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<br />feet from the ground when it burst into
<br />flames. Built by the Gennan Zeppelin
<br />Transport Company witH a range oEB, 000
<br />miles, this giant dirigi_bl~ was the pride of
<br />Hitler's Third Reich. Wllen its
<br />hydrogen-filled cavity be'gan ro bum,
<br />passengers and crew had [9 jump for safety.
<br />The fires were so fierce chat the
<br />commander and 36 crewmen and
<br />passengers died. Along vlith them went
<br />Germanyls expectations ~at zeppelins
<br />would dominate future intercontinental air
<br />travel. Instead, the Hind~nburg disaster
<br />speeded the development df trans~ Atlantic
<br />clippers developed by Pa~~ American and
<br />Imperial Alrwa.ys. ~
<br />Germany remained iQ. the news,
<br />however. Having reoccupied the
<br />Rhineland in 1936 in violation of the
<br />Versailles Treaty. Hitler 5900 recognized
<br />the reluctance of the Allies to stand up to
<br />his aggressive acts. When peneral
<br />Francisco Franco began hi~ assault on the
<br />Spanish government, both: German and
<br />Italian forces joined the ac,rion. While
<br />some American Catholics applauded their
<br />efforts as a holy war against Communism,
<br />others joined the Abraham! Lincoln
<br />Brigade and went to Spain td, fight against
<br />Franco in hopes of preservi~g republican'
<br />government. '
<br />By and large, however) there was an
<br />isolationist mood in the Un;ited States,
<br />In an April Gallup Poll, i7l % said that
<br />the United States should h~ve stayed out
<br />of World War /. Neutrality Acts passed by
<br />Congress forbade the exportation or sale of
<br />arms to either side in the Sganish Civil
<br />War, and another act made travel unlawful
<br />on belligerent vessels. On October 5,
<br />President Roosevelt tried to lead the
<br />country out of this "Fortress ;A.merica"
<br />thinking by urging an intem~tional
<br />quarantine of aggressor nationS, but he was
<br />ahead of the people. ,
<br />While Hitler made plan~ to enter
<br />Austria and Czechoslovakia, Japanese
<br />bombs were falling on China,! and
<br />American oilmen and missioriaries
<br />wondered if they would lose their
<br />traditional privileges there. The Japanese
<br />apologized after bombing the 0. S.
<br />gunboat Panay in December, but most
<br />thinking people knew that th~ "epidemic
<br />of world lawlessness," to which Roosevelt
<br />had referred in October, was steadily
<br />eroding the nation's ability to remain
<br />isolationist. 1
<br />While Stalin engaged himSelf in a
<br />purge of enemies in Russia, anc;l the first
<br />steps were taken toward Philip~ine
<br />independence, the nation's att~ntion was
<br />riveted on one of its own trouble ~pots: the
<br />bloody struggles between manage.ment and
<br />labor in the automobile industrY.
<br />General Motors employed ~earIy
<br />250,000 workers and produced t)lore than
<br />a third of all the cars and truck~ made in
<br />
<br />
<br />the world. Although the company
<br />recognized its employees' right to organize,
<br />it also expected that the Supreme Court
<br />would soon strike down the Wagner Act
<br />legalizing collective bargaining, But the
<br />Court did not do this, Workers were
<br />impatient and began making demands on
<br />OM. When the company responded with
<br />silence and the hiring of detectives to get
<br />the goods on trouble makers, OM
<br />employees replied with a sit~down strike,
<br />thus beginning one of the most gigantic
<br />industrial conflicts in American history.
<br />
<br />
<br />Occupying the Fisher Body Plant, No.
<br />2 at Flint, Michigan, strikers hoped to force
<br />the company to negotiate by effectively
<br />shutting down production and keeping out
<br />strike breakers. Company officials turned
<br />off the heat (January and February) and
<br />turned away food. The National Guard was
<br />called in. After 44 days, management
<br />agreed to recognize the United Auto
<br />Workers as the only bargaining agency for
<br />GM's 17 plants,
<br />Victory had. been achieved by the
<br />unions, and the sit~downstrike became so
<br />popular that by Mayan estimated 250, 000
<br />workers were on strike in other industries.
