men.

Shannon

Okay. As you can sort of glean from the letter, the air traffic controllers felt that they worked too many hours. The technology that they were using was outdated. They wanted to bring the technology up to speed or up to present technology capabilities, and they needed more air traffic controllers, and they needed more reasonable hours.

Bobby

What about money? Do they want more money? Did you say that?

Shannon

They want more money, yes. They had been negotiating, going back and forth for about six months. As I mentioned before, this doesn't just come out of nowhere. But what they didn't expect is that they would all be fired. In anticipation of this happening, they had been training some folks. They bring in military personnel, and people have to work more hours because not all of the air traffic controllers struck. So there still were some. PATCO, the union, ended up going bankrupt. And some of the air traffic controllers would get work in the private sector, but some were unemployed for a long time. Organized labor was weakened after this moment. The boss, in this instance, President Reagan, had taken a hard stance, and he made good on his threat. The strike was illegal, and if the union went on to strike, they would be fired. So bosses in the private sector followed suit, and they got much tougher on unions after this moment. The 20th century, the American century, had seen a strengthening of unions, particularly during FDR's presidency. And now, at this PATCO moment, 1981, a turning point, a weakening arrives. And one of those moments early in the century would come in 1914 in Ludlow, Colorado, which we have been talking about.

Bobby

We have.

Shannon

Quick recap. Coal miners working for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company go on strike in the fall of 1913. They want to unionize. The company hires a private detective agency to put down the strike. The Colorado National Guard gets called in. The striking mine workers get kicked out of their company housing. And they set up a tent colony in Ludlow. Intermittent fighting goes on for six months. And then on April 20th, 1914, the leader of the mine workers is murdered. A gun battle erupts. Women and children suffocate to death in cellars dug underneath the tents they lived in. The public is appalled that women and children have become casualties in such a horrifying manner. And the company, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, is a Rockefeller company. So protests outside Rockefeller's Standard Oil headquarters at 26 Broadway in downtown Manhattan start to form. And one protest movement will be led by a man already a celebrity in the United States in 1914. Upton Sinclair, the author of many best-selling novels, including his most famous work, The Jungle, which we talked about in episode 10. Upton Sinclair would go on to become the first celebrity with no elected office experience to run for governor of California. He runs in 1926 and in 1930 on the socialist ticket. But in 1934, he gets the Democratic nomination. He loses to the incumbent Republican governor. But it's a it's a very interesting campaign that we will talk about in a future episode. Upton Sinclair, novelist, runs for California governor. Ronald Reagan, actor, runs for California governor. Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, actor, poet laureate, runs for governor. So Bobby, here we are. Celebrities running for California governor. Turning points in labor history. Upton Sinclair has ties to both, and we pick up from our previous episode. And here is where Sinclair and Rockefeller will collide. In the spring of 1914, Sinclair returns to New York after spending the winter in Bermuda. He had just finished a novel about venereal disease called Sylvia's Marriage, about a southern girl who marries a wealthy Bostonian and Harvard man, and she gives birth to a baby who is born blinded with gonorrhea. So probably a real page turner.

Bobby

Yeah, yeah, be treated. What are you reading? Uh just the uh, you know, the one about the gonorrhea, the baby, the blinded baby, the gonorrhea one. Yeah, it's so good.

Shannon

In the spring of 1914, Sinclair and his wife are renting an apartment in Morningside Heights. And one evening he goes to a meeting at Carnegie Hall, where the wife of the president of the Western Federation of Miners, Mrs. Laura Cannon, talks to the audience about the Ludlow Massacre. We're gonna read from Upton Sinclair's autobiography. And I I did play Upton Sinclair in our previous episode, but I've decided to recast the role.

Bobby

So this is a good opportunity for me.

Shannon

This is a very good opportunity for you. It's a very good role. I think you're better suited to it than I am. If you would oblige us with a reading from Upton Sinclair's autobiography, that would be wonderful.

