The Boston Police Strike of 1919, Research Paper Example

After the end of World War I, the financial status of the United States was in disarray. Prices were inflated and the cost of living had risen far beyond wages, and the return of former military troops flooded a labor market that did not have nearly enough work available (Weineke, 2008.) In 1919, approximately 20% of the nation’s population would go on strike, beginning with New York’s harbor workers; the Boston Police Department eventually went on strike as well. This paper will discuss the strike, who was involved as well is the effect of fears regarding communism on the strike, and finally, will hypothesize how the Richmond, Virginia Police Department might have responded during the same time period.

The Boston Police Department had many complaints, including the fact that their salaries had not grown for 60 years, dating back to 1857, when new recruits were earning two dollars per day. This, combined with the fact that police officers were expected to work for seven straight days each week, with only one day off every other week, caused tremendous discontent among the squad. In addition, there were ethnic issues raised in that the Irish Catholic officers were in competition with the Protestant policemen over control of the Department (Ibid.)

The Police Department was headed by Commissioner Edwin Curtis, who had been appointed by Mayor Andrew Peters; this created a conflict because while the mayor was responsible for the police force budget, the way in which the police force operated and its management was overseen by the Commissioner. The dilemma for Mayor Peters was that Boston, the city over which he ruled, was not actually in his control. The police force was determined to accomplish wage increases as well as better working conditions, and made an effort to unionize, but the Commissioner refused to acknowledge any police union and suspended the movement’s leaders from the force in August, 1919 (Boston Police Strike.) The unwillingness of the Commissioner and other elected officials to negotiate with the union or to validate the principle of collective bargaining was portrayed as a belief that negotiating with unions was against the public safety, even though it was believed that the police had a right to higher wages and better working conditions.

As a result, on September 9, 1919, the strike began, as it had been anticipated. Approximately 75% of the entire police force left their positions, leaving a public safety void in the city that resulted in a segment of the population becoming involved in petty crimes such as looting, gambling in public, and harassing police, who both were on strike, as well as those who were not. There were significant confrontations between volunteers from Harvard who had been called in to help the working police control the crowds and the policemen who were on strike. Governor Calvin Coolidge, who had been recently elected, decided to become involved in the conflict, called in the Massachusetts National Guard, a move that served two purposes: forcing the strike to fall by the wayside, and establishing himself as a strong and forceful law-and-order leader. Coolidge also took a strong stand against rehiring the workers who had gone on strike, informing the head of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, that “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime” (Ibid.)
Because the officers who had gone out on strike were not rehired, the positions were largely given to soldiers returning from World War I, and received many of the benefits around which the strike and centered: higher wages, additional holiday time off, and were also provided with free uniforms. The newly hired officers had a much better financial situation through their employment than their predecessors.

A tremendous factor that influenced Americans’ anti-union sentiments was a fear of having a workers’ revolution such as that which had occurred in Russia, a movement that heightened peoples’ suspicion that union activity would result in the spread of communism. The strike had little public support, mostly based on that fear that the Communist Party was trying to take over the United States from within its own ranks. This generalized fear of the spread of communism was known as “The Red Scare.”

If a comparison could be made between the events in Boston and speculation about how the Richmond, Virginia police force would have operated during the same time, it could be anticipated that the Richmond police would not have had to take such drastic action against their city. During the years immediately prior to 1919, that police department had improved working conditions for its force by adding motorized police wagons, dogs to abet the police squad, and in 1916, the shifts for officers were reduced to eight hours (History of the Richmond Police Department.) These moves were preceded by the addition of 25 police officers in various counties in 1914, so that working conditions for the officers were relatively adequate. The city had already expanded its headquarters into a tremendous five-story building where modern technologies for fingerprinting and recordkeeping were implemented. Richmond was clearly committed to creating and maintaining a professional Police Department, and as a result did not experience anything resembling the Boston Police Strike of 1919. The fact that the city of Richmond made so many attempts to improve the environment of its officers makes it unlikely that there would have been any incentive or need for a strike, nor was there discussion during those days of the need for a union.

References

Boston Police Strike. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2012, from United States History: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1348.htm

History of the Richmond Police Department. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2012, from Richmond.gov: http://www.richmondgov.com/Police/HistoryPoliceDepartment.aspx

Weineke, D. (2008). The Boston Police Strike of 1919. Retrieved April 1, 2012, from Boston History and Architecture: http://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=policeStrike