The Pittsburgh Press (September 23, 1944)
Background of news –
The Secretary of Labor
By Bertram Benedict
President Roosevelt, in his speech to the Teamsters Union tonight, may have some comment on Governor Dewey’s promise, if elected President, to appoint a bona-fide trade unionist to the Secretary of Labor in his Cabinet.
The Department of Labor was set up in 1913, by an act dividing the Department of Commerce and Labor which had been established in 1903. When the 1913 act was passed, the Republicans were in control of the Senate, the Democrats of the House.
In 1913, the American Federation of Labor had a membership of less than two million, and even with the independent unions such as the railroad brotherhoods, most wage-earners were outside of the unions. It might have seemed unfitting to appoint as Secretary of Labor, to represent all workers, a union official; today, with the unions claiming a total membership of around 15 million, Governor Dewey’s proposal of a union leader as Secretary of Labor seems not unfitting.
For the first Secretary of Labor, President Wilson appointed William B. Wilson of Pennsylvania, born in Scotland. Mr. Wilson had been secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers, but had been elected to Congress in 1906, and at the time of his appointment was chairman of the House Labor Committee.
Davis second to hold job
President Harding appointed as the second Secretary of Labor James J. Davis, also from Pennsylvania and also foreign-born (in Wales). Mr. Davis had been an iron puddler for a time in Ellwood, Indiana (Wendell L. Willkie’s hometown), but since 1906 had been director general of the Loyal Order of Moose. So, like Mr. Wilson, he was a former union official who had later become distinguished in other fields.
It seems substantiated that after the 1924 election, President Coolidge offered the position to John L. Lewis, who, as an enrolled Republican, had worked valiantly for the Republican ticket. However, Mr. Coolidge – and President Hoover following him – reappointed Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis retired in December 1930 after he had been elected Senator from Pennsylvania (his seat is being contested again this year). President Hoover then appointed an out-and-out union man, but one outside of the AFL – William N. Doak, legislative representative of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
Miss Perkins, whom President Roosevelt appointed in 1933, was non-unionist, but her work as New York State Industrial Commissioner had received the approbation of the unions.
Secretaries of Commerce
As the Secretary of Labor is supposed to work for the interests of labor, and the Secretary of Agriculture for farmers’ interests, the Secretary of Commerce is supposed to work for the interests of business.
When Woodrow Wilson appointed William B. Wilson as Secretary of Labor in 1913, he appointed another member of Congress, William C. Redfield, Secretary of Commerce. Mr. Redfield was a New York iron manufacturer. But as Commissioner of Public Works in Brooklyn, he had had spats with public utility corporations and moreover had agitated for a lower tariff, so that some conservative business interests considered him not quite “kosher.” He was succeeded in 1919 by Missouri Rep. J. W. Alexander, a lawyer.
Herbert Hoover, long identified with mining activities abroad, served as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. He appointed in 1929 Robert P. Lamont, a Chicago manufacturer, succeeded in 1932 by Roy D. Chapin, a Detroit auto man.
President Roosevelt’s first Secretary of Commerce was Daniel C. Roper, a lawyer who had been Internal Revenue Commissioner under Mr. Wilson. His successor in 1939, Harry L. Hopkins, was also no businessman. The present Secretary of Commerce, Jesse H. Jones, is an outstanding banker.