St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-05-18


Negro workers into the Phila-
delphia, Chicago and Los Angeles
transit systems has just been is
sued by the American Council on
Race Relations, 80 W. Randolph
Street, Chicago.
Titled "Negro Platform Work
ers," and prepared by the Ameri-
can Councils Community Services
division, the pamphlet compares
the union and company's attitudes
and results in the three cities.
The study emphasizes the fact
that the placing of Negro workers
in platform jobs is significant be-
cause "it has implications for the
immediate future for if real
progress is to be made in establish
ing racial patterns in the postwar
era there will have to be further
infiltration of Negroes in those
industries which are sure to ex-
pand at the close of hostilities."
"Negro Platform Workers" re-
veals that the Philadelphia "hate"
strike had its roots in the history
of the transit company and in the
attempts of an independent union
to regain power after its defeat by
the CLIO Transport Workers Union
in labor board election. The con-
clusion is that the race issue was
deliberately used to create a crisis.
Although Detroit, New York and
Cleveland had already hired Ne
groes as operators, public carrier
officials in Philadelphia and Los
Angeles claimed employment of
Negroes as operators would meet
with strong public opposition.
The study asserts that in Phila-
delphia, as early as February, 1913,
the United States Employment
Service had filed a form with
FEPC Indicating that Pic (Phila-
delphia Transit Company was re-
fusing to consider qualified Ne
groes for conductors for its street
cars, buses or subway trains"
Leading up to the strike, the
pamphlet points out, was a series
of delays on the part of the indie
pendent union and Pic officials as
we'll as a few members of the
TWU, which had won the right to
bargain for Pic employees on
March IA, 1914.
The week-long strike, which was
opposed by TWU, fared up on Au-
gust 1, 1914, and, according to the
American Council study, "was
engineered by less than 200 bitter
men," The pamphlet also declares
that there was no attempt on the
part of PFC management to pre-
vent or minimize the stoppage, and
that public officials, including
Mayor Bernard Samuels, refused
to make any effort to terminate the
work stoppage.
'The strategy of the strike lead
ers," declares the pamphlet, "was
blatant appeal to anti-Negro SEN
timent among the operators and a
reiteration of the untruthful state
ment that the upgrading of Ne
groes would endanger the seniority
of white operators, including those
in the armed services"
West Coast Variation
In what is termed a "West Coast
variation of the Philadelphia
STRIKE" the American Council
blames the same basic factors fol
the incidents" preceding the
eventual employment of Negroes as
operators in the Los Angeles Rail
way system.
Negroes were not considered fol
jobs as operators, even when an
estimated twenty-five to fifty pei
cent of the company's vehicles were
idle because of lack of manpower,
Finally, under pressure of public
indignation, the Los Angeles Rail
way system agreed to consider hir-
ing Negro operators.
The FEPC at Washington re-
quested the Los Angeles War Man
power Commission office to econ.
Germ itself with the problem" In
January, 1913, after defending its
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