Book Review

Meat-packing has become a popular area of investigation for historians and social anthropologists alike. There has been a flurry of articles and books, many of which have discussed twentieth-century developments and have featured industrial plants in the smaller midwestern cities. Wilson J. Warren's detailed study of John Morrell and Company workers in Ottumwa, Iowa, adds to this knowledge. It confirms both the recent demoralizing trends in de-industrialization, labor turnover problems, and low wages in manufacturing and the midcentury strength of unionism. Equally if not more interesting, it demonstrates these developments over a long historical time span that clearly illustrates local and regional impacts on working people.

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The English Morrell family established their meat-packing plant in Ottumwa in 1877. Looking for a location beyond their London, Ontario, and Chicago sites, they found Ottumwa ideal. It had direct access to abundant hog supplies, rail connections, and a good supply of winter ice. The company operated an evangelical, paternalistic policy of labor relations in the non-union era up to World War I. Following a brief flurry of union activity between 1918 and 1921, the company introduced a welfare program. Like many other experiments in company unions, it did not meet with worker approval. While it offered employment benefits, it did nothing to lessen the pace of work or the tyranny of foremen. Indeed, workers recognized it for what it was, a means to control labor.

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