<br />Steel and coal also won union recognition,
<br />and by the end of the decade, John L. Lewis
<br />had become a champIon to many laborers
<br />who mentioned his name frequently as a
<br />candidate for President.
<br />On the lighter side, Americans found
<br />ways of forgetting the difficult foreign and
<br />domestic issues by taking in the national
<br />past time: baseball,
<br />On July 7 at a packed Griffith Stadium
<br />in Washington, the all~stars of the
<br />American League defeated their
<br />counterparts in the National League 8~3
<br />with Lefty Gomez beating Dizzy Dean and
<br />Lou Gehrig hitting the only home run.
<br />Stellar performances were contributed by
<br />Gabby Hartnert, Billy Herman, Lee
<br />Grisson, Ernie Lombardi, Carl Hubbell,
<br />Gus Mancuso, MelOtt, Bucky Walters and
<br />Pepper Martin of the National League; Joe
<br />Cronin, Jimmy Foxx, Lefty Grove, Luke
<br />Sewell, Hank Greenberg, Bill Dickey, Joe
<br />DiMaggio and Buddy Myer of the
<br />American League.
<br />At Cooperstown, N. Y., Cy Young
<br />and T ris Speaker were elected to the hall
<br />of Fame which had been founded the
<br />previous year, In other sports, Joe Louis
<br />
<br />became the titular heavyweight champion.
<br />Bobby Jones, Henry Cotton, and Byron
<br />Nelson were the big names in golf,
<br />although Bobby Locke, Sam Snead, Ben
<br />Hogan, and Jimmy Demaret were to be
<br />contended with in any tournament.
<br />In tennis it was the year of Don Budge
<br />who swept Wimbledon and Forest Hills
<br />and sailed through all Davis Cup
<br />competition. Ironically, the showdown
<br />match for the United States was with
<br />Germany (as it was 50 years later)! and
<br />although the German team felt pressure
<br />from Hitler to show its superiority, Budge
<br />ruled the day and gave the United States
<br />a victory in one of the most celebrated
<br />matches in tennis history. The U.S. went
<br />on to defeat the British and win the Davis
<br />Cup trophy for the first time since 1926.
<br />On the female side, Alice Marble
<br />developed a tennis game that gave her a
<br />Number 1 ranking in the world for three
<br />years, No woman in the game had a
<br />stronger serve, which she delivered with
<br />the difficult American twist and then
<br />followed to the net for a put~away with
<br />strong volleys;
<br />If sports were unappealing, one could
<br />always lose oneself in a good book,
<br />Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the
<br />Windll was the top fiction seller of 1937
<br />followed closely by Ken Roberts'
<br />{'Northwest Passage," A. J. Ccot;lin's "The
<br />Citadel," Walter Edmonds' "Drums Along
<br />the Mohawk," John Dos Passos' trilogy
<br />published in one volume as U. S. A., and
<br />John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." In
<br />the nonfiction field, Dale Carnegie made
<br />his big splash with '<How to Win Friends
<br />and Influence-People" and Clarence pay
<br />tried to capitalize on his earlier success by
<br />publishing 'iLife With Mother." James 'T.
<br />Farrell. Erskine Caldwell. John Sreinbeck,
<br />and William Faulkner were writing about
<br />the Depression, but their big hits would
<br />not appear for a few years.
<br />The Saturday Evening Post, Literary
<br />Digest, CoUiers, McCal~, Cosmopolitan,
<br />Good HousekeePing, Saturday Review, and
<br />New Republic were all available to those
<br />who preferred their reading in smalIer
<br />segments. Life had made its debut one year
<br />earlier.
<br />In the meantime, one could always
<br />get lost reading the funny papers with Flash
<br />Gordon, Little Orphan Annie and Dick
<br />Tracy defending American capitalism and
<br />extolling the virtue of virtue.
<br />Shirley Temple was the top box office
<br />attraction in Hollywood where the movies
<br />continued to be the opiate of the masses.
<br />The silver screen lit up with Henry Fonda,
<br />Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr"
<br />Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow, Mae
<br />West, and the incomparable Fred Astaire
<br />and Ginger Rogers. Perhaps the biggest
<br />splash of 1937 was Walt Disney's "Snow
<br />White and the Seven Dwarfs," which took
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