In the 1938 general election, a coalition of business and conservative groups tried to constrain the state’s robust union movement through a ballot initiative. Proposition 1 originated with the Industrial Association of San Francisco (which a U.S. Senate investigating committee chaired by Robert La Follette Jr. had recently called “an example par excellence of . . . success in denying labor its collective-bargaining rights”), the Associated Farmers (which Carey McWilliams labeled “farm fascism” and which the La Follette Committee accused of “flagrant and violent infringement of civil liberties”), the Merchants and Manufacturers Association of Los Angeles (the state’s oldest, and highly successful, advocate of the open shop; the La Follette Committee claimed it “arrogated to itself the determination of what constituted law and order”), the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and Southern Californians Inc. (an arch-conservative group dedicated to “preservation of industrial freedom”).

Proposition 1 proposed to restrict picketing, prohibit secondary boycotts, make unions liable for damages caused by members, and more. Its supporters launched the state’s most expensive campaign for a proposition up to that time. Those efforts were closely tied to leading Republican candidates, Frank Merriam, the incumbent governor who was seeking a third term, and Philip Bancroft, candidate for U.S. Senate, who had connections to the Associated Farmers.