Kohler Fdn

see 

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brulle 2013:

donor trust 14%

scaife 7%, bradley 5 plus 1% ed, koch 5, howard charatible fdn 4, john w pope 4, searle 4, templeton 4%, dunn's fdn for the adv of rt thinking 2, smith richardson 2, vanguard 2, ...annenbeg kohler 2, Lilly 2%

RECIPIENTS

aei 16%, heritage 14, hoover 8% 45 mil$, Manh 6%, cato 5, hudson 5, atlas 4, afp 4, locke 3, heartl 3, reason 3, mrc 3, mercatus 3, ncpa 3, cei 2, spn2, pacif res 2, iwf 1, landmark 1, freedomwork 1 5.3m$

The treasurer for Citizens for a Strong America is Valerie Johnson, R.J. Johnson’s wife. As CMD recently uncovered, Citizens for a Strong America appears to be the successor to an earlier dark money group named the Coalition for America’s Families, with some of the same directors (including Valerie Johnson), and which also was bankrolled by Wisconsin Club for Growth contributions. Wisconsin industrialist Terry Kohler, a top donor to Republicans in the state and nationally, was once referenced as a "driving force" behind Coalition for America's Families, and has also funded Wisconsin Club for Growth.

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INVISIBLE HANDS

PHILLIPS-FEIN

Col U R Hofstader says rw: ...wldest fancies are projected, the most paranoid suspicions, the most absurd superstiotions, the most bizarre apocalytic fansties" p x

pol economy has provided victories, not cult conserv?

du pont bros opposed prohbition b/c liq tax would make inc tax lower; also worried about investigation of wwi profittering. one quit nat'l labort bd b/c stikes prolif (1800 involving 1.4 mil workers).  one vp complained his black servants quitting for better oppourinuites p4. ot really old $, made miost ww1 and 20's. du ponts met w pals to create org to ally w/ Am Legion and KKK to defend Const p 10, Am Liberty League; 1st ok w/ FDR but split on SS (lawyer defende milk co from unfair siezing // now? pal of EKodak head

NAM became big ~ to new deal, ~ union; lost members b/c of GD, but by '37 spend 1/2 on PR to bost free enterprie, but also went after unnions opposed Wagner Act and publized Mowhawk Valley Formula 15.

GM, goodyear chrysler and Rep Stell stocked tar gas (some machine guns: sen report 1939 "indusrial Munitions".

by 40's nam caLIMED THOUSANDS "sentinels" to prosletze for mkt 15.

USCoC supported fdr's nra; Read FEE and Mullendore latter wantdto fight new deal)  . So scared ND tools wd be used ~ segrration. du ponts had co unions, big progits in WW11. piere du ont gave $ to black educ but favored segreration

Wm G Sumner social darwinist 26 but discredited by GD 39. FEE not so much pro biz as pro mkt 27

lots of strikes 1945-6

Mises thot supply-demand perfect way to get socal order w/o coersion 34. LSE say hayek as challenge to keynes, but latter could make big pile of $ in mky in 30 min and write the rest of day 35 (bloomsbury Cir)

Austrians see mkt as too complex to mess w/ [systems thinkers?] did not carethat much it wd prduce stuff tho they thot it wd) but led to freedom. 3 co 86's road to serfdon before U of Chic, reader's digst

Mont Pelerin  Piere Goodrich not relateds to co) FEE Grede was JBS.  Gen (PI) Robt E Wood (wwi and panama canal; had plan to raise 400K for ctr revo ussr p 83)pres of Sears, milliken and be hutchenson (united fruit).

Ike thot gov shd restain excesses of corps 57, so called a collectivist or worse. NAM et al shocked he was not ~ new deal

r Welch vp of NAM in 58 started JBS

Lockheed started ~ commie ed pgms for workers

AEI phylis S aftr MA radcliffe. congress found nely all $ from GM, ford, chysler and con ed 61 and du pont bro. flondered by GE exec took over (later gen dynamics) who hired barody, who built web of funders. pitched that left bain trusts not an acient, so need ~. in 62 added GE, socony obil, US steel, krewsge and lilly fdn P&G.  tried to cast unions as monoply, royal? and did not raise waG4ES.

