February 26, 2020 • 54 mins
As word of the strike spreads, donations and well-wishes begin to pour in from other low-wage workers around the city. More good news arrives when a fiery (but controversial) activist joins the strike’s leadership team and a major religious group rallies behind the cause. Meanwhile, Oscar Elsas launches a counter-strike, marshaling a secret coalition of mill owners, an army of undercover informants, and a calamitous raid of the mill village.
Months covered in this episode: 41-42 (of 56)
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Months covered in this episode: 41-42 (of 56)
The Catlick digital scrapbook is NOW LIVE with vintage photos, maps, bonus episodes & more. To subscribe, just go to http://catlick.com, and click on VAULT.
We have two t-shirts inspired by this episode! Pick up one of our white or black “Let Us Have Justice” tees inside the Catlick store at http://catlicktrading.com.
AND! In honor of our 19th episode, we’re giving listeners 19% off any t-shirt in the Catlick store. Just use promo code 19NOW at checkout.
* Catlick on Instagram: http://instagram.com/catlickpodcast *
* Catlick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/catlickpodcast *
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
There have been lots of bloody summersin Atlanta's history, but one of them
was by far the worst, andthere isn't a close second. By eighteen
sixty four, America was immersed inits greatest test since it had declared independence
from England nearly a century before.The young nation's first Civil War had grown
(00:29):
into a full blown crisis. Theconflict pitted the American North versus the seceding
American South. Hundreds of thousands ofAmericans had already been killed and the war
was still waging. And while thestruggle for victory tilted back and forth,
there still remained one stubborn problem forUnion forces Atlanta. Over time, Atlanta
(00:55):
became the lifeline of the Confederacy.Though it wasn't the Confederate at capital that
was to the east in Richmond,Virginia, Atlanta was the crucial manufacturing and
industrial center of the Southern cause.Once cut off from Northern industry, the
Confederacy was forced to manufacture all itsown war supplies. As a major railroad
(01:17):
hub situated deep in the heart ofthe South, the city of Atlanta was
perfectly positioned to meet many of theseneeds. So when the Civil War began,
Atlanta's factories roared to life, workingovertime to supply the Confederate fighting force.
Textile mills buzzed day and night toproduce clothing for the soldiers, uniforms,
(01:38):
trousers, and boots. They alsoproduced tents and blankets. Still,
other industrial sites around the city churnedout Confederate war machines, ammunition, muskets,
and cannons. During the war.The New York Times said that Atlanta
was quote the workshop, the granary, the storehouse, and the arsenal of
(01:59):
the Federacy. Atlanta's most crucial facility, however, was the Atlanta Rolling Mill.
In eighteen fifty eight. The AtlantaRolling Mill was constructed on a rural
plot of land east of downtown.When it opened, it was one of
the few factories in the South itcould produce iron rail, the key ingredient
(02:22):
to connecting American cities and fueling thenation's expansion into new territories. During the
Civil War, however, the AtlantaRolling Mill became the Confederate Rolling Mill as
the factory's output shifted towards the growingneeds of the Confederacy. During that time.
It produced iron rail, cannons andsheets of iron cladding for the ships
(02:44):
of the Confederate Navy. The Southwas fighting for its life to preserve the
institution of slavery, and it waslargely Atlanta's job to fuel that fight.
By eighteen sixty four, American forcesfrom the north pushing deeper and deeper into
the seceded states. Leading their causewas General William to Kumsa Sherman. While
(03:07):
he'd already taken several big Southern cities, Atlanta was the crown jewel. He
knew that if he could take Atlanta, he could destroy Confederate supply lines,
thereby severing outlying regiments from the vitalresources they needed to keep fighting. So
in the summer of eighteen sixty four, General Sherman finally set his full attention
(03:30):
on taking Atlanta. The siege beganin July of that year the Battle of
Atlanta. Seventy four thousand American andConfederate troops clashed east of downtown in an
area of Atlanta that would eventually becomeEnman Park. The Battle of Atlanta was
brutal and bloody, and when thedust settled there were twelve thousand casualties,
(03:53):
with most of them coming at theexpense of the Confederacy. Though devastating,
Confederate troops continued their resistance, givingall they had to defend the city throughout
the summer. Meanwhile, Union forcescontinued to shell downtown Atlanta, and civilians
went to sleep each night to thesound of exploding mortars and gunfire in the
(04:14):
distance. In a panic, thegovernor of Georgia fired off a desperate telegram
to Jefferson Davis, the President ofthe seceded States. He wrote this,
I need not call your attention tothe fact that this place is to the
Confederacy almost as important as the heartis to the human body. Despite the
(04:35):
Governor's plea for reinforcements, by theend of August, the heart of the
Confederacy was slowing down. Hope beganto fade in the exhausted Confederate resistance was
on fumes. Though he'd done everythinghe could to keep Atlanta from falling to
Union troops, Confederate Lieutenant General JohnHood was running out of options. As
(04:59):
Sherman's breached the final lines of defense, they began their march directly into the
heart of Atlanta, and General Hoodwas faced with the brutal reality if Confederate
forces abandoned the city altogether, theConfederate rolling Mill would fall into the hands
of the Union. This meant thatthis massive factory that had been churning out
(05:19):
Confederate weapons of war could now beused to fuel the American war effort,
and it was this dilemma that causedGeneral Hood to make one of the most
dramatic decisions of the Civil War.Instead of allowing the Confederate rolling mill to
fall into the hands of Northern forces, Hood decided to blow it up.
(05:43):
On the night of September first,eighteen sixty four, a detachment of Confederate
troops on horseback rode through the darknessto the Confederate rolling mill. Several idle
trains were parked next to the mill. They were loaded down with tons of
highly explosive munitions. With torches inhand, the men quietly set fire to
several of the box cars and gallopedaway as quickly as possible. As they
(06:09):
rode off into the darkness, amassive detonation, one of the largest explosions
ever to occur on American soil,thundered behind them. The concussion flattened everything
within a quarter mile. It wasreported that even General Sherman himself, stationed
twenty three miles from the rolling mill, heard the blast. The parked train
(06:31):
box cars burst into flames, risinginto a towering inferno that eventually consumed the
entire mill compound. The Confederacy's warmachine manufactory was no more. When the
sun rose the next day, residencenear the site of the Confederate rolling mill
(06:54):
woke to the site of a blackenedand mangled parcel of scorched earth. The
thriving steel mill was leveled. Therolling green hills of grass and tree surrounding
the factory had been replaced by asmoking, charred, dystopian hellscape. This
plot of land, once buzzing withthe life of commerce and industry, now
(07:15):
looked like the desolate surface of analien planet. The destruction of the Confederate
rolling Mill was Atlanta's last gasp.With Confederate forces on the run, Sherman
himself marched on the city and setup camp with his men in downtown Atlanta.
He stayed there for nearly two monthsbefore beginning his march east to Savannah.
(07:39):
But before he left, of course, he ordered Atlanta, the once
proud heart of the rebel cause,to be torched soldiers rode from building to
building, setting fire to both militaryand civilian structures alike. More than three
thousand buildings went up in smoke asthe South's grandest city was reduced to rebel
(08:03):
After Sherman's troops burned Atlanta, asergeant from Indiana offered some commentary in his
private journal. Here's what he said. The entire city was destroyed but for
a few occupied houses. It remindsme of the destruction of Babylon because of
the wickedness of her people. Becauseof the wickedness of her people. The
(08:28):
fall of Atlanta proved to be apivotal battle in the Civil War. The
next year, eighteen sixty five,the war came to an end as rebel
forces in the South finally accepted defeat. So why am I talking about what
happened in Atlanta in eighteen sixty four, Well, I'll tell you because sixteen
(08:52):
years after General Hood blew it up, the scorched site of the Confederate rolling
mill went up for sale, locatedon the eastern edge of the city and
next to the graveyard where thousands ofdead had been buried after the Battle of
Atlanta. It wasn't exactly a pleasantplace in the minds of most Atlantins.
This cursed land had borne witness tothe humiliation of the South's bravest fighting men.
(09:16):
No one wanted the land haunted bythe ghosts of Confederate industry. Well
not no one. The former siteof the Confederate rolling mill eventually caught the
eye of at least one enterprising immigrant, A once orphaned German Jewish immigrant to
be exact. In eighteen eighty,Jacob Elsis had been shopping around Atlanta for
(09:41):
a site adequate to house his newcotton mill. When he realized he could
get this battle scarred land outside oftown for a good price. He moved
quickly, making his offer and closingthe deal. And so from the ashes
of the Confederate War foundry, anew enterprise began to rise, a great
factory that would become the Fulton Bagand Cotton Mill, And in the shadow
(10:05):
of that factory a village would riseto on this same tract of land with
a history considered messy at best anddownright wicked at worst. But as the
mill grew and thrived, the samecould not be said of those living in
the mill village. In By nineteenfourteen, Cabbagetown, a community built atop
(10:28):
the soil of a lost Confederate cause, began to feel like a lost cause
of its own. You're listening toepisode nineteen of Catholic Let Us Have Justice.
(11:26):
It's May of nineteen fourteen, monthnumber forty one of our story.
