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University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library

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Walter Drew Papers, 1900-1961

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Summary

Creator:
Drew, Walter, 1873-1961
Abstract:
Legal counsel and commissioner of National Erectors Association, a leading anti-union and pro-open shop organization representing structural steel companies. Drew led the opposition to the organizing activities and labor violence of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, culminating in the investigation and prosecution of the Los Angeles Times Building bombing case. Papers include extensive files on NEA's anti-union efforts; investigative files, transcripts, and trial exhibits on numerous cases involving union violence and strikes; and files relating to James Emery and the National Association of Manufacturers.
Extent:
74 microfilms (36 linear feet and 4 oversize volumes)
3.5 linear feet (Non-microfilmed materials)
4.32 GB (Non-microfilmed materials)
Language:
English.
Call Number:
9616 Aa 2
Authors:
Reprocessed for microfilming by Ann Flowers, Susan Avery, and Matt Shepherd, 1992-1993 Leigh Jasmer, 2002 accession

Background

Scope and Content:

The Drew papers relate to Drew's involvement with labor-management court cases, notably the cases involving the International Association of Structural Iron Workers and the Pennsylvania Railroad case. The papers document Drew's support of the open shop and his general opposition to organized labor. There are also papers concerning the Remington-Rand strike of 1936, the career of James Emery, NAM spokesman, and the Iron League of Pennsylvania. The papers of Walter Drew divide naturally into four series. The largest section is the Topical Files. Slightly smaller is a group of Special Files. Drew Papers Collected by Professor Dallas L. Jones of the University of Michigan's Business School and Photographs complete the collection.

Biographical / Historical:

Walter W. Drew was born September 13, 1873 in Williamston, Michigan. His father, Walter J., was trained in the law, but made his fortune with the Michigan Carpet Sweeper Company. As the firm's co-founder, he benefited handsomely when it merged with the Bissell Company. Walter J. continued to prosper subsequently as one of Bissell's chief product designers.

The senior Drew made available to his son a solid education. Walter W. was enrolled at the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him a bachelor's degree in 1894 and a law degree in 1896. After completing his work in Ann Arbor, Drew set up private practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There he gained a reputation as an articulate and effective proponent of the "open shop", that is, the belief that an employer should be free to hire any worker without regard to the worker's associational status, specifically union membership. Drew's reputation led him to New York City, where he became commissioner of the National Erectors' Association (NEA).

At the turn of the century, the construction of iron framed buildings and other iron structures was performed exclusively by members of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (IABSIW), a union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. As part of a nationwide movement against such closed shop arrangements, the country's major iron construction firms announced in 1905 that henceforth all projects undertaken by them would be manned on an open shop basis. They formed the NEA as their cooperative instrument to implement the open shop, and hired Drew as their spokesman.

The IABSIW responded to the firms' announcement by declaring a strike against open shop projects. The strike proved ineffective, however, and the union, in 1906, resorted to violence. Over the next four years almost 100 explosions occurred at open shop construction sites, culminating in the October 1, 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, which killed twenty-one workers.

As NEA commissioner, Drew set out to prove the union's responsibility for these acts. Employing Robert J. Foster as his chief operative, Drew slowly began to compile the necessary evidence. Foster's tactics included both questionable and illegal conduct, at least some of which was known of by Drew at the time.

Foster's methods were quite effective. Eventually he obtained a confession from Ortie E. McManigal, one of the men indicted for the Los Angeles Times's explosion. That confession led not only to the conviction of all those indicted in the Times case, but, when coupled with other documents obtained by Foster, to the conviction of every major officer of the IABSIW for criminal activity. The president, vice-presidents, members of the international executive board, and several other leading union members were all convicted of conspiracy to transport explosives across state lines in U.S. v. Ryan.

Drew's early judicial successes led him to seek two other major court tests in the 1920s. In 1925 he was instrumental in bringing Levering-Garrigues v. Morrin et al. to trial. The case grew out of a 1924 IABSIW strike in New York City to obtain a closed shop contract. Drew argued the court should issue a sweeping decision outlawing the closed shop as a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. While the court ruled substantively in Drew's favor, it did so on narrow grounds, avoiding entirely any use of the Sherman Act. Dissatisfied, Drew saw to it that the case was appealed. This effort proved worse than fruitless as the Appeals Court not only refused to invoke the Sherman Act, but also reversed the lower court's substantive ruling. In September 1933, the case was finally ended when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Appeals Court's decision.

A second major legal effort championed by Drew involved the Pennsylvania Railroad. The road had been struck in 1922 by the Railway Brotherhoods, and Drew, in 1927, attempted to obtain criminal indictments both against leading members of the railway unions and members of the Interstate Commerce Commission who he believed had either committed, or conspired to commit, or furthered a conspiracy to commit sabotage. Despite the compiling of a detailed list of evidence and direct appeals to the attorney general of the United States, as well as an unsuccessful effort to involve the President himself, no indictments were ever issued.

Although his subsequent legal efforts after U.S. v. Ryan proved unsuccessful, Drew remained a leading spokesman for the open shop. In addition to his NEA responsibilities, Drew, between 1925 and 1937, served as counsel for the National Association of Manufacturers' Open Shop Department.

Drew's efforts to maintain the open shop included policing recalcitrant employers. One example involved the Iron League of New Jersey. The League, an organization of local construction firms, entered an agreement with local unions promising to employ only union help, provided the unions guaranteed that skilled workers would be unavailable to any firm not a member of the League.

