Samuel Gompers

The American labor leader Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) was the most significant single figure in the history of the American labor movement. He founded and was the first president of the American Federation of Labor.

Few great social movements have been so influenced by one man as was the American labor movement by Samuel Gompers. He virtually stamped his personality and viewpoint on the American Federation of Labor (AFL). This heritage included both Gompers's social conservatism and his truculent firmness on behalf of the organized skilled workers of the country. His is a unique success story, of an utterly penniless immigrant who became the confidant of presidents and industrialists.

Gompers was born on Jan. 27, 1850, in east London, England. His family was Dutch-Jewish in origin and had lived in England for only a few years. The family was extremely poor, but at the age of 6 Gompers was sent to a Jewish free school, where he received the rudiments of an education virtually unknown to his class. The education was brief, however, and Gompers was apprenticed first to a shoemaker and then in his father's cigar-making trade. In 1863, when Gompers was 13, the family moved to the tenement slums of the Lower East Side of New York City. The family soon numbered 11 members, and Gompers again went to work as a cigar-maker.

Cigar-makers' Union

Naturally gregarious and energetic, Gompers joined numerous organizations in the bustling immigrant world of New York City. But from the start nothing was so important to him as the small Cigar-makers' Local Union No. 15, which he joined with his father in 1864. Gompers immediately rose to leadership of the group. At the age of 16 he regularly represented his fellow workers in altercations with their employers, and he discussed politics and economics with articulate workingmen many years his senior.

This was a time of technological flux in cigar-making, as in practically every branch of American industry. Machines were being introduced which eliminated many highly skilled workers. The cigar-makers were distinguished, however, by the intelligence with which they studied their problems. The nature of the work—the quietness of the process, for example—permitted and even encouraged discussion of economic questions, and this environment provided Gompers with an excellent social schooling. The most significant influence upon his life was a formerly prominent Scandinavian socialist, Ferdinand Laurrel, who had become disillusioned with Marxism and taught Gompers that workingmen ought to avoid both politics and utopian dreaming in favor of winning immediate "bread and butter" gains in their wages, hours, and conditions.

In fact, Gompers had many contacts with socialists, though, from his earliest days, he had little time for their ideals. Basing his own unionism on a "pure and simple" materialistic approach, he built the Cigar-makers' International Union into a viable trade association despite technology and unsuccessful strikes.

American Federation of Labor

With Adolph Strasser, the head of the German-speaking branch of the Cigar-makers' Union (Gompers led the English-speaking branch), and several other trade union leaders, Gompers helped to set up in 1881 a loose federation of trade unions which, in 1886, became the AFL. Founded during the heyday of the Knights of Labor, the AFL differed from the older organization in nearly every respect. The Knights emphasized the solidarity of labor regardless of craft and admitted unskilled as well as skilled workers to membership. The AFL, with Gompers as its president, was a federation of autonomous craft unions which admitted only members of specific crafts (carpenters, cigar-makers, and so on) and made no provision for the unskilled. The Knights looked forward to a society in which the wage system would be abolished and cooperation would govern the economy, whereas the AFL unions were interested only in improving the day-to-day material life of their members. The socialists' attempt to capture the AFL in 1894 did succeed in unseating Gompers for a year, but he was firmly back in power by 1895 and, if anything, more bitterly hostile to socialism in the unions than ever.

"Socialism holds nothing but unhappiness for the human race," Gompers said in 1918. "Socialism is the fad of fanatics … and it has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy." Throughout his career he inveighed against the flourishing Socialist party and the numerous attempts to form revolutionary unions. Although many forces account for the failure of socialist thought among American unions, Gompers's influence at the head of the movement for 40 years cannot be discounted.

Devotion to Unionism

However, if Gompers was hostile to the socialists, he was as devoted to the cause of unionism as any other American labor leader before or since. He was the first national union leader to recognize and encourage the strike as labor's most effective weapon. Further, when issued an injunction in 1906 not to boycott the antilabor Buck Stove and Range Company, he defied the courts (albeit gingerly) and was sentenced to a year in prison for contempt (a conviction later reversed on appeal). Gompers spent only one night in jail (a rare distinction among labor leaders of his day) and, characteristically, was contemptuous of, rather than sympathetic with, those with whom he shared his cell. But his devotion to unionism and the rhetoric with which he denounced avaricious industrialists matched anything of his time.

