A Snowy Christmas Eve in Hershey (1937 - About Mr. Hershey)

[JPZenger]

Milton Hershey was 79 years old. He had built from scratch a model town, a chocolate company that employed thousands, and an orphanage that housed and provided education for 2,000 children. He had just suffered a severe stroke after the divisive labor strike. It was Christmas Eve during one of the worst years in the Great Depression.

Because of the stroke, Mr. Hershey's doctor had ordered him to stay in his home. A nurse was often posted by the doctor to make sure he didn't sneak out. This was a big change for a man who had been constantly on the move everyday - visiting his farms, the orphanage, his many businesses and his sugar operations in Cuba.

His wife had suffered serious illnesses and had never been able to have children. Soon after his beloved wife died decades earlier, Mr. Hershey had quietly donated almost his entire fortune to the orphanage. (The gift was not publicly revealed until several years later, by an investigative reporter in a front page article in the New York Times.)

His home was actually only two rooms in an upstairs corner of the Mansion. He allowed a club to use the rest of the building.

On a snowy Christmas Eve, Mr. Hershey had sent his nurse, driver and housekeeper home to be with their families, leaving him alone and in poor health in the large building.

Before Mr. Hershey's driver went home for the night, he convinced Mr. Hershey to go for a short drive around town. Mr. Hershey had not been out for some time and was very disappointed to see so little activity around the town. No one was out on the street and most of the homes seemed empty. Even the churches were dark and quiet on Christmas Eve. He was driven back to his home, feeling depressed. There seemed to be so little Christmas spirit in the town he had built.

His driver suggested he get some fresh air on the balcony. Mr. Hershey walked out and saw some candles below.

Hundreds of people from the choirs of every church in Hershey were below - singing "Silent Night." They had hidden their cars on a side road so they would not be noticed.

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Hershey" yelled the son of one of the chocolate workers. Mr. Hershey waved, but was speechless. He finally yelled out "And Merry Christmas to you, son1"

Mr. Hershey recovered, was rejuvenated and went on to lead the company and the orphanage MHS for another 8 years, including the years of World War II, when the company concentrated on vitamin- enriched melt-resistant chocolate for the troops.


-----

The orphanage was renamed the Milton Hershey School and today continues to provide completely free education, housing and medical care (and college funds) for 1,800 needy kids. That school continues to be largely funded by the annual profits from Mr. Hershey's candy company.

[happyslug]

1. I notice the article did not mention most of the singers had also the strikers

The strike had occurred in the Spring, but hard feeling still existed till the Christmas event. Afterward Hershey permitted two unions to exist (One affiliated with the CIO and an "Independent Union") till 1939 when the Independent Union was ruled a "Company Union" by the Federal Labor Relations Board and a new election for representation took place, this time won by an AFL affiliated union (The Congress of Industrial Organizations, the CIO, was independent of the American Federation of Labor, AFL, till the mid 1950s when they merged to become today's AFL-CIO).

http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1076
http://www.miltonshershey.com/TheHersheys/MiltonSHershey/tabid/401/Default.aspx

Yes, hard feelings still existed over the strike, but both sides seems to come to terms after the Christmas singing of Silent Night.

[JPZenger]

2. Yes, Milton Hershey was not anti-union

The sit down strike had more to do with certain union leaders wanting to control the hiring in the plant than it had to do with wages. Those union leaders manipulated some of the Italian-American workers who did not speak fluent English. The company had accepted a union before the strike. Those union leaders were voted out after the strike.

[happyslug]

3. Milton Hershey wanted to control his workers

Now Milton Hershey did want to do good by them, but he still wanted to be in control, thus the sit down strike by workers who were tired of that control (i.e. wanted a say in who was hired and fired which up till 1937 was in the exclusive hands of Milton Hershey). His personal dislike for Italian workers is well documented (See the sites I referred to), so well that even the Hershey School even acknowledge that is one of his shortcomings. The CIO used his bad handling of the Italians to their advantage, but most of the workers who went on the sit down strike were NON-Italians and went on strike for the right to have a say in how their live even outside the plant.

I do NOT want to say the CIO union was entirely blameless, but Hershey was in many ways as more at fault for the strike then the Union had been (remember it was under Hershey that the Company Union was founded and Hershey only agreed to a contract if BOTH unions agreed to the terms, which both did, but that agreement ended when the NLRB ruled the Company Union an Illegal Company Union forcing a new unionization vote and in 1939 the AFL affiliated union beat out the CIO affiliated union. This later vote Hershey seems to have stayed out of, leaving it up to the two unions to fight it out (The AFL affiliated union seems to have won out since many townspeople had called the CIO union to be a communist front organization, which it was NOT, in fact the CIO backed the Republican Candidate in the 1940 Presidential election, through that seems to be more J.l Lewis, head of the mine workers union AND head of the CIO at that time rejection of FDR quest for a Third term then any other reason, through John L. Lewis was a life long Republican).

More on J. L. Lewis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis).

[JPZenger]

4. The hours were long and the working conditions were tough

The link you posted from the PA. History site is very well-written.

In talking to relatives who were involved in the sit down strike, they said the hours were very long and the work was very tough before the strike. They said the German supervisors were bigoted against the Italian-American workers. They said that the union leaders pushed the Italians to seek a closed shop in which every worker was forced to join the CIO, which the company would not approve.

Mr. Hershey had spent much of his time in Cuba in the prior years and was out of touch with the operations of the Hershey factory. He was running his large operations in Cuba (including farms, sugar plantations, a railroad, a town and a huge orphanage in Cuba).

I don't know if you can say that Mr. Hershey was personally bigoted against Italian-Americans. Italian-Americans were serving a role throughout the US as low people on the totem pole because they were the most recent immigrants and because many didn't speak fluent English. That same situation existed for many nationalities at various times in American history, such as the Irish.

Mr. Hershey was intolerant of anyone who didn't work hard, and did not hesitate to fire people if he had a good reason.

Here's a long magazine article about the history of Hershey, that includes more details about the sit down strike of 1937.

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1973/4/1973_4_4.shtml

[Cosmocat]

5. MHS ...

12 year homeboy from MHS ...

Just to nitpick ...

the school didn't have anywhere near 2000 students in 1937. Without looking it up and just making a half educated guess, I can't see how it would have been at most a couple of hundred, and it might have been less than 100 ...

The trust fund that finances the school's operations is FULLY funded by controlling interests of the Hershey Company and Herco, and is continually in the line of fire for people trying to tap into it ...

Milton Hershey was a TRUELY remarkable man. Very few people have the legacy of literally creating a town to benefit his employees like he did ... And, to be a genuinely honorable man in his success ...

[JPZenger]

6. Clarification

You are correct that MHS's enrollment did not reach 2,000 in the past. The School is planning on reaching that enrollment over the next decade. Enrollment peaked during during the 1930s (plus 100 recent grads enjoying free education at his Hershey Junior College) and then decreased during WWII. I believe the orphanage he founded in Cuba did reach 2,000 students in the 1930s.

The original funding from Mr. Hershey was diversified over the years to invest in other stocks. The Hershey Company has bought back hundreds of millions of dollars of Hershey stock from the School to help this diversification. For example, the Company sold their pasta business to buy $500 million of stock back 15 years ago, and bought back hundreds of millions of dollars more of stock in the last several years. Therefore, the Milton Hershey School today receives much of its income from investments other than Hershey Entertainment and the Hershey Company, but that money all derived from Mr. Hershey's original gift. The School does still own 100% of Hersheypark, Hotel Hershey, etc.

[JPZenger]

7. Merry Christmas bump