Drew's efforts also made him a target for charges that his real opposition was to unionism in any form, rather than simply the closed shop. For example, Samuel Untermyer, senior counsel to New York state's Lockwood Committee, alleged that "there is a conspiracy to prevent the erection of steel in New York City and elsewhere except by the so-called 'open shop', which we claim is in effect a non-union shop." Untermyer specifically alleged that Drew had forwarded this conspiracy.

In 1937 Drew entered semi-retirement by resigning from his position at NAM, although he continued his work with the NEA. That organization, however, was growing less and less active. In 1938, as a result of the National Labor Relations Act, the NEA closed the network of labor bureaus it had established in 1906 to supply contractors with non-union workers. In 1947 NEA activity had fallen off so much that dues were no longer collected. Those expenses that still existed were paid for from interest received from unspent previous assessments. Drew's complete retirement, ca. 1956, was coupled with the formal dissolution of the National Erectors' Association.

Walter Drew died December 25, 1961.

Walter Drew Chronology: Selective Events
Date Event
1904-1905 Secretary and Attorney for Citizens' Alliance of Grand Rapids (Michigan).
1906- ca. 1956 Counsel, National Erectors' Association (NEA), 33 W. 42nd St., New York 36, N.Y.
1908-1925 Counsel, Iron League of New York.
1914-1915 Counsel for Joint Committee of Associated Employers, composed of large national open-shop organizations (National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), National Metal Trades Association, National Founders' Association, National Erectors' Association, and National Council for Industrial Defense). This Joint Committee was formed for the purpose of assisting the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations and of cooperating with it in securing data and evidence especially for the purpose of bringing out fully the underlying facts and principles connected with open-shop operation in American industry.
1916 Representing the NEA, was one of the founding members of the National Industrial Conference Board and served on its Labor Policies Program Committee.
1918 Counsel, Steel Fabricators of the United States.
1918 Counsel for Rochester Founders, Inc., United Engineering & Foundry Co., and others in cases before the National War Labor Board.
1919-1932 Counsel, American Erectors' Association (Steel Plate Fabricators), Pittsburgh, Pa.
1920 Chairman of Bulletin Committee of Open Shop Department of NAM.
1920 Chairman of Publicity Committee of Citizens' Transportation Committee (composed of representatives of Merchants' Association of New York, Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York Board of Trade and Transportation, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens, and from the general public); organized to protect the public interest in the efficient and impartial operation of transportation agencies in the city of New York.
1920 Member of Industrial Relations Committee of Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, formed to promote fidelity of agreements and protection of public. Helped to draw up Platform of Principles adopted by that body.
1920-1923 Counsel, New York Piano Manufacturers' Association.
1934 Participated in "Joint Conference for Economic Recovery" held at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., Dec. 17-19, 1934. This conference consisted of a group of about 90 men selected by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and NAM, and had for its purpose the coordinating of the business opinion of the country upon fundamentals. Out of this Conference, the National Business Conference Committee was developed, on which Drew represented the NEA.
1925-1937 Counsel, Open Shop Department of NAM. Member, Employment Relations Committee, and Committee on Labor Principles, of NAM.
Acquisition Information:
The collection was donated in 1980 by Professor Dallas Jones of the University of Michigan School of Business Administration. It had been donated to the Business School by Mrs. Walter Drew. Donor no. 6531 . Additional materials were donated in 2002 by Dallas Jones.
Processing information:

In preparing digital material for long-term preservation and access, the Bentley Historical Library adheres to professional best practices and standards to ensure that content will retain its authenticity and integrity. For more information on procedures for the ingest and processing of digital materials, please see Bentley Historical Library Digital Processing Note. Access to digital material may be provided either as a direct link to an individual file or as a downloadable package of files bundled in a zip file.

Arrangement:
Summary Contents List
  1. Topical Files, arranged alphabetically (Rolls 1-42)
    • National Erectors' Association (Rolls 28-32)
  2. Special Files (Rolls 43-73)
    • James A. Emery (NAM spokesman) (Rolls 43-45)
    • Robert J. Foster (Roll 45)
    • IABSIW (Rolls 46-48)
    • Iron League of New Jersey (Roll 49)
    • S.P. Mitchell (Roll 49)
    • Pennsylvania Railroad case (Rolls 50-52)
    • Personal material relating to Drew (Rolls 52-54)
      • Personal financial materials (not microfilmed; in box 29 of original papers)
      • Sound recording of Drew speaking (reel-to-reel tape and cassette copy in box 36 of original papers)
    • Remington Rand Corporation (Rolls 54-56)
    • U.S. v. Ryan (Rolls 56-73)
  3. Drew papers collected by Dallas Jones (Roll 74)
  4. Photographs (Roll 74; also available in Box 36 of original papers)
  5. Originals of microfilmed materials (Boxes 1-36)
  6. Personal financial materials (Box 36)
  7. Sound recordings (Box 36
  8. Topical Files (2002 accession, received from Professor Dallas L. Jones; Boxes 37-39)
  9. Dallas Jones background research on Walter Drew (Box 39)
Physical Location:
The originals of microfilmed materials are located offsite.

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Donor(s) have not transferred any applicable copyright to the Regents of the University of Michigan. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.

The collection contains audio tapes from which digital copies have been made. Source tapes are for staff use only. Audio files are only available in the Bentley Historical Library reading room on designated Bentley Library computers.

PREFERRED CITATION:

item, folder title, roll no., Walter Drew Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

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Collection

Walter Drew Papers, 1900-1961
Call Number 9616 Aa 2
Total components 707
Items available online Online 2
Last indexed 2024-06-25