National Prominence

Although the leader of a socially disreputable movement, Gompers had good relations with several presidents and became something of an adviser to president Woodrow Wilson. In 1901 he was one of the founders of the National Civic Federation (an alliance of businessmen willing to tolerate unions and conservative union leaders), and Wilson found it politically expedient and worthwhile to have the support of the AFL during World War I. Gompers supported the war vigorously, attempting to halt AFL strikes for the duration and denouncing socialists and pacifists. He served as president of the International Commission on Labor Legislation at the Versailles Peace Conference and on various other advisory committees.

During the 1920s, though in failing health, Gompers served as a spokesman for the Mexican revolutionary government in Washington and considered himself instrumental in securing American recognition of the new regime. He was received with high honors by President Plutarco Elias Calles in 1924, but, realizing that the end was near, Gompers returned early to the United States and died in San Antonio, Tex., on December 13. Characteristically, his last words were: "Nurse, this is the end. God bless our American institutions. May they grow better day by day." What had begun as expedient for Gompers—acceptance of the capitalist system and working within it—had become his gospel. Indeed, he was one of the makers of the modern institutions of which he spoke in that he won for capitalism the loyalty of labor and for labor a part in industrial decision making.

Gompers the Man

Among friends, Gompers was gregarious and convivial. He enjoyed eating and drinking, sometimes excessively (he was a vociferous enemy of prohibition), and at home he was the classic 19th-century paterfamilias with a retiring, worshipful wife and a large brood of deferential children.

Gompers first made his reputation as an orator and always delivered a speech well. He spoke widely in the cause of the AFL, rose to great heights of eloquence on occasion, and thanks to an agile mind and sharp tongue was rarely bested in debate. He mixed with equal ease among awkward workmen and in the polished society of Washington's highest circles. He had been a militant anticlerical in his youth and never attended a church or synagogue except to speak on labor's behalf. Although of Jewish heritage and education, he did not think of himself as a Jew or, for that matter, as a member of any religion. None of his books was distinguished except his autobiography, Seventy Years of Life and Labor (1925).

Further Reading

Gompers's autobiography, Seventy Years of Life and Labor (2 vols., 1925; rev. ed. in 1 vol., 1943), is indispensable. The most comprehensive and authoritative biography is Bernard Mandel, Samuel Gompers (1963). Also valuable are Philip Taft, The A. F. of L. in the Time of Gompers (1957), and Marc Karson, American Labor Unions and Politics, 1900-1918 (1958). The best among the brief surveys of American labor are Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in America (1949; 3d ed. 1966); Henry Pelling, American Labor (1960); and Thomas R. Brooks, Toil and Trouble: A History of American Labor (1964). □

GOMPERS, SAMUEL 1850-1924

President of The American Federation of Labor

Leader

Samuel Gompers was the most important labor leader in American history prior to the epic labor struggles of the 1930s. He guided the American Federation of Labor (AFL) through a period in which labor's most fundamental rights were questioned. In an era of intense struggle between labor and capital, Gompers steered a moderate course for the skilled workers in trade unions and helped establish ties between labor and the federal government through his support of the Wilson administration during World War I. He rose from meager beginnings to become a confidant of presidents, politicians, and businessmen. As president of the AFL from 1886 to 1924 Gompers loaded the AFL and the cause of organized labor on his back and carried them into the center of American political and economic thought. His brand of pragmatic unionization appealed to workers because it was not theoretical or difficult to understand. Gompers's "pure and simple" unionism focused on advancing the immediate economic interests of workers in terms of wages, hours, and working conditions.

Background

Gompers was born in London's East End in 1850. He was forced to leave school at age ten to supplement his family's income. In that year young Samuel was apprenticed in his father's trade, cigar making. In June 1863 his family left for New York and the dream of a better life in the United States. Gompers continued working as a cigar maker in New York and as early as 1864 had joined a local union. For the next twenty years he engaged in trade activities and lived on meager wages even after he married Sophia Julian, also a London-born immigrant who worked in his shop stripping tobacco leaves.

