GOMPERS, SAMUEL

GOMPERS, SAMUEL (1850–1924), U.S. trade unionist. Gompers was born in London and after a few years of primary school was apprenticed in the cigar-making trade. When Gompers' family immigrated to America in 1863, settling on the Lower East Side of New York City, he joined a local of the Cigar Makers' National Union. From this point Gompers' life centered on trade union activities. He became a leader of the cigar makers' union in the 1870s, playing a major role in its reorganization (1879) through increased dues, sickness and death benefits, and substantial control of locals by the national officers. Gompers helped to establish the American Federation of Labor in 1886, and became its president. He also edited the official journal of the Federation from 1894 until his death. Most of Gompers' public activities were related to his position in the American Federation of Labor. From 1900 he served as a vice president of the National Civic Federation, which sought to promote stable labor relations through collective bargaining and personal contact between labor leaders, industrialists, and bankers. Gompers received considerable criticism from labor sources because of these associations. He also played a prominent role in winning strong support from American trade unions for President Woodrow Wilson's war policies in 1917 and 1918; and he did much to protect organized labor's interests during World War I. Gompers was a formative influence upon the American labor movement, as well as a spokesman for it. Although he would have preferred the former role, the decentralized American labor movement did not permit any one individual to exercise much influence over the constituent trade unions. Gompers often had to rely upon his reputation and influence in order to be effective, and he often had to accept the role of spokesman even when his own views differed. Thus, for instance, despite his personal belief in organizing black workers, Gompers acquiesced in the refusal of the AFL to attempt to enforce an anti-discrimination policy upon its affiliates. However, in most matters, his views became almost synonymous with those of the leading unions in the Federation. Gompers argued that the improvement of workers' wages, hours, and employment conditions could only be accomplished through the formation of strong trade unions to exert direct economic pressure on the employer. The resulting collective bargaining agreements protected the basic interests of the worker. Such labor organizations must be independent of control by politicians, intellectuals, or any non-labor source. This viewpoint in effect acknowledged that organized labor lacked the political power to achieve its objectives through legislation, and that the climate of opinion in the United States was usually hostile to trade unions so that apparent victories might be reversed quickly. Moreover, Gompers believed that men view economic and social questions in terms of their material interests, which meant that the worker could not expect continuing support from the middle class, since their objectives would inevitably conflict. Workers must therefore avoid dependence on legislation or political action. Gompers maintained a vitriolic hostility to socialism almost throughout his presidency of the AFL. The socialists called for industrial unionism and political action, as opposed to Gompers' belief in craft unionism dedicated to the immediate interests of a relatively homogenous membership. The socialists viewed the labor organization as only the first step   in the workers' struggle for social justice. Ultimately, Gompers accepted capitalism, providing it could guarantee an adequate standard of living for the worker, and he had little patience with claims that the entire economic system had to be reordered to accomplish this. Despite his immigrant background, Gompers demanded the restriction of immigration in order to protect the competitive position of workers in America. Although he called for the unionization of all workers, he basically accepted the decision of the AFL to concentrate on the skilled and retain the craft basis for organizing, which maintained the position of the existing trade unions. Clearly, Gompers was an effective leader for organized workers, but for the greatest part of the labor force his program had little validity since these workers were unorganized and likely to remain so. Gompers' career was thus marked by the paradox that he was an able trade unionist but a largely ineffective labor leader. Gompers wrote American Labor and the War (1919), Labor and the Common Welfare (1919), Labor and the Employer (1920), and Party of the Third Part: The Story of the Kansas Industrial Relations Court (with H. Allen, 1921). His autobiography, Seventy Years of Life and Labor (2 vols.), was published posthumously in 1925. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Mandel, Samuel Gompers (1963); F.C. Thorne, Samuel Gompers (1957); R.H. Harvey, Samuel Gompers (1935); L. Reed, Labor Philosophy of Samuel Gompers (1930); DAB, 7 (1931), 369–73. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Livesay, Samuel Gompers & Organized Labor in America (1978); W. Dick, Labor and Socialism in America: The Gompers Era (1972); W. Chasan, Samuel Gompers: Leader of American Labor (1971). (Irwin Yellowitz)