Mr. Gompers declined the presidency at the first convention, but
he was obliged to accept it at the second great gathering, held in
Cleveland, in 1882. For some time after his election he remained at
work at his trade, but the growing number and importance of his duties
at length made it necessary for him to devote all his time to the
Federation, which he does for a salary that many clerks would scoff
at. Mr. Gompers has received offers for nominations to congress from
both the Republican and Democratic parties in his New York district,
and has been asked by several presidents of the United States to accept
important and highly salaried offices, but he has declined them all,
feeling that his present position gives him greater opportunities of
usefulness to the workingman.
The laws whose place on the statute books are due to the efforts
of Mr. Gompers make a long list. They include sanitary inspection
for factories, mills, mines, etc., the age limit law, employers’
liabilities for damages to life and limb, wage-lien laws, uniform
car-coupling laws, anti-sweatshop legislation, the anti-conspiracy
law, the state-board-of-arbitration law, laws restricting the hours of
labor, and the enactment making the first Monday in September a holiday.