EDITORS AT THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE REJOICED when the United States Supreme Court ruled against working men and union organizers who organized a sit-down strike at the Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation in Waukegan, Illinois in 1937. The strikers’ goal had been to force the company to recognize the Amalgamated Association as their union. Ruling on NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. in February 1939, the Supreme Court's majority concluded that sit-downs were crimes that interfered with employer property rights and thereby nullified the legal protections offered by the National Labor Relations Act. As workers intensified demands for new rights and privileges on the job in the mid to late 1930s, conservative opponents of labor (in the courts, local government, and the press) vigorously pushed back. The Tribune worked very hard during this period to present labor militancy and federal protection of workers’ rights to organize as sordid affronts to “American” beliefs in private...
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