Theodore Bosen: A tale of two cities, city number one, Berlin, circa 1930

In 1932, one out of every two millworkers in Berlin was unemployed, having been laid off by the Brown Company, while those still working got a severe pay cut. City officials, both Democrat and Republican, under the thumb of industrial fat cats, did nothing, while strikes throughout the USA were being met with National Guard troops.

Roosevelt had just taken office, but his First New Deal did not go far, so Berlin workers, abandoned by both parties, organized the “Labor Party.” Led by men like Ed Legassie, Phil Glasson and Aime Tondreau, it enlisted workers, from cops to cooks and barbers, along with the millworkers. In two elections, they took over city hall, electing as mayor Arthur Bergeron, a 27-year-old lawyer, along with enough councilors to control the city. They then leveraged that political power to restore lost wage rates at the mills, negotiate relief payments from the state, obtain a loan for loggers, and secure a guarantee of no National Guard troops.