Robert F. Wagner

For more information on Robert Ferdinand Wagner, visit Britannica.com.

(b. Germany, 8 June 1877; d. 4 May 1953) US; US Senator Wagner emigrated with his family to New York in 1885. He was educated in New York and qualified as a lawyer. He made his reputation in fighting many high-profile labour cases. He was elected as a Democrat in the state Senate and became the party's floor leader. At the time he had to work with the notorious Tammany Hall political machine. As a pro-labour politician, he sponsored bills covering wages and working hours for women and children and workmen's compensation. He became a judge in 1918. In 1926 he was elected to the Senate for New York and he was re-elected three times until his retirement from ill-health in 1949. In the Senate he continued with his interest in labour and employment issues and was a strong supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. He introduced the National Recovery Act (NRA), to provide for minimum wage and maximum hours and tackle unemployment by public works construction programmes. His Wagner Act (1935), passed after the Supreme Court struck down the NRA, protected workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively through their own representatives and forbade employers from discriminating against unions. He also helped to establish the National Labor Relations Board, to rule on disputes arising from the act and to settle inter-union disputes. Some of these gains for labour were later reversed by the *Taft-Hartley Act passed in 1947 by a Republican Congress. In his first term in the Senate, he sponsored a bill for a census of the unemployed, a scheme of public works, and the creation of an employment agency to assist in the transfer of labour from areas of high to low unemployment.

Robert Ferdinand Wagner (1877-1953) was probably the most effective legislative leader in the history of the U.S. Senate and one of the principal architects of modern American political liberalism.

Robert F. Wagner was born in Nastätten, Germany, on June 8, 1877, into a staunch Lutheran family, the youngest of nine children. In 1886 the family emigrated to New York City. Robert was unable to speak English when he entered school, but he proved a diligent student. He sold newspapers and worked as a grooery boy to supplement the family's income. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1898, a Phi Beta Kappa. Two years later he graduated from the New York Law School and gained admittance to the state bar.

Attracted to politics, Wagner associated himself with the Democratic Tammany Hall machine. In 1904 he won election to the New York Assembly and 4 years later to the Senate, becoming Democratic floor leader. He helped push through legislation pertaining to workmen's compensation and other social welfare measures.

In 1926, after eight years as a member of the New York Supreme Court, Wagner won election to the U.S. Senate. He was reelected three times. He became chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee in 1931; 2 years later, after the election of Franklin Roosevelt and solid Democratic majorities, Wagner moved to the center of the liberal reform movement. He drafted the crucial National Industrial Recovery Act, and in 1933-1934 he chaired the new National Labor Board. During the remainder of the 1930s Wagner authored and sponsored a long list of far-reaching social legislation. In 1935 his career reached its pinnacle with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act - commonly called the Wagner Act - which committed the Federal government to protecting and encouraging unions.

Wagner was a loyal supporter of Roosevelt's policies. During World War II Wagner's main concern was warbred inflation. In the Employment Act of 1946 he helped bring about Federal responsibility for maintaining a healthy economy, and at his urging Congress significantly expanded social security coverage and benefits.

Wagner gave up his Senate seat in 1949. He died in New York City on May 4, 1953. His son, Robert Wagner, Jr., was mayor of New York City from 1954 to 1965.

Further Reading

J. Joseph Huthmacher gives a full account of Wagner's public career in Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of Urban Liberalism (1968). Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt (3 vols., 1957-1960), shows Wagner to be a central figure in the development of the New Deal, as does William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932-1940 (1963). Wagner's work in labor and housing legislation is treated by Harry A. Millis and Emily Clark Brown, From the Wagner Act to Taft-Hartley (1950), and by Timothy L. McDonnel, The Wagner Housing Act (1957). For Wagner's later employment legislation see Stephen K. Bailey, Congress Makes a Law: The Story behind the Employment Act of 1946 (1950).

• Born: June 8, 1877, Nastatten, Germany
• Political party: Democrat
• Education: College of the City of New York, graduated, 1898; New York Law School, graduated, 1900
• Senator from New York: 1927–49
• Died: May 4, 1953, New York, N.Y.

Short, stocky, with a heavy New York accent (saying “woik” for “work”), Robert F. Wagner may have appeared to be a typical machine politician. But he proved to be one of the most effective legislators of the New Deal era. Wagner worked best behind closed committee doors, making his case for legislation, reaching necessary compromises, and rounding up votes before going into debate on the Senate floor. Wagner sponsored a long list of important legislation, but his two greatest achievements occurred in 1935: the Wagner Act, guaranteeing labor's right to organize into unions, and the Social Security Act to provide old-age pensions to most Americans. Milton Handler, a young New Dealer who watched Wagner firsthand, credited Wagner's legislative success to these qualities:

First, his ingrained, humanitarian, progressive philosophy; second, his uncanny capacity to recruit good men to do the detail work for him; third, his masterful ability to maneuver bills through the legislative mill; and fourth, and most important of all, his willingness and determination to stick to his basic conviction through thick and thin—in a word, his “guts.”

