Gompers, Samuel (1850-1924)

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Item Relations

Written by (13)
Mentioned in (16)
Received by (2)
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Address to the Women's Trade Union League, March 26, 1905 (excerpt)

Hamilton Holt, Fannie Fern Phillips Andrews, & Frederick Lynch to Jane Addams, July 23, 1915

For An International Embassy of Labor, August 17, 1918

Jane Addams to Alice Thacher Post, January 6, 1919

Roosevelt, the Social Reformer, February 9, 1919

Committee on American and Japanese Relations Invitation List, April 8, 1921

General Committee on the Limitation of Armament, October 1921

General Committee on the Limitation of Armament Declaration and Membership, November 1921

Jane Addams to Florence Gottschalk Taussig, November 23, 1921

General Committee on the Limitation of Armament Program, ca. December 1921

Emily Greene Balch to Jane Addams, January 17, 1922

Lucia Ames Mead to Jane Addams, August 7, 1922

Address at the International Peace Congress, The Hague, December 13, 1922

James Alfred Moss to Jane Addams, April 8, 1924

Clarence Miller Penfield to Jane Addams, June 3, 1924

Statement Regarding History of the Language of the Child Labor Amendment, ca. October 1924

Announcement, Association pour la Sauvegarde du Droit es Gens, 1915

John Dewey et al. to Andrew Carnegie et al. January 31, 1917

Comments

Birth Date

1850-01-27

Death Date

1924-12-13

Birthplace

London, England

Biographical Text

Samuel Gompers was an English-born activist for American labor. Gompers first got involved in the labor union movement when he moved to the United States and started working as a cigar maker at the age of ten. His involvement in the cigar maker Union gave him a platform for his lifelong labor activism. Gompers is widely known for founding the American Federation of Labor, a union organization of which he served as president from its founding in 1886 until 1894, and then 1896 to his death in 1924. He restricted membership to those in trade unions and refused to ally with more liberal and inclusive unions like the Knights of Labor. The AFL initially focused primarily on "bread and butter" economic issues, like pay and hours, but ended up taking a more political stance in later years. Gompers died in 1924 after facing a long year of multiple illnesses.

Gompers married Sophia Julian in 1866. Together they had twelve children.

Occupation

Labor activist

Union organizer

Source

Wikipedia

Collection

People

Map

Edited By

DeLora, Renee

Rights

Public domain

Gender

Male

First appears

1901

Bibliography and Links

AFL-CIO

Wikipedia

Citation

“Gompers, Samuel (1850-1924),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed December 3, 2023, http://mail.digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/759.

Gompers, Samuel (1850-1924)

Item Relations

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, October 17, 1901

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, February 14, 1903

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, February 26, 1903

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, March 10, 1903

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, January 31, 1907

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, February 4, 1907

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, March 5, 1908

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, March 13, 1908

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, December 15, 1913

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, December 30, 1914

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, January 9, 1915

Samuel Gompers to Central Labor Union, September 10, 1921

Samuel Gompers to Jane Addams, September 17, 1921