By David Dayton McKean
When the break with organized labor was complete, the
political machine began in the early thirties a systematic
attempt either to take over labor unions or, as Mayor Hague
said, to `disorganize' them. While asserting at all times that
he was not opposed to organized labor but only to `labor
racketeering,' he did not distinguish it in practice from all
labor activity and, as he said, attempted to drive out all
labor unions:
Q. And so you did drive them all out?
The officials of the unions who were present to testify, first
of all demanded the assurance from the commission that their
names would not be made public in any report. They explained
that the reason for this was that they feared retaliation
by the Jersey City police were they in any way to become publicly
associated with an expose of the methods of the local administration.
The nature of this evidence is so startling and
involves so directly the integrity of law administration that ... an investigation should be made of this matter by the New
Jersey Legislature. (Report (1937), pp. 4-5.)
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
The process of driving them out took several forms. One
device was to force unions into receiverships. This scheme
had the advantage over others of converting the assets of the
unions into political favors and opening up the records of the
unions to the political organization. The National Committee
for the Defense of Political Prisoners summarized the
testimony it had heard upon union receiverships as follows:
A. But the time had arrived when certain elements got into
labor, that was taking over all these industries, and demand-
ing that they be considered in everything that took place in
front of the men, to the extent in some instances they would
insist upon playing double, they would insist upon playing for
the men and playing with the industry – the result was that
we had to drive them all out.
A. We drove them out, every one. (Hague v. C.I.O., Transcript, p. 1166.)
The testimony also shows an unusually high percentage of
trade-union receiverships in Hudson County. In these receiverships,
have been involved, often to their considerable financial gain. a number of officials close to the Administration
These receiverships have also been protracted to extraordinary
lengths of time, during which the assets of the unions have been
disbursed in receivership expenses. In many cases the unions
have been virtually destroyed. In other cases their power to
act for the economic interest of their members has been seriously
curtailed. One may infer from the evidence that the
officials of the administration have been interested in these
cases. It is interesting to note also that the unions involved
were mostly those which were not only financially strong and
had large memberships, but were in a position to play a leading
role in the Hudson County labor movement....
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