Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 047-2 - October 1993 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 12 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-03-04 19:16:02 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:05:59 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:05:59

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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patrol was to be made up of 400 men taken from the larger committee. They were to be trained in a military manner and deputized to protect the towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. An armored truck section, an ambulance section, and a possible mounted troop were also envisioned. Except for the modern update of armored trucks, the new organization resembled closely the San Francisco Vigilance Committees and the later “pick handle brigade” of the 1870s. The committee’s chairman, head of a local Chamber of Commerce, insisted that in no way was this body or its military extensions to be seen as part of a vigilante force. Nevertheless, due to concern that it might be construed in this light by people outside of the area, the group was “officially” disbanded one week after its creation. That it was so quickly supported, however, illustrates the pervasiveness of public hostility towards the new union. The visible actions of the committee and the press reports of its intent must have given the Mine, Mill organizers something to think about, even if no formal organization materialized. Under the best of circumstances it is difficult to discern what “public opinion” really is, even with today’s sophisticated sampling techniques. In the case of the Grass ValleyNevada City area, no formal opinion poll exists for 1937-1938. After reviewing news and editorial accounts of the movement to oust the C.I.O. from the area, and from interviews with some participants who were hostile to the C.I.0., I believe that the overwhelming majority of local people did not want the new union and felt threatened by it. An example of this hostility can be illustrated by reading a series of fifteen anti-C.I.O. articles published in 1938 under the heading “That The People May Know” by Edmund Kinyon, executive editor of the Grass Valley Union. Kinyon of course was expressing his own views, and a reading of the articles reveals his sympathy for the mine owners of the district. Nevertheless, the popularity of the series probably reflected what a majority of miners, business people, and long-term residents of the area felt about the C.I.O. Kinyon’s articles stressed several important themes which found support in the Grass Valley-Nevada area. He early tried to establish the idea that the Murchie strike was not legal (even though it was supported by Mine, Mill organizers from the San Francisco District office), and that its sole purpose was to destroy the mining economy and the lives of those in the area dependent on it. To Kinyon the C.I.O. was a racketeering and communist organization mostly made up of outsiders who would not respect the right of local non-union miners to work, nor the need of the local sheriff to enforce an “open road” policy to allow these non-union miners to cross the C.I.O. picket line. The fact that the Mine, Mill pickets continued in the face of the “open road” policy and violent attempts to disperse it was not respected as a a sign of pluck and perseverance by Kinyon, but instead was condemned as unwelcome and confrontive. The fact that the C.I.O. tried to reach the public 14 through a mimeographed newsletter and public meetings was dismissed by Kinyon as misguided propaganda intended to distort what was really going on. On several occasions Kinyon alluded to the possibility that community patience was wearing thin, and when violence did erupt, Kinyon defended the vigilante actions which destroyed the picket line and drove the C.I.O. out as an act of selfdefense. Kinyon was probably very close to expressing the majority opinion of the district. He said that it simply wanted to be left alone. The perception of the C.I.O. local as an alien and radical force by most of the local citizenry and miners was present from the very beginning of its activities. It clearly inherited the parent organization’s radical reputation. Few historians today believe that Communist influence within the C.L.O. was ever truly significant during the 1930s. The fact that John L. Lewis as national leader of the C.I.O. utilized some Communist organizers in the national union, its affiliates, and locals was of considerable concern to political conservatives, “Tear gas and clubs on the one side and fists and stones on the other were the weapons used in rioting in connection with the Murchie Mine strike in the Nevada City area today. .. a score of persons, including a number of officers were injured,” said the Sacramento Bee caption on January 20, 1938. This photo by Tom Arden shows “the two leading cars in the caravan that sought to penetrate the CIO picket lines, with two officers and a picket engaged in struggle.” [California State Library]