Disgruntled workers at the Fulton Bag andCotton Mill in Atlanta have voted to walk
off the job. Their reasons forstriking were clear low pay, an unfair
work contract, a draconian finding system, unreasonably long hours, child labor,
(11:48):
and horrendous conditions in the mill village. So on May the twentieth, it
began. Workers arrived at six amfor their normal work day, but by
nine am the machines began going quiet, as one by one workers walked away
from their posts and out into thestreets of Cabbage Town. Though the numbers
(12:11):
are debated, our best estimate isthat about two hundred workers walked off the
job on the first day of thestrike. Remember, at this time there
are over a thousand jobs at themill, so while two hundred might seem
like a lot, it was hardlyenough to bring the mill to a grinding
halt. Recruiting more workers to theunion cause would be crucial. When the
(12:33):
strike began, Establishing highly visible picketlines was an immediate priority. Picketers stationed
themselves at various entry points around themill itself, but also at highly trafficed
locations around Atlanta. The early goalwas to be as visible as possible to
stir up as much public sympathy aspossible. Daily strike meetings were also held
(12:56):
at the odd Fellows Building down onBurn Avenue, about a half a mile
from the mill. Now, thefact that the strikers met at the odd
Fellows Building was quite significant. TheAtlanta chapter of the Grand Order of Odd
Fellows had opened their beautiful new buildingjust a year before. Conceived of and
(13:16):
constructed by black businessmen, it wasone of the first office buildings in Atlanta
to cater to the black community ina city deeply divided along racial lines.
It was no small matter that thewhite workers of the Fulton Bag strike were
allowed to meet in the odd FellowsBuilding. This was an early sign of
the broad support the strike would gain. FYI. The odd Fellows Building is
(13:41):
still standing today down on Auburn Avenue, and it was restored to its full
early twentieth century glory back in thenineteen eighties. Check it out if you're
in the area. In the earlydays of the strike, its two primary
leaders were Charles Mills and Ola DelightSmith. I introduced you to Miles in
(14:01):
the last episode, and you'll rememberthat he'd led several successful efforts to unionize
workers in the North. He wasa seasoned labor leader with the chops to
hang with anti union industrial tycoons.His partner was an Atlanta local named Olah
Delight Smith. If I had tovote for a most colorful character in all
(14:24):
of catlic it would be Olah DelightSmith. We don't have many photos of
her, but the best one wedo have shows her wearing all black,
a long black dress and an enormousblack hat with black feathers billowing out of
the top of it. In thephoto, her expression is quite severe,
the look of a person who isall business, and Ola Delight Smith was
(14:50):
all business. Historian Gary Faint describesher as a quote human whirlwind of action
end quote. Smith got her startas a telegrapher in Birmingham, Alabama.
After that she moved to Gainesville,Georgia, and then eventually to Atlanta,
(15:11):
she joined several telegrapher unions and recruitedothers to join her. This eventually cost
her her job. She took onother odd jobs to make ends meet and
began writing for local and national laborjournals. In her writing, her passion
as a staunch activist was evident,as she railed against child labor and advocated
(15:31):
for women's rights. But she wasalso known for some more controversial behaviors.
In a time when women still didn'thave the right to vote, females were
expected to be quiet, submissive,and ladylike. Well, Ola Delight Smith
was anything but she transgressed nearly everysocietal norm for how a woman should act.
(15:58):
For one, she enjoyed beer andwould often kick back with the boys
to down a pint or ten.Furthermore, at least on one occasion,
she got into an altercation with theman and knocked him out using brass knuckles.
Ola Delights Smith lived her life theway she led her activism, passionate,
(16:22):
full throttle, unapologetic. So whenshe got the call to help lead
the strike efforts at Fulton Bag,she was likely thrilled. Has a book
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ago, I listened to Kevin Kelly'saudio book called Inevitable, Understanding the Twelve
(16:47):
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Charles Miles and Ola Delight Smith,with funding from the United Textile Workers,
made some important moves early in thestrike. First, they began reaching out
(18:18):
to various groups around Atlanta that mightbe sympathetic to their cause. They realized
the importance of winning the pr battle. Second, they established a commissary for
the striking workers. The commissary waserected right in the shadow of the mill
off present day Tannell Street. Intheir early rallies, they promised strikers that
(18:40):
their every need, specifically food,would be met by the commissary and free
of charge. Since the striking workerswere no longer getting a paycheck from the
mill, this was a crucial safetynet that could hopefully entice more workers to
walk off the job. For youVault subscribers, I've upload pictures of the
(19:00):
commissary. Side note, there area couple of Coca Cola signs on the
front of the commissary, which hasalways struck me as kind of funny.
Some coke marketing person hustling hard backin nineteen fourteen. Funding for the commissary
came from national labor unions and localdonations. During the first week, word
(19:21):
of the strike spreadlight crazy through Atlanta, and other low wage workers began contributing
to the Fulton strike. Electricians,cobblers, metalworkers, street car operators,
and even union musicians donated what theycould to help keep the strike going.
Many of them believed that if thisstrike was successful, it would get the
(19:42):
attention of the other factory owners aroundthe city and forever change the fortunes of
the low wage workers. As supportfor the strike surged, sowed the spirits
of the striking laborers. During thatfirst week, loud singing could be heard
zing above Cabbage Town late into thenight. Fueled by optimism and whiskey,
(20:04):
striking workers would take the melody ofexisting songs and change the words, transforming
them into trash talking anthems directed atmill management. While the strikers were working
the picket lines, Oscar Elsis wasworking on his plan. His initial response
(20:26):
to the strike was actually quite chill. He was reported as saying that only
a tiny fraction of workers had walkedoff the job, that the mills operations
had continued without interruption, and thatthis minor disturbance would be resolved in a
few days. However, behind thescenes, he was anything but chill.
(20:49):
As a matter of fact, wenow know that Oscar had a sophisticated plan
for how to respond to a labordisturbance just like this one. How do
we know that, Well, gatheraround my Catolic companions. If you remember,
way back in episode one, Itold you about a vault sealed off
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and tucked away in the executive officesof the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.
And I told you how in nineteeneighty five, some guys and hard hats
opened up the vault and discovered amassive treasure trove of mill documents. I
also told you how those same mentipped off Georgia Tech, and how Tech
sent a team of researchers an archiviststo collect the documents. Here's a catlic
(21:40):
throwback, all the way back inepisode one. For the next few months,
the research team processed and cataloged thecollection. Bit by bit, they
began piecing together the cotton Mill's mysteriouspast in its beginnings in eighteen eighty one.
Much of what they found owned wasmundane, but not all of it.
(22:03):
Hidden amongst the mundane details of employeepay records and budget reports was a
dirty little secret. There was areason these millionaire millmen kept their secrets behind
lock and key, and for thefirst time ever, their secret was out.
That dirty little secret was what researcherslearned about the labor strike of nineteen
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fourteen. Because Oscar kept meticulous records, he retained all the correspondents, including
the private and confidential messages that occurredduring the strike. Now this might not
seem like a big deal to you, but to historians this is huge.
When we study early labor strikes aroundAmerica were usually privy only to the information
(22:52):
from the union side, We rarelyget to pull back the curtain on the
plans of the super rich industrialis fightingagainst the union. Using these thousands of
recovered documents, historians have been ableto piece together Oscar's strategy, the play
by play of how a cunning,relentless, and wealthy factory owner planned to
(23:15):
crush the uprising happening within the wallsof his corporate empire. And oh was
he ever relentless. When they weresorting through the cash of mill documents in
the nineteen eighties, archivists made apeculiar discovery a subset of documents filed under
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the mysterious heading Our Forces in allcaps. Inside this file were fragile and
fading pages noted as operative reports.These were first person accounts of life inside
the mill. Sometimes they were handwritten, in other times they were typed.
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But each report was anymous and includeda numeric identifier at the top Operative number
blank, so, opera number fourteen, Operative number eighty nine, Operative number
one four four, and so on. Curiously, there weren't just dozens or
even hundreds of these mysterious dispatches.There were thousands of them, and that's
(24:22):
when they realized what they were lookingat. Spy reports. Oscar Elsis employed
an army of spies, surveillance operativeswho worked inside the mill, furtively blending
in amongst the regular workers. Thisforce of covert chameleons acted as Oscar's personal
(24:48):
spy agency, disclosing to him everythingthey heard being discussed when management wasn't around.
Now we're not sure of the exactnumber of spies Oscar employed, but
estimates placed that number at well overa hundred, and with that much manpower,
Oscar could afford to have a spyfor everything. He had spies in
(25:14):
every department and division of his factory. He had spies for his managers and
office staff. He had black spiestasked with snooping on the factories one hundred
and fifty black workers. He alsohad spies outside the walls of the factory.
