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Lemic, Charles F., photog.

[Lot of thirty real photo postcards documenting the presidential campaign of Father Cox.]

Pittsburgh, Johnstown, & Delmont PA; Bridgeport & Cambridge OH; Creve Coeur, MO, 5 January–[22 September] 1932. 30 real photo postcards, 3.5” x 5.5”. Manuscript annotations in purple ink to images and margins; photographers stamps and pencil notes (especially camera settings) on versos. CONDITION: Very good.

A well-annotated and evocative lot of real photo postcards by a local photographer documenting the short-lived but influential political campaign of Pittsburgh’s “pastor of the poor,” whose demands for workers’ rights and government funding for public works projects influenced Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The earliest five photos in this group document Father Cox’s large “Jobless March” on Washington. The march began in Pittsburgh on January 5th, 1932, with about 12,000 workers (dubbed “Cox’s Army”) and by the time of its arrival in Washington on January 8th, had swelled to a crowd of some 25,000. The crowd massed in front of the Capitol building, singing patriotic songs and flying their “Hoover flags”—i.e., their empty, turned-out pockets—to demand federal employment relief. Although the Hoover administration’s primary response was to fire Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, who had ordered Gulf Oil stations to supply Cox’s army with free gas, the action gained national attention and, Cox believed, “started the men who can solve America’s plight to thinking along unselfish lines” (Scott, p. 3). These photos show crowds gathered to hear Father Cox and Harrisburg Governor Gifford Pinchot; Father Cox posing with Eddie McClosky (the mayor of Johnstown), Mathew A. Dunn (“the blind assemblyman who distributed brand new dimes to each man” joining the march), and Chester “Happy” Waddell, among others. Waddell was an important aide during the jobless march and afterwards handcuffed his wrist to the steering wheel of his car to attempt a record-breaking 241-hour drive for the benefit of Father Cox’s relief fund.

Despite the lackluster response from the White House, the Jobless March garnered considerable media attention, and, in its wake, Cox launched the Jobless Party and began his campaign as its presidential nominee. Party members were called “Blue Shirts,” and Cox traveled the country, logging “almost 8,000 miles and speaking to an estimated 57,000 Americans” (Scott, p. 4). The majority of photos—all of which have detailed captions—primarily document the Jobless Party Convention, held in mid-August in Creve Coeur, Missouri. One of the first in this series is dated August 17th, 1932, and shows “Father Cox leaving his residence for the trip to Creve Coeur, Mo.” Cox stands in conversation with the “Driver of the Blue Truck” (possibly his chauffeur, John Overmire), and is preceded by Margaret Harbison, his secretary. A man to their right holds a sign emblazoned with Father Cox’s face and reading “Long-Live Rev. Father Cox : Pgh.…Co. 2A.” Other images show Father Cox with Father Clement Crock of Cambridge, Ohio; Father Cox, “‘National Chief’ talking [to] John J. McCabe, Captain Blue Shirts” on his arrival at the Greater St. Louis Speedway, the Creve Coeur convention venue; parades of both male and female “Blue Shirts” (i.e., members of the Jobless Party), sometimes with signs identifying their ward and party “unit”; convention-goers milling about in front of “Father Cox’s Broadcasting Car”—equipped with megaphones and towing a trailer; crowds packing the stands of the “cheering ‘Father Cox’ after his nomination for President”; members of the “Mess Call, Homewood Unit,” gathered around a table and posing with plates, mugs, pots, and ladles; “Attorney Henry Ellenbogen delivering Keynote address” in the announcer’s tower, as well as Father Cox delivering his acceptance address and saluting the crowds; Father Cox in the stands, “with ‘Brother Andrew’ his personal secretary,” behind a large sign with the bold words “Father Cox’s Blue Shirts Post No. 2. Pittsburgh, Pa. [St.] Louis or Bust.”

James Renshaw Cox was born in Pittsburgh in 1868. After working as a cab driver and steelworker to put himself through Duquesne University and Saint Vincent Seminary, he was ordained in 1911. He served as a chaplain in Angers, France during and after WWI, and afterwards earned a degree in economics. In 1923 he was appointed pastor at Old St. Patrick’s Church in the Strip District, and began his social activism in earnest during the Great Depression, organizing a food-relief program and helping the homeless find shelter. Although lack of sufficient funds and momentum forced him to withdraw from the race in September, Father Cox’s campaign, and the ideas outlined in his “Resolution of the Jobless,” influenced President Roosevelt’s New Deal and momentous first hundred days in the presidency. He was appointed to the state recovery board of the National Recovery Administration by Roosevelt, and continued his relief work for the rest of his career. 

Records of the photographer, Charles F. Lemic, are scarce: like his parents, brother, and sister, he lived in Pittsburgh. His photos occasionally appeared in local newspapers.

A rich lot of photos documenting the Depression-era campaign activities of Father James Renshaw Cox, a champion of the poor and working class and the first and only Catholic Priest to run for president.

REFERENCES: Scott, Hannah. “Rediscovering Father Cox: The Forgotten Legacy of a Pittsburgh Priest in the Great Depression,” Gathered Fragments : The Publication of the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania vol. XVIII, no. 1 (2007); “241-Hour Auto Drive Started,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 19, 1932, p. 6; “Guide to the James R. Cox Papers” at the University of Pittsburgh online.

Item #8905

Price: $3,000.00

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