Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

CONVENTION
NOTICE

The Ninth Convention (Third Triennial Convention) of the International Union of Elevator Constructors will convene in the

RALEIGH HOTEL

Twelfth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C., Monday, September 11th, at 9.00 A. M.

JOSEPH F. MURPHY,

President.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small]

NOTICE TO DELEGATES

The Raleigh

Erected on the site of the famous Kirkwood House, where on April 15, 1865, the Presidential Oath of office was administered to Andrew Johnson by Chief Justice Chase, stands the Raleigh, of which the newest addition was completed in November, 1911.

The hotel faces Pennsylvania Avenue, famous for the parades that have marched from the Capitol to the White House along this historic thoroughfare, and is convenient to every feature of the city's official and business life.

From the Union Station, the steamboat wharves, and many trolley lines connecting suburban Washington, the Raleigh is easily accessible.

The Raleigh is absolutely fire-proof and contains nearly five hundred rooms. The convenience and safety of its guests are promoted to the maximum.

This modern, up-to-date hotel was chosen to be the headquarters during the Convention of the International Union of Elevator Constructors.

The Committee on Arrangements have secured the following rates:

Single Room, without bath, $2.00,

Double Room, without bath, 3.00,

PER DAY

$2.50 and $3.00

3.50 and 4.00

[blocks in formation]

The Life of Samuel Gompers

President of American Federation of Labor

Samuel Gompers was born in London, England, January 27, 1850. His father, Saul Gompers, is a cigarmaker. His grandfather, Samuel Gompers, was a man of philosophical turn of mind, of extraordinary courage and fearlessness, and well informed through knowledge acquired by wide travel in Europe.

As a boy, Samuel attended school from his sixth to his tenth year, then was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but, disliking the business, he learned the trade of his father, and while working as a cigarmaker attended evening school for four years.

Being the eldest child of a family of eight, he began to aid his father in their support as soon as he could earn wages. He continued to work at his trade until he was 37 years old, and during all this time he was a student, an organizer, the spokesman and advocate of the rights to which in his view the working people were entitled.

He came to the United States when 13 years old, settled in New York City, and the next year (1864) helped to organize the Cigarmakers' International Union, which now numbers 50,000, each member counting his membership in numerical order. His membership card is No. 1 and he served the union as secretary and president for six years. He edited its local paper, "The Picket," during that time.

He was president of the New York Workingmen's Assembly for two years; he was nominated by both the Democratic and Republican party in his district for state senator in 1882; the Republican party offered him the

nomination as Representative in Congress in 1884; Governor Hill tendered him a place on the State Board of Arbitration in 1885, and President McKinley on the Industrial Commission in 1898, all of which honors he declined.

He was connected with the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada, and the American Federation of Labor, its successor, in continuous official capacity during the early period of their existence and up to 1887, without salary or recompense, when he was elected the second time as president with a salary of $1,000 per year.

He is, and has been, first vice-president of the Cigarmakers' International Union of America for many years, and was instrumental in having adopted by that organization the initiative and referendum, not only for the purpose of enacting laws, but also in the election of officers.

In order to be of more service to his fellow workmen in the cause of uplifting labor, he had steadfastly refused to be actively connected with any partisan political party. He was affiliated with the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City, established in 1867 by Felix Adler.

Mr. Gompers speaks and reads two languages other than English. One is German, which he learned that he might have the thoughts and reasonings of the German economic writers, knowing that translators sometimes have a purpose; the other is the language of his forefathers in Holland. Although born in England, Mr. Gompers' people originally came from the land of the dykes.

Mr. Gompers has four children, Samu, Jr., who is a printer and a member of the Typographical Union;

« AnteriorContinuar »