Socialist Thought

Gompers learned political and social philosophy in the cigar-making shops. He listened with eager anticipation as his fellow workers talked about socialism and labor reform. Working in the shop of a German political immigrant, David Hirsch, Gompers adopted socialist ideas and began reading all the socialist literature he could find. In the 1880s and 1890s Gompers and his fellow trade unionists believed themselves to be both innovators and followers of the theories and prescriptions of Karl Marx. However, the young activist never became a theorist. He pursued a realistic course in fighting for labor reforms and did not let abstract ideas overwhelm important, short-term gains. It was with this realism in mind that he began to rebuild the Cigar Makers' Union with two other militant leaders, Adolph Strasser and Ferdinand Laurrell, in 1875. Later in life Gompers said that these men were responsible for the future course of American labor and that from them "came the purpose and initiative that finally resulted in the present American labor movement…we did create the technique and formulate the fundamentals."

Radical Realist

Early experiences radicalized the labor leader. Watching his craft slowly being destroyed by mechanization led him to support intensely the skills of craftsmen, artisans, and mechanics. Early in his career Gompers was also supportive of blacks and immigrants. But Gompers consistently championed the cause of trade unionism for skilled workers, not the toiling masses. His experience with unskilled immigrants who accepted lower wages in the mechanized age cemented trade unionism in his mind forever.

Toward Conservativism

Time and increased leadership responsibilities dampened Gompers's early radical views. By 1903 he had dropped his belief in class struggle, and by 1913 he was no longer an opponent of the capitalist system. Gompers kept the goals of the AFL centered on helping the skilled worker and completely ignored his own vision of working-class unity from the 1870s and 1880s. Over the years Gompers grew more conservative and rigid. He was ambitious, self-righteous, and bigoted, but he was also scrupulously honest and would drive himself to exhaustion in fighting for the cause of trade unionism.

Political Alignment

The AFL grew tremendously in the 1910s because Gompers aligned the union with the Democratic Party and kept a tight rein over the radical elements within the labor organization. The AFL supported Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and reaped the rewards by gaining a voice in national labor policy. Gompers regularly corresponded with Wilson, and in 1917 the president addressed the annual convention of the AFL. Under Wilson the Department of Labor aggressively advocated trade unionism's case. The department was headed by William B. Wilson, a former official in the AFL's largest affiliate, the United Mine Workers of America. As a result of Gompers's influence within the administration, labor looked upon such positive results as the Clayton Act, the Adamson Act, and a place for Gompers on the Council of National Defense.

World War I

The election of 1916 and America's participation in World War I cemented the relationship between the federal government and organized labor. AFL support in the western states, especially California, helped Wilson win the election. As the principal spokesman for labor, Gompers supported the war effort and used the extraordinary situation surrounding the preparedness movement to increase labor's power. He identified the AFL with American foreign policy and attacked all pacifist and suspected pro-German groups. Gompers assured President Wilson the co-operation of organized labor in the war effort in return for basic concessions from employers regarding wages, hours, and working conditions. The radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) did not fall in line, so the AFL president supported government suppression of that labor group. Gompers did not want socialist elements within labor to jeopardize the large gains he achieved for the AFL. In fact, Gompers's irresponsible exaggeration of Bolshevism and radicalism intensified the public's fear of organized labor and the consequent demand for the forceful suppression of strikes during the Red Scare.

Legacy

When Gompers died in December 1924 at the age of seventy-four, both labor and business mourned his death. His moderate policies had won confidence in the general public as well as among business leaders. Gompers held the reins on organized labor for nearly four decades and was instrumental in the gains made on behalf of America's working class. However, the AFL president was also responsible for maintaining a rigid, conservative policy that ignored the needs of many workers, whose needs would not be met until the formation of the broader Congress of Industrial Organizations in the 1930s.

