CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY

Labor in Crisis: A Leader to Rally

Upon John Walker’s resignation, First Vice President Robert G. Fitchie became the interim president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. It was an honor he desperately did not want. First, he didn’t want to leave his post as President of the Milk Wagon Drivers of Chicago; second was his desire to remain in the Windy City.

Looming above all this, of course, was the enormity of the task at hand. Walker’s rebellion devastated the UMWA, traditionally the strongest union in the ISFL. Somewhere between 65% to 85% of Illinois’s miners left the UMWA to join Walker’s new Progressive Miners over the course of 1930.[1] This was just the beginning of the ISFL’s woes. By the early summer it had become clear that the panic of Wall Street had broken Main Street. Even the most ardent optimists could no longer turn a blind eye to the massive scale of the economic depression sweeping the nation. This had a devastating impact on unions as members were laid off or forced to work without representation. By the year’s end, ISFL membership had declined to under 200,000 members.[2] Whoever followed Walker as President faced extreme challenges.

In June, Fitchie approached Reuben with a bold idea: he and the board wanted Soderstrom to seek the ISFL Presidency. On the surface the plan seemed far-fetched; while a district representative and officer in his own local, Reub had no position in the ISFL. He’d never held a statewide office, and his only non-local campaign had ended in failure. As a union official, he possessed only modest experience as an organizer.

But it was his legislative experience that made RG Soderstrom such a powerful candidate. With no end to the economic crisis in sight, ISFL officials became increasingly convinced that the best hope for the organization and its members would be to seek relief through the law. As Reuben later shared with historian Derber, “The entire official family wanted someone active in the field of legislation to head the Federation. I was in legislative activity and seemed to be the logical choice.”[3] Geography also played a role; the Chicago vs. downstate divide was an ever-present one in Illinois labor; many outside of the big city were wary of domination. Reuben’s election would, in Fitchie’s estimation, provide a needed counterbalance to Secretary-Treasurer Victor Olander’s Chicago standing.[4] John Walker had already given Reuben his full support. “I know of no man his age in our country who has had a greater or more varied experience in the struggle of labor as a trade unionist for the betterment of humanity,” Walker said in a lengthy public endorsement of Soderstrom. “Through it all he has stood unflinching for labor—capable, well-informed, intelligent, thoroughly honest.”[5]

Walker could not have chosen a more appropriate successor. He was the one who first recruited Reuben years ago, charging him with an aggressive agenda of bills to pass for labor’s cause. He now had in Reuben a man to carry on his legacy, capable of seeing the Illinois Federation through this storm. Even Walker could not have envisioned the heights to which Reuben would take the organization. But first he had to be elected.

“Outstanding Champion of Organized Labor”

Once Reuben accepted the ISFL Executive Board’s support, they had to move quickly. It was already summer, and the ISFL convention was only a few short months away. The first step was to appoint Reuben to the Vice Presidency left vacant by Fitchie’s appointment to interim president, which the board did immediately. Fitchie then wrote to all members in late July officially announcing his intention not to run for the presidency and his endorsement of Reuben for president:

I am asking my friends in the movement to support the candidacy of a man whom I believe is one of the best fitted in the state for the position of president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. He is able, honest and well-informed in legislative matters.

He has been the outstanding champion of organized labor throughout his several terms in the legislature and his ability is well recognized. He has stood the acid test that is required by organized labor and has not been found wanting. I find that even our enemies, who do not agree with his views, respect his sincerity and honesty of purpose, nevertheless. I find that even those who may not agree with him respect his sincerity and honesty of purpose.

The man I have in mind is Representative R.G. Soderstrom of Streator, whose ability has been outstanding in the state legislature and who has been the champion of organized labor throughout his many terms in the House of Representatives.

