- Item
- 1947-09-25
Part of Richards Studio Photographs
Senator Robert A. Taft, Ohio Republican and three-time presidential candidate, visits Tacoma to address the Tacoma World Affairs Council on the subject of foreign policy at the Temple Theater. Smelter Worker's Union members and Communist sympathizers picket during Taft's speech in which he charged the Truman administration with taking a "soft policy" towards Russia. The Cold War between the United States and Russia would escalate and give rise to the McCarthy era of the 1950s when the mere mention of communism was scrutinized. In contrast with a more volatile greeting in Seattle, the sixty picketers, many of them teenagers, demonstrated quietly outside the theater. They missed the senator who had entered the building through the back door. When they found out the senator was already on stage addressing the crowd of 1600, the group peacefully dispersed. (TNT 9-26-47, p. 1, T.Times, 9-26-47, p. 5) ALBUM 2.
Taft, Robert A., 1889-1953; Pickets--Tacoma--1940-1950; Demonstrations--Tacoma--1940-1950; Labor Unions--Tacoma; Signs (Notices);