Comment by xhevahir
3 hours ago
> “But many Michigan State College students, overhearing the arguments between the unionists and the businessmen, quickly perceived the situation as a challenge to their sovereignty and to their eating places,” they wrote.
I'm skeptical of the idea that this was all the result of a big misunderstanding. Students were often recruited to act as strikebreakers in the early 20th century.
There's a book that deals with this subject, Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America. Football players were especially valued.
Pretty telling that it kicked off with the ROTC unit after their commander dismissed them from class.
It's not just that; unions were quickly becoming broadly unpopular, especially among those outside of the union. It hurt job prospects and slowed hiring, usually ending in the company leaving or shrinking. Saying young people opposed the union only because they were afraid their favorite burger join would shut down for a few days is revisionist history to say the least.
It's interesting to read this about the attitude of unions and students in that time. I agree with the other comment that the rotc teacher likely sent his students over to stop the strike. But this was 1937, the depression was still affecting lots of people, so I'd have expected more students to be sensitive to the workers. Were the students influenced by the rotc teacher, were they "the more wealthy kind of people" who could afford to go to college then?
I'd have expected the students to be split at least, with more supporters for the union than not. I had several family members who managed to graduate from college in the 30s, and it was a grind, with time off for working, more than 4 years, scraping by with hardly any money. I wonder if they saw unions as evil or good or what (can't ask them this question now).