Warren Homer Martin

Background

Warren Homer Martin was born on August 15, 1901 in Goreville, Illinois, and was the son of W. H. Martin, a farmer, and Sidney F. Smith.

Education

He received his early education in Goreville but finished high school at Southern Illinois Normal College in Carbondale in 1920. During his high school years he worked on a farm and as a railroad section hand; he also began preaching and, in 1922, was ordained a Baptist minister and appointed pastor of the Goreville Baptist Church. After graduating from high school he became a teacher and attended Ewing College in Ewing, Illinois.

Career

In 1926 the "Leaping Parson" moved his family to Liberty, Mo. There he was appointed pastor of the William Jewell Baptist Church and attended William Jewell College, from which he graduated in 1928. In 1932 he moved to Leeds, Mo. , to assume the pastorate of its Baptist church. While there, he did postgraduate work at the Kansas City (Kans. ) Baptist Theological Seminary. A good part of his new congregation was made up of workers from the Kansas City, Mo. , Chevrolet plant. Their poverty prompted him to encourage them, from the pulpit, to unionize, but Martin's deacons objected, removing him from his position in 1934. He then went to work at the Chevrolet plant, where he became an active union organizer. He was made president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) local he helped form there, and in June 1934 went to Detroit as a delegate to the first national AFL-sponsored conference of automobile workers. Shortly thereafter Martin was discharged from the plant for his union activities. In 1935 he moved to Detroit, where in August the AFL called the first convention of the United Automobile Workers. The federation granted a charter to the UAW but chose the officers of the new union itself--Francis J. Dillon as president and Homer Martin as vice-president. The next year, at the UAW convention in South Bend, Ind. , the "probationary control" of the UAW by the AFL was lifted, and on the third day of the proceedings, April 29, 1936, Martin was elected the first president of the UAW. Unfortunately, he fell under the spell of Jay Lovestone, a man who had been expelled from the Communist party leadership in 1928. Lovestone apparently exerted an entirely negative influence on Martin. When Martin began to replace early UAW activists with "Lovestonites, " bitter divisions appeared within the union. Meanwhile, the UAW began increasing its organizing activities, especially at General Motors. In late 1936 and early 1937 the UAW workers staged their sit-down strikes. To the dismay of Martin's UAW officers and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which the UAW had joined in 1936, Martin seemed willing to negotiate settlements on a plant-by-plant basis, thereby undercutting the power of the union to obtain one blanket settlement with the company. In January 1939 Martin suspended fifteen members of the executive board. In March he called a union convention in Detroit. At the same time the suspended officers, who had in turn expelled Martin from the union forever, met at a convention in Cleveland. These officers had set up separate union headquarters in Detroit, to which per capita taxes from the UAW locals continued to be sent and which had the support of the CIO. It was from this nucleus that the future union sprang. Martin's convention, however, had little support. He took his group out of the CIO to rejoin the AFL, but by August it was clear that the majority of auto workers had repudiated the Martin UAW-AFL. He "retired" from the labor movement in April 1940. Martin remained in Michigan for most of the rest of his life. In 1942 he formed the United Investors of America, and from 1951 through 1955 he operated a storm-window and awning business. He was president of Lite Thru Products in 1952 and 1954. As organizational director of the Dairy Farmers Cooperative Association, he led an unsuccessful milk strike in 1957 and resigned the following spring. In the fall of 1958 Martin entered the Democratic primary for senator against Philip Hart, stating that "the Democratic party because it is a captive of Walter Reuther is getting the blame for building the worst unemployment situation in the nation. "Reuther had been elected president of the UAW in 1948 and became head of the CIO in 1952. Martin lost the primary, and in 1961 he and his second wife, Vivian, moved to Los Angeles, where he became a labor counselor for the Tulare and Kings County Employers Council. He died in Los Angeles.

Achievements

• Martin was the first elected president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW).

Views

By August 1937, at the time of the third UAW convention, the split in the union was intense. Nevertheless, Martin remained popular among the workers, especially those outside Detroit, whom he continued to dazzle with his oratory. Moreover, despite the dissension, the union's membership had grown remarkably. The CIO leadership, fully aware of the divisions in the UAW, counseled compromise at the convention to prevent an irrevocable split. Largely as a result of these factors, Martin was reelected president. But the dissension grew. Martin, increasingly dominated by Lovestone, ironically began to accuse those who opposed him of Communism. This seemed to corroborate the charge that Martin was incapable of making "common cause with opponents" and therefore had to "destroy them. "When the UAW tried to organize the Ford Motor Company from 1937 through 1939, Martin's behavior was erratic. On one occasion, he stated that Henry Ford was "sincere and honest in his efforts to give his men the best possible working conditions"; on another, he declared Ford "America's outstanding lawbreaker. " This ambivalence, his increasing accusations of Communism, and the certainty by many that he was actually in Ford's pay alienated him from the rest of the union leadership.

Personality

He was very athletic, and in 1924 and 1925 was national Amateur Athletic Union champion in the hop, skip, and jump. At first Martin seemed adequate as the new union head. All his contemporaries agreed that, based on his experience in the pulpit, he was a good speaker. The trouble was, one associate noted, that he had only one speech, which he used over and over again. Others claimed he tried to be all things to all people. These weaknesses were soon apparent, and many of Martin's colleagues came to regard him as incompetent and even unstable. Finally, his frustrated colleagues encouraged him to go on a speaking tour, and the first contract with General Motors was signed without him. Homer Martin was a man of energy, imagination, and ambition. His talents, however, were limited, and his weaknesses, especially his inability to work with others, were considerable. It was probably unfortunate for him that he rose so far so quickly in a movement he neither came from nor really understood. In a sense he was more the tool of circumstances than their master.

Quotes from others about the person

• "He always says yes to the last man who talks to him. "

Connections

Martin married Norma May Graves on March 19, 1922; they had two children.

Father:

W. H. Martin

Was a farmer.

Mother:

Sidney F. Smith

Wife:

Norma May Graves

References

• Sit-Down: The General Motors Strike of 1936-1937
• The UAW and Walter Reuther / by Irving Howe and B.J. Widick
• The Brothers Reuther and the Story of the UAW: A Memoir