Samuel Gompers Biography Labor Union Hero

Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850 – December 13, 1924) was a key American labor union leader who founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as its president for nearly four decades, from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He is credited with creating the structure of the modern American labor movement and establishing many of its essential negotiating strategies, such as collective bargaining. Fast Facts: Samuel Gompers Known for: Influential American labor union organizer and leaderBorn: January 27, 1850, in London England (migrated to the U.S. in 1863)Parents’ Names: Solomon and Sarah GompersDied: December 13, 1924, in San Antonio, TexasEducation: Left school at age 10Key Accomplishments: Founded the American Federation of Labor (1886). President of the AFL for four decades from 1886 until his death. Created procedures for collective bargaining and labor negotiations that are still used todayWife: Sophia Julian (Married in 1867)Children:   From 7 to 12, names and dates of birth not recordedInteresting Fact: Though his name sometimes appears as Samuel L. Gompers, he had no middle name. Early Life and Education Samuel Gompers was born on January 27, 1850, in London, England, to Solomon and Sarah Gompers, a Dutch-Jewish couple originally from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Though his name sometimes appears as â€Å"Samuel L. Gompers,† he had no recorded middle name. Despite being extremely poor, the family managed to send Gompers to a free Jewish school at age six. There he received a brief basic education, rare among poor families of the day. At age ten, Gompers left school and went to work as an apprentice cigar-maker. In 1863, at age 13, Gompers and his family migrated to the United States, settling in the slums of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City.   Marriage On January 28, 1867, the seventeen-year-old Gompers married sixteen-year-old Sophia Julian. They remained together until Sophia’s death in 1920. The reported number of children the couple had together varied from seven to as many as 12, depending on the source. Their names and birth dates are not available. Young Cigar Maker and Budding Union Leader Once settled in New York, Gompers father supported the large family by making cigars in the basement of their home, assisted by young Samuel. In 1864, the 14-year-old Gompers, now working full time for local cigar-maker, joined and became active in the Cigar Makers’ Local Union No. 15, a union of New York cigar makers. In his autobiography published in 1925, Gompers, in recounting his cigar-rolling days, revealed his budding concern for workers’ rights and suitable working conditions. â€Å"Any kind of an old loft served as a cigar shop. If there were enough windows, we had sufficient light for our work; if not, it was apparently no concern of the management. Cigar shops were always dusty from the tobacco stems and powdered leaves. Benches and work tables were not designed to enable the workmen to adjust bodies and arms comfortably to [the] work surface. Each workman supplied his own cutting board of lignum vitae and knife blade.† In 1873, Gompers went to work for cigar maker David Hirsch Company, which he later described as a â€Å"high-class shop where only the most skilled workmen were employed.† By 1875, Gompers had been elected president of the Cigar Makers’ International Union Local 144. Founding and Leading the AFL In 1881, Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, which reorganized into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886, with Gompers as its first president. With a year-long break in 1895, he would continue to lead the AFL until his death in 1924. As directed by Gompers, the AFL focused on securing higher wages, better working conditions, and a shorter work week. Unlike some of the more radical union activists of the day, who were trying to reshape the fundamental institutions of American life, Gompers provided a more conservative style of leadership to the AFL. In 1911, Gompers faced jail for his participation in publishing a â€Å"boycott list† of companies that AFL members would not patronize. However, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Gompers v. Buck’s Stove and Range Co., overturned his conviction. Gompers vs. the Knights of Labor, and Socialism Led by Gompers, the AFL steadily grew in size and influence, until by 1900, it had largely taken over the position of power previously held by the older Knights of Labor, Americans first labor union. While the Knights publicly denounced socialism, they sought a cooperative society in which the laborers owed the industries for which they worked. Gompers’ AFL unions, on the other hand, were concerned only with improving the wages, working conditions, and daily lives of their members. Gompers detested socialism as supported by his rival labor organizer Eugene V. Debs, head of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Throughout his forty years as AFL president, Gompers opposed Debs’ Socialist Party of America. â€Å"Socialism holds nothing but unhappiness for the human race, Gompers said in 1918. â€Å"Socialism has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy.† Gompers’ Death and Legacy Having suffered from diabetes for years, Gompers’ health began to fail in early 1923, when influenza forced him into the hospital for six weeks. By June 1924, he was unable to walk without assistance and was temporarily hospitalized again with congestive heart failure. Despite his increasingly frail condition, Gompers traveled to Mexico City in December 1924 to attend a meeting of the Pan-American Federation of Labor. On Saturday, December 6, 1924, Gompers collapsed on the floor of the meeting hall. When told by doctors that he might not survive, Gompers asked to be put on a train headed back to the U.S. saying he wanted to die on American soil. He died on December 13, 1924, in a San Antonio, Texas hospital, where his last words were, â€Å"Nurse, this is the end. God bless our American institutions. May they grow better day-by-day.   Gompers is buried in Sleepy Hollow, New York, just yards away from the grave of famed Gilded Age industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.  Ã‚   Today, Gompers is remembered as a poor European immigrant who went on to pioneer a distinctly American brand of unionism. His accomplishments have inspired later labor leaders, like George Meany, founder and longtime president of the AFL-CIO. Many of the procedures for collective bargaining and labor contracts created by Gompers and used by the unions of his AFL are still commonly used today.   Notable Quotes Though he left school at age ten and never completing a formal education, as a young teen, Gompers formed a debate club with several of this friends. It was here that he developed and honed his skills as an eloquent and persuasive public speaker. Some of his better-known quotes include: â€Å"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Show me the country that has no strikes and Ill show you the country in which there is no liberty.† Sources Gompers, Samuel (autobiography) â€Å"Seventy Years of Life and Labor.† E. P. Dutton company (1925). Easton Press (1992). ASIN: B000RJ6QZCâ€Å"American Federation of Labor (AFL).† The Library of CongressLivesay, Harold C. â€Å"Samuel Gompers and Organized Labor in America.† Boston: Little, Brown, 1978

