Carl Soderstrom, M.D.

How many attractive and exciting books celebrate the building of a business, the growth of a thriving economic sector, or chronicle the colorful titans of industry? Too many to count. And how many books have been published that celebrate the working class, laboring people and the leadership that navigated them through the dirty coal mines, dangerous factories, gruesome world wars and into the stability of middle class? Very few. The book you are holding is important because it is an unapologetic celebration of the labor movement, its colorful and committed laboring men and women, and a singular man, my grandfather, Reuben George Soderstrom, who steadfastly and charismatically churned through the decades as their fearless leader.

This book needed to be written because the stories of the great century of American labor are being lost and forgotten. The magnificent brotherhood and unity experienced when workers spoke with a unified voice—in the case of Illinois, over a million of them at once in any given year in this book—and the power and dignity that came from that collective voice is nothing short of awesome. The American worker has lost that sense of purpose and solidarity and perhaps it is time to study it again.

This book also needed to be written to remind Americans about the tremendous sacrifices made by the generations before them through indescribable pain, suffering, exploitation and abuse suffered before effective labor laws and union membership ushered in a new era. Brave men and women walked before us. Enormous numbers of workers died while fueling the great American Industrial Revolution and creating the basis for a young nation’s unprecedented growth. The road to decent working conditions and fair labor laws is littered with workers who were brutally maimed, starved, abused or killed on the job. Some of the pages of this book chronicle their suffering in vivid detail and that is intentional; we can never forget the suffering of the men trapped underground amidst the suffocating flames of Cherry Mine, the widows they left behind, or perhaps the horrific disfigurement suffered by the Radium Girls. Reuben Soderstrom was there for all of it and urgently compelled to act. This book is a reminder of the need to speak up, to organize, to believe in the ability to change things for the better through speeches, writings, elections and good government.

It was a marvel to begin unearthing pieces of Reuben’s story. In Volume I, we see that he suffered long lonely years as a type of indentured servant in a blacksmith shop, far away from his family in rural Minnesota. He was then sent to travel by himself as a 12-year-old to the faraway industrial city of Streator, Illinois, to work as a trolley car water boy, witnessing on-the-job accidents and living with a distant aunt whose husband was a coal miner. But through a quick mind and keen eye for an interesting newspaper article, he is tutored by John Williams and becomes something of a part-time resident at the local Streator Carnegie library, soon turning his love for words into a career as a linotype operator, joining the union and barnstorming the Midwest. He then wins a seat in the legislature (and loses it and wins it again) before rising as a young star advocating for labor issues big and small. In 1925 he registers an enormous victory by willing the Injunction Limitation Act into passage, which gave Illinois workers the right to peacefully assemble and strike.

In Volume II and beginning in 1930, our protagonist assumes the role of President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor just as the Great Depression blankets the nation with record unemployment. He is 42 years-old and charged with leading a fledgling membership while simultaneously holding his seat in the legislature. The arrival of the New Deal gives great support to the effort he begins to build, including the landmark passage of a pension bill before turning to the foreign threats of fascism and war. He responds by directing his growing ranks into an “arsenal for democracy,” refusing to strike during the length of the war and producing record amounts of material and munitions for the campaign in Europe and the Pacific. He soon turns his attention to the growing rift between the American Federation of Labor and the upstart Congress of Industrial Organizations, both of which are dealt a heavy blow with the national passage of the Taft Hartley bill in 1947.

In Volume III, Reuben presides over unprecedented productivity in labor while playing a national role in the great merger in 1955 between the AFL and the CIO. He then charges into the 1960’s as a labor leader of national prominence who is consistently wooed and cajoled by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for advice and endorsements, no doubt attempting to secure the 1.2 union million votes at Soderstrom’s disposal in the swing state of Illinois. The civil rights movement challenges the labor movement in new ways and it’s gratifying to have unearthed correspondence and sincere friendship between my grandfather and Martin Luther King, Jr. from these years.

The book includes standalone pieces that represent the 12 pillars of Reuben’s life work. These are: Abolishing Child Labor, Workmen’s Compensation, Right to Strike, Financial Security, Ending Unemployment, Old Age Pension, Workplace Safety, Women’s Rights, Religion, Education, Civil Rights and Family.

On a personal note, I must express the immense pride and joy at seeing all the photos of our family from decades and years past; first and foremost Reuben of course, but also Mom and Dad, the Merriners, my brothers and sisters. For me, this project has been a study of a great man doing great things. And at a whole other level, it has been a study in a life well-lived with family members and all their dreams and aspirations. To that end, the blue pages in the book are something of a family scrapbook that share the equally impressive story that this semi-orphaned boy from rural Minnesota helped build a large and loving family in his hometown of Streator. It is with a certain amount of pride and also melancholy that I look at all the photos and memories through the decades of loved ones who arrived on the scene, stayed with us a while, and then departed. This book is for you.