red even more setbacks and difficulties. While AFL membership had reached almost 4 million by 1919, the postwar reaction from employers and their allies was swift and predictable. The head of U.S. Steel refused to meet with striking workers. The AFL endorsed and supported a strike of steelworkers committed to such objectives as the end of the 12-hour day, the dismantlement of company-dominated "unions," collective bargaining and wage increases. Using massive propaganda which sought to depict the strike as "unpatriotic," plus such time-tested favorites as strikebreakers, spies, armed guards and cooperative police departments, "Big Steel" finally wore down the strikers, and they were forced to return to work early in 1920 under the old conditions. Meanwhile, workers were still striking for higher wages all over the United States. Many Americans still believed that communists and anarchists led these strikes. During the Progressive era, the public had sympathized with labor. Now the public became hostile to it. Employers encouraged anti-union movements, or created company unions that they sought to control. Courts found legal openings in the Clayton Act and issued rulings against union activity. The courts also found ways to use the Sherman Anti-trust Act against unions. Opposed by public opinion, business and the courts, union membership fell. The number of AFL members dropped to 2,770,000 by 1929. This decline took place even though the number of workers in industry rose by almost seven million. In the 1930s, the AFL attempted to force workers into a form of trade unionism that many workers felt did not serve their interest. Fortunately, immediately after FDR was elected, thousands of workers joined large local unions, often organized by a central labor council or an AFL union. The New Deal had boosted the sagging working class participation of the twenties by lending support to large industrial unions. For a time, their successes incr...
