Terry Pettus and the 1936 Seattle Newspaper Strike: Pivotal Success for the Early American Newspaper Guild

Abstract

The American Newspaper Guild was struggling for life when Tacoma, Washington, journalist Terry Pettus wrote his 1935 letter requesting to join. Once on board, Pettus then successfully recruited journalists throughout the Northwest to the Guild. He launched, then advised the Seattle Newspaper Guild throughout its successful 1936 strike against William Randolph Hearst’s Post-Intelligencer. Archival records show that Pettus’s actions were pivotal to Guild successes, as the Seattle labor victory ushered in a tripling of Guild contracts with publishers nationwide in just a year. When Pettus’s own Tacoma newspaper closed soon thereafter, he was unable to land a new general interest newspaper job, probably because of publisher blacklisting. However, the experience led Pettus toward decades of subsequent political and labor activism in the Northwest.

Notes

1 Terry Pettus to American Newspaper Guild, August 28, 1935, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, folder 1934–35, no. 13, Wayne State University. This letter thanks the ANG for its reply to Pettus’s earlier letter requesting membership. The Pettus letter requesting membership was not found in Guild records, but it almost certainly dates from earlier in the same month.

2 Philip M. Glende, “Trouble on the Right, Trouble on the Left,” Journalism History 38, no. 3 (2012): 142–55.

3 Terry Pettus to ANG, August 28, 1935; William E. Ames and Roger A. Simpson, Unionism or Hearst: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Strike of 1936 (Seattle: Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, 1978), 12.

4 Will Parry, “Smith Act Jury Gets Newsman’s Life Story,” Daily Worker, August 18, 1953, 8, in FBI 100-17354-A.

5 Daniel J. Leab, A Union of Individuals: The Formation of the American Newspaper Guild, 1933–1936 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970): 261.

6 Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst.

7 Bonnie Brennen, “Newsworkers during the Interwar Era: A Critique of Traditional Media History,” Communication Quarterly 43, no. 2 (1995): 203–04. See also Hanno Hardt, “Without the Rank and File,” in News Workers: Toward a History of the Rank and File, edited by Hanno Hardt and Bonnie Brennen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), 3, 7.

8 United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1936. Handbook of Labor Statistics, Issue 616. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 987–90; “Salaries and Working Conditions of Newspaper Editorial Employees,” Monthly Labor Review 40, no. 5 (1935): 1140, 1145, 1147, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41815290.

9 Sam Kuczun, “History of the American Newspaper Guild” (PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 1970): 16.

10 Daniel J. Leab, “Before the Blue Eagle,” in With Just Cause: Unionization of the American Journalist, edited by Walter M. Brasch (Lanham: University Press of America, 1991), 174.

11 Leab, A Union, 124–25. See also Glende, “Trouble,” 144.

12 See Leab, A Union, 141, 173, 216–17, 249–50; and Kuczun, “History of the American Newspaper Guild,” 22, 29, 50.

13 Philip S. Foner, 1st Facts of American Labor (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1984), 77.

14 Dale B. Scott, “Labor’s New Deal for Journalism—The Newspaper Guild in the 1930s” (PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009). See also Philip M. Glende, “We Used Every Effort to Be Impartial: The Complicated Response of Newspaper Publishers to Unions,” American Journalism 29, no. 2 (2012): 49; Kuczun, “History of the American Newspaper Guild,” 18; Leab, A Union, 150, 171, 178.

15 Leab, A Union, 143.

16 Ibid., 182–95. See also Rodney Carlisle, “William Randolph Hearst’s Reaction to the American Newspaper Guild: A Challenge to New Deal Labor Legislation,” Labor History 10, no. 1 (1969): 81–85.

17 Leab, A Union, 139–46, 153–59, 167, 172–73, 218. See also Glende, “Trouble,” 144–45.

18 Leab, A Union, 205, 219, 223, 229–31; Kuczun, “History of the American Newspaper Guild,” 54.

19 Jerry Pugnetti, February 19, 1984, “Terry Pettus: A Radical Survivor,” (Tacoma) News Tribune, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 463-4, box 1, folder 1.

