“Labor Comes of Age” is a black and white 1960s short from Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Inc. that focuses on the history of the United States labor movement during the 1930s and the accomplishments of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Actor Charlton Heston narrates the spoken words of F.D.R. throughout the film, and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt served as a consultant.
Opening credits (0:18). A political cartoon depicts men on strike, “By Honest Means we Obtain Our Rights” (0:44). Workers at a sewing mill. Men in suits inspect their handiwork (0:52). Photo: Firemen spray water at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (0:58). A horse-drawn fire wagon leaves a fire station. Billowing smoke (1:05). Men dump loads from wheelbarrows (1:28). A youthful photo of F.D.R. (1:37). A gas engine electricity generator (1:41). Photos of Samuel Gompers, Robert F. Wagner, and Alfred E. Smith (1:44). Interior views of a textile mill. Thread winding onto spools. Photos of women in the mills (1:53). Men in hats carry small U.S. flags, followed by women in a labor march (2:04). Signs: “Meat Cutters, Packing House Workers” (2:15). A foundry. Hammering metals (2:31). F.D.R. speaks into WOR radio microphones. A large audience (2:43). Smokestacks and weary working men (2:46). Two men help a third, limping man to walk (3:00). Flags flown from the dome of the U.S. Capitol (3:03). F.D.R.’s inauguration (3:08). Photos of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (3:12). Ms. Perkins at a press conference (3:18). F.D.R. outdoors (3:46). Sign: “Closed.” Men walk aimlessly. A sandwich board: “Unemployed” (4:05). F.D.R. signing legislation for the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. NRA poster: “We Do Our Part” (4:14). Industrial factories and machines in montage with working men (4:20). A poster: “The Need for Labor Unions” (4:48). Men hand out literature (4:58). Women file into union meetings (5:14). Roosevelt fireside (5:28). Tenement housing near a factory. Children stare (5:44). Union meetings. Signs: “We Want Action Now! No Contract, No Work” (6:11). Windows of a T.W.U.A. office smashed, rioting (19:08). Scenes of the Minneapolis general teamster’s strike of 1934. Policemen swing batons at strikers (6:50). John L. Lewis and marching soldiers, coal mines (7:03). A line waits for a ladle of soup (7:27). Georgia prisoners in a detention camp for strikers with barbed wire (7:56). Caskets loaded into hearses at a funeral (8:26). Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco and guards, strikers firing guns, kicking smoke grenades (8:32). F.D.R. speaks passionately to rough-faced throngs (9:56). The U.S. Senate in 1935 (10:16). Senator Robert F. Wagner (10:45). Election polling at a National Labor Relations Board office (11:20). Voting booths. Ballots are cast by hand (11:36). David Dubinsky and Sidney Hilman (12:03). The C.I.O. Building (Congress of Industrial Organizations) and marching crowds (12:15). American Federation of Labor (AFL) boss William Green (12:23). A bill for the social security act. An old man puts on glasses. Sign, “Social Security Board” (13:49). Men and women at work and at leisure (14:05). A sit-down strike. Sharing a meal, exercising. Clotheslines in a factory (14:45). A gang of men with clubs. Smashing factory windows (15:14). A stuffed effigy: “G.M. Stool Pigeon” (15:54). Walter Reuther speaks at a United Auto Workers (UAW) meeting. Scenes from the Flint sit-down strike at a Chevrolet plant (16:00). A crowd of people in hats leaps to its feet and cheers (16:51). Auto Workers from Fisher Body Plant #1 hold up a newspaper: “Strike Ends.” Workers exit a Chevy factory. Flag-waving and celebration (16:58). A victory parade (17:43). F.D.R. campaigns on the back of a train (18:27). End credits (18:47).
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