Rand thot helping poor dangrous to capitalism 68

Pew, pres of Sun Oil alarmed at eur stle xian socialism (niebuhr) funded Spiritiual Mobilization; graham and hrgis also wanted to combine biz w/ xian; fiflield LA megachurch? soc darwiist and racist. argued that salvation was incentive like profit) // AR that altruism cd lead to gov't interention 74

xian efforts funded by chryslr, colgate, gm, gulf oil , sears USsteel. later under uk gerald heard, got into spiritualism and LSD 76. shut down 1961

billy g anti commie

WFB sr oil man in mexico during revo. caholic. jr 2nd bk defended McC. Roger Miliken pal at yale; lost mill vote, shut down, cts ruled ~ 24 yrs later)

Radio: Manion Forum ran 20xyears? fear is essential" on nat'l rev bd

unions: 47-73 wag4es roes, creating a middle class 88, but many strikes in 50's; co wd progandize, fire organizers or move pplants (mex too expenseive b/c of tariffs for a while).  SS made for higher emploer taxes but weakened hold on workers.

GE merger by JPM to reduce competition, but ceos swope and young pretty progresive (swope maried by Jane Addams) 91. hired PFR co to promote liberating " elecrical consciousmess" logo like firend. swope supported fdr. but next wave ceos came up during 20's, nat'l wave of strikes only a mo after VJ day, crested in 46. GE stikers controlled plant. cops on horse and cyles "Cossacks" grabbed flag (lots ofvets, Am alegion supported, mayors, rest onerss fed, so caved.

LR Boulware hired b/c his facs did not strike; college educated, never worked in fac.  boosted co image w/ charity; new atragy to not negotiate: look at mkt Iahem) and set terms, take or leqave, thus unions never win concesions 100-1. also made co into free mky school, gave scripts on how to respond to complaints.  tried o xtend to community , buyt clergy hard sell. oldrr mgr ent to hinterlands and college kids who never worked gotten and inc entive structure 103.'

late 50's CTT NAM and rwi supported ~ union efforts. w/ ike NLRB went right and cahnged rules: legal to ay tie up election results.

claimed not wages but gov control the aim of unions.  right to work swpt western sytates

electr unions split over ow much politics to do.  In f/u strike, GE had secs pose as union wives.

RR paid by GE 125,000 to give speeches to employees, got more pol.  progresive tax idea of karl marx, slavery on installment plan 114

for year, deport for workers, interrogste 1:1 for hours about membership, captive aud during working hrs to sermonize 105.

BG suppoted cu tariffs to protect Az co's,in 50's member of NAACP

Kohler strike '47 wounded 2 kia, Manion backed co. BG brought UAW head to testify 3 days tho no evience behind violence, PR coup.  Manion opposed Brown v, manion suggested book ghosted by bozell; went to co's to subscribe. bozell kin of wfb ctholic, so claimed rw not mechanistic economic theory but non-mat'l. 128  welfare state make us into dep4endent animal w/o us seeing 129

invis hands http://books.google.com/books?id=CcU7z9jLqXcC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=kohler+conservative+labor+strike&source=bl&ots=Nk1lG5M-yl&sig=iZByHP0WkhrG0ELX0xzz0_nxo6M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bMj2UZiUPNGAygH-noHYBQ&ved=0CE0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=kohler%20conservative%20labor%20strike&f=false

wiki

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The **Kohler Strikes** at theKohler Company, just west of Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1934 and 1954 are landmarks in the history of both business and labor in the United States. Labor leaders have often cited the warfare at the giant plumbing supply company in their contention that workers need unions. Industrial leaders have pointed to the strikes as examples of union belligerence and indifference toward the true welfare of their employees.

Strike of 1934

The Kohler Company was founded in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1873, when John Michael Kohler II (1844–1900) took over his father-in-law's steel and iron factory. During the late 19th century it prospered as the producer of plumbing products and enamelware. In 1912, land around a new factory just west of Sheboygan became the Village of Kohler, Wisconsin. From 1905 until his death, John Michael's son Walter J. Kohler, Sr. (1875–1940) led the highly successful business. In the early 1920s, he built a family mansion, Riverbend, and was welcomed in high society in Chicago and elsewhere. In 1928, he became Governor of Wisconsin for a single term.

Walter was a benevolent employer. He developed attractive and affordable housing in the Village for workers, built a handsome facility for newly-arrived immigrants, paid above average wages, and provided safety measures and medical care in the plant. The Village of Kohler attracted national attention as a model of what enlightened employers could do for their workers.