20 Jean Godden, “A Rebel with Cause,” November 19, 1978, Terry Pettus Papers, University of Washington, Accession No. 0463-004, box 2, folder 10.

21 Don Duncan, August 18, 1979, “Terry Pettus: Radical to Elder Statesman,” Seattle Times, Terry Pettus Papers, University of Washington, Accession No. 0463-004, box 2, folder 10. See also Pettus to Harvey O’Connor, January 29, 1963, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 463-4, box No. 2, folder 17.

22 Although Pettus did not say why the article went unpublished, other journalists of the period contended that labor points of view were cut from their stories. See Margaret C. Shay, October 1, 1936, “That Bias Talk: Free Press Held Safe with Us,” Guild Reporter: 7; and Upton Sinclair, “The Press Set Free,” 1919, reprinted in With Just Cause, Brasch, 194.

23 Terry Pettus to ANG, August 28, 1935, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, folder 1934–35, no. 13. See also Ames and Simpson, 11.

24 Pettus to ANG, August 28, 1935; Jonathan Eddy to Terry Pettus, November 4, 1935, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 6.

25 Eddy to Pettus, November 4, 1935.

26 Jonathan Eddy to Terry Pettus, November 11, 1935, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 6; and Terry Pettus to Jonathan Eddy, November 8, 1935, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, folder 1934–35, No. 13.

27 Don Stevens to Terry Pettus, November 15, 1935, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, folder 1934–35, No. 13; Terry Pettus to Don Stevens, December 8, 1935, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, folder 1934–35, No. 14.

28 See John A. Wolfard, “The History and Significance of the American Newspaper Guild Strike against the Seattle Post-Intelligencer” (Master’s thesis, University of Washington, 1937), 13.

29 Tacoma Guild Reporter newsletter, vol. 1, no. 2, April 1, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 38.

30 “Defense Fund Account,” Guild Reporter, April 1, 1937, 4; “Cash from YOU Is Needed NOW to Win YOUR Milwaukee Fight!” Guild Reporter, March 1, 1936, 4.

31 Don Stevens to Terry Pettus, March 25, 1936. Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, folder 1936, No. 15.

32 Terry Pettus to unknown, February 15, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 25.

33 Ames and Simpson, 17–18; Terry Pettus to Morgan Hull, April 6, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 26.

34 Terry Pettus to Ray Seelig, March 20, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 25.

35 F. W. “Forrest” Williams to Terry Pettus, April 5, 1936. Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 15; Terry Pettus to Don Stevens, April 14, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 26.

36 Don Stevens to Terry Pettus, April 2, 1936; and Don Stevens to Morgan Hull, April 6, 1936; Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 6.

37 Ames and Simpson, 20.

38 Terry Pettus to Morgan Hull, April 6, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 26; Terry Pettus to Don Stevens, March 31, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 25.

39 Morgan Hull to Jonathan Eddy, May 4, 1936; and Morgan Hull to Jonathan Eddy, May 5, 1936. Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 6.

40 “Much Debate—and Experience—Brought Affiliation,” Guild Reporter, July 15, 1936, 4.

41 Paul Brusselle to E. W. Scripps, Chairman, League of Newspapers, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, 1936, folder 16.

42 Morgan Hull to Jonathan Eddy, May 15, 1936, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, 1936, folder 17; Morgan Hull to Clyde Beals, Jonathan Eddy, and Howard Hill, May 20, 1936, Newspaper Guild Records, Part 1, box 13, Tacoma, 1936, folder 17.

43 F. W. “Forrest” Williams to Terry Pettus, April 5, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 15; Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, May 7, 1936. Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 16.

44 Morgan Hull to Jonathan Eddy, May 4, 1936, and Morgan Hull to Jonathan Eddy, May 5, 1936; Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 6.

45 Terry Pettus to Guild chapter representatives, May 28, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 25.

46 Leab, A Union, 243.

47 Dana Frank, “The Devil and Mr. Hearst,” July 10, 2000, The Nation 271, no. 2: 35.

48 Carlisle, “William Randolph Hearst’s Reaction,” 90.

49 Leab, A Union, 247–52. See also Kuczun, “History of the American Newspaper Guild,” 90–95.

50 “NEB Advises Dues of 75¢,” Guild Reporter, May 15, 1936, 1; Morgan Hull to Terry Pettus, June 10, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 7; “Order in Finances,” The Guild Reporter, June 15, 1936, 6; “Auditor Tells All,” Guild Reporter, June 15, 1936, 5.