Spies for keeping tabs on Atlanta police, spies to infiltrate local civic and
(25:36):
social groups, Spies who reported onlocal religious leaders. Spies spying on other
manufacturers. Spies assigned to the variouspubs and saloons frequented by factory workers,
tasked with eavesdropping on company gossip afterhours. Oscar Elsis even deputized the companies
(26:00):
own doctor as a spy. DoctorEugene Hawkins made daily house calls, checking
in on those who were sick inthe mill village. However, at night
he would file his own operative reports, passing along any intelligence he gleaned during
his visits. Of course, theprimary targets of OSCARS spying were the strike
(26:22):
leaders themselves. He assigned special teamsof spies to monitor and tail both Charles
Miles and Ola delight Smith. Appealsto morality were incredibly powerful in the early
nineteen hundreds, and Oscar knew thatif he could catch either of these two
in some kind of scandalous situation,he could ruin them in the eyes of
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the public. Now, each operativewas required to file a daily report,
so when Oscar came in each morningto his office, spread out on his
desk were dozens of these documents,briefing him on mill gossip, union strategy,
and names of strikers. With hisnetwork of street savvy informants in place,
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there was nothing Oscar did not know, and armed with that knowledge,
he was more than prepared to goto war with his people. While employing
an army of spies was a majorpiece of Oscar's strategy, it wasn't the
(27:30):
only piece. Far from it.Oscar was also part of a confederation of
mill owners that sent top secret memoson union organizing efforts. He began consulting
with this group the moment the strikebegan. Part of this was him seeking
reinforcements, asking cotton mill owners aroundthe state to send some mill hands to
Atlanta to blunt the absence of thestrikers. In his correspondence with these other
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mill owners, he warned them ofwhat might happen if the Fulton was a
success. This is a matter ofgreat importance to cotton mill interests to those
in Atlanta, the state, andthe southeast. Charles Miles has stated that
if he succeeds in organizing Fulton,Bag and cotton mills, he intends to
(28:17):
organize each and every mill in Georgia. Later, he wrote this, if
we succeed in whipping out this fight, we have a reasonable assurance that mister
Miles will go back north where hecame from, and let Georgia and the
South alone. If we do notwhip it now, your time will come
sooner or later. We shall thereforehave to band together for our mutual protection.
(28:44):
Oscar's message to his fellow mill ownerswas clear, help me crush the
strike now, or we'll all beafflicted by a pandemic of pro union fever.
On June the third, Oscar tookhis messaging directly to the people of
Atlanta. He did this with agiant ad and a constitution defending the mill's
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actions. It was filled with employmentand payroll statistics, which was very Oscarish
in that regard, But he alsodeclared his belief and how the strike originated
the striking employees, we think aremisled by persons who are not employees.
And some of these strangers have neverbeen in our employment and are not even
(29:27):
citizens of this state. In otherwords, this is only an issue because
Yankee agitators came down from the northand stirred up our otherwise happy employees.
Right the day after the ad appeared, Oscar's pleasant public tone took a one
(29:49):
eighty when he launched a vicious campaignof retaliation against the striking workers. His
tool mass evictions. Remember, manyof the workers at Fulton Bag paid rent
to live in the Shotgun Houses ofCabbage town houses built and owned by the
Eulsi's family. Oscar's logic was simple, if you're not going to work in
(30:12):
my factory, then you're not goingto live in my houses. So on
the morning of June fourth, menon horseback charged into the mill, pounding
on the doors of strikers forcibly enteringtheir homes and casting their belongings out into
the streets. Observers reported total chaos, dogs barking and children crying while their
(30:34):
desperate parents begged for mercy. Wehave lots of pictures from that day thanks
to one person Ola Delight Smith.Smith maintained her own network of informants,
and one had warned her of thecoming evictions. She had a plan in
place. When the chaos began,Olah Delight Smith muscled her way through the
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crowds with her Kodak camera in hand, snapping pictures of weeping mothers and barefoot
children, knowing that the images wouldgarner major sympathy from the locals. Following
behind her was a professional photographer she'dhired to help document the suffering. Multiple
times throughout the day, the company'shired thugs surrounded Ola Delight Smith, attempting
(31:22):
to block her from taking photos.Nevertheless, she persisted. Smith and her
photographer also sought out Cabbage Towns risingstar in Fiddlin John Carson remember him.
Sure enough, they found him evictedand standing on his front porch when they
snapped his photo, fiddle in handand his trusty hound dog by his side.
(31:48):
At this point, most savvy activistsof the day would have been content
with two cameras working simultaneously to captureand document the bad deeds of the factory
men. However, Ola Delight Smithwasn't like most savvy activists of the day,
Unbelievably, she also booked a motionpicture film crew to document the evictions
(32:13):
in all its full cinematic glory.Now this is wild because it's nineteen fourteen.
The film industry was in its infancy. Movies had barely been around for
maybe ten or twenty years. YetOla Smith recognized that with film she'd be
able to record the deeds of thebad men and sway public opinion. But
(32:37):
Olah's film strategy wasn't just to documentthe scenes of the evictions. Oh no,
she wanted to direct them. Afan of theatrics, Ola had given
a very specific assignment to an olderfemale striker, widow, Margaret Dimpsey.
And now it was showtime. Withher belongings piled high on the street and
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her frightened son by her side,the cameras pointed their lenses at Margaret Dipsey
and began rolling. One of Oscar'sspies witnessed the whole scene and in his
daily report recounted what he saw.It was arranged for her to make a
speech and throw her arms up,and the son to go to his mother
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and try and comfort her, andshe had to push him away. While
this was in progress, the motionpicture operator was giving instructions and told her
to drop into a seat then fallover as if exhausted. Are you getting
this? This is crazy? Innineteen fourteen, Ola Delights Smith is basically
(33:44):
directing a propaganda film by herself inthe streets of Atlanta. To say that
this was a bold and audacious moveis an understatement. When the chaos of
Eviction Day died down, the numberwere in two hundred and eighteen men,
women and children had been left homelessby Oscar's horse mounted eviction force. As
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union leaders scrambled to find accommodations forthe evicted, it became clear that the
dramatic events of the day had actuallyhelped the striker's cause. The dramatic nature
of the evictions was clearly designed tohumiliate and shame them. When non union
workers saw this, it triggered afresh wave of resentment towards mill management.
(34:34):
Union enrollment surged as more Fulton Baglaborers walked off the job. Within days,
Ola Delight Smith had developed the dramaticphotos and mounted them in the windows
of retail shops around downtown Atlanta.Horrified at Lantern's gasped at the sight of
the down trodden mill hands left destituteand homeless by the cold hearted mill owners.
(34:59):
Smith also arranged for other photos tobe sent to newspapers and labor journals
around the country in an effort tospread the word of this new Southern uprising.
Just two days after the evictions,union leaders got some good news when
a powerful civic organization backed their calls. The Men in Religion Forward Movement was
(35:21):
a loosely organized group of evangelical ministersand Protestant businessmen that used their faith to
war against moral decay while advocating forsocial causes. They thundered against liquor,
saloons, and prostitution, and theywere fiercely opposed to the latest moral scourge
to invade Atlanta, Sunday motion pictures. This was a big deal back then,
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and the thought of people watching bodyvaudeville films on the Lord's Day was
anathema. In addition to their campaignsagainst vice, the Men and Religion Forward
Movement also took an interest in thewelfare of low wage factory workers. So
when union leader Charles Miles pitched themon the cause, they listened. With
(36:08):
a roster of wealthy and powerful leadersfrom around the city. Miles knew that
support from the MRFM would be amajor win. Well, if public support
is what Charles Miles wanted, thenpublic support is what he got. When
he opened the Atlantic Constitution on themorning of June sixth, he saw a
(36:31):
massive pagelong feature topped by a giantheadline, let us have Justice. This
was like a public service announcement fromthe Men and Religion Forward movement. Beneath
the headline lots of words comprising adramatic narrative and a devastating takedown of the
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Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill. I'llpost the full text of the bulletin and
the vault, but here's a prettydramatic excerpt. A hotel room, a
man dead by his own hand,without friends in the city. He was
drinking beneath the window of another hotel, A huddled heap, a spreading stain
(37:16):
upon the sidewalk. He too isdead, crushed by his fall. He
had been drinking all caps. Twomore men have this week died on the
altar of alcohol and green in Atlanta. Their search for happiness here is over.
Their bodies cry out for justice forthose who live who next Strikers look
(37:40):
to the east there on the city'sedge. Three smokestacks tower above massive buildings.
A great wall surrounds them. Glassand barbed wire run along its top.
Above it, one sees a gauntblack bridge. Over it goes a
group of children. As the warningwhistle blow. A little girl not over
(38:01):
twelve, her pink dress fluttering againstthe grime, runs through a forbidding door
to work. All caps again,She and they should be at play.
Just over the way are those whoneither work nor play. They sleep in
Oakland Cemetery. Graves of the livingare between it and the mill, dreary,
(38:24):
drab, monotonously, the same rowafter row of houses behind them,
sanitary conditions which are a menace tothe city's health. Laborers live here.
They have a grievance. Underlying itare many complaints they struck. This screed
(38:45):
then goes on to trash the millowner, saying that they refuse to submit
to an impartial third party evaluation oftheir mill. It also blasted them for
not paying their workers a living wage, and then the bulletin closes with the
bank it begins in all caps.There are no problems in the graveyard over
(39:07):
which the three stacks belch. Theirsmoke. But there are questions beneath their
moving shadows which God will have youanswered. The liquor problem, the question
of brothels, the handling of prisoners, and the living wage are all but
part of the same great question.The spirit of God is abroad in the
(39:27):
world, and men are crying forjustice, and in the end they will
have it. Signed the Executive Committeeof the Men and Religion Forward Movement.
