The first part of the interview covers Hirsch's family background and education at the
Horace Mann School in New York City, at the Roger Ascham School in White Plains, New York,
at Harvard University, at Columbia University, and in France.
The next section covers the years 1932 to 1938 when Hirsch worked for a series of Left
organizations and publications, including the International Labor Defense and its
publication Labor Defender, the National Committee for the
Defense of Political Prisoners, and the Sunday Worker.
Between 1938 and 1942 Hirsch worked for the Cafeteria Employees Union in New York City.
Especially notable are his recollections of his supervision of the union's social, cultural,
and athletic activities and his memories of his founding and editing the union's newspaper,
Cafeteria Call. This section provides an excellent picture
of the internal operations and spirit of a small union of unskilled workers in a service
industry.
In 1942, the Industrial Union Councils of Wisconsin and Milwaukee County hired Hirsch to
edit the CIO News (Wisconsin). Most of the interview deals
with his editorship of the paper from August 1942 to March 1944, when he began his military
service. There are detailed recollections of the internal operations of the paper, including
discussions of staffing and the sources of stories; layout, production, advertising, and
distribution problems; editorial policy; and relations with individual unions and labor
federations. Hirsch's account is especially strong on how he was hired, the problems of
getting stories, distributing the paper, and the paper's relations with the Wisconsin and
Milwaukee County Industrial Union Councils and their leaders.
The interview deals extensively with a variety of subjects and significant personalities
relevant to the Wisconsin and national labor movements and the Left during the late 1930s
and World War II. Among the subjects covered are the AFL-CIO split; the national CIO News; factionalism in the Wisconsin and Milwaukee County
Industrial Union Councils; racism and the CIO; organizing drives; unions and the war effort;
women in industry during World War II; labor management relations at companies such as
Allis-Chalmers Corporation, Chain Belt Corporation, and the Gisholt Machine Company;
Hirsch's labor journalism classes; War Chest campaigns; the CIO Political Action Committee;
and the second front. Among the state and national labor and Left leaders Hirsch discusses
are John L. Lewis, Len De Caux, Joseph North, Walter Burke, Meyer Adelman, Harold
Christoffel, and Emil Costello.
