Book Reviews : The Seattle General Strike. By ROBERT L. FRIEDHEIM. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964.)

• Author: John E. Crow
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296702000419
• Published date: 01 December 1967
• Date: 01 December 1967
• Subject Matter: Articles

993

current

problems

of

labor

arbitration.

These

problems

are

the

themes

of

succeeding

chapters:

sharing

of

costs,

time

lag

in

decisions,

&dquo;excessive&dquo;

formalization,

paucity

of

new,

young

arbitrators,

and

finally,

individual

rights

vis-h-vis

the

powers

of

union

organization.

A

brief

historical

chapter

traces

the

evolution

of

the

arbitration

tech-

nique

of

resolving

labor-management

problems.

This

material

serves

as

a

preface

to

Fleming’s

discussion of

the

immediate

problems

of

the

field.

The

primary

limitation

of

the

book,

one

evidenced

throughout

its

pages,

is

that

most

of

the

analysis

is

at

the

level

of

statutory

construction

and

consists

of

the

author’s

explication

of

court

of

last

resort

opinions

on

relevant

public

laws,

especially

U.S.

Supreme

Court

interpretations

of

Taft-Hartley.

The

theories

that

underly

this

out-

put

interest

Fleming.

The

clash of

political

forces

that

permeate

and

influence

this

structure

are

rarely

so

much

as

hinted

at,

and

in

no

instance

is

this

clash

illuminated.

University

of

Arizona

JOHN

E.

CROW

The

Seattle

General

Strike.

By

ROBERT

L.

FRIEDHEIM.

(Seattle:

University

of

Washington

Press,

1964.)

The

Seattle

General

Strike

of

February,

1919,

is

one

of

America’s

two

general

strikes.

Robert

L.

Friedheim

has

chronicled

that

event

in

a

well-written,

objective

manner;

his

account

is

well

worth

reading

for

the

sheer

human

interest

of

those

tur-

bulent

days

in

the

Pacific

Northwest.

But

Friedheim

has

depicted

an

event

that

has

more

than

mere

historical

or

hu-

manistic

interest.

The

Seattle

General

Strike

is

also

instructive

for

the

light

it

sheds

on

the

awkward

discovery

and

painful

use

of

a

new

form

(for

Americans )

of

social

protest,

and

the

reaction

to

that

form

on

the

part

of established

middle-class

society.

From

the

beginning

of

the

strike

to

its

end,

the

leaders,

drawn

from

conserva-

tive

AFL

locals,

had

to

improvise

tactics

not

hitherto

used

by

trade

unionists.

Often

these

men

improvised

in

intelligent,

rational

ways.

Their

mistakes,

however,

were

costly

and

possibly

disastrous.

Following

their

policy

of

shutting

down

all

commun-

ity

activity,

save

for

services

indispensable

to

the

health

and

safety

of

the

city,

the

leaders

insisted

that

the

union-sponsored,

community

newspaper

also

close

its

doors.

This

left

the

task of

interpreting

the

shut-down

to

the

other

established

newspapers,

who

managed

to

continue

publication.

The

pages

of these

papers

interpreted

the

strike,

for

Seattleites

and

history,

as

a

revolutionary

undertaking,

sponsored

and

led

by

&dquo;un-American&dquo;

elements.

Strike

leaders

eventually

realized

their

mistake

but

too

late

to

alter

the

course

of

events.

Many

enduring

elements

of

modern

Northwest

and

American

politics

can

be

seen

in

and

around

the

event

of

the

strike.

The

mayor,

&dquo;Holy

Ole&dquo;

Hanson,

dis-

covered

that

a

national

political

career

could

be based

on

a

staunch

posture

against

foreign,

revolutionary

elements.

The

fact

that

the

AFL

strike

was

indigenous

and

that

revolutionaries

were

largely

excluded

from

the

strike’s

leadership,

made

no

dif-

ference

to

Mayor

Hanson,

nor

to

those

that

had

similar

careers

in

later

years.

Before

the

strike

the

labor

movement

in

the

Northwest

had

achieved

unity

among

its

disparate

radical,

progressive,

and

conservative

factions.

In

the

strike’s

aftermath,

mutual

recriminations

and

finding

of

fault

went

on

for

years.

When

the