That is a hell of a publicservice announcement, and it did not go
unnoticed. Support for the strike pouredin from around the city. In his
(39:52):
book Contesting the New South Order,historian Clifford con notes the craftsmen of all
kinds, including local typographers, coachmakers, carpenters, bricklayers, painters, and
machinists, began sending in donations tohelp fund the strike and replenish the commissary.
Things were looking very good for thestrike and its leaders. Meanwhile,
(40:17):
back at the Mill offices, thepublic bulletin posted by the Men and Religion
Forward Movement only enraged oscar ELS's FurtherCaught off guard by the bulletin, Oscar
decided to double down on his espionageefforts. He devised a devious plan to
hack into the heart of the union'ssacred meeting space, the Odd Fellows Building.
(40:42):
He charged two of his top informantswith the task of stealing a key
to the building. Author Clifford Coontells us what happened next. The two
spies then rented rooms across the streetfrom the hall, purchased wire and other
supplies, then, pretending to beelectric repairmen, installed in the hall a
detecto dictograph surveillance device across between atelephone and primitive radio technology. Despite occasional
(41:12):
glitches, they were able to listenin on the union meetings from their vantage
point across the street and provide verbatimaccounts of the proceedings. A kid,
this is insane. We have amillionaire mill owner bugging the union's private meeting
hall by hiding a recording device inthe ceiling. For more than a week,
(41:37):
the men listened in on strike meetingsand produced detailed transcripts of everything that
was said. This was a majorsource of intel for Oscar Else's However,
after about a week, the machinemalfunctioned, interrupting the union meeting with a
high pitched squeal. The union leadersretrieved the device and quickly realized they'd been
(42:00):
had. The next day, ina speech to the strikers, Ola Delight
Smith was outraged. She went offsaying, this the Jews their sweating blood.
They're worried, or they wouldn't haveput in the dictograph. Now.
Sadly, this isn't the only timestrike leaders used anti Semitism to garner support
(42:23):
for their calls. Charles Miles didit on several occasions as well. Remember
this is all happening with the LeoFrank story still fresh in the minds of
Atlantin's. The entire Frank fiasco hadcreated incredible distrust between the city's poor,
working class whites and the city's wealthyJewish immigrants, many of whom owned businesses
(42:47):
around Atlanta. Strike leaders were quickto exploit that distrust when it served their
purposes. By mid June, therewas good news and news on the strike
front. The good news was thattwo of the top union organizers in America
had been dispatched to Atlanta. SarahConvoy and Mary Keller were experienced leaders with
(43:12):
deep knowledge of how to grow andsustain a new union effort. They joined
Charles Miles and Ola Delight Smith tocreate a four headed monster hell bent on
victory. However, there was badnews as well. More than a month
had passed since the strike began,and though there had been considerable progress,
(43:36):
the striking workers were growing restless andat times volatile. In the streets of
Cabbage Town, friction was growing betweenunion workers who'd walked off the job and
those who remained and kept working inthe mill. The pressure on the remaining
workers was intense, and there wasdrama all around. Reports of strikers roughing
(43:59):
up non strikers were common. Onseveral occasions, workers living in the mill
houses woke up to threatening letters lefton their doorsteps. Now I've seen these
actual notes. I've held them inmy hand. How you may ask,
Well, they all made their wayto Oscar Else's who you guessed it deposited
(44:21):
them directly into his vault. Thehandwriting on these notes looks like something from
a serial killer, so they wereobviously written by mill hands, people with
little to no formal schooling. Oneof them said this, Walter Burdette,
if you go to work in thefault and mill anymore, it will be
at your own risk. So takewarning and don't go in the mill.
(44:45):
No more signed a striker. Duringthis same time, there were also rumors
that strikers were plotting to dynamite themill if their demands weren't met. We
have no idea if this was everan actual plan. Are just big taught,
but I'm gonna go with the ladder. In addition to all this division
in the mill village, there wasalso drama with a commissary. Remember,
(45:09):
the vision of the commissary was thatit would be a free social service to
the strikers, a place they couldcome to get free food and supplies during
their unemployment. Well, there wasone tiny problem with that plan. It
was easily abused, which kind ofmakes sense when you think about it.
(45:30):
Work for pennies and a hellishly hotcotton mill for twelve hours a day,
six days a week, or don'twork in a hellishly hot cotton mill and
get free food from the commissary downthe street. So yeah, as you
can imagine, that became a problem. As more and more workers began abusing
the system, the strike leaders beganissuing stronger warnings. A rule was finally
(45:52):
made that if you're going to beon the union's dime, you have to
actually show up to daily picket Lineactually have to be involved with the strike.
June twenty eighth, nineteen fourteen,was an infamous day globally. That
is, historians know that as theday that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was
(46:17):
assassinated in Sarajevo, and this,of course was the trigger that would eventually
start World War one. Weill.On that same day back in Atlanta,
a different story was playing out.That's the day that the Men in Religion
Forward Movement hosted a massive meeting atDowntown's Grand Opera House. The title or
(46:39):
like theme of the event was CapitalLabor Christ. It was a ticketed event.
All throughout June, the Men andReligion Forward Movement had been taking out
public bulletins the newspapers twice a week. Each of them took direct and indirect
shots at the Fulton bag in cottonmill management. The bulletins generated more citywide
(47:04):
interest in the calls of the strikers, and MRFM leaders recognized this as an
opportunity to broadcast their beliefs to ahuge crowd at a big public event.
More than two thousand people showed up, which made this a major public gathering
in Atlanta. At the event,multiple speakers took the stage. Some railed
against the injustice of child labor,others preached about the inherent value of both
(47:29):
the rich man and the poor man, and of course, the topic of
the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill waswidely discussed. Group leader Marion Jackson assailed
the mill for its predatory contract,its awful living conditions, and management's refusal
to arbitrate with the strikers. Thislast piece was really the whole point of
(47:51):
the rally, to apply pressure toOscar Elsis to sit down and actually listen
to the concerns of those who'd walkedoff the job. Marion Jackson, however,
did himself no favors when in hisspeech he brought up Oscar Elsis's religion
in his attempt to compliment the Jewishrace. He actually made several sly and
(48:12):
stereotyping remarks that had a distinctly antiSemitic tone to them. The rally ended
with the group unanimously passing a resolutioncalling for Meal management to enter into arbitration
talks with the strikers. In theminds of those who attended the rally could
not have gone better. It catalyzedsupport around the cause and sent a message
(48:36):
loud and clear to Oscar Elsis.Following the rally, Elsi's responded with a
public statement. After carefully considering thesuggestion that we arbitrate our business affairs,
we have decided there is nothing toarbitrate. While Elsis's public statement was dry
(48:59):
and matter of fact, he wassteaming on the inside. When his informants
he attended the rally reported on whatwas said from stage, he was outraged.
The mentions of his Jewish faith onlyconfirmed what he'd suspected. This whole
thing wasn't really about the strike,it was about the Jews. It was
(49:21):
merely an expansion of the Southern gentilecrusade that had claimed Leo Frank as a
victim and was coming for him.Next, the mass meeting held in the
Grand Opera House, which by theway, was a building funded by Oscar's
father, Jacob, was a turningpoint for Oscar ELS's. He viewed the
entire affair Christian ministers railing against hisfamily's business while two thousand people cheered an
(49:46):
approval as a deeply personal attack,and Oscar was one to fight fire with
fire. While his previous targets hadbeen strike leadership. His fury now shifted
towards the leaders of the Men andReligion Forward Movement, and he was willing
(50:07):
to do anything to take them down. His full vengeance was about to be
unleashed, and part of that vengeanceincluded the deployment of Oscar's secret weapon,
a superspy, a highly trained oneman reconnaissance wrecking ball, a chameleon,
(50:31):
and a silver tongued snake. AJason Bourne before there was a Jason Bourne.
And when he stepped off the trainat Atlanta's Terminal station in June of
nineteen fourteen, this mystery man broughtthe full force of his elite skills in
service to one person, Oscar Else'sone historian has described him as one of
(50:55):
the most quote remarkable undercover operatives inthe history of American industrial relations. And
if you stick around, you'll getto meet him. That's next time on
Catlet. Did you know we havetwo T shirts inspired by this episode?
(51:24):
It's true. The design inspiration ofour let Us Have Justice tease came from
an old photo of a sign beingheld by one of the strikers during the
Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill strike ofnineteen fourteen. While in honor of that
gentleman and the fact that you've madeit all the way to episode nineteen of
(51:45):
Catolic, we've got a little rewardfor you. Use the promo code nineteen
now in the Catolic Store to savenineteen percent off the let us have Justice
t shirts or any other tis inthe Catholic Store. That's nineteen now,
the number one, the number ninein ow that's your promo code. Of
(52:10):
course, you can shop all thegreat Catholic merch at you guessed it,
Catolic dot com. All right,let's roll the ultra music. Catolic is
(52:31):
recorded in Atlanta's historic Cabbagetown neighborhood.Executive producer walnut Ridge Harmon. Original music
and sound designed by Doucel Cover artby Rachel Eleanois Catholic Store manager Rhett Harmon,
Research assistant Jack Lindsay. Special thanksto the staff at the Georgia Institute
(52:53):
of Technology, Library, Archives andSpecial Collections. Catolic Instagram Follower of the
Week at KDB, Catolic Instagram Commenterof the Week at gravel Grinder. Catolic
Twitter Follower of the Week Becky OldTalk. When it comes to all things
(53:15):
Cabbage Town We've got some of thebest visual content yet waiting for you inside
the vaults. Tons of old photosfrom the strike, plus great photos from
around Cabbage Town today. Be sureto subscribe to the Vault at catlic dot
com. And finally, Catolic isindependently written and produced by me bt Harmon.