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Reaping the Whirlwind The Civil Rights Movement in...

When a person, who is a citizen of this country, thinks about civil rights, they often they about the Civil Rights Movement which took place in this nation during mid 11950s and primarily through the 1960s. They think about the marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and other demonstrations that took place during that period. They also think about influential people during that period such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, John Lewis, Rosa parks, and other people who made contributions during that movement which change the course of societys was of life in America. In some people view, the Civil Rights Movement began when the Supreme Court rendered their decision in Brown vs. Education, or when Rosa Parks refused to give up her†¦show more content†¦In fact, Congress had to pass several pieces of legislation to spell out specifically what those rights were so they could no longer be assumed as they previously were. The issue that was primarily discussed throughout the book was the right to vote and for Negroes to hold political offices. For some reason it was hard for people of European descent to see blacks equal to their capabilities. An example of this would be James Alston returned home from a Republican Party meeting, late one Saturday night at the Negro Zion Church in Tuskegee. Alston was the leader of the local black Republicans and also represented Macon County in the Alabama Legislature. As he and his wife were going to bed, gunfire was blasted through their house like hail. Alston was struck in the back and hip and his wife, who was pregnant at the time, was hit in the foot. Incredibly, nobody was seriously injured in which more than three hundred-buckshot holes were counted. J. T. Menifee, who was the county general and probate judge who was a Republican aligned with the Democrats made it absolutely clear that how white felt about blacks holding political offices. He made a stern war ning on Saturday night events very clear: quot;a nigger couldnt hold no office in this county no longer.quot; (p. 4). He later he told Alston that he was going to be shot and that quot;a nigger wasnt fit for nothing else than to

