To the Water’s Edge of Empire: Domestic Class Struggle, White Merchant Sailors, and the Emerging U.S. Imperial System, 1872-1924. By William Donald Riddell A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of History, University of Toronto. Copyright ã 2019 by William Donald Riddell. Abstract To the Water’s Edge of Empire: Domestic Class Struggle, White Merchant Sailors, and the Emerging U.S. Imperial System, 1872-1924. William Donald Riddell Department of History University of Toronto This dissertation examines the process through which the lines between foreign and domestic and nation and empire were established and re-established within the emerging U.S. imperial system between the 1870s and 1920s. It was a fluid process, perpetually in motion. I argue that white working people were both central to and on the front lines of this process, most of all merchant sailors. They were the ones most affected by these boundaries. Sailors who labored in the foreign maritime trade crossed these invisible boundaries every time they went to work. In short, the relationship between nation and empire and foreign and domestic was a labor question. By examining the connection between domestic class struggle and U.S. imperial expansion this dissertation will also reveal the vital role that organized labor—the principle institution through which the white working classes made their voices heard and their influence felt—played in this process and will challenge organized labor’s apparent anti-imperial orientation. With that in mind, the boundaries between nation and empire as well as foreign and domestic emerged through domestic or metropolitan class struggle —ebbing and flowing with the changing power dynamics between capital and labor—though largely expressed through the discourse of racial exclusion. Immigration restriction, therefore, emerged as labor’s primary means of exercising influence over U.S. imperial expansion. While the public and all three branches of government fiercely debated the now famous question of whether the constitution followed the flag. The question most pertinent to America’s labor leaders and the white working ii class they claimed to speak for was rather: does exclusion follow the flag? America’s labor leaders would accept imperial expansion so long as they were protected from the peoples and practices of the emerging U.S. empire. By demanding protection from certain parts of the U.S. imperial system they were implicitly endorsing the concept of empire by insisting on a privileged and protected position within an emerging imperial hierarchy. When all is said and done, though white working people were far from the principle beneficiaries of U.S. imperial expansion, they were nonetheless important and complicit players in its execution. iii Acknowledgements A dissertation is a collaborative process. Though I retain sole authorship, countless people, from my advisors to friends and family, contributed to its completion. At the University of Toronto’s History Department, I want to thank the support staff who helped make the clerical aspect of graduate school as seamless as possible. I would also like to thank the support staff at the University of Toronto Scarborough’s Department of History, particularly Urooj Khan, Kamal Hassan, and Nancy Masacco. To the Graduate Coordinators who helped ease the transition to graduate school and provided guidance throughout my time in the department, Professors Eric Jennings, Lori Loeb, and Steve Penfold. To the librarians and archivists at the U.S. National Archives, The Bancroft Library, The Huntington Library, The California State Archives, and the Labor Archives in San Francisco who made the research process a truly enjoyable experience. To the staff at the office of Inter-Library Loan at the University of Toronto’s Robarts Library. To Professors Russell Kazal, Donna Gabaccia, and Michael Wayne, though you were not involved directly with the production of this dissertation, whether through lectures, seminars, or conversations, your influence and advice were invaluable. To my dissertation examiners, Professors Carol Chin and Neda Maghbouleh, for their thoughtful, incisive, and encouraging critique. To my external examiner, Professor Julie Greene, your work has been an inspiration to me since I began my career in graduate school. It was an honor to have you serve as my external examiner. To Professor Jo Sharma, you taught me how to see my project in a wider context. How to think beyond my immediate focus. To my supervisors, friends, and mentors, Professors Rick Halpern and Daniel Bender. Where to begin. You’re both proof that great teaching and great scholarship are mutually reinforcing. You created an ideal and open intellectual environment for young scholars to iv flourish. Doctoral research can be a lonely and solitary affair. Yet together, you built a true scholarly community among your students—a place where we could support one another and go to each other for help and advice. Most importantly, you both embody everything that good mentors should be. I can only hope to emulate your example should I one day be granted the privilege of supervising graduate research. For my friends who helped me along the way. To my friend Matt, we began grad school together as two insecure twenty-four-year old’s in constant fear that that we didn’t belong. I could not have asked for a better friend and colleague on this journey than you. To my friend Peter, you taught me to love writing and helped me see its endless possibilities. You’re the only person I know who can turn the banal task of editing into poetry. To my friend Dan, our conversations about the creative process over the years were invaluable. I could always count on you to make me smile—whether by listening to you talk for hours about your latest musical obsession, or from an off-color joke. To my friend Emma, watching you state your goals and then go out and achieve them with a ferocity of focus and determination of will helped me believe I could do the same. And to my friend Fraser, you have been my intellectual sparring partner and comrade in vino since our lowly days in undergrad. Your sharpness of wit and breadth of intellect is matched only by the depth of your kindness. To the Deboran and Kuketz family. To my father-in-law, Peter: In Vino Veritas. You were always quick to remind me that life, and dissertations, are as much about the journey as the result. To my mother-in-law, Ann-Marie, your love and support have been invaluable. You gave me a place to live while I was struggling through this process. You’re stronger than you know. To my grandfather-in-law Joe, life conspired that we would never meet. Yet the endless v conversations I imagined between us made me a better scholar. To my grandmother-in-law, Flora, at 90 years young your strength of will and depth of character are an inspiration to us all. For my parents, you have always given one hundred percent of your support no matter what. When I said I wanted to spend over a decade in university, you did not hesitate or question my decision. Your only response was, and always has been: “how can we help?” To my grandfather, who inspired my curiosity, love of process, and reverence of “struggle.” To my father who taught me the value of hard work and the idea that you either commit fully to a task or not at all. To my sister and first true friend, the first six years of life weren’t nearly as exciting without you around. Wherever I am in the world, I am a better person because I have you in my corner. To my grandmother, who inspired my love and respect for the past. You were my first history teacher. I miss you. To my mother, you taught me about justice. To never accept things as they are, but to fight for what things ought to be. And you taught me the most valuable lesson of all. You taught me empathy. To my wife, Victoria. I met you when I was deciding to go to grad school. Your sharp mind and profound intellect were the perfect sounding boards. You have been my rock throughout this long process. You were strong when I was weak. You were full of certainly when I was full of doubt. You picked me up when I stumbled. Your well of positivity and love of life is as infectious as your beautifully kind heart. You inspire everyone around you to be better. Most importantly, you saved me from the depths of scholarly madness by teaching me to laugh at the absurdity of it all. It would be an understatement to say I could not have finished this without you. I love you. Will Riddell, Toronto, February 2019. vi Table of Contents Introduction: The Seams of Empire. Pg., 1 Chapter One: “A Leak in the Ship of State:” Maritime Labor Reform and U.S. Imperial Expansion, 1872-1900. Pg., 43. Chapter Two: Does Exclusion Follow the Flag? Imperial Labor Mobilization, Domestic Organized Labor, and the Emergence of a U.S. Metropole, 1902-1908. Pg., 81. Chapter Three: Riding the Waves of Empire: Craft Unionism, the La Follette Seamen’s Act of 1915, and the Economic Dimensions of U.S. Imperial Power, 1908-1915. Pg., 128. Chapter Four: Agents of Empire: Merchant Sailors, the Great War, and The New American Merchant Marine, 1898-1919. Pg., 166. Chapter Five: They Always Choose Exclusion: Internal Dissent, Postwar U.S. Maritime Policy, and the Fall of the Sailors Unions, 1911-1924. Pg., 206.