Bobby

Absolutely. Quote Mrs. Laura Cannon, wife of the president of the Western Federation of Miners, had told the story of what came to be known to the world as the Ludlow Massacre. In the lonely Rocky Mountains were coal camps, fenced in and guarded like medieval fortresses. No one could enter without a pass or leave without another. Rebelling against such conditions, they had gone on strike and had been turned out of the camps. Down in the valley, with the help of their unions, they had set up tent colonies. After they had held out for several months, the gunmen of the company had come one night, thrown kerosene on the tents, and set fire to them. Three women and eleven children had been burned to death. But the newspapers of the country had given only an inch or two to the event. The most important fact about the whole thing was that the These coal camps were owned by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, a Rockefeller concern. I told my terrified wife what I had decided to do: to take Mrs. Cannon to the office of John D. Rockefeller Jr. in the morning and ask him to hear her story. If he refused, we would charge him with murder before the American public and organize a group of sympathizers who would put mourning bands around their arms and walk up and down in front of the Standard Oil Building in protest against the company's crime.

Shannon

And that is exactly what they do. Upton Sinclair alerts the newspapers to his plans and he heads down to 26 Broadway, the headquarters of Standard Oil, to protest in complete silence and complete non-resistance. And he was accompanied by his wife and three other ladies. I don't know who these where these three other ladies came from. I guess they're just socialist friends. They're down at 26 Broadway, parading in silence, wearing their morning M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G black armbands. They're down there for about five minutes, and the police tell them that they need to move along. They decline, and they are all arrested and taken down to the police station. Upton Sinclair is in jail for three days, and he goes on a hunger strike. He gets out after three days and he goes back to 26 Broadway to continue protesting. And he and his fellow lady protesters, they all again put on the black morning bands and protest in silence. But they are not the only protesters. As we know from our previous episode, IWW workers and anarchists join them in their protesting. And not all of them are silently protesting. Some are very loudly protesting. The anarchist Marie Ganz gets up to the 14th floor of the Standard Oil offices and she threatens to kill Rockefeller. Anarchist Becky Edelson stands on a soapbox in front of the Bowling Green subway station and lambast Rockefeller, all whilst being taunted by a large group of men. Which is very scary. That takes a lot of courage to stand on a soapbox and be taunted, to be surrounded by a bunch of men who are throwing things at you, who are threatening you.

Bobby

Yeah, definitely.

Shannon

The protesters then start targeting other locations that Rockefeller may be found at. His home on 54th Street. Rockefeller Jr. and Rockefeller Sr. had two mansions on 54th Street next to each other. They protested at his church and at the Rockefeller estate in Terrytown called Picantco Hills. This is from a May 4, 1914 story in the New York Times. Headline IWW Pickett's Pen Rockefeller's. Subhead, How to Kill Rockefeller. The end of the day's long series of demonstrations aimed at inflicting the social chill on John D. Rockefeller Jr. occurred at night when Upton Sinclair preached a sermon before a socialist congregation in West 125th Street, in which he took up the question, how to kill John D. Rockefeller Jr. The question had been propounded to him by the Socialist Organization, and Sinclair answered by stating that making a social outcast of John D. Rockefeller Jr. would count more than killing him outright, even if the worst that had been charged against him should be considered to be true. Further, in the story, subhead Police Guard Cavalry Church. At the Cavalry Baptist Church yesterday morning, Chief Inspector Schmidtberger took personal command at the head of a force of 40 policemen in uniform and a group of plain clothed men of equal size. Last episode, Bobby, we met Chief Inspector Schmidtberger at the May Day rally in Union Square. His police officers start clubbing people, and Schmidtberger pulls them back and is like, stop this, men, stop this. So here he is a few days later at the Cavalry Baptist Church, taking personal command as the head of a force of 40 policemen in uniform. The story continues. Many of the plainclothes men attended the Sunday school service, boring, while the policemen took positions outside the church, marching from 10 o'clock in the morning until 11:30 o'clock. Half an hour after, the worshippers had entered for the regular communion service. An usher from the Sunday school class stood at the church entrance until the morning picketers left.

Baptist Church Tough

Let them start something, he said, and they will find us young men ready for them. We are a scrappy lot of youngsters, and if forced to it, we could give them all they might desire. And we would gladly do it if they disturbed our church service.

Bobby

Local church tough.

Shannon

A Baptist church tough?

Bobby

You disturbed a church service?

Shannon

Good luck to you.

Bobby

Cruising for a bruisin, buddy.

