ABSTRACT
Even with passage of the Seaman’s Act, the S.U.P. had found itself on a battle course, fighting for full enforcement of the law. It was quickly apparent that the continuing struggle would require even greater vigilance and sacrifice on the part of the seafaring workers. For American labor as a whole, the period just before U.S. entry into the first world war saw a rising trend toward violence in industrial conflicts. The Sailors’ Union greeted the arrival of New Year 1916 by supporting a call for congressional action to stop the interstate shipment of “strike-breakers, armed guards, and machine guns” for use by employers. Arguing for such a ban, President John White of the United Mine Workers cited the most infamous example of industrial repression in 20th century U.S. history: the killing of 13 women and children and six men, with the wounding of many more, by the gunmen of the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, at Ludlow, during the 1913–14 Colorado coal strike.1
