Interview
I [interviewer James Cavanaugh] interviewed Whiteside for three and a half hours in his home in Kenosha on August 13, 1981. He was included in the Wisconsin Labor Oral History Project as a spokesman for the Federal Labor Unions and because of his long tenure on the State AFL-CIO Executive Board.
The Whiteside interview is especially useful for the discussion of the Federal Labor Union point of view, of the labor scene in the strongly pro-union town of Kenosha, of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor-Wisconsin State Industrial Union Council merger (Whiteside was on the merger committee), and for Whiteside's sympathetic view of WSFL president Geroge Haberman.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion, and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher, by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button, may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “WHITESIDE'S FAMILY” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one where the voice announces the 02:35 time marking (the voice says at this point, “two minutes, thirty-five seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “WHITESIDE'S FAMILY” continues until approximately 04:05, at which point the discussion of the next topic (“AMERICAN BRASS AND FEDERAL LABOR UNION 19322”) begins.
Notice that in most cases, sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example, the sentences underneath “WHITESIDE'S FAMILY” give further details on what appears on the tape between 02:35 and 04:05.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However, the abstract will help the researcher to locate easily distinct topics and discussion among the many minutes of commentary.
