Unionism in Defeat: The Unravelling of a World War I Compact in Texas Rail Towns

During World War I, the Wilson administration intervened on an unprecedented scale to attract a stable labor force that could meet wartime demands on the US railroad system. The federal government took over the railroads and issued a series of orders that barred discrimination against union members, raised the railroad workers’ wages dramatically, and instituted mediation processes that strengthened the hand of the railroad brotherhoods and legitimized union activity for masses of railroad employees. Also, as a war measure, black railroaders won the promise of equal pay for equal work and, with some success, pressed federal agencies to uphold this commitment. For the first time, a national federation of railroad shop workers’ unions mobilized and, in 1922, launched a mammoth rail strike. In contrast to a leading study of the conflict, which tells a top-down, national story, this chapter takes a ground-level view of how the 1922 walkout unfolded in Texas rail towns. This adds a human, as well as a western and southern dimension, to our understanding of a pivotal labor episode.