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Federated Press:
An Independent Labor News Service
Jon Bekken
Associate Professor of Journalism
Department of Communication and Journalism
Suffolk University, Boston*
[log in to unmask]
submitted to AEJMC History Division
March 2003
*will be Associate Professor of Communications, Albright College, as of
August 2003
Federated Press _
Federated Press:
An Independent Labor News Service
When Federated Press was launched in 1919, the U.S. labor movement boasted
a substantial press, including daily newspapers and hundreds of substantial
weekly publications. This labor press was as diverse as the movement it
served, ranging from union newsletters largely devoted to internal business
to substantial daily newspapers such as the Milwaukee Leader. Unions
published journals for their own members, but also sponsored weekly and
daily publications that articulated a more expansive (often highly
political) working-class vision and reached far beyond the ranks of
organized labor. This official labor press co-existed with a vibrant
radical press deeply rooted in working-class communities. Convinced that
labor could not get fair play in a mainstream press dominated by big
business, unions and other workers organizations maintained their own press
as part of efforts to develop an alternative public sphere.[1]
While a growing body of literature on the working-class press is slowly
redressing journalism historians' prior neglect – resulting in an important
if still scattered body of information on immigrant labor newspapers; on
the labor press in Chicago, Iowa, and Milwaukee; and recent biographical
works on figures such as Harvey O'Connor and Eva Valesh – relatively little
of this work has been integrated into the larger narratives that shape our
understand of media ecologies and their evolution. Federated Press is a
prime example of this neglect. Unquestionably the most important news
service to serve the labor press, Federated received only a few sentences
each in the two extant histories of news services.[2] The more detailed
account presented in Alfred McClung Lee's pioneering history of American
journalism is not reflected in later surveys – even specialist works such
as Lauren Kessler's The Dissident Press contain no mention of the news
service that for 37 years offered a wide-ranging news service to the major
dissident newspapers of its day.[3]
Federated Press was organized at a Nov. 25, 1919, meeting of 32 farm-labor,
socialist, and union editors attending the Farm-Labor Party convention in
Chicago -- part of the post-war ferment that led many in the labor movement
to believe that a new society was within their grasp.[4] It was launched
as a twice-weekly mail service in January 1920, expanding to daily service
later that year to better serve member dailies. Originally based in
Chicago, where the Chicago Federation of Labor was a bastion of labor
progressivism, Federated Press later moved its head office to Detroit and,
finally, New York City. At its peak, Federated served close to one-third of
the United States' labor newspapers, as well as a handful of liberal
mainstream papers such as the New York Post. From mid-1920 until its
demise in 1956, Federated Press offered member papers a daily service
including labor and political reportage, feature stories, columns, humorous
shorts, and, for much of its run, a mat service providing labor cartoons
and photographs.[5] But the labor press it served was transformed during
this period. In 1919, many labor papers were edited by rank-and-file union
members, often directly elected by their fellow workers; by the 1950s,
these worker-editors had been largely replaced by professional journalists
and public relations operatives hired by, and accountable to, top union
officials. Only a few labor dailies survived, and these were generally
confined to foreign-language enclaves. And the still strong weekly labor
press had reached an accommodation with the mainstream press quite
incompatible with the oppositional world view that had motivated Federated
Press' founders.