51 Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, June 14, 1936; and Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, June 21, 1936; Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 16.

52 Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 29–30.

53 Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, July 8, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 17.

54 Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, July 13, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 17.

55 Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 36–38.

56 Unsigned [believed to be Forrest Williams] to Terry Pettus, July 18, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 17.

57 Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, July 23, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 17; Ames and Simpson, 42–43.

58 Terry Pettus to R. H. Neelands in Vancouver, BC, July 25, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 27.

59 Terry Pettus to Jonathan Eddy, August 3, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 27. See also Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 44–45; Terry Pettus to “My Dear Lowell,” [presumed to be Lowell Wakefield], August 3, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 27.

60 Terry Pettus to Forrest Williams, August 3, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 27.

61 Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, August 7, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 18.

62 Terry Pettus to “My Dear Litchfield,” secretary, Spokane Guild, August 3, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 27; Forrest Williams to Jonathan Eddy, Clyde Beals, Ray Torr, Heywood Broun, and Don Stevens, August 2, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 18.

63 Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 49–50.

64 Ibid., 55, 60–64, 75.

65 “Guild Keeps Way Open for Parley in Seattle,” Guild Reporter, September 15, 1936, 4; “Strike Fund for Seattle Reaches Crisis; Immediate Action of Local Guilds Urged,” Guild Reporter, October 1, 1936, 1; Ames and Simpson, 101–05.

66 Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, October 10, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 18; Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 107; Victor Pasche to Terry Pettus, October 1, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 7.

67 Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 111–13, 128; Wolfard, “The History and Significance,” 10; Carlisle, “William Randolph Hearst’s Reaction,” 97.

68 Ames and Simpson, Unionism or Hearst, 129–35. Armstrong died on March 18, 1937.

69 “Celebrate Guild Victories by Cleaning Up Back Bills,” Guild Reporter, December 1, 1936, 1; Morgan Hull, “A.N.G. Bargaining Nets 47 Pacts,” Guild Reporter, June 1, 1937, 5.

70 Wolfard, “The History and Significance,” 38, 40.

71 Terry Pettus to Jonathan Eddy, December 11, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 28; Morgan Hull to Terry Pettus, December 14, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 7; Forrest Williams to Terry Pettus, January 10, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 19.

72 Ross Reider, “Pettus, Terry (1904–1984),” September 27, 2000, History Link, http://www.historylink.org/File/2682. Though the agreement was obtained through collective bargaining, the guild shop was not included in the contract and the Guild would not sign without it. “City-wide Accord Gained in Tacoma,” Guild Reporter, May 1, 1937, 1.

73 Election flier promoting Terry Pettus for Guild chapter president, “With the Coming Guild Election We Believe That Pork Chops Is the Issue,” [believed to be January 1941], Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 463-4, box 2, folder 72. The flier said the 1937 Tacoma Guild agreement called for $40 weekly wages for reporters with three years’ experience. By contrast, a 1940 Monthly Labor Review report listed Guild salaries for reporters with three years of experience at $25 a week in Glendale, CA; $37.50 a week in Los Angeles, $35 in Seattle, and $27.50 in Stockton, CA. “Collective Bargaining by the American Newspaper Guild,” Monthly Labor Review 50, no. 4 (April 1940), 839–41.

74 Terry Pettus to Morgan Hull, August 13, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 31.

75 Terry Pettus to “Joe,” September 19, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 31.

76 “Paper Dies in Tacoma,” Guild Reporter, July 15, 1937, 4. In 1919, New York newspapers apparently blacklisted organizers of a reporters’ union in the International Typographers Union. Leab, “Before the Blue Eagle,” 166. Pettus was mentioned in articles in the Guild Reporter seven times between when he joined the Guild and when his Tacoma newspaper folded, which meant that his name was publicly available to potential employers as a labor agitator. See, for example, “Guild Organized in Tacoma, Unions Offer Their Support,” Guild Reporter, November 15, 1935, 1; “Tacoma to Install New Officers Feb. 4,” Guild Reporter, February 1, 1936, 3; “Tacoma Wins Back Job” [with photo of Pettus], Guild Reporter, June 1, 1936, 5; and “Who’s Who in Guild’s Big Parade to St. Louis, Guild Reporter, June 1, 1937, 4.