In the Great Depression, however, company profits plummeted. Despite lengthy efforts by Kohler to keep people employed, many blamed management for their shrinking income. The American Federation of Labor turned its attention on the Company in the spring of 1934, demanding that the AFL replace the company union, the Kohler Workers Association, formed a year earlier and enrolling 1,600 workers. In June, AFL leaders called for a 62.5% wage increase and a 25% reduction in hours. At the heart of the matter was the AFL's demand to be the sole bargaining unit at the company. Walter strongly opposed this bid for power and closed the plant. On July 16, a strike began.

Violence quickly erupted and the entire Village was closed to traffic. Special deputies hired by the company clashed with pickets, and huge crowds began to assemble. On July 27, in response to vandalism against company property, the special deputies attacked with guns and tear gas. Bullets were fired on both sides, and hurled bricks and rocks added to the turmoil.Early the next day, two men were dead, and 43 others were injured.On July 29, in response to appeals by Walter and the local sheriff, 250 members of the National Guard were on the scene, and peace was restored. Walter, who had been trapped in the main office building for 12 days, blamed the violence on outsiders and people with "communistic affiliations." Only 17 of the 49 wounded were employees or former company employees.

In September, the **National Labor Relations Board** ruled against the Kohler Company and demanded a secret, supervised elections at the plant to determine who would represent the workers. The company union, the Kohler Workers' Association, won easily. The Kohler victory was short-lived, however, for in 1935 the US Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional. Walter had formed his company union in compliance with this law, as he had understood it. Congress soon, however, passed the Wagner Act, giving organized labor the right to organize and bargain collectively without employer interference. A majority of workers could now determine who would represent them; this "union shop" was the chief goal of the AFL. Still, the company union and the principle of "open shop" remained in effect at the Kohler Company until 1952, when the United Auto Workers (UAW) won an election.

Strike of 1954

During the Second World War, Herbert V. Kohler, Sr. (1891–1968) gained control of the Kohler Company. He was a physically and mentally powerful man best known for his supreme self-confidence and iron will. He had played a key role in the strike of 1934 and was a staunch opponent of organized labor. He paid employees well, as had his half-brother, Walter J. Kohler, Sr., and he expected loyalty and hard work in return.

The UAW Local 833 was determined to organize Kohler employees, and it won a certified election in 1952. Herbert V. Kohler refused to grant union demands during contract negotiations, and a strike began on April 5, 1954. Some 2,800 of the Company's 3,300 employees joined the picket lines. The plant essentially ceased operations for two months. Herbert then resumed production with non-union labor. Six years of sporadic violence ensued between strikers and strike breakers. In time, the company would charge opponents with more than a thousand acts of vandalism. At one point, more than 300 people were arrested. Calls for a national boycott of Kohler products were vociferous and sometimes effective. Strikers were able to continue their often violent activities because of some $12 million provided by the UAW. Herbert resisted all efforts to compromise, even sharply rejecting a public appeal from his nephew, Governor Walter J. Kohler, Jr..

In 1960, the National Labor Relations Board decided against the Kohler Company, ruling that it had refused to bargain in good faith after the strike broke out. Herbert was ordered to reinstate 1,700 workers. It took lawsuits by both sides and two more years for management and labor to work out a contract. The bitter issue of compensation for strikers remained unresolved. In December 1965, the Kohler Company agreed to pay $3 million in back wages to some 1,400 former employees and hand over $1.5 million in pension-fund contributions. The union agreed to make no further charges stemming from the strike. The longest major strike in American history had ended.^[1][2][3][4]

After Herbert's death, his son Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. (1939-) headed the family-owned company and took a more positive approach to labor relations. In 2002, for example, a five-year labor contract was signed that left union negotiators quite pleased.^[5] In all, it seems doubtful that either Kohler strike had a lasting negative impact on the now-flourishing and expanded corporation. But the often bloody struggle scarred thousands of lives throughout the Sheboygan-Kohler area and elsewhere for more than three decades.^[6]

Business career

The Kohler Company grew rapidly in the early twentieth century, developing new products such as the industry's first one-piece built-in bathtub. By 1914, the Company employed 950 people and had sales offices in four major American cities and in London. In the First World War, the Company shifted to production of war materials. But in the 1920s it expanded its products and sales, building, among other things, a motor powered dishwasher, an electric clothes washer, and a gasoline powered generator. Kohler created the world's largest pottery plant in order to mass produce toilets and sinks.