Response to Globalization Essay Example For Students

Response to Globalization Essay Globalization can be looked into many different various ways. It can be look as a process or method that is rapidly reshaping the world. Improved in technology and communication bring down the barriers separating between countries and government. The world becomes more interconnected more then ever in the past. It is easy to travel from one place to another with a million mile of distance. All kind of product can be found in all places in this world such as McDonald and Pizza Hut. In general, this might be look as a positive effect but in deep, it also created a negative side effect too many developing countries. Globalization can be result in both positive and negative way depends on how people see it in different ways. Globalization looked as a positive ways. Globalization brings down the gab between developed and developing country. Nowadays to travel from Thai to United State might take more then a week by old style air plane. Today, the fasted air plane can get you from Thai to USA within a couple hours. Globalization also connected and helps each county to have a good and strong relation ship such as UN and WTO organization. UN helps in term of co-operation between the nations and tries to prevent war between the two countries such as India and Pakistan. UN also help the poor countries by provided them with good and services. WTO helps bring down the tariff of good and service from one nation to other. Not only that, globalization help the world becoming more effective in term of communication. Today we have an e-mail which can sent any information to other country as easy as tab your finger on the mouse. Let look as a harmful effect that bring to all developing countries especially on poor and small once. Nothing comes for free. All service and good are costly which only some country that can effort its. If we look deeply into those poor countries we can see that they got nothing in return from becoming part of globalization world. Because they are poor so they can not effort any of those hi-technology and all expensive good. Then how can we say globalization bring developing to all nation. Not only tha t, globalization also destroy any culture and traditional of other countries. A good example in this case is the influences of Western culture to Thai teenagers. The culture effects of globalization can be seen in dress, dining and music and. In most capital of the world, jeans and T-shirts seem to be standard attire. McDonalds and pizza Hut are example of global fast-food chains. Pop and rock music have become standard listening all around the world. Thai teenagers are forgetting what the Thai traditional are like. Most of them are only lessen to international music including me too. Most of them might not even know or have heart any on Thai traditional music. Instead of going to the temple they prefer to go to the pub, nigh club and karaoke bar. All in all, globalization bring both good and bad positive in the same time. Globalization are made the world are more interconnected in various way but it also destroy some nation culture. Nothing is perfect in this world. We can not judge weather globalization is good or bad. It depends on how you will receive it a nd use it in a positive or negative way. Just do what you think it the best fit for you and do not care what the other say just believe in yourself.

King Lear Edmund Essay Example For Students

King Lear Edmund Essay Shakespeares King Lear is a story of treachery and deceit. The villainy of the play knows no bounds. Family lines are ignored in an overwhelming quest for power. This villainy is epitomized in the character of Edmund, bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester.Terms to describe Edmund might include young, ambitious, evil, manipulative, calculating, power-hungry, cruel, hateful and deceitful. Through Edmunds actions, words and the opinions of the other players the audience comes to an understanding of his character.Edmund is evil personified; the antithesis of his legitimate brother, Edgar, who represents all that is good in the play. Nature art my goddess reveals that Edmund does not believe in God. The prince of darkness is a gentleman is a remark which ties himself to the devil. Conspiracies to have his brother banished, and his fathers eyes removed are all evil actions for which Edmund can be held accountable. The evil Edmund displays in the play leads the audience to hate him for his remorselessness and his pursuit of power at any cost. The evil that Edmund represents walks hand in hand with the moral issue of win at all costs. This win at all costs attitude helps Edmund to gain the throne at the end of then play. This attitude is displayed by his Although his thoughts and actions are sometimes clouded by hate, Edmund is very successful in his manipulation of others. He manipulates his father to believe that his loving son Edgar has conspired to kill him Edmund is displayed as a most toad-spotted traitor. When we first see Edmund, he is already knee deep in treachery. His need for power has already clouded his mind to the extent that his first act is a double-cross of his own brother. Edmund composes a false letter to his father implicating his brother, Edgar in a plot to kill Gloucester. Edmund then goes to Edgar and convinces him to run away. Edgar, like his father is easily deceived, and runs. Edmunds evil trickery continues to increase in its cruelty until he commits an inconceivable crime. Edmund has reached a point in his pursuit of power that he will stop at nothing to gain more. He writes another letter. This one is similar to the first, except instead of implicating his brother to his father, it implicates his father in a plot with France to kill The Duke of Cornwall. The King decides that Gloucesters supposed treachery cannot be tolerated and orders that his eyes be torn out. At this point, Edmund seems to be unequivocally evil.