Launched within weeks of the decision to found the service, Federated had
little time to develop a business plan, a network of correspondents, or the
financial resources to sustain the operation. Nonetheless, the new service
expanded quite rapidly, soon leaving the offices of the Milwaukee Leader
where it was originally based (and which provided start-up funds) to its
own facilities in Chicago.[6] In addition to reaching out to labor and
radical papers across the United States and Canada, Federated Press
Managing Editor E. J. Costello toured Europe establishing bureaus and
negotiating with the London Daily Herald to have access to its news
service. By January 1921, Federated Press was serving 110 member
newspapers, including 22 dailies (many foreign-language newspapers),
representing a broad spectrum of the labor movement, from the Socialist
Party and the Industrial Workers of the World to several unions and central
labor councils affiliated to the American Federation of Labor, along with a
smattering of mainstream publications interested in following the labor
movement.[7]
Federated Press was initially an ambitious outfit, establishing a far-flung
network of bureaus, setting up reciprocal relations with labor newspapers
and correspondents around the world to exchange news, and attempting to
launch a chain of six local labor weeklies to serve Midwestern cities that
lacked their own newspapers. Early dispatches were moved by telegraph, but
unable to afford the charges Federated quickly moved to a mail
service. Much of this rapid expansion was financed by bonds (which were
ultimately paid off at substantial discounts) and optimistic projections,
leading the executive board to replace Costello as managing editor in 1922.[8]
Finances proved a problem for Federated Press throughout its
existence. The extravagances of the early years accumulated substantial
deficits which were paid off by sympathetic donors. In the years that
followed, Federated's policy of making the service available to any labor
paper that desired it (a small circulation daily could get the service for
as little as $5 a week) meant that assessments were never sufficient to
cover the expenses of getting out a daily service. In the 1920s, Federated
turned to the American Fund for Public Service (popularly known as the
Garland Fund) for grants to support its operating expenses, receiving
annual subsidies of more than $10,000 in the mid-1920s. As the Garland
Fund cut back its subsidies, expenses were cut to the bone. The wire
service was quickly eliminated, followed by the typesetting machine and
press on which early dispatches were prepared (the service was mimeographed
for the remaining two and a half decades). Many Federated Press staffers
were on part-time salaries to save costs, and some waived their salaries
entirely. Carl Haessler, who served as managing editor from 1922 until the
service was suspended in 1956, was one of those who served for many years
without pay, relying on publicity and editorial work for various unions to
make ends meet. Federated built close ties with CIO-affiliated unions
which allowed many of its correspondents to double as (and draw their pay
as) union publicists or editors. And the deficits that remained were made
up by donations by unions and other supporters.[9]
Honest Journalism for the Working Class
Federated Press has never subscribed to the hypocritical assertion of the
capitalist newspapers that news can be without bias. The Federated Press is
very careful about facts, but they are presented with a decided pro-labor
interpretation just as we believe the capitalist press interprets news so
that it becomes pro-capitalist.[10]
By the 1930s, Federated had scaled back; operating an Eastern Bureau in New
York City (which despite its name offered national and international
coverage), a smaller Washington (D.C.) Bureau, and Central Bureaus in
Chicago and Detroit on an annual budget of $24,200 (only half of which came
from member assessments).[11] Other Federated bureaus were set up from
time to time in cities such as Pittsburgh, where major labor campaigns were
underway. The network of overseas bureaus was abandoned in favor of
cooperation with labor papers and correspondents abroad. Federated never
had a large staff, and even at its peak few bureaus had more than one or
two reporters. Instead, Federated relied on member newspapers, carbons of
articles its correspondents filed with sympathetic papers, a network of
stringers scattered across the country, and the telephone to offer a
reasonably comprehensive service – one more than capable of beating the
Associated Press and the commercial dailies on labor news. Indeed, FP
editor Carl Haessler later recalled that many of the service's reports came
from "newsmen who contributed their services with little or no financial
compensation. After doing their stint on the capitalist sheets they gladly
used their free time to write an honest piece for the Federated Press."[12]
Other Federated Press correspondents sometimes doubled as publicity agents
or investigators. Carl Binder, before he joined the Chicago Daily News
staff, served two years with Federated Press, including a stint in 1922
covering the trial of Herrin, Illinois, union miners charged with murdering
several strike-breakers where he was simultaneously filing dispatches for
Federated Press and the FP-affiliated Minneapolis Star, and serving as an
investigator for the United Mine Workers attorney handling the defense
effort.[13] Similarly, John Nicholas Beffel covered the Sacco-Vanzetti
trial for Federated Press, New York Call and the New Republic, shared a
room with defense attorney Fred Moore, wrote an affidavit documenting the
presiding judge's prejudicial comments, and handled publicity for the
Sacco-Vanzetti defense committee from 1920 through 1927 – later organizing
a commemoration on the 40th anniversary of the execution.[14] Years later,
Carl Haessler covered United Auto Workers disputes during the same period
that he was intermittently hired by the union and some of its locals to
edit their publications and do publicity work. However, the Federated
files make it clear that this did not prevent him from offering sharply
critical coverage where he thought it necessary, and the UAW ultimately
decided it preferred to do without his services.
