The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
© Copyright 2015 Alexander James Morrow i Laboring for the Day: The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933 Alexander James Morrow A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: James N. Gregory, Chair Moon-Ho Jung Ileana Rodriguez Silva Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of History ii University of Washington Abstract Laboring for the Day: The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933 Alexander James Morrow Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor James Gregory Department of History This dissertation explores the economic and cultural (re)definition of labor and laborers. It traces the growing reliance upon contingent work as the foundation for industrial capitalism along the Pacific Coast; the shaping of urban space according to the demands of workers and capital; the formation of a working class subject through the discourse and social practices of both laborers and intellectuals; and workers’ struggles to improve their circumstances in the face of coercive and onerous conditions. Woven together, these strands reveal the consequences of a regional economy built upon contingent and migratory forms of labor. This workforce was hardly new to the American West, but the Pacific Coast’s reliance upon contingent labor reached its apogee after World War I, drawing hundreds of thousands of young men through far flung circuits of migration that stretched across the Pacific and into Latin America, transforming its largest urban centers and working class demography in the process. The presence of this substantial workforce (itinerant, unattached, and racially heterogeneous) was out step with the expectations of the modern American worker (stable, married, and white), and became the warrant for social investigators, employers, the state, and other workers to sharpen the lines of solidarity and exclusion. Beginning in the 1920s, and coming to a point under the economic weight of the Great Depression, these various constituents created new urban spaces, expressive cultures, and discourses, along with new regulations and forms of protest that would shape the politics of labor in the coming decades. Highlighting the centrality of contingent labor, this study calls into question predominant liberal narratives about modern industrial capitalism. It challenges our understanding of capitalism’s stability and the opportunities afforded to workers in a so- called free market, while laying plain the economic and cultural realities of a workforce segmented by class and race. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction.........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 — The Casual Labor Economy and the Pacific Coast.....................................25 Chapter 2 — The Laborer’s Geography: Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles….....88 Chapter 3 — Social Investigation and the Casual Labor Economy…............................148 Chapter 4 — Laborlore and the Solidarities of Exclusion…………………………..…198 Chapter 5 — The Great Depression and Contingent Capitalism…………………...….246 Epilogue….......................................................................................................................311 Appendices......................................................................................................................328 Bibliography....................................................................................................................350 Curriculum Vitae.............................................................................................................374 iv LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 - Placements made by California Public Employment Agencies................................43 1.2 - “A Crowd of Ex-Service men seeking jobs at the American Legion’s Employment Bureau, 321 South Main Street”......................................................48 1.3 - John McCloskey’s Labor Migration, 1910-1932......................................................50 1.4 - Age Distribution of Casual Workers in Selected Industries, Pacific Coast States, 1920............................................................................................................61 2.1 - The Tourist Hotel, Circa 1940...................................................................................88 2.2 - Sixty-Eight Seattle Employment Agencies, 1920-1930..........................................114 2.3 - Boundaries of Los Angeles Enumeration Districts, 727-230, 1930........................122 2.4 - The Towne Hotel, Towne and Fifth Avenue, Los Angeles, California...................123 2.5 - California Lodging House “Sleeping Stalls”...........................................................127 2.6 - A Cross Section of San Francisco’s day labor district, North of Market................137 2.7 - Mixed Hotels, San Francisco, 1930.........................................................................140 3.1 - Map of Seattle’s “Leisure Area of Migrant Workers”............................................178 4.1 - Lavaplatos (The Dishwasher), ca. 1920..................................................................209 4.2 - Hymn of Hate, Harry McClintock 1912..................................................................236 4.3 - Mr. Block Cartoon...................................................................................................238 5.1 - Otto Hagel, “Outstretched Hands”..........................................................................246 5.2 - “Don’t Stampede Like They Used To!”..................................................................251 5.3 - The Plaza “Slave Block”.........................................................................................260 5.4 - Wood Yard Employment Site, ca. 1933..................................................................282 5.5 - Labor Rally of Unemployed Persons at the City Hall Park, Seattle, Washington, February 10, 1931………………………………………………………...298 5.6 - Pickets on the Highway Calling Workers From the Fields, 1933 Cotton Strike.....305 v LIST OF TABLES 1.1 - Workers in Primary Industries of Casual Labor, Pacific Coast 1920 and 1930........32 1.2 - Construction Industry by Occupational Category, Pacific Coast, 1920 and 1930....40 1.3 - Frequently Filled Positions, Men’s Division, Seattle Public Employment Office....41 1.4 - Casual Workers in Pacific Coast States by Birthplace……………………..............62 1.6 - Male Casual Occupations by Ethnicity, Pacific Coast States, 1920..........................69 1.7 - Male Casual Occupations by Ethnicity, Pacific Coast States, 1930..........................70 1.8 - Percentage of Male Workers Engaged in Casual Occupations, by Race and Nationality..............................................................................................79 2.1 - Pacific Coast Urban Centers by Population and National Rank, 1920 and 1930....101 2.2 - Licensed Private Employment Agencies, California, 1919-1928...........................112 4.1 - California Disability Claims....................................................................................217 5.1 - Unemployment Rate Among Select Occupations, Pacific Coast, 1930..................259 5.2 - Number of Days Worked in Selected Industries, Washington State.......................264 5.3 - Supply and Demand for Agricultural Labor in California, 1926-1935...................274 5.4 - Labor Strikes in the United States...........................................................................307 vi Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the generosity and patience of my dissertation committee in the process of guiding this project along. James Gregory provided voluminous amounts of sage advice at every stage and his comments pushed me to be a better historian. Moon Ho Jung, an outstanding critic, pressed me to always sharpen my arguments. Ileana Rodriguez Silva’s encouragement and rigorous intellect guided my studies since the first day I stepped on campus. A number of other people at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon deserve my thanks: Carlos Aguirre, Bob Bussel, Arif Dirlik, John Findlay, James Fox, Michael Honey, Margaret O’Mara, Jeff Ostler, Vicente Rafael, and Chandan Reddy. Finally, the clarity and force of Peggy Pascoe’s writing and teaching continues to be my guide, even in her absence. My research benefitted from an intellectual life beyond the archive and keyboard. Early on, I found a welcoming community of like minds in the Labor and Working Class History Association and enjoyed traveling with Trevor Griffey, Steve Beda, and Eric Gellman to several conferences. Jim Barrett, Leon Fink, James Green, Betsey Jameson, and Alice Kessler-Harris all welcomed me to this scholarly community with enthusiasm. Thanks to my colleagues and energetic students at Cornish College of the Arts, particularly my union comrades Kim MacKay, Elizabeth Darrow, and Paul Taub. The spark for this dissertation, however, did not emerge from the halls of the ivory tower, but rather at the sauté station, down in the prep kitchen, and back in the dish pit of a restaurant in Portland. In all likelihood, my coworkers and Compañeros will never read this, but my study of labor remains inextricable from those years of hard work. My writing group deserves its own special designation. Jessica Lee, Sarah Lindsley, and Nathan Roberts are my colleagues, editors, and friends. In short,