EUGENE–A special exhibit examining Wayne Morse’s life-long involvement with labor issues will open Monday, Feb. 5, in the circulation lobby and corridors of the University of Oregon’s Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid St.

"Boss of the Waterfront: Wayne Morse and Labor Arbitration," organized by the UO Library System and the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, will be on display until April 20. The exhibit features materials from the Wayne Morse Papers housed in the UO Library.

Nelson Lichtenstein, an eminent labor historian from the University of Virginia, will speak about "The Lost World of Workplace Justice" at the exhibit’s opening set for 7 p.m. on Feb. 5 in the Knight Library Browsing Room. He is the author of several books on labor history, including "The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor," and was co-chair of the Columbia University Teach-In with American Labor in 1996.

"Can the workplace be transformed into an ‘industrial democracy,’ not just in factories and mines, but in every enterprise where people exchange their labor for a livelihood?" Lichtenstein asks. "Wayne Morse once thought so, devoting some of the best years of his life to the realization of that vision.

"On the San Francisco docks, in the Portland shipyards, and in a thousand other mid-20th-century work sites, his generation of reformers tried to ‘constitutionalize’ the world of work," Lichtenstein says of Morse. "But that expectation has now faded, and our democracy is in deep trouble because of its demise."

"Boss of the Waterfront" gives special focus to Morse’s work as a labor arbitrator. In 1937, while dean of the UO School of Law, Morse heard and ruled on several labor disputes along the Pacific Coast. He was so successful in his work that he soon became the main arbiter between the two most contentious factions on the coast, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union and the Waterfront Employers Association.

Shortly after the United States got involved in World War II, President Roosevelt named Morse to the National War Labor Board (NWLB). This important panel was responsible for settling disputes that arose between labor and management during the war and ensuring that important war work was not slowed. Morse was a pivotal figure on the NWLB, and many of his policies are still standard labor practice in the United States.

When Morse moved on to the Senate in 1944, he continued to work on labor issues, leading a filibuster against the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and acting as President Johnson’s point man in resolving major labor crises in the late 1960s.

The library exhibit includes many documents illuminating Morse’s life and career, including letters from Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first women to serve on a president’s cabinet, and a letter from Franklin Roosevelt thanking Morse and commending him for his work on the National War Labor Board. Numerous photographs show Morse during his career as dean of the UO law school and as a labor arbitrator and politician.

"Most Oregonians remember Wayne Morse as the person who represented Oregon in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades, and one of a few national politicians who resolutely opposed the Vietnam War," says exhibit curator Linda Long. Manuscripts librarian for the UO Library. "This exhibit presents an excellent opportunity for people to learn about Morse’s work as a labor arbitrator during the 1930s and ‘40s."

The Morse exhibit will be available on line beginning Feb. 5 at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/
speccoll/mss/morse/>. Free copies of posters publicizing the exhibit are available in Special Collections at the library.

"Boss of the Waterfront" is part of the Morse Center’s series on "Labor in a Global Economy." The center is located at the William W. Knight Law Center. The UO established the center following a gift from the late Elmer D. Conklin, a retired court reporter who met Morse in 1938 when he was arbitrating a labor grievance. The two developed a close friendship that lasted until Morse’s death in 1974.

For information about the exhibit, call Long, (541) 346-1906. Information about related upcoming events is posted on the Morse Center’s website at <http://morsechair.uoregon.edu/2000-01.html> or call 346-3700.

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