(53:40):
Signing off, I'd like to remindyou to save old buildings, build
bike lanes, and vote for publictransit. We'll see you in the next episode.
There have been lots of bloody summersin Atlanta's history, but one of them
was by far the worst, andthere isn't a close second. By eighteen
sixty four, America was immersed inits greatest test since it had declared independence
from England nearly a century before.The young nation's first Civil War had grown
(00:29):
into a full blown crisis. Theconflict pitted the American North versus the seceding
American South. Hundreds of thousands ofAmericans had already been killed and the war
was still waging. And while thestruggle for victory tilted back and forth,
there still remained one stubborn problem forUnion forces Atlanta. Over time, Atlanta
(00:55):
became the lifeline of the Confederacy.Though it wasn't the Confederate at capital that
was to the east in Richmond,Virginia, Atlanta was the crucial manufacturing and
industrial center of the Southern cause.Once cut off from Northern industry, the
Confederacy was forced to manufacture all itsown war supplies. As a major railroad
(01:17):
hub situated deep in the heart ofthe South, the city of Atlanta was
perfectly positioned to meet many of theseneeds. So when the Civil War began,
Atlanta's factories roared to life, workingovertime to supply the Confederate fighting force.
Textile mills buzzed day and night toproduce clothing for the soldiers, uniforms,
(01:38):
trousers, and boots. They alsoproduced tents and blankets. Still,
other industrial sites around the city churnedout Confederate war machines, ammunition, muskets,
and cannons. During the war.The New York Times said that Atlanta
was quote the workshop, the granary, the storehouse, and the arsenal of
(01:59):
the Federacy. Atlanta's most crucial facility, however, was the Atlanta Rolling Mill.
In eighteen fifty eight. The AtlantaRolling Mill was constructed on a rural
plot of land east of downtown.When it opened, it was one of
the few factories in the South itcould produce iron rail, the key ingredient
(02:22):
to connecting American cities and fueling thenation's expansion into new territories. During the
Civil War, however, the AtlantaRolling Mill became the Confederate Rolling Mill as
the factory's output shifted towards the growingneeds of the Confederacy. During that time.
It produced iron rail, cannons andsheets of iron cladding for the ships
(02:44):
of the Confederate Navy. The Southwas fighting for its life to preserve the
institution of slavery, and it waslargely Atlanta's job to fuel that fight.
By eighteen sixty four, American forcesfrom the north pushing deeper and deeper into
the seceded states. Leading their causewas General William to Kumsa Sherman. While
(03:07):
he'd already taken several big Southern cities, Atlanta was the crown jewel. He
knew that if he could take Atlanta, he could destroy Confederate supply lines,
thereby severing outlying regiments from the vitalresources they needed to keep fighting. So
in the summer of eighteen sixty four, General Sherman finally set his full attention
(03:30):
on taking Atlanta. The siege beganin July of that year the Battle of
Atlanta. Seventy four thousand American andConfederate troops clashed east of downtown in an
area of Atlanta that would eventually becomeEnman Park. The Battle of Atlanta was
brutal and bloody, and when thedust settled there were twelve thousand casualties,
(03:53):
with most of them coming at theexpense of the Confederacy. Though devastating,
Confederate troops continued their resistance, givingall they had to defend the city throughout
the summer. Meanwhile, Union forcescontinued to shell downtown Atlanta, and civilians
went to sleep each night to thesound of exploding mortars and gunfire in the
(04:14):
distance. In a panic, thegovernor of Georgia fired off a desperate telegram
to Jefferson Davis, the President ofthe seceded States. He wrote this,
I need not call your attention tothe fact that this place is to the
Confederacy almost as important as the heartis to the human body. Despite the
(04:35):
Governor's plea for reinforcements, by theend of August, the heart of the
Confederacy was slowing down. Hope beganto fade in the exhausted Confederate resistance was
on fumes. Though he'd done everythinghe could to keep Atlanta from falling to
Union troops, Confederate Lieutenant General JohnHood was running out of options. As
(04:59):
Sherman's breached the final lines of defense, they began their march directly into the
heart of Atlanta, and General Hoodwas faced with the brutal reality if Confederate
forces abandoned the city altogether, theConfederate rolling Mill would fall into the hands
of the Union. This meant thatthis massive factory that had been churning out
(05:19):
Confederate weapons of war could now beused to fuel the American war effort,
and it was this dilemma that causedGeneral Hood to make one of the most
dramatic decisions of the Civil War.Instead of allowing the Confederate rolling mill to
fall into the hands of Northern forces, Hood decided to blow it up.
(05:43):
On the night of September first,eighteen sixty four, a detachment of Confederate
troops on horseback rode through the darknessto the Confederate rolling mill. Several idle
trains were parked next to the mill. They were loaded down with tons of
highly explosive munitions. With torches inhand, the men quietly set fire to
several of the box cars and gallopedaway as quickly as possible. As they
(06:09):
rode off into the darkness, amassive detonation, one of the largest explosions
ever to occur on American soil,thundered behind them. The concussion flattened everything
within a quarter mile. It wasreported that even General Sherman himself, stationed
twenty three miles from the rolling mill, heard the blast. The parked train
(06:31):
box cars burst into flames, risinginto a towering inferno that eventually consumed the
entire mill compound. The Confederacy's warmachine manufactory was no more. When the
sun rose the next day, residencenear the site of the Confederate rolling mill
(06:54):
woke to the site of a blackenedand mangled parcel of scorched earth. The
thriving steel mill was leveled. Therolling green hills of grass and tree surrounding
the factory had been replaced by asmoking, charred, dystopian hellscape. This
plot of land, once buzzing withthe life of commerce and industry, now
(07:15):
looked like the desolate surface of analien planet. The destruction of the Confederate
rolling Mill was Atlanta's last gasp.With Confederate forces on the run, Sherman
himself marched on the city and setup camp with his men in downtown Atlanta.
He stayed there for nearly two monthsbefore beginning his march east to Savannah.
(07:39):
But before he left, of course, he ordered Atlanta, the once
proud heart of the rebel cause,to be torched soldiers rode from building to
building, setting fire to both militaryand civilian structures alike. More than three
thousand buildings went up in smoke asthe South's grandest city was reduced to rebel
(08:03):
After Sherman's troops burned Atlanta, asergeant from Indiana offered some commentary in his
private journal. Here's what he said. The entire city was destroyed but for
a few occupied houses. It remindsme of the destruction of Babylon because of
the wickedness of her people. Becauseof the wickedness of her people. The
(08:28):
fall of Atlanta proved to be apivotal battle in the Civil War. The
next year, eighteen sixty five,the war came to an end as rebel
forces in the South finally accepted defeat. So why am I talking about what
happened in Atlanta in eighteen sixty four, Well, I'll tell you because sixteen
(08:52):
years after General Hood blew it up, the scorched site of the Confederate rolling
mill went up for sale, locatedon the eastern edge of the city and
next to the graveyard where thousands ofdead had been buried after the Battle of
Atlanta. It wasn't exactly a pleasantplace in the minds of most Atlantins.
This cursed land had borne witness tothe humiliation of the South's bravest fighting men.
(09:16):
No one wanted the land haunted bythe ghosts of Confederate industry. Well
not no one. The former siteof the Confederate rolling mill eventually caught the
eye of at least one enterprising immigrant, A once orphaned German Jewish immigrant to
be exact. In eighteen eighty,Jacob Elsis had been shopping around Atlanta for
(09:41):
a site adequate to house his newcotton mill. When he realized he could
get this battle scarred land outside oftown for a good price. He moved
quickly, making his offer and closingthe deal. And so from the ashes
of the Confederate War foundry, anew enterprise began to rise, a great
factory that would become the Fulton Bagand Cotton Mill, And in the shadow
(10:05):
of that factory a village would riseto on this same tract of land with
a history considered messy at best anddownright wicked at worst. But as the
mill grew and thrived, the samecould not be said of those living in
the mill village. In By nineteenfourteen, Cabbagetown, a community built atop
(10:28):
the soil of a lost Confederate cause, began to feel like a lost cause
of its own. You're listening toepisode nineteen of Catholic Let Us Have Justice.
(11:26):
It's May of nineteen fourteen, monthnumber forty one of our story.
