"We want a better America, an America that will give its
citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard of living so that no child
will cry for food in the midst of plenty."
First president of the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, he was organized labor's foremost
"statesman." As both idealist and pragmatist, he fought for improved wages and
hours, eliminated sweat-shop working conditions for his members, and in 1914
established a system of arbitration still in universal use today. He pioneered
in creating labor banks and low-cost housing for working people. His belief in
fair and constructive labor-management relations led to a stable clothing
industry. A founder of the CIO, he established labor as a major political
force. Allied with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he helped forge the New
Deal of the 1930's, making possible the achievement of such legislation as the
Fair Labor Standards Act, and marshalled labor's monumental role in producing
our country's tools of victory during World War II.
