GOMPERS, SAMUEL

born Jan. 27, 1850, London died Dec. 13, 1924, San Antonio, Texas, U.S. U.S. labour leader and first president of the American Federation of Labor. Gompers emigrated in 1863 to New York, where he followed his father's trade of cigar making and became a naturalized citizen in 1872. As a labour leader, Gompers gained a worldwide reputation for conservatism. In a period when the U.S. was bitterly hostile to labour organizations, he evolved the principles of "voluntarism," which stressed that unions should exert coercion by economic actions, i.e., strikes and boycotts. In 1886 Gompers led the national organization of cigar makers from the Knights of Labor to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL), of which he was president from 1886 to 1924 (except for one year, 1895). He distrusted the influence of intellectual reformers, fearing any activity which would divert labour's energy from economic goals. To make unionism respectable as a bulwark against radicalism and irresponsible strikes, he encouraged binding, written trade agreements and advocated the primacy of national organizations over both local unions and international affiliations. Gompers kept the AFL politically neutral until pressed by employer tactics, including an open-shop drive, and by federal court injunctions which greatly weakened labour's economic weapons, the strike, picket line, and boycott. The Democratic presidential platform of 1908 included an anti-injunction plank; hence, Gompers supported William Jennings Bryan's unsuccessful presidential candidacy. With the victory of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, the Clayton amendments to the Sherman Antitrust Act (1914) and the Adamson Act (1916) were passed and a Cabinet post for labour was created (1913). Gompers hailed the Clayton amendments as labour's "Magna Carta," but the U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of the act vitiated this hope.