Disgruntled workers at the Fulton Bag andCotton Mill in Atlanta have voted to walk
off the job. Their reasons forstriking were clear low pay, an unfair
work contract, a draconian finding system, unreasonably long hours, child labor,
(11:48):
and horrendous conditions in the mill village. So on May the twentieth, it
began. Workers arrived at six amfor their normal work day, but by
nine am the machines began going quiet, as one by one workers walked away
from their posts and out into thestreets of Cabbage Town. Though the numbers
(12:11):
are debated, our best estimate isthat about two hundred workers walked off the
job on the first day of thestrike. Remember, at this time there
are over a thousand jobs at themill, so while two hundred might seem
like a lot, it was hardlyenough to bring the mill to a grinding
halt. Recruiting more workers to theunion cause would be crucial. When the
(12:33):
strike began, Establishing highly visible picketlines was an immediate priority. Picketers stationed
themselves at various entry points around themill itself, but also at highly trafficed
locations around Atlanta. The early goalwas to be as visible as possible to
stir up as much public sympathy aspossible. Daily strike meetings were also held
(12:56):
at the odd Fellows Building down onBurn Avenue, about a half a mile
from the mill. Now, thefact that the strikers met at the odd
Fellows Building was quite significant. TheAtlanta chapter of the Grand Order of Odd
Fellows had opened their beautiful new buildingjust a year before. Conceived of and
(13:16):
constructed by black businessmen, it wasone of the first office buildings in Atlanta
to cater to the black community ina city deeply divided along racial lines.
It was no small matter that thewhite workers of the Fulton Bag strike were
allowed to meet in the odd FellowsBuilding. This was an early sign of
the broad support the strike would gain. FYI. The odd Fellows Building is
(13:41):
still standing today down on Auburn Avenue, and it was restored to its full
early twentieth century glory back in thenineteen eighties. Check it out if you're
in the area. In the earlydays of the strike, its two primary
leaders were Charles Mills and Ola DelightSmith. I introduced you to Miles in
(14:01):
the last episode, and you'll rememberthat he'd led several successful efforts to unionize
workers in the North. He wasa seasoned labor leader with the chops to
hang with anti union industrial tycoons.His partner was an Atlanta local named Olah
Delight Smith. If I had tovote for a most colorful character in all
(14:24):
of catlic it would be Olah DelightSmith. We don't have many photos of
her, but the best one wedo have shows her wearing all black,
a long black dress and an enormousblack hat with black feathers billowing out of
the top of it. In thephoto, her expression is quite severe,
the look of a person who isall business, and Ola Delight Smith was
(14:50):
all business. Historian Gary Faint describesher as a quote human whirlwind of action
end quote. Smith got her startas a telegrapher in Birmingham, Alabama.
After that she moved to Gainesville,Georgia, and then eventually to Atlanta,
(15:11):
she joined several telegrapher unions and recruitedothers to join her. This eventually cost
her her job. She took onother odd jobs to make ends meet and
began writing for local and national laborjournals. In her writing, her passion
as a staunch activist was evident,as she railed against child labor and advocated
(15:31):
for women's rights. But she wasalso known for some more controversial behaviors.
In a time when women still didn'thave the right to vote, females were
expected to be quiet, submissive,and ladylike. Well, Ola Delight Smith
was anything but she transgressed nearly everysocietal norm for how a woman should act.
(15:58):
For one, she enjoyed beer andwould often kick back with the boys
to down a pint or ten.Furthermore, at least on one occasion,
she got into an altercation with theman and knocked him out using brass knuckles.
Ola Delights Smith lived her life theway she led her activism, passionate,
(16:22):
full throttle, unapologetic. So whenshe got the call to help lead
the strike efforts at Fulton Bag,she was likely thrilled. Has a book
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Charles Miles and Ola Delight Smith,with funding from the United Textile Workers,
made some important moves early in thestrike. First, they began reaching out
(18:18):
to various groups around Atlanta that mightbe sympathetic to their cause. They realized
the importance of winning the pr battle. Second, they established a commissary for
the striking workers. The commissary waserected right in the shadow of the mill
off present day Tannell Street. Intheir early rallies, they promised strikers that
(18:40):
their every need, specifically food,would be met by the commissary and free
of charge. Since the striking workerswere no longer getting a paycheck from the
mill, this was a crucial safetynet that could hopefully entice more workers to
walk off the job. For youVault subscribers, I've upload pictures of the
(19:00):
commissary. Side note, there area couple of Coca Cola signs on the
front of the commissary, which hasalways struck me as kind of funny.
Some coke marketing person hustling hard backin nineteen fourteen. Funding for the commissary
came from national labor unions and localdonations. During the first week, word
(19:21):
of the strike spreadlight crazy through Atlanta, and other low wage workers began contributing
to the Fulton strike. Electricians,cobblers, metalworkers, street car operators,
and even union musicians donated what theycould to help keep the strike going.
Many of them believed that if thisstrike was successful, it would get the
(19:42):
attention of the other factory owners aroundthe city and forever change the fortunes of
the low wage workers. As supportfor the strike surged, sowed the spirits
of the striking laborers. During thatfirst week, loud singing could be heard
zing above Cabbage Town late into thenight. Fueled by optimism and whiskey,
(20:04):
striking workers would take the melody ofexisting songs and change the words, transforming
them into trash talking anthems directed atmill management. While the strikers were working
the picket lines, Oscar Elsis wasworking on his plan. His initial response
(20:26):
to the strike was actually quite chill. He was reported as saying that only
a tiny fraction of workers had walkedoff the job, that the mills operations
had continued without interruption, and thatthis minor disturbance would be resolved in a
few days. However, behind thescenes, he was anything but chill.
(20:49):
As a matter of fact, wenow know that Oscar had a sophisticated plan
for how to respond to a labordisturbance just like this one. How do
we know that, Well, gatheraround my Catolic companions. If you remember,
way back in episode one, Itold you about a vault sealed off
(21:14):
and tucked away in the executive officesof the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.
And I told you how in nineteeneighty five, some guys and hard hats
opened up the vault and discovered amassive treasure trove of mill documents. I
also told you how those same mentipped off Georgia Tech, and how Tech
sent a team of researchers an archiviststo collect the documents. Here's a catlic
(21:40):
throwback, all the way back inepisode one. For the next few months,
the research team processed and cataloged thecollection. Bit by bit, they
began piecing together the cotton Mill's mysteriouspast in its beginnings in eighteen eighty one.
Much of what they found owned wasmundane, but not all of it.
(22:03):
Hidden amongst the mundane details of employeepay records and budget reports was a
dirty little secret. There was areason these millionaire millmen kept their secrets behind
lock and key, and for thefirst time ever, their secret was out.
That dirty little secret was what researcherslearned about the labor strike of nineteen
(22:27):
fourteen. Because Oscar kept meticulous records, he retained all the correspondents, including
the private and confidential messages that occurredduring the strike. Now this might not
seem like a big deal to you, but to historians this is huge.
When we study early labor strikes aroundAmerica were usually privy only to the information
(22:52):
from the union side, We rarelyget to pull back the curtain on the
plans of the super rich industrialis fightingagainst the union. Using these thousands of
recovered documents, historians have been ableto piece together Oscar's strategy, the play
by play of how a cunning,relentless, and wealthy factory owner planned to
(23:15):
crush the uprising happening within the wallsof his corporate empire. And oh was
he ever relentless. When they weresorting through the cash of mill documents in
the nineteen eighties, archivists made apeculiar discovery a subset of documents filed under
(23:36):
the mysterious heading Our Forces in allcaps. Inside this file were fragile and
fading pages noted as operative reports.These were first person accounts of life inside
the mill. Sometimes they were handwritten, in other times they were typed.
(23:57):
But each report was anymous and includeda numeric identifier at the top Operative number
blank, so, opera number fourteen, Operative number eighty nine, Operative number
one four four, and so on. Curiously, there weren't just dozens or
even hundreds of these mysterious dispatches.There were thousands of them, and that's
(24:22):
when they realized what they were lookingat. Spy reports. Oscar Elsis employed
an army of spies, surveillance operativeswho worked inside the mill, furtively blending
in amongst the regular workers. Thisforce of covert chameleons acted as Oscar's personal
(24:48):
spy agency, disclosing to him everythingthey heard being discussed when management wasn't around.
Now we're not sure of the exactnumber of spies Oscar employed, but
estimates placed that number at well overa hundred, and with that much manpower,
Oscar could afford to have a spyfor everything. He had spies in
(25:14):
every department and division of his factory. He had spies for his managers and
office staff. He had black spiestasked with snooping on the factories one hundred
and fifty black workers. He alsohad spies outside the walls of the factory.
Spies for keeping tabs on Atlanta police, spies to infiltrate local civic and
(25:36):
social groups, Spies who reported onlocal religious leaders. Spies spying on other
manufacturers. Spies assigned to the variouspubs and saloons frequented by factory workers,
tasked with eavesdropping on company gossip afterhours. Oscar Elsis even deputized the companies
(26:00):
own doctor as a spy. DoctorEugene Hawkins made daily house calls, checking
in on those who were sick inthe mill village. However, at night
he would file his own operative reports, passing along any intelligence he gleaned during
his visits. Of course, theprimary targets of OSCARS spying were the strike
(26:22):
leaders themselves. He assigned special teamsof spies to monitor and tail both Charles
Miles and Ola delight Smith. Appealsto morality were incredibly powerful in the early
nineteen hundreds, and Oscar knew thatif he could catch either of these two
in some kind of scandalous situation,he could ruin them in the eyes of
(26:45):
the public. Now, each operativewas required to file a daily report,
so when Oscar came in each morningto his office, spread out on his
desk were dozens of these documents,briefing him on mill gossip, union strategy,
and names of strikers. With hisnetwork of street savvy informants in place,
(27:08):
there was nothing Oscar did not know, and armed with that knowledge,
he was more than prepared to goto war with his people. While employing
an army of spies was a majorpiece of Oscar's strategy, it wasn't the
(27:30):
only piece. Far from it.Oscar was also part of a confederation of
mill owners that sent top secret memoson union organizing efforts. He began consulting
with this group the moment the strikebegan. Part of this was him seeking
reinforcements, asking cotton mill owners aroundthe state to send some mill hands to
Atlanta to blunt the absence of thestrikers. In his correspondence with these other
(27:56):
mill owners, he warned them ofwhat might happen if the Fulton was a
success. This is a matter ofgreat importance to cotton mill interests to those
in Atlanta, the state, andthe southeast. Charles Miles has stated that
if he succeeds in organizing Fulton,Bag and cotton mills, he intends to
(28:17):
organize each and every mill in Georgia. Later, he wrote this, if
we succeed in whipping out this fight, we have a reasonable assurance that mister
Miles will go back north where hecame from, and let Georgia and the
South alone. If we do notwhip it now, your time will come
sooner or later. We shall thereforehave to band together for our mutual protection.