Federated sought to provide what managing editor Carl Haessler termed "an
independent objective labor news service." But this was a particular sort
of objectivity, deeply committed to the labor movement but not aligned to
any particular current within it. Federated's commitment to representing
the entire spectrum of the labor movement (its executive board spanned the
gamut from moderate AFL unions to the Industrial Workers of the World and
later the CIO, as well as communists, socialists and Farmer-Laborites) led
to recurring charges of communist domination. Haessler reported that "as
long as I adhered to FP principles of objectivity and did not ask the board
to raise money[,] I had a responsible freedom of action."[15]
This independence did not sit well with the entire labor movement,
however. In 1923, the American Federation of Labor's annual convention
adopted a highly critical report warning the labor press "to be on guard
against the insidious encroachment of subversive propaganda either through
the Federated Press or any other channel. The Federated Press upon its own
record cannot hope to have and should not have the support of trade union
publications or of trade union organizations."[16]
Despite this warning, several A.F.L.-affiliated publications continued to
hold Federated Press membership throughout its existence. (The AFL also
established its own Weekly News Service, which offered a bland diet of
official statements and "authentic news" to labor papers not ready for
headier fare.) The service's links to the labor movement deepened in the
1930s, when Federated Press was warmly embraced by the emerging CIO unions
-- providing on-the-spot coverage of the sit-down strikes and organizing
campaigns that helped revive the labor movement. (Indeed, relations were
so close that Haessler and veteran FP correspondent Harvey O'Connor served
for a time as the editors of the CIO's auto and oil publications,
respectively, while simultaneously working for Federated.)
The Federated Press dispatches were, for most of its existence,
mimeographed each afternoon and mailed to subscribing papers. (A
telegraphic service had to be abandoned early on as too expensive.) Few
articles ran longer than a legal-size page; most were much shorter. The
service offered news reports, weekly columns and features (in that order),
along with an art service and a smattering of humor, poetry and
songs. Leland Olds, who later became Federal Power Commissioner under
Franklin D. Roosevelt, contributed a weekly analysis of economic
trends. In 1940 Federated began a monthly survey of labor editors,
addressing questions such as attacks on civil liberties, the lend-lease
bill, politics, and press attitudes toward labor, later replaced with a
column of brief excerpts from the labor press. Although most Federated
correspondents were anonymous, some well-known figures wrote for the
service including William Hard and Scott Nearing, who wrote a syndicated
column covering subjects such as the economy and World War II. Not
surprisingly, a major strength of the service was its day-by-day coverage
of industrial disputes, sometimes based on other press reports, sometimes
by FP correspondents, but usually based on union accounts and interviews.