Sources:

Will Chasen, Samuel Gompers: Leader of American Labor (New York: Praeger, 1971);

Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in America: A History (New York Crowell, 1966);

Samuel Gompers, Seventy Years of Life and Labour: An Autobiography (New York: Kelley, 1967);

John H. M. Laslett, "Samuel Gompers and the Rise of American Business Unionism," in Labor Leaders in America, edited by Melvyn Dubofsky and Warren Van Tine (Urbana: University of Iüinois Press, 1987), pp. 62-88.

GOMPERS, SAMUEL

Samuel Gompers, a founding member and longtime president of the american federation of labor (AFL), was instrumental in broadening the goals of the labor movement in the United States. He used his gifts as an organizer and speaker to consolidate numerous unions into one umbrella organization that lobbied successfully for improved working conditions for all tradesmen.

The son of Dutch immigrants, Gompers was born in London on January 26, 1850. He attended school briefly but began working at age 10. Initially apprenticed to a shoemaker, he chose instead to become a cigarmaker like his father. The family moved to New York in 1863, and within a year Gompers had joined the Cigar Makers' National Union.

At around this time many trades were beginning to form unions, but their power was limited because as small, individual groups they had little clout. By the 1880s, leaders of the various unions decided that by uniting in common cause they would make for a stronger political force. Late in 1881, several unions joined together to form the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU). Gompers, who had proven himself an able leader in the cigarmakers' union, was elected an officer of FOTLU.

FOTLU was a first step for organizing unions but it was too loosely connected to have any real influence. In 1886, FOTLU was restructured into the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and Gompers was elected president. Except for a one-year hiatus in 1895, Gompers remained AFL president for the rest of his life.

As AFL president, Gompers steered the organization toward practical goals. He was interested in securing living wages for union members, an eight-hour work day, comprehensive child labor laws, equal pay for women and men, and compulsory school attendance for children. To that end, he lobbied tirelessly for these and other improvements for working men and women.

"I wonder whether any of us can imagine what would be the actual condition of the working people of our country today without their organizations to protect them."
—Samuel Gompers

Gompers steered clear of political issues (although in 1899 the AFL did endorse women's suffrage). Many left-wing labor leaders thought that Gompers was too timid and ineffective, too tied to the mainstream. Anarchist emma goldman wrote that the AFL had not "grasped the social abyss which separates labor from its masters, an abyss which can never be bridged by the struggle for mere material gains." But under Gompers's leadership, labor made significant sustainable gains at the state and federal level. Workers' compensation laws were enacted to

assist those injured on the job; wages were raised; and the eight-hour day became law for a growing number of workers (including federal employees in 1912). In 1913, the federal government created the labor department, and, in 1914, it passed the clayton antitrust act, which protected union members from prosecution under the sherman antitrust act. That same year, industrialist Henry Ford initiated the eight-hour workday (at $5 per day) at his automobile plant.

When the United States entered world war i in 1917, Gompers chaired an advisory committee of the Council of National Defense, which was created to coordinate industry and resources in wartime, and called on employers and employees to stand united and not take advantage of the war to make unreasonable demands. He traveled to Europe during the war to examine labor conditions, and after the war, in 1919, he attended the negotiations for the treaty of versailles, where he was instrumental in the creation of the International Labor Organization (ILO). He attended the Congress of the Pan-American federation of Labor in Mexico City in December 1924. He collapsed on December 8 and was brought to San Antonio, Texas, where he died on December 13.

further readings

Goldman, Emma. 1925. "Samuel Gompers." The Road to Freedom. The Emma Goldman Papers: Berkeley Digital Library. Available online at <sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Writings/Essays/gompers.html> (accessed July 6, 2003).

Kaufman, Stuart Bruce. 1973. Samuel Gompers and the Origins of the American Federation of Labor. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Mandel, Bernard. 1963. Samuel Gompers: A Biography. Yellow Springs, Ohio: Antioch Press.

cross-references

Craft Union; Industrial Union; Labor Union; Trade Union.

Gompers, Samuel (1850–1924) US labour leader, b. England. He helped to found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. When it was reorganized as the American Federation of Labor (1886), Gompers became its first president, serving, except for 1895, until his death. During World War I, he headed the War Commission on Labor and served on the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense.