Related Articles

The IBEW made another important move in the early 1920s. An item in the March 1920 Journal of Electrical Workers and Operators (as the IBEW Journal was then known) stated, “ Complying with the instructions of the [1919] New Orleans Convention, the officers and Executive Council of the Brotherhood investigated the matter of moving the International Headquarters from Springfield, Illinois, to some other locality. Investigation of this subject committed the officers to the belief that the most practical location of the International Headquarters of the Brotherhood is Washington, D.C.

A month later the Journal reported, “We can advise [the membership] that the moving . . .is an accomplished fact, and the headquarters are now comfortably housed in commodious quarters, Machinist Building; Corner of 9th Street and Mt. Vernon Place, occupying the entire fifth floor.” The 1920 headquarters was across a small park from the AFL’s offices, and it permitted the IBEW to coordinate lobbying Congress and staying in touch with other unions and the AFL. All of those reasons have kept the I.O., despite several moves, in Washington ever since.

The hardships of the ‘20s brought workingmen and women together. The unity of labor was increasing at about the same rate as conditions for working people decreased. So the death of AFL President Samuel Gompers in 1924 came as a particularly hard loss. IBEW Telephone Operators Department President Julia O’Connor wrote one of many eulogies printed in the January 1925 Journal. She said,

American labor will not soon again see such a leader… as Samuel Gompers. It has been an America epic, his life—the immigrant boy cigar-maker, who became the most powerful industrial statesman of his time, the friend and counselor of presidents, the guiding genius of the tremendous social force which is the labor movement….

The pot of gold at the foot of America’s rainbow for Samuel Gompers was complete and absolute equality of opportunity, a genuine industrial economic emancipation wage earners. He carried his country far on the road of realization of that ideal, always with patriotism in its finest sense, always with vision, always with sagacity, and in success or temporary failure always with unfailing humor and kindness...

Samuel Gompers’s passing ended a long period of growth for organized labor. With his death, labor was forced to look to the future; and that future did not look bright. Organized labor may still have a way to go to reach the future Brother Gompers sought, but today we all are feeling the warmth of the brightness of’ his legacy.

Page 2 of 2
Page 1 | Page 2
1919-1924 On the Move