114

from 1919 to 1929. This table, admitted a rough gauge of the level job-related
struggle during that decade, does suggest that strike activity in Baltimore was not
qualitatively less than in other leading industrial areas.

	Table 4-540
	Strikes per Million Residents in 11 Largest U.S. Cities, 1919-1929

CITY	1919    1920    1921    1922    1923   1924    1925    1926   1927    1928    1929	avg./yr.

New York	53.4    49.2    273    20.2    42.7    29.4    32.9    19.2    183     13.0     163	293

Chicago	37.4    37.1     26.4      7.7    13.1      8.6    17.2    11.6      8.6      33      93	16.4

Philadelphia	30.7    303    313    10.8    16.4    27.7    19.0    15.4    11.8     113    37.4	22.0

Detroit	253     153    24.8      7.6      8.9      43      5.7      5.7      3.2       1.9      6.4	9.9

Cleveland	52.2    45.6    28.9    24.4    14.4     17.8    22.2    16.6      53     11.1     12.2	22.8

St. Louis	47.6    483    31.7    13.4    23.2    25.6      93      4.9    12^      6.1     14.6	21.6

Baltimore	325    425    275     113    183    283    183      5.0      83      83     125	19.6

Boston	125.6    65.4    55.1    28.2    55.1    39.7    623    50.0    28.2    303    24.4	51.4

Pittsburgh	28.4    22.4    343      13      73    18.0    16.4    11.9    11.9      9.0    16.4	16.2

Buffalo	35.1    823    35.1     14.0    14.0    193    14.0    103      53     14.0     14.0	23.4

New Orleans	88.9    64.4    51.1     15.6    24.4    11.1      4.4    11.1      2,2      4.4     11.1	262

In average strikes per million residents per year for the decade as a whole,
Baltimore scored far above Detroit, somewhat above both Pittsburgh and Chicago,
and only slightly below St Louis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Buffalo. In terms of
patterns of strike activity over the 1919-1929 period, Baltimore appears to have
been somewhere in the middle of the eleven cities both in the sharp rise of job
actions in the early years of the decade, and the degree to which these actions fell
off later in the decade. While trade-union organization was at a relatively low level
in Baltimore at the end of the decade, potential for trade-union struggle, as
indicated by strike activity during that decade, was not And the relative
organizational weakness of Baltimore's labor movement at this time can also be
overstated: Baltimore had some 120 union locals at the end of the 1920s and
Philadelphia, a city nearly twice the size, had approximately 110. In broad profile,