Dear Readers,
Samuel Gompers was an immigrant cigarmaker who rose to become one of the most powerful labor leaders in the United States by the early 20th Century. He founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and served as president from 1885-1894, and after a break of one year, again from 1895-1924. A labor leader might seem an odd choice for an assignment over economic influencers, but, given that he helped found an organization that, to this day, still represents millions of American workers, he certainly influenced 20th Century economics by pushing for the organization of workers, and trying to have an impact on government policy. My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were union steelworkers. I chose a different path, and became, first, a firefighter and then a police officer, belonging to unions in both jobs, so Gompers was spoken of with great reverence in my house when I was a child.
However, like all of us, Gompers was a complicated person. In fact, some of the biggest influences he had might land him in hot water with some historians and social media influencers today. He was adamantly opposed to unlimited immigration from Europe, and opposed to all immigration from Asia, fearing that it would drive down the wages of working-class Americans. He often bragged that the AFL excluded Chinese workers from membership. Gompers used his considerable political muscle to push for immigration laws passed in 1921 and 1924. Likewise, Gompers did not believe in pan-unionism. He openly fought with the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), believing them to be more committed to world socialism than to helping organized labor. By the time of his death, Gompers had also marginalized the role of the socialist wing within his own union too.
In a way, Gompers proved that labor, business, and politicians could co-exist. Far from being a radical, he instead took a middle of the road approach. Gompers stressed that his union and its membership should focus on tangible issues like pay and working conditions, within the capitalist system, rather than seeking to destroy it, as some of the more radical elements of the IWW wanted. During World War One, he worked to suppress anti-war propaganda among union members, and, due to his work on behalf of the war effort, Gompers served as an advisor to the American delegation at the Paris Peace Conference on issues affecting international workers’ rights. Historian Ralph Riaco noted that after the war, as a reward for his help fighting the IWW, the Government backed Gompers’ efforts to promote unionization and collective bargaining.
While not all growth in Union membership can be attributable to Gompers alone, a look at the numbers will indicate the explosive growth which took place during his time as President of the AFL. The table below shows a total American membership of roughly two million workers in 1910. By 1920, that number reached five million.
It is important to note that this is total union membership, and not all unions fell under the AFL umbrella during this period. To see how much of this growth came within the AFL, we must consult a second chart. The 1926 American Labor Yearbook shows that the membership of the AFL was 1.5 million in 1910, increasing to 4 million in 1920. When compared to the previous chart, it is apparent that the majority of growth was due to the expansion of the AFL under Gompers’ leadership, but there were still a million union members outside of the AFL in 1920.
I would argue that much of the growth, though by no means all, is due to the work of Gompers. The American Federation of Labor is really a union of unions, and during the early 20th Century, Gompers stayed busy adding more unions to the ALF fold. With each one, the membership grew. Likewise, as more people joined unions, the membership went up exponentially. The growth coincides with the onset of the Progressive Era, in which the government began to actively involve itself in attempting to solve a myriad of social problems, among them issues related to workplace safety and the pay and treatment of workers. The voices of five million unionized workers in 1920 no doubt helped spur politicians into action, for union members are also voters, who vote in accordance with their economic best interests in mind.
Though overall union membership as a percentage of the workforce is low in the 21st Century, public sector unions such as mine still enjoy robust collective bargaining agreements, good health benefits, and quality pensions. The origins of those benefits today lay in the work Samual Gompers did in the early 20th Century in not only unionizing more workers, but also getting the government, albeit temporarily, onboard with the idea of working with, rather than against, labor.
L.H.
Ghosts of the Past 