Throughout these years, Federated strove to offer an open forum for
different tendencies in the labor movement, carrying AFL denunciations of
communist labor leader William Z. Foster, for example, but also allowing
Foster opportunity to reply. Federated covered the campaigns of the
Communist and Socialist parties, and of independent labor parties when they
were in the field – and even covered Democratic and Republican campaigns
(though not so even-handedly) when there was a clear labor angle. "In
intraunion matters, Federated Press aired the voices of opposition and
criticism. It spoke with a single voice, however, in dealing with company
versus union news." At the same time that it always supported unions in
their disputes with employers, Federated also covered wildcat strikes,
internal union dues protests, dissident caucuses, and corruption by union
officials. Throughout its 37 years, Federated continually sought to offer
"objective" coverage of conflicts within the labor and socialist movements,
sometimes arousing the enmity of all parties in the process.[17]
Bucking the Bigshots
Federated Press not only supplied a rich diet of union news, it also
organized regional meetings of local labor editors to help foster the
growth of the labor press. But while Federated Press dispatches always
backed unions in their disputes with employers, the service also covered
wildcat strikes and opposition caucuses. An increasingly institutionalized
labor movement did not always welcome such independence. Federated Press
subscribers climbed steadily in the 1930s (after sinking to just 59 papers
in 1927), reaching a high of 250 subscribers in 1946. But that peak was
short-lived. In November 1947, the AFL News Service circulated an article
attacking Federated Press for alleged communist ties, forcing Carl Haessler
to issue a response to FP members. In 1949, as McCarthyism was heating up,
several A.F.L. and C.I.O. officials formed Labor Press Associates to
counter Federated's dominance of the market for labor news. With
substantial financial backing from its sponsoring unions, LPA quickly
signed on over 200 union newspapers, several of which had dropped Federated
for the new, officially sanctioned and less expensive, service. Because it
was subsidized by several major unions, LPA was able to undercut Federated
rates despite spending three times as much per year on its operations, and
to offer a far more extensive photo and cartoon service. By 1950,
Federated was down to 126 member papers; two years later, the number had
fallen to 74. The merger of the A.F.L. and the Congress of Industrial
Organizations in 1956 (and the purging of leftist unions that preceded)
left only a handful of member papers when Federated ceased operations in
November 1956.[18]
Even in its final decade, when the service was losing influence, it
continued to offer a rich diet of labor news and commentary. Its files
feature extensive material on labor's response to Taft-Hartley and the
debates over communism and foreign policy that tore the C.I.O. apart in the
post-war years. This coverage extended well beyond official actions,
including rank-and-file struggles within many unions that was unlikely to
find its way into the columns of an increasingly controlled labor press.[19]
Federated's Legacy
Labor's post-war struggles are richly reflected in Federated's dispatches,
ranging from the efforts of District 65 to defend its jurisdiction and fend
off red-baiting attacks that undermined its strikes and threatened its very
existence, to efforts to deport I.L.W.U. leader Harry Bridges, to the
left-right battles that tore apart the United Electrical Radio & Machine
Workers (UE) after 1949. Reflecting Federated Press' policy of neutrality
in intra-union disputes, Federated sought to cover the split in U.E., and
the fight between U.E. and the International Union of Electronics workers
that followed, fairly impartially. There was extensive coverage of these
disputes, highlighting solidarity efforts across union lines and attempts
to maintain and re-establish unity on the job. This approach was typical
of Federated Press coverage in the era, which sought to give a fair hearing
to all sides but tended to see labor more as a movement than an
institution, and so tilted toward militancy, solidarity, and rank-and-file
initiative. Federated columnists took more liberties, generally explicitly
supporting U.E. against I.U.E. red-baiting and raiding.[20]
But amidst the turmoil, Federated continued to offer extensive coverage of
even little-known organizing efforts, including hundreds of reports on
efforts to organize farm workers in the 1940s and 1950s. Largely based on
interviews with union officials and coverage of hearings and other
government action initiated at unions' behest, farm workers' voices are
rarely heard in these reports (although there are accounts of workers'
complaints to labor commissions and testimony during official
proceedings). An Oct. 6, 1947, dispatch reported federal government
threats to deport Mexican farm workers imported under the bracero program
if they joined a fruit pickers' strike at the DiGiorgio ranch that
continued for another two years.
Other dispatches demonstrate Federated Press' continuing commitment to a
broad vision of the labor movement, one which addressed racial
discrimination alongside the reports of the official operations of
government and unions which accounted for a large part of its
releases. While government activity (or lack thereof) was usually the
focus of these reports, Federated Press correspondents also covered racism
within the labor movement. Several articles challenged unions to tackle the
race issue. For example, a report on the 1941 A.F.L. convention gave
prominent attention to a heated protest against a decision to transfer a
federal local of red caps and freight handlers to the Brotherhood of
Railway & Steamship Clerks, whose constitution barred African-Americans
from voting or holding union office.[21]
Federated Press also featured close coverage of the National Labor
Relations Board from its Washington Bureau, covering appointments and
confirmation hearings, speeches by NLRB officials, Board and court
decisions, FBI surveillance of NLRB staff, and related matters. The
service also closely followed the passage and implementation of the
Taft-Hartley Act, and the devastating impact it had on those unions that
refused to comply with its provisions. Federated Press' attempts at
neutrality did not extend to the Taft-Hartley Act (or to union officials
who turned to the law to strengthen their hand against more radical
unions), which it described as a "slave labor" law while sympathetically
covering resistance by local unions and the International Typographical
Union, among others.
Federated's interest in international affairs resulted in regular reports
on the labor movement and political developments around the world. On Nov.
16, 1945, for example, the service moved a special section on the
Philippines with mat illustrations and several articles. Three years later,
Federated reported a Filipino labor leader's charge that despite nominal
independence the country was suffering under "the chains" of U.S. economic
and military domination.[22] This sort of coverage, alongside the
service's regular coverage of the peace movement in the post-war era,
helped sustain charges of communist affiliation in an increasingly
intolerant political climate.
Shortly after the A.F.L.-C.I.O. merger, Federated staffers were faced with
a crisis. The number of local AFL and CIO newspapers fell by more than
half between 1940 and 1950, as did the number of publications issued by
affiliated unions. Several of the left-leaning unions which had subscribed
for their newspapers no longer existed. Those papers that survived often
viewed their role as providing a mouthpiece for union leaders, with little
or no space set aside for internal controversies – a dramatic departure
from the ideals that motivated the Federated Press staff.[23] More
broadly, the labor press was in retreat, more interested in holding on to
the movement's gains than in the expansive vision at Federated's core. And
in an era of retrenchment and diminished expectations, many editors found
the Labor Press Associates service quite adequate for their
needs. Managing editor Carl Haessler proposed scaling back in order to
keep afloat (few of the remaining member papers published more than once a
week), but too few papers were willing to keep the service. And so, with a
few dollars left on hand in case conditions improved, Federated Press put
out its final service.
Today, many in the labor movement are calling for a renewed commitment to a
labor communication strategy. Labor educators, union officials and media
activists have launched a series of national conferences that bring
together rank-and-file activists and public relations professionals. With
at best modest support from official sources, unionists have created scores
of radio and video programs, and a daily online news feed, to return
workers' voices to public discourse. While many of these communication
efforts continue to struggle with the same contradictions that ultimately
made it impossible for Federated Press to continue, many labor
communicators are responding to the crisis facing the American labor
movement by turning from the public relations model to recreate an
independent labor media sector.[24]
[1] . Jon Bekken, "The Working-Class Press at the Turn of the Century," in
Ruthless Criticism: New Perspectives in U.S. Communication History
(University of Minnesota Press, 1993), edited by William Solomon and Robert
McChesney.
[2] . Victor Rosewater, History of Cooperative News-Gathering in the United
States (D. Appleton & Co., 1930), p. 367; Richard Schwarzlose, The Nation's
Newsbrokers volume 2 (Northwestern University Press, 1990), p. 190.
[3] . Alfred McClung Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America (Macmillan, 1937),
pp. 541-542; Lauren Kessler, The Dissident Press (Sage, 1984).
[4] . Andrew Long, "The Federated Press," The Survey, Oct. 23, 1920, pp.
126-127.
[5] . This paper is largely based upon a review of Federated Press
dispatches from the 1940s and 1950s (Federated Press Collection, Columbia
University); Stephen Haessler's unpublished M.A. thesis, "Carl Haessler and
the Federated Press" (University of Wisconsin Madison, 1977; a copy is at
Columbia); Harvey and Jessie O'Connor's memoir (edited by Susan Bowler),
Harvey and Jessie: A Couple of Radicals (Temple University Press, 1988);
the Carl Haessler Papers (Wayne State University, Archives of Labor History
and Urban Affairs), and the Chicago Federation of Labor Papers (Chicago
Historical Society). Columbia University holds the most complete extant
file of Federated Press dispatches. The Haessler papers include membership
records, minutes of Federated Press meetings, internal correspondence, and
financial records.
[6] . Report of Secretary, Feb. 7, 1920, Carl Haessler Papers, box 4 folder 1.
[7] . W. N. Ewer, "England Deports Fed. Press Man," The New Majority, Oct.
30, 1920, p. 1; E.N. Costello, Report, Carl Haessler papers, box 4 folder 2.