77 Terry Pettus to Morgan Hull, August 13, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 31.

78 Forrest Williams to Jonathan Eddy, September 9, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 19.

79 Terry Pettus to “My Dear Friend” [possibly Art French, P-I photographer], September 19, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 31; Jonathan Eddy to Forrest Williams, October 25, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers. Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 9.

80 Honore Armstrong’s appointment was announced in the Guild Reporter on August 1, 1937. According to Pettus, he had applied by telegram for an organizer position on June 22, 1937. Terry Pettus to Morgan Hull, August 13, 1937, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 31; “Who’s Who of New Organizers,” Guild Reporter, August 1, 1937: 5; “Groundwork Is Laid for Centralia Guild,” Guild Reporter, August 1, 1937: 5.

81 “Seller Was Once the Seattle Guild,” Guild Reporter, September 6, 1937: 6; Forrest Williams to Heywood Broun, Don Stevens, Ray Torr, and Clyde Beals, July 25, 1936, Terry Pettus Papers, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 17; Memorandum, “Terry Pettus,” June 4, 1963, FBI 100-17354-139.

82 Jonathan Eddy to Terry Pettus, January 20, 1938, Terry Pettus Papers, University of Washington, Accession No. 139-001, box 1, folder 9.

83 Report of Special Agent Fred G. Cook, “Terry Pettus,” April [date illegible] 1963, FBI 100-17354, 3–4; Joshua Stecker, “Washington New Dealer,” Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights Projects, University of Washington. 2006, http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/NewDealer.htm#_ednref12.

84 Special Agent in Charge A. Cornelius Jr. to Director, FBI, “Terry Pettus,” August 11, 1941, FBI 100-17354-3, Supplementary Custodial Detention Memorandum, 3; Seattle FBI Office to Director FBI, “Terry Pettus,” June 2, 1943, FBI 100-17354-100-14, 1.

85 Report of Steve S. Carter, “Terry Pettus,” December 9, 1958, FBI 100-17354, 3; To Director FBI, from Seattle, “Terry Pettus,” June 2, 1943, FBI 100-17354-100-14, 9.

86 Report by Everett W. Nelson, “Terry Pettus,” October 11, 1951, FBI 100-17354, Exhibit #67: copy of article in the New World, August 17, 1944, by Burrus Thornley; Report by Peter T. Sexton, “Terry Pettus,” August 30, 1945, FBI 100-17354-26, 10.

87 Interview Report, Agents Joseph P. MacFarland and Fred G. Cook, February 16, 1960, FBI File 100-17354-127, 2; Report of Special Agent Fred G. Cook, “Terry Pettus,” April [illegible date] 1963, FBI File 100-17354, 8. See Walter Galenson, The CIO Challenge to the AFL: A History of the American Labor Movement, 1935–1941 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), 554.

88 Report of Special Agent Fred G. Cook, “Terry Pettus,” April [date illegible] 1963, FBI 100-17354, 10; Report of Steve S. Carter, “Terry Pettus,” December 9, 1958, FBI 100-17354, 13–14.

89 See Kuczun, “History of the American Newspaper Guild,” 363. See also Galenson, The CIO Challenge, 553.

90 Glende, “Trouble,” 150; Carlisle, “William Randolph Hearst’s Reaction,” 99; Leab, A Union, 257–59; Glende, “Every Effort,” 47.

91 Report by William W. Patton, “Terry Pettus,” December 5, 1949, FBI 100-17354-38, 5; FBI Report by Emory E. Bundy, “Terry Pettus,” January 14, 1947, 3; Report by Girard Keil, “Terry Pettus,” June 14, 1951, FBI 100-17354-43, 5.