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A House Divided
From the start O'Connell tried to persuade employers to accept
his kind of trade unionism. Favoring mediation over strikes, he
offered business unionism instead of Socialism. He cultivated
contacts and friendships with business leaders through the National
Civic Federation. The futility of such an approach became painfully
apparent when the National Metal Trades Association reneged on the
Murray Hill agreement. The members' faith in O'Connell was further
shaken by the severe business depression known as the Great Panic of
1907. At one point more than a third of the IAM's membership was
either jobless or on short time. With the work force so vulnerable,
employers quickly dropped all pretense of labor-management
cooperation. Metalworking firms that had given lip service to the
NCF now joined the NMTA in a spasm of union-busting. In Pittsburgh,
U.S. Steel, Mesta Machine and the Pressed Steel Car Company rushed
to support the Pittsburgh Manufacturers Association's open shop
campaign. The Machinists fought back with at least twenty-five
strikes, many lasting throughout the long, cold winter. Scores of
members were arrested and at least three of the IAM's district
officers went to jail. Many of the gains made in earlier years were
lost. Pittsburgh was not unique. Similar defeats were suffered as
these radicalized the membership, strengthening the drift to
Socialism while weakening faith in "labor statesmanship."
By mandating that all Grand Lodge officers, except the
Assistant General Secretary-Treasurer, be elected by referendum, the
1905 Convention made O'Connell directly vulnerable to growing
discontent at the grass roots. He survived challenges in 1907 and
1909 but by 1911 his leadership, already weakened by the rising tide
of Socialism, was further wounded by his friendship with a corrupt
business representative named George Warner. As DBR of District 15
in New York and a delegate to the AFL, Warner was one of O'Connell's
most powerful allies in the union. However, he was tarnished by
evidence that he had taken bribes from the Erie Railroad in exchange
for labor peace. Warner denied wrong-doing and remained popular and
powerful in his own district. Feelings ran so high elsewhere,
however, that delegates to the 1907 Convention rejected a
Credentials Committee recommendation that Warner be seated despite a
challenge from the floor. When O'Connell was finally certain of
Warner's guilt he demanded his expulsion. He then refused to let
Warner go out with an honorary withdrawal card which offended
Warner's supporters and added to O'Connell's opposition in the
organization.
From remarks he made later O'Connell clearly sensed his time
had run out after the 1909 Convention. He claimed he decided not to
run in 1911 but changed his mind only because he thought his
withdrawal might be seen as cowardice. After being defeated in a
referendum vote by District 44 President William H. Johnston, 15,300
to 13,300, O'Connell had to endure the humiliation of presiding as a
lame duck over the bitterly hostile Grand Lodge Convention that met
in Davenport, Iowa. He noted in closing remarks that feelings ran so
high "It needed only a match to have fired the magazine of
secession among the men in this convention." He also reminded
them, with understandable resentment, that not a single delegate
rose at any time to thank him for the years in which he held the IAM
together when there was barely enough cash in the treasury to buy
postage stamps. No one stood to salute his skill in leading a small,
struggling organization safely through hard-fought battles with some
of the largest and most powerful railroads in the land. To the
contrary, the delegates rubbed salt in his wounds by voting to
prohibit any member of the IAM from ever again "holding office
in or becoming connected with the Nation Civic Federation."
This prohibition remained in the IAM Constitution for decades, long
after anyone could remember what the NCF was or why there was a ban
against it in the constitution. The delegates also tried to ensure
that future IP's could not exert the degree of influence O'Connell
had achieved while chairing a long succession of Grand Lodge
Conventions. The Socialist bloc voted to do away with regularly
scheduled Conventions altogether. They directed that future
constitutional amendments should be submitted to biennial membership
referendums.
O'Connell was not the only advocate of bread and butter
business unionism to be swept under a Socialist tide in the labor
movement in 1911. Raging unemployment and hard times radicalized
members in many unions. "Pure and simple" trade unionists
such as O'Connell were defeated for top offices that year in the
Hatters, Pattern Makers, Journeymen Tailors, Sheetmetal Workers and
Carpenters.
O'Connell himself was still relatively young, only
fifty-three, in 1911. As a long-time friend and ally of Sam Gompers,
he kept his seat as a vice president of the AFL for some years
despite IAM efforts to have him replaced by Johnston. O'Connell
lived for another quarter of a century, heading the AFL's Metal
Trades Department until forced to resign by failing health in 1934.
He died in Washington at the age of seventy-eight in 1936.
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