[8] . Carl Haessler to Marshall Bloom, Liberation News Service, March 10,
1968, Carl Haessler papers, box 4 folder 9.
[9] . Letter to Marshall Bloom, March 10, 1968, Haessler Papers, Box 4,
folder 9.
[10] . Carl Haessler, cited in A.M. Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America, p.
542.
[11] . By 1934 the annual budget had been cut even further, to $13,650.
Carl Haessler to Federated Press members, March 13, 1931, and March 30,
1934. Carl Haessler papers, box 4, folder 4.
[12] . Quoted in Stephen Haessler, "Carl Haessler and the Federated Press,"
p. 81.
[13] . Carl Binder to Dorothy Walton, Summer 1922; Carl Binder to Mr. Kerr
(UMW attorney); Carl Binder papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.
[14] . Robert S. Calese, "John Nicholas Beffel, Radical Journalist,"
Industrial Worker, October 1973, pp. 5, 9.
[15] . Letter to Marshall Bloom, March 10, 1968, Haessler Papers, Box 4,
folder 9, emphasis added. Similarly, Haessler's predecessor as managing
editor, E.J. Costello, wrote FP contributor William Hard on August 12,
1920, reassuring him that he had free range in his articles. "The fact that
any particular article you might write will not be pleasing to all of our
members is no reason for not writing them. We are getting out from eight to
ten thousand words a day, simply because of the different groups in the
association and with the knowledge that it is impossible for any one
publication to use all the material." A copy from the William Hard papers
was supplied to the author by Ron Marmarelli.
[16] . Reprinted in "A. F. of L. Reports on Federated Press," The New
Majority, Oct. 20, 1923, page 2.
[17] . Stephen Haessler, "Carl Haessler and the Federated Press," p. 166.
[18] . Carl Haessler to FP editors, Nov, 7, 1947, Carl Haesller papers, box
4, folder 6; Stephen Haessler, "Carl Haessler and the Federated Press," pp.
113, 298-301. Stephen Haessler cites contemporary news accounts making it
clear that LPA was founded to provide a more conservative alternative to
the Federated Press. In the previously cited letter to Marshall Bloom,
Carl Haessler refers to Federated Press being "effectively smothered by the
AFL-CIO bigshots."
On Oct. 6, 1956, Federated Press wrote its subscribers proposing a
streamlined twice-weekly service operating out of Detroit and New York
bureaus. Only a handful of subscribers responded favorably, and Federated
issued its final service in November. Naomi to Carl Haessler, Oct. 23,
1956, Carl Haessler papers, box 4, folder 9.
[19] . For example, one dispatch, "UAW Extends Censorship to Independently
Printed Local Papers," Nov. 23, 1950 (Labor Press), reports on the
censorship of UAW Local 659's The Searchlight, which resulted in a front
page containing little more than a boxed telegram from UAW headquarters
declaring the paper's contents in violation of UAW policy.
This and all subsequent references to FP dispatches are to the Federated
Press Collection subject files. Special Collections, Columbia
University. The subject files (the collection also includes a
chronological file covering the 1920s and 1930s) were recently issued on
microfilm by Gale Research Publications.
[20] . see, e.g., John B. Stone column, "The Washington Scene," March 5,
1952 (Electrical Radio & Machine Workers, United).
[21] . Alexander Crosby, "Seattle Selected for 1941 as AFL Convention
Ends," Nov. 29, 1940 (Negroes: 1940-1942).
[22] . Fred Zeserson, "Philippine Labor Leader Charges Independence a
'Mockery,'" Dec. 27, 1948 (Philippines).
[23] . Stephen Haessler, "Carl Haessler and the Federated Press," pp. 238-240.
[24] . Fred Glass, "Amplifying the Voices of Workers: An Organizing Model
for Labor Communications," Labor Studies Journal, Winter 2003; Howard
Kling, "Organizing Media: Toward a National Labor Communications Strategy,"
Labor Studies Journal, Winter 2003; Eric Lee, The Labour Movement and the
Internet: The New Internationalism (Pluto Press, 1997).
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