Kohler reduced work hours for his employees, paid above-average salaries, provided group life and health insurance and workingmen's compensation, and presented holiday and retirement gifts.^{[citation needed]} Beginning in 1917, his plan for a nearby housing complex for Kohler workers began to become a reality. Kohler Village, a 4.5-square-mile (12 km²) area, was designed to provide high quality and affordable home ownership in a beautiful and rationally designed community. The following year, the Company opened the The American Club across the street from the main factory, a Tudor-style living and recreational facility for some 250 newly-arrived immigrants.^[2]

The Great Depression forced the Kohler Company to slow production and limit hours. Kohler tried to keep his workers employed and well-paid, but the cutbacks were unpopular. In 1934, some long-time employees and several outside labor leaders joined hands to call a strike.

The Kohler Strike of 1934

Kohler was a staunch believer in the "open shop" and, along with many other industrialists, did not want national unions to represent all employees and dictate company policy. He and a majority of his workers^{[citation needed]} created a company union in 1933, but this did not satisfy labor leaders. A year later, with strikes breaking out throughout the nation, the American Federation of Labor focused on the Kohler Company. It made 14 demands, including a 62.5 percent wage increase. Kohler rejected the demands and shut down the plant.

The first Kohler strike began on July 16. Pickets blocked access to the plant and violence on both sides quickly broke out. Bullets and tear gas entered the scene on July 27, and two men were killed and 43 injured before the National Guard arrived and restored peace.

In 1935 his employees voted to form a company union; but that same year Congress passed the Wagner Act, encouraging major unions to organize under the authority of the federal government and prohibiting company unions.

In March 1940 a federal grand jury indicted 104 companies, unions, and individuals on charges of conspiracy to freeze high plumbing prices. Among the companies named were the nation's three largest plumbing companies, including Kohler. The following month, Kohler died of a sudden heart attack. Friends and relatives attributed the death to the strike and to the federal government's challenge to his personal integrity.

A second Kohler Strike broke out in 1954, becoming the longest labor-management dispute in national history.

As governor

Walter J. Kohler was a gubernatorial candidate in 1928. The Republican Party had dominated Wisconsin since its founding in the mid-nineteenth century, and winning the Party's nomination was tantamount to election. Still, it was badly split between conservative Stalwarts and La Follette Progressives. Kohler was a Stalwart who been active in the GOP since being named a presidential elector in 1916.

Kohler put on a vigorous campaign, noting his success in business, his lifelong commitment to hard work, and promising to ignore the spoils system when making appointments and promotions. He invited voters to come to Kohler and view working conditions and the industrial village. Many did.

Walter was the first political candidate to travel through the state by airplane, covering 7,280 miles (11,720 km) in one two-week stretch. He also traveled by automobile, trying to reach the l.5 million voters in a 3 million population. Progressives condemned him for his "anti-union shop" attitude, but he countered with the fact that Company wages were 28.9 percent higher than the average state factory level, that 92 percent of all married men in Kohler owned their own lots and homes, and that 75 percent of them owned their own cars.^{[citation needed]}

Kohler won the nomination by a large margin and went to Madison, Wisconsin, where he and the legislature eliminated a deficit estimated at $3.5 million, streamlined state bureaucracy, built roads and state parks, and kept taxes low.^{[citation needed]} But the Great Depression ended his political career. Kohler seemed too much like his friend President Herbert Hoover, and most voters wanted change. Progressive Philip La Follette won the primary and election in 1930, joining the state's two Progressive Senators in a popular attempt to end the financial collapse that was wreaking havoc throughout the nation and much of the world.

Kohler ran again in 1932 and won the GOP nomination for governor. He voiced strong support for President Hoover, a tactic that backfired. Walter's political career ended as both Progressives and Democrats enjoyed the national landslide that put Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House. FDR carried Wisconsin with 63.5 percent of the vote.^[3][4] Republicans reclaimed the governorship in 1939, remaining in control of the office for the next twenty years. One of those GOP governors was Walter Kohler's son, Walter J. Kohler, Jr..  wiki