November 12, 1949 – Voices and Events- NBC Radio – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
November 12, 1949 – Sixty-nine years ago – an election was held, the coal strike was settled and in 1949 it was still Armistice Day.
Election night 1949 – the off-year election held many races the Democrats would handily win from. A jubilant President Truman read the election results during a meeting at the National Democratic Women’s Club. The results were all but final and Mr. Truman acknowledged the role of Women in the New York State elections, saying there were 2% more women at the polls this year than men. The election results were all over roughly two hours after the polls closed in New York. Republican newspapers were conceding early to Democrat Herbert Lehman over GOP candidate John Foster Dulles in the Senate race. Other results included Ben Davis, the only member of The American Communist Party elected to office, as representative from Harlem, lost his bid for re-election and was turned out. President Truman summed it up by saying the 81st Congress did a great job in their first session – they will do an even better job in their second session.
Meanwhile, on the Union front: Word came from Pittsburgh and the Steel Workers Strike that agreement had been reached on pensions and that Union President John L.Lewis called members back to work. Still on strike were some 100,000 members from holdout companies, but those were expected to fall in line within days. The settlement ended one of the longest strikes, at 43 days, and the financial hardships brought on by this strike would be eased eventually – at least many would be getting paychecks in time for Christmas.
Also, as part of this broadcast of Voices and Events, a weekly recap of news events the past week, is a capsule look at the career of John L. Lewis, a fascinating review of the life of this controversial and charismatic Union figure of the early 20th century.
And there was a lot more going on, this November 12, 1949 – you can hear the rest of it via Voices And Events from NBC Radio.
