Sunday
November 28, 1926
The daily worker (Chicago, Ill.;New York, N.Y.) — Illinois, New York
“1926: When American flags were made in Japan and deaf couples fought in sign language”
Art Deco mural for November 28, 1926
Original newspaper scan from November 28, 1926
Original front page — The daily worker (Chicago, Ill.;New York, N.Y.) — Click to enlarge
Full-size newspaper scan
What's on the Front Page

The Communist Party's newspaper The Daily Worker leads with dramatic news from Moscow, where Nikolai Bukharin addressed delegates from Communist parties worldwide about the 'crisis of capitalism' and coming revolution. The front page buzzes with labor disputes and international intrigue — from Pittsburgh, where union officials called police to break up a miners' meeting featuring veteran organizer Alex Howat, to Mexico City, where Deputy Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama warned of Wall Street's financial blockade against Latin America. The paper also covers the death of Soviet ambassador Leonid Krassin in London, prompting 14 days of mourning in Moscow. Meanwhile, the paper itself fights for survival, desperately fundraising $25,000 by December 7th to stay afloat, with Detroit leading at 86% of its quota raised.

Why It Matters

This November 1926 front page captures America at a crossroads between prosperity and radicalism. While mainstream America enjoyed Roaring Twenties prosperity, The Daily Worker reveals the underground current of Communist organizing and labor unrest that would explode during the Great Depression. The paper's own financial struggles mirror the marginalized position of radical politics in an era of Republican dominance and Red Scare paranoia. These stories of international Communist coordination, mining union conflicts, and anti-capitalist organizing show the seeds of future upheaval being planted even during America's most prosperous decade.

Hidden Gems
  • American flags were being manufactured cheaper in Japan than in the United States and sold in American stores — leading to the amusing prospect of anti-Japanese protesters waving Japanese-made American flags
  • A deaf mute named James H. Humbly got divorced from his also-deaf wife Josephine in Kansas City after she 'cussed him in the sign language'
  • The Catholic Church took 31 years to discover that Consuelo Vanderbilt's marriage to the Duke of Marlborough was obtained by 'force and violence,' conveniently annulling it after three decades
  • Several hundred hungry Americans lined up at Chicago's Mills Hotel for a Thanksgiving meal, but organizers only fed two men for a publicity photo while the rest watched through windows
Fun Facts
  • The paper mentions Alex Howat addressing miners — he was a legendary Kansas coal miner who had been imprisoned multiple times for defying court injunctions and would become a folk hero of American labor
  • Nikolai Bukharin, featured prominently on the front page, was then one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union and a close ally of Stalin, though Stalin would have him executed just 12 years later in 1938
  • The Daily Worker was desperately trying to raise $25,000 ($380,000 today) to survive — it would eventually become the longest-running Communist newspaper in American history, publishing until 1958
  • The mention of five miners found alive after being trapped since November 16th in the flooded Tomhicken mine reflects the era's dangerous working conditions — mining deaths averaged over 2,000 per year in the 1920s
Contentious Roaring Twenties Politics International Labor Union Labor Strike Economy Labor Diplomacy
November 27, 1926 November 29, 1926

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