(28:44):
Oscar's message to his fellow mill ownerswas clear, help me crush the
strike now, or we'll all beafflicted by a pandemic of pro union fever.
On June the third, Oscar tookhis messaging directly to the people of
Atlanta. He did this with agiant ad and a constitution defending the mill's
(29:06):
actions. It was filled with employmentand payroll statistics, which was very Oscarish
in that regard, But he alsodeclared his belief and how the strike originated
the striking employees, we think aremisled by persons who are not employees.
And some of these strangers have neverbeen in our employment and are not even
(29:27):
citizens of this state. In otherwords, this is only an issue because
Yankee agitators came down from the northand stirred up our otherwise happy employees.
Right the day after the ad appeared, Oscar's pleasant public tone took a one
(29:49):
eighty when he launched a vicious campaignof retaliation against the striking workers. His
tool mass evictions. Remember, manyof the workers at Fulton Bag paid rent
to live in the Shotgun Houses ofCabbage town houses built and owned by the
Eulsi's family. Oscar's logic was simple, if you're not going to work in
(30:12):
my factory, then you're not goingto live in my houses. So on
the morning of June fourth, menon horseback charged into the mill, pounding
on the doors of strikers forcibly enteringtheir homes and casting their belongings out into
the streets. Observers reported total chaos, dogs barking and children crying while their
(30:34):
desperate parents begged for mercy. Wehave lots of pictures from that day thanks
to one person Ola Delight Smith.Smith maintained her own network of informants,
and one had warned her of thecoming evictions. She had a plan in
place. When the chaos began,Olah Delight Smith muscled her way through the
(30:57):
crowds with her Kodak camera in hand, snapping pictures of weeping mothers and barefoot
children, knowing that the images wouldgarner major sympathy from the locals. Following
behind her was a professional photographer she'dhired to help document the suffering. Multiple
times throughout the day, the company'shired thugs surrounded Ola Delight Smith, attempting
(31:22):
to block her from taking photos.Nevertheless, she persisted. Smith and her
photographer also sought out Cabbage Towns risingstar in Fiddlin John Carson remember him.
Sure enough, they found him evictedand standing on his front porch when they
snapped his photo, fiddle in handand his trusty hound dog by his side.
(31:48):
At this point, most savvy activistsof the day would have been content
with two cameras working simultaneously to captureand document the bad deeds of the factory
men. However, Ola Delight Smithwasn't like most savvy activists of the day,
Unbelievably, she also booked a motionpicture film crew to document the evictions
(32:13):
in all its full cinematic glory.Now this is wild because it's nineteen fourteen.
The film industry was in its infancy. Movies had barely been around for
maybe ten or twenty years. YetOla Smith recognized that with film she'd be
able to record the deeds of thebad men and sway public opinion. But
(32:37):
Olah's film strategy wasn't just to documentthe scenes of the evictions. Oh no,
she wanted to direct them. Afan of theatrics, Ola had given
a very specific assignment to an olderfemale striker, widow, Margaret Dimpsey.
And now it was showtime. Withher belongings piled high on the street and
(33:01):
her frightened son by her side,the cameras pointed their lenses at Margaret Dipsey
and began rolling. One of Oscar'sspies witnessed the whole scene and in his
daily report recounted what he saw.It was arranged for her to make a
speech and throw her arms up,and the son to go to his mother
(33:22):
and try and comfort her, andshe had to push him away. While
this was in progress, the motionpicture operator was giving instructions and told her
to drop into a seat then fallover as if exhausted. Are you getting
this? This is crazy? Innineteen fourteen, Ola Delights Smith is basically
(33:44):
directing a propaganda film by herself inthe streets of Atlanta. To say that
this was a bold and audacious moveis an understatement. When the chaos of
Eviction Day died down, the numberwere in two hundred and eighteen men,
women and children had been left homelessby Oscar's horse mounted eviction force. As
(34:10):
union leaders scrambled to find accommodations forthe evicted, it became clear that the
dramatic events of the day had actuallyhelped the striker's cause. The dramatic nature
of the evictions was clearly designed tohumiliate and shame them. When non union
workers saw this, it triggered afresh wave of resentment towards mill management.
(34:34):
Union enrollment surged as more Fulton Baglaborers walked off the job. Within days,
Ola Delight Smith had developed the dramaticphotos and mounted them in the windows
of retail shops around downtown Atlanta.Horrified at Lantern's gasped at the sight of
the down trodden mill hands left destituteand homeless by the cold hearted mill owners.
(34:59):
Smith also arranged for other photos tobe sent to newspapers and labor journals
around the country in an effort tospread the word of this new Southern uprising.
Just two days after the evictions,union leaders got some good news when
a powerful civic organization backed their calls. The Men in Religion Forward Movement was
(35:21):
a loosely organized group of evangelical ministersand Protestant businessmen that used their faith to
war against moral decay while advocating forsocial causes. They thundered against liquor,
saloons, and prostitution, and theywere fiercely opposed to the latest moral scourge
to invade Atlanta, Sunday motion pictures. This was a big deal back then,
(35:46):
and the thought of people watching bodyvaudeville films on the Lord's Day was
anathema. In addition to their campaignsagainst vice, the Men and Religion Forward
Movement also took an interest in thewelfare of low wage factory workers. So
when union leader Charles Miles pitched themon the cause, they listened. With
(36:08):
a roster of wealthy and powerful leadersfrom around the city. Miles knew that
support from the MRFM would be amajor win. Well, if public support
is what Charles Miles wanted, thenpublic support is what he got. When
he opened the Atlantic Constitution on themorning of June sixth, he saw a
(36:31):
massive pagelong feature topped by a giantheadline, let us have Justice. This
was like a public service announcement fromthe Men and Religion Forward movement. Beneath
the headline lots of words comprising adramatic narrative and a devastating takedown of the
(36:52):
Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill. I'llpost the full text of the bulletin and
the vault, but here's a prettydramatic excerpt. A hotel room, a
man dead by his own hand,without friends in the city. He was
drinking beneath the window of another hotel, A huddled heap, a spreading stain
(37:16):
upon the sidewalk. He too isdead, crushed by his fall. He
had been drinking all caps. Twomore men have this week died on the
altar of alcohol and green in Atlanta. Their search for happiness here is over.
Their bodies cry out for justice forthose who live who next Strikers look
(37:40):
to the east there on the city'sedge. Three smokestacks tower above massive buildings.
A great wall surrounds them. Glassand barbed wire run along its top.
Above it, one sees a gauntblack bridge. Over it goes a
group of children. As the warningwhistle blow. A little girl not over
(38:01):
twelve, her pink dress fluttering againstthe grime, runs through a forbidding door
to work. All caps again,She and they should be at play.
Just over the way are those whoneither work nor play. They sleep in
Oakland Cemetery. Graves of the livingare between it and the mill, dreary,
(38:24):
drab, monotonously, the same rowafter row of houses behind them,
sanitary conditions which are a menace tothe city's health. Laborers live here.
They have a grievance. Underlying itare many complaints they struck. This screed
(38:45):
then goes on to trash the millowner, saying that they refuse to submit
to an impartial third party evaluation oftheir mill. It also blasted them for
not paying their workers a living wage, and then the bulletin closes with the
bank it begins in all caps.There are no problems in the graveyard over
(39:07):
which the three stacks belch. Theirsmoke. But there are questions beneath their
moving shadows which God will have youanswered. The liquor problem, the question
of brothels, the handling of prisoners, and the living wage are all but
part of the same great question.The spirit of God is abroad in the
(39:27):
world, and men are crying forjustice, and in the end they will
have it. Signed the Executive Committeeof the Men and Religion Forward Movement.
That is a hell of a publicservice announcement, and it did not go
unnoticed. Support for the strike pouredin from around the city. In his
(39:52):
book Contesting the New South Order,historian Clifford con notes the craftsmen of all
kinds, including local typographers, coachmakers, carpenters, bricklayers, painters, and
machinists, began sending in donations tohelp fund the strike and replenish the commissary.
Things were looking very good for thestrike and its leaders. Meanwhile,
(40:17):
back at the Mill offices, thepublic bulletin posted by the Men and Religion
Forward Movement only enraged oscar ELS's FurtherCaught off guard by the bulletin, Oscar
decided to double down on his espionageefforts. He devised a devious plan to
hack into the heart of the union'ssacred meeting space, the Odd Fellows Building.