Shannon

The marchers finally left the church without any outbreak. And in this next part of the article, Sinclair really, really takes some good digs at Junior. Speaking on how to kill Rockefeller before an audience of 500 persons in a hall at 361 West 125th Street last night, Upton Sinclair was careful to point out that it was not physical killing that he intended to suggest. Mingling with the crowd in the small hall in which he spoke were 20 central office detectives. If you men would step outside, he said, addressing them, there would be more room here for legitimate talk. Two of you I recognize as having seen in the tombs. Sinclair described John D. Rockefeller Jr. as a person with two characters. One side of him, he said, was human, the other side, a social fiction. His first side, he said, is that of a quiet young fellow, well-meaning, but not intelligent. A believer of theological doctrines of the 17th century that are no longer entertained by the intelligent classes. His other side is that of a destructive predatory force. The first side of this young man, both the socialists and the IWW, are indifferent to. It is Rockefeller's second and hideous side that we want to kill. And the question is, how are we going to kill this second side of him without hurting his not overintelligent and harmless side? He went on to say that neither the socialists nor the IWW would benefit by the actual killing of Rockefeller. If he were assassinated, he said, the wages of the working people would not increase, nor would the price of oil decrease. The actual test of killing persons has been tried for centuries, and such things never have helped the working classes to get anywhere. Yeah. Upton Sinclair goes to Colorado to speak with the miners. He eventually runs out of money and has to come back to New York. Rockefeller, he just he doubles down. He balks at the protesters. He is still steadfast in his belief that these miners don't deserve union recognition. The 10-day war in Colorado that occurs after the Ludlow massacre and ends in more violence, more deaths, and the mine workers don't get any of their demands. So it doesn't end well. But what makes it a turning point is the public outrage over these murders because industrial violence, the hiring of private detective agencies, and the death of union workers. This was this was not unusual for the time. But the death of women and children was horrifying. And about a year and a half after the Ludlow massacre, the Rockefeller brand is in is in such a bad place that they hire a PR company. They hire a famous PR gentleman named Ivy Lee, who was kind of a trailblazer in terms of corporate public relations. Upon his advice, Rockefeller Jr. goes to Colorado and meets with the gentleman who work in the mines, and he meets with Mother Jones. Sinclair's autobiography is published in 1962, and governor of New York in 1962 is Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, Jr.'s son. Sinclair in his autobiography would reflect on the impact of his work. Bobby, if you can read this excerpt, please.

Bobby

Quote: I have often thought what must have been the effect of that event upon the Rockefeller family. There has been an enormous change in their attitude to the public since that time. John D. Jr. went out to his coal mines and danced with the miners' wives and made friends with the angry old mother Jones. More important, he made a deal to recognize the unions and reform conditions in all the camps of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. If you look at the record that his son, the present Nelson A. Rockefeller, is making as governor of New York State, you will see that our lessons were indeed learned by that family.

Shannon

And this says that public employees have the right to unionize. They can form unions, they can elect representatives, they can bargain collectively. But the Taylor Law also says that public employees may not strike.

Bobby

That's against the law.

Shannon

We will continue on, Bobby, in May 1914 in our next episode. And we will take a true crime return. It was called The Trial of the Century. And it involves gambling, mobsters, Tammany Hall, Crooked Cops, The Tombs, Sing Sing, The Electric Chair, and a character we've already met. Chief Inspector Schmidtberger. All this and more next time on that American Century. Sources for today's episode include the autobiography of Upton Sinclair, the Reagan Library, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. For a list of all sources, please see the show notes in this episode.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

You know, some days it's fantastic and everything goes well, and you balance the budget and you have made a deal with Democrats and Republicans to build the infrastructure and to pass great environmental laws, and we passed the most unbelievable environmental laws. We became kind of the example for the rest of the world. So we do wonderful things, and then there's also tough times. And so I experienced both, but I would not ever exchange it with anything else. It was the most challenging but the most rewarding and pleasurable thing to do. It was, I have to tell you that I'm so fortunate that in my life I was able, out of all of the things, to be bodybuilding champion and then movie star and all this kind of stuff, but that it was able to serve, you know, almost 40 million people in Calified. That was like unbelievable.