“Of course the idea of organized labor is a very old one. Trade unions
have been in existence since the Middle Ages, but what they needed in
this country was more cohesive strength. There were a great number
of separate unions and some general organizations, but they were
not strong enough. A new plan was needed, and we published a call
which resulted in a convention at Pittsburg, in 1881, at which the
American Federation of Labor was formed. Most of the delegates to that
convention were strongly opposed to our project for an organization
on broader lines than had been before attempted, but we carried the
point, and at present the Federation has six hundred and fifty thousand
members.”
It is a matter of history that Samuel Gompers was the founder of the
American Federation of Labor. The first impulse came from him. While
sitting at his bench in New York rolling cigars, he conceived the plan
that has made the Federation the largest and most important and useful
labor organization that has ever existed.