(40:42):
He charged two of his top informantswith the task of stealing a key
to the building. Author Clifford Coontells us what happened next. The two
spies then rented rooms across the streetfrom the hall, purchased wire and other
supplies, then, pretending to beelectric repairmen, installed in the hall a
detecto dictograph surveillance device across between atelephone and primitive radio technology. Despite occasional
(41:12):
glitches, they were able to listenin on the union meetings from their vantage
point across the street and provide verbatimaccounts of the proceedings. A kid,
this is insane. We have amillionaire mill owner bugging the union's private meeting
hall by hiding a recording device inthe ceiling. For more than a week,
(41:37):
the men listened in on strike meetingsand produced detailed transcripts of everything that
was said. This was a majorsource of intel for Oscar Else's However,
after about a week, the machinemalfunctioned, interrupting the union meeting with a
high pitched squeal. The union leadersretrieved the device and quickly realized they'd been
(42:00):
had. The next day, ina speech to the strikers, Ola Delight
Smith was outraged. She went offsaying, this the Jews their sweating blood.
They're worried, or they wouldn't haveput in the dictograph. Now.
Sadly, this isn't the only timestrike leaders used anti Semitism to garner support
(42:23):
for their calls. Charles Miles didit on several occasions as well. Remember
this is all happening with the LeoFrank story still fresh in the minds of
Atlantin's. The entire Frank fiasco hadcreated incredible distrust between the city's poor,
working class whites and the city's wealthyJewish immigrants, many of whom owned businesses
(42:47):
around Atlanta. Strike leaders were quickto exploit that distrust when it served their
purposes. By mid June, therewas good news and news on the strike
front. The good news was thattwo of the top union organizers in America
had been dispatched to Atlanta. SarahConvoy and Mary Keller were experienced leaders with
(43:12):
deep knowledge of how to grow andsustain a new union effort. They joined
Charles Miles and Ola Delight Smith tocreate a four headed monster hell bent on
victory. However, there was badnews as well. More than a month
had passed since the strike began,and though there had been considerable progress,
(43:36):
the striking workers were growing restless andat times volatile. In the streets of
Cabbage Town, friction was growing betweenunion workers who'd walked off the job and
those who remained and kept working inthe mill. The pressure on the remaining
workers was intense, and there wasdrama all around. Reports of strikers roughing
(43:59):
up non strikers were common. Onseveral occasions, workers living in the mill
houses woke up to threatening letters lefton their doorsteps. Now I've seen these
actual notes. I've held them inmy hand. How you may ask,
Well, they all made their wayto Oscar Else's who you guessed it deposited
(44:21):
them directly into his vault. Thehandwriting on these notes looks like something from
a serial killer, so they wereobviously written by mill hands, people with
little to no formal schooling. Oneof them said this, Walter Burdette,
if you go to work in thefault and mill anymore, it will be
at your own risk. So takewarning and don't go in the mill.
(44:45):
No more signed a striker. Duringthis same time, there were also rumors
that strikers were plotting to dynamite themill if their demands weren't met. We
have no idea if this was everan actual plan. Are just big taught,
but I'm gonna go with the ladder. In addition to all this division
in the mill village, there wasalso drama with a commissary. Remember,
(45:09):
the vision of the commissary was thatit would be a free social service to
the strikers, a place they couldcome to get free food and supplies during
their unemployment. Well, there wasone tiny problem with that plan. It
was easily abused, which kind ofmakes sense when you think about it.
(45:30):
Work for pennies and a hellishly hotcotton mill for twelve hours a day,
six days a week, or don'twork in a hellishly hot cotton mill and
get free food from the commissary downthe street. So yeah, as you
can imagine, that became a problem. As more and more workers began abusing
the system, the strike leaders beganissuing stronger warnings. A rule was finally
(45:52):
made that if you're going to beon the union's dime, you have to
actually show up to daily picket Lineactually have to be involved with the strike.
June twenty eighth, nineteen fourteen,was an infamous day globally. That
is, historians know that as theday that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was
(46:17):
assassinated in Sarajevo, and this,of course was the trigger that would eventually
start World War one. Weill.On that same day back in Atlanta,
a different story was playing out.That's the day that the Men in Religion
Forward Movement hosted a massive meeting atDowntown's Grand Opera House. The title or
(46:39):
like theme of the event was CapitalLabor Christ. It was a ticketed event.
All throughout June, the Men andReligion Forward Movement had been taking out
public bulletins the newspapers twice a week. Each of them took direct and indirect
shots at the Fulton bag in cottonmill management. The bulletins generated more citywide
(47:04):
interest in the calls of the strikers, and MRFM leaders recognized this as an
opportunity to broadcast their beliefs to ahuge crowd at a big public event.
More than two thousand people showed up, which made this a major public gathering
in Atlanta. At the event,multiple speakers took the stage. Some railed
against the injustice of child labor,others preached about the inherent value of both
(47:29):
the rich man and the poor man, and of course, the topic of
the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill waswidely discussed. Group leader Marion Jackson assailed
the mill for its predatory contract,its awful living conditions, and management's refusal
to arbitrate with the strikers. Thislast piece was really the whole point of
(47:51):
the rally, to apply pressure toOscar Elsis to sit down and actually listen
to the concerns of those who'd walkedoff the job. Marion Jackson, however,
did himself no favors when in hisspeech he brought up Oscar Elsis's religion
in his attempt to compliment the Jewishrace. He actually made several sly and
(48:12):
stereotyping remarks that had a distinctly antiSemitic tone to them. The rally ended
with the group unanimously passing a resolutioncalling for Meal management to enter into arbitration
talks with the strikers. In theminds of those who attended the rally could
not have gone better. It catalyzedsupport around the cause and sent a message
(48:36):
loud and clear to Oscar Elsis.Following the rally, Elsi's responded with a
public statement. After carefully considering thesuggestion that we arbitrate our business affairs,
we have decided there is nothing toarbitrate. While Elsis's public statement was dry
(48:59):
and matter of fact, he wassteaming on the inside. When his informants
he attended the rally reported on whatwas said from stage, he was outraged.
The mentions of his Jewish faith onlyconfirmed what he'd suspected. This whole
thing wasn't really about the strike,it was about the Jews. It was
(49:21):
merely an expansion of the Southern gentilecrusade that had claimed Leo Frank as a
victim and was coming for him.Next, the mass meeting held in the
Grand Opera House, which by theway, was a building funded by Oscar's
father, Jacob, was a turningpoint for Oscar ELS's. He viewed the
entire affair Christian ministers railing against hisfamily's business while two thousand people cheered an
(49:46):
approval as a deeply personal attack,and Oscar was one to fight fire with
fire. While his previous targets hadbeen strike leadership. His fury now shifted
towards the leaders of the Men andReligion Forward Movement, and he was willing
(50:07):
to do anything to take them down. His full vengeance was about to be
unleashed, and part of that vengeanceincluded the deployment of Oscar's secret weapon,
a superspy, a highly trained oneman reconnaissance wrecking ball, a chameleon,
(50:31):
and a silver tongued snake. AJason Bourne before there was a Jason Bourne.
And when he stepped off the trainat Atlanta's Terminal station in June of
nineteen fourteen, this mystery man broughtthe full force of his elite skills in
service to one person, Oscar Else'sone historian has described him as one of
(50:55):
the most quote remarkable undercover operatives inthe history of American industrial relations. And
if you stick around, you'll getto meet him. That's next time on
Catlet. Did you know we havetwo T shirts inspired by this episode?
(51:24):
It's true. The design inspiration ofour let Us Have Justice tease came from
an old photo of a sign beingheld by one of the strikers during the
Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill strike ofnineteen fourteen. While in honor of that
gentleman and the fact that you've madeit all the way to episode nineteen of
(51:45):
Catolic, we've got a little rewardfor you. Use the promo code nineteen
now in the Catolic Store to savenineteen percent off the let us have Justice
t shirts or any other tis inthe Catholic Store. That's nineteen now,
the number one, the number ninein ow that's your promo code. Of
(52:10):
course, you can shop all thegreat Catholic merch at you guessed it,
Catolic dot com. All right,let's roll the ultra music. Catolic is
(52:31):
recorded in Atlanta's historic Cabbagetown neighborhood.Executive producer walnut Ridge Harmon. Original music
and sound designed by Doucel Cover artby Rachel Eleanois Catholic Store manager Rhett Harmon,
Research assistant Jack Lindsay. Special thanksto the staff at the Georgia Institute
(52:53):
of Technology, Library, Archives andSpecial Collections. Catolic Instagram Follower of the
Week at KDB, Catolic Instagram Commenterof the Week at gravel Grinder. Catolic
Twitter Follower of the Week Becky OldTalk. When it comes to all things
(53:15):
Cabbage Town We've got some of thebest visual content yet waiting for you inside
the vaults. Tons of old photosfrom the strike, plus great photos from
around Cabbage Town today. Be sureto subscribe to the Vault at catlic dot
com. And finally, Catolic isindependently written and produced by me bt Harmon.
(53:40):
Signing off, I'd like to remindyou to save old buildings, build
bike lanes, and vote for publictransit. We'll see you in the next episode.
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