He has stood the acid test that is required by organized labor and has not been found wanting. He is a member of the Typographical Union and is working at his trade when not in Springfield attending the sessions of the legislature. I trust that organized labor will give its support to him.[6]

Throughout the month of August Reub and the ISFL prepared for the annual convention to be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Springfield that September 15–20. During the following weeks, all affiliated locals submitted their nominations for president. It wasn’t even a contest; by the end Reuben had secured 138 of 147 nominations.[7]

A DREAM ACCOMPLISHED

Kind Words, Cruel Realities at the 1930 ISFL Convention

Behind the pleasant pageantry of the 1930 ISFL convention in Springfield lurked dark politics and a deep loss. Former president Walker was loved…and now absent. So weas his massive contingent of miners—only three miners were among that year’s accredited delegates. In the days leading up to the gathering, the Progressive Miners attempted to be recognized by the ISFL as the legitimate mining union. This forced Victor Olander, ISFL Secretary and one of Walker’s oldest friends, into an impossible situation. While he deeply wished to welcome his brother in arms, AFL President Green’s ruling left him with no recourse. In a tense meeting with the excluded delegates, Olander was compelled to tell the insurgents that admittance was not possible. Speaking on behalf of the ISFL, Olander tried to console the miners, telling them “We hope that the matter has been settled peaceably because eventually the miners will get together again in such a way that they will again be eligible for membership in the Federation.”[8]

Walker ended the stand-off peacefully, officially stating his group would make no effort to win seats in face of the ruling. Still, despite the amicable words on both sides, it must have been heart-wrenching for Reuben to watch as the man who first brought him into the world of labor politics was now turned away from the organization he once helmed. The bittersweet reality for Reuben was that he was gaining a chair emptied by the very person who most deserved to be there. But there was little time for mourning: the convention was fast approaching and Reuben had to prepare.

The forty-eighth annual convention of the Illinois State Federation of Labor was hosted in Springfield, where it began with a stirring invocation by Rev. H.H. Pittman. Speeches by Springfield Mayor Hal Smith, State Senator Earl Searcy, Illinois Department of Labor Director Barney Cohen and others soon followed. As the final speaker drew to a close, Fitchie was presented with a “handsome union-made gavel” which he used to officially call the convention to order for business.[9] That evening Reuben spoke at length, closing the first day’s session with an impassioned call for the piece of legislation closest to his heart—the Old Age Pension bill:

The true aim and end of government is the welfare of the people who live under it, and the destitution of any class of our citizens, old or young, is a matter of governmental concern and their relief is governmental duty. So you will see that we are seeking to introduce no revolutionary legislation in the state. What we seek to do is emphasize this important moral duty and to request the performance of that duty by the members of the Illinois House and Senate…Is this government less interested in its dignified, dependent old citizens than in its strenuous youths? Are citizens to be appraised and valued by the state only according to their years and their capacity to produce wealth and pay taxes? What is it that Lincoln who lived here said with respect to governmental responsibility: “I hold that this government should be by and for men and women.” This implies a humanitarian motive in governmental motives…

I want the work of that General Assembly when it shall have been completed to apply fairly to all the people of the state; I want it to be fair alike to youth and old age, and this federation is going to bring them this bill again in favor of a class of people too feeble and weak themselves, too poor in money and in life’s prospects to do it for themselves. I want the state to demonstrate that these people are not [forgotten by] the state because they have become old and feeble; I want the state to declare for homes rather than poorhouses; I want liberty instead of imprisonment for the old, and I want this grand old State of Illinois, whenever possible, to help that gray haired pair, bent with age, to live together and dream their dreams out under their own roof, at their own table and by their own fireside.[10]

The following days were filled with reports, speeches, and (most importantly for Reuben) a flurry of procedural and legal changes necessary to make his presidency possible. According to the ISFL constitution, a presidential vacancy was to be immediately filled by the most senior vice president. Reuben, a vice president for only a few months, was last in line, barred from appointment unless all other vice presidents resigned. To clear this hurdle the Convention passed a constitutional amendment allowing the Executive Board to appoint a successor until an election could be held. When the amendment passed, Fitchie officially offered his resignation. The Board then appointed Reuben as the new ISFL president by a unanimous vote and called on him as chair to preside. The 42-year-old Reuben accepted, solemnly swearing to fulfill all the duties and obligations of his office before the men who had chosen him to lead.

