1941.03.03 “Noxious Weeds”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14.7 x 23.3 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.
The highest number of significant defense labor strikes occurred in March 1941.
In early 1941, conditions fueling defense industry strikes included widespread discrimination against African American workers, union demands for better wages and conditions, and frustration over slow grievance processes, all against a backdrop of massive rearmament for WWII; this tension led to significant stoppages, like the Allis-Chalmers strike, prompting the government to form mediation boards and ultimately issue Executive Order 8802 to address racial bias.
There was a public perception that "sympathetic legislation," specifically the Wagner Act of 1935, had contributed to a wave of defense industry strikes. The Act guaranteed workers the right to organize, bargain collectively, and strike, which some critics argued empowered unions to disrupt vital defense production.
The urgent need for military supplies created tension, with some seeing strikes as a patriotic duty to protest injustice, while others viewed them as disloyal.
