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In all of U.S. labor history, few years rival 1934 for drama.59 There had been rumblings in 1933, as rubber plant workers unionized in Akron, Ohio, and prepared a large strike, and Mexican, Japanese, and Filipino fruit pickers struck in California. However, 1934 was an eruption: in 1,856 work stoppages, 1.5 million workers demanded the upholding of Section 7(a). In Toledo, Ohio, auto parts workers won recognition, despite a violent clash that brought out the National Guard. In San Francisco, the Communist-influenced longshoremen won recognition. In October, under pressure, Hugh Johnson succumbed to mental illness, resigning from the NRA after delivering a farewell address to baffled and demoralized staffers comparing himself to Madame Butterfly.60 In the White House, FDR equivocated, as the left continued to agitate.
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Jonathan I. Levy (Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States)