Reuben Soderstrom Becomes ISFL President

That Saturday, September 20, 1930, RG Soderstrom spoke before the assembled delegates for the first time as president of the ISFL, humbly reflecting on his improbable journey—one made possible by the organized labor movement—and promising honest and faithful service:

Mr. Chairman and delegates to the convention:

I really did want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the delegates for the many expressions of good will that have been extended to me during the past week. Perhaps it would be good for me to say this with reference to myself personally, so that you may know the entire history of the next President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor.

About forty-two years ago, a boy was born in the backwoods of Minnesota. He came to Illinois about the age of twelve, but without his parents, and went to work in the glass industry in the city of Streator. At the age of fifteen he secured employment in a newspaper office, which was a sort of poor boy’s school…At twenty-nine he was sent to the Illinois Legislature, and he has served there ever since that time, with the exception of one session, that of 1921, and he stands before you today, not only holding the highest educational position in the Illinois Legislature, that of chairman of the committee on education, but also the next President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor.

And because of my political connections and the attitude of the trade unionists with regard to the loyalty that may be held in the heart of the legislator toward the labor movement, may I make this statement: That to the highest aspirations of labor and the labor movement I want to pledge to you, and through you to the men of labor, to the women of toil and to our children who are to take our places, that there will be neither a wrongful nor a dishonorable act on my part which shall in the least detract from the greatest triumph that can come to labor or to the cause of labor as long as I remain President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor.[11]

Before walking off the stage, Reub must have taken a moment to absorb the scene around him. The packed hall of delegates now looked up to him as the leader of one of the nation’s most industrialized states, but all he could likely think of were childhood days spent separated from his family as a blacksmith’s boy, or carrying water on the muddy and dangerous Streator trolley line, or leading the first strike of child workers in his hometown’s bottle factory. His brother Lafe joined him on stage, linking arms and leading the crowd as they rose and sang the Reverend Samuel F. Smith’s popular song “America.” Later at the convention hotel, Reuben stayed up until two in the morning receiving congratulations, backslaps, and handshakes…as well as urgent reports from delegates about their dangerous working conditions. Saliently, a congratulatory telegram from John L. Lewis never arrived.

Reaping the Whirlwind

The convention’s end did not give Reuben a moment’s rest. Instead, the closing months of 1930 were a whirlwind of activity. On Monday, September 29, Reuben presided over his first Executive Board meeting, focusing chiefly on legislative matters. They also formally adopted the constitutional changes made at the convention allowing Reub’s presidency.[12] Soderstrom then immediately took off for Boston to attend the AFL’s national convention. While there, he was invited to give addresses to two Boston churches on the subject of unemployment, which he eagerly accepted.[13]

Over the next two months, he attended a banquet given by the Kensington branch of the Milk Wagon Drivers, appeared before the convention of Highway and Municipal Contractors to address wages and the Prevailing Rate of Wage Bill, and attended local trade unionist meetings around the state to discuss labor legislation.[14] As the year closed, he again renewed the cry for an old-age pension bill, stating “Organized labor’s aim is to remedy wrongs and bring added happiness into humble as well as prosperous family homes, and in a legislative way no better or finer thing could be done to bring this about than to enact labor’s old-age pension bill into law at the coming session of the General Assembly.”[15] The November elections confirmed Reub’s rightful place in that Assembly; Soderstrom was reelected by a wide margin to his seat representing the 39th District in the Illinois Legislature, where he would serve simultaneously as a state representative and ISFL president, a position which was formally solidified when members voted overwhelmingly to change Reuben’s title from appointed to elected president.

It was the beginning of a new, troubled era, one marked by massive economic depression, a badly fractured miners’ union, a quarrelsome legislature and none other than John L. Lewis stomping just outside the ISFL doors. Despite all this, Reuben G. Soderstrom, the “Happy Warrior,” plunged enthusiastically into his Gavel Years.

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