Sources

• J. Joseph Huthmacher, Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of Urban Liberalism (New York: Atheneum, 1968)

Robert Ferdinand Wagner served as a U.S. senator from New York from 1927 to 1949. Wagner was a strong believer in the social welfare state and sponsored many federal laws that have shaped U.S. law and society. In the 1930s he worked closely with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and helped to implement much of Roosevelt's New Deal agenda.

Wagner was born on June 8, 1877, in Nast;auatten, Germany. With his family he immigrated to the United States in 1885, settling in a New York City tenement neighborhood. He graduated from City College in New York in 1898 and studied law at New York Law School, where he earned his degree in 1900.

Wagner was admitted to the New York bar in 1900 and practiced law on his own for a short time. He then abandoned his law practice to enter Democratic party politics. Wagner worked his way up the party ladder and won a seat in the state legislature in 1904. In 1908 he was elected to the New York Senate, where he soon established himself as a socially progressive leader, investigating industrial working conditions and introducing legislation that sought to use the power of government to improve the lives of blue-collar workers and the poor.

Wagner became a judge of the New York Supreme Court in 1919 but resigned in 1926 to run as the Democratic party candidate for the U.S. Senate. He won the election and took office in 1927 during the heyday of the "Roaring Twenties." The U.S. economy was at its postwar zenith, and the Republican party controlled Congress. Wagner introduced legislation to help organized labor and the unemployed, but his proposals were unsuccessful.

Wagner's political fortunes changed dramatically with the Great Depression of the 1930s and the election of President Roosevelt in 1932. Like Wagner, Roosevelt believed that the federal government needed to play a larger role in the activities of the national economy and in the lives of U.S. citizens. Wagner helped draft and sponsor the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 (48 Stat. 195), which established the National Recovery Administration to administer codes of fair practice within each industry. Under these codes, labor and management negotiated minimum wages, maximum hours, and fair trade practices for each industry. The Roosevelt administration sought to use these codes to stabilize production, raise prices, and protect labor and consumers. In Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495, 55 S. Ct. 837, 79 L. Ed. 1570 (1935), however, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the NIRA.

Wagner also sponsored the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.A. §301 et seq.), the bedrock of U.S. social welfare law. He is best remembered for the Wagner Act, also known as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (29 U.S.C.A. §151 et seq.). The Wagner Act recognized for the first time the right of workers to organize unions and to collectively bargain with employers. The statute also established the National Labor Relations Board to enforce labor-management relations in the United States.

Wagner sponsored numerous New Deal programs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and the U.S. Housing Authority, which provided loans for low-cost public housing. When World War II began, the country's attention shifted to international issues, and Wagner's social welfare agenda fell out of favor. He lobbied unsuccessfully for a national health care system and for antilynching legislation.

Wagner resigned from the Senate for health reasons in 1949. He died on May 5, 1953, in New York City. In 1954 his son, Robert F. Wagner, Jr., was elected mayor of New York City and served until 1965.

For other persons named Robert Wagner, see Robert Wagner (disambiguation).

Robert Ferdinand Wagner
Portrait of Robert F. Wagner in the U.S. Senate Reception Room
United States Senator from New York
In office March 4, 1927 – June 28, 1949
Preceded by	James W. Wadsworth, Jr.
Succeeded by	John Foster Dulles
Acting Lieutenant Governor of New York
In office October 17, 1913 – December 31, 1914
Governor	Martin H. Glynn
Preceded by	Martin H. Glynn
Succeeded by	Edward Schoeneck
Born	June 3, 1877(1877-06-03) Nastätten, Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	May 4, 1953 (aged 75) New York City, New York
Political party	Democratic
Religion	Roman Catholic

Robert Ferdinand Wagner (June 8, 1877 – May 4, 1953) was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949.

Contents 1 Origin and early life 2 Political career 3 Brain Trust 4 U.S. Senate 5 Death and legacy 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

Origin and early life

He was born in Nastätten, then in the Province Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now in Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Federal Republic of Germany) and immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1885^[1]. His family settled in New York City and Wagner attended the public schools. He graduated from the College of the City of New York (now named City College) in 1898 where he was a brother of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and from New York Law School in 1900. He was admitted to the bar in 1900.

Political career

He was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1905 to 1908, and of the New York State Senate from 1909 to 1918. He was chosen President pro tempore of the New York State Senate for the 1911, 1912 and 1913 sessions, and became Acting Lieutenant Governor of New York after the impeachment of Governor William Sulzer, and the succession of Lt. Gov. Martin H. Glynn to the governorship. In January 1915, following the loss of the Senate majority by the Democrats, he became Minority Leader until his retirement in 1918. Also, during his time in the Senate, he served as Chairman of the State Factory Investigating Committee (1911–1915). Wagner was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Conventions of 1915 and 1938, and a justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1919 to 1926.

Brain Trust

Wagner was also a member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Brain Trust. He was very involved in labor and protection of the average worker. He was one of the leading heads in the creation of the National Industrial Recovery Act and the National Recovery Administration. After the Supreme Court had ruled the National Industrial Recovery Act and the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional and it was destroyed Wagner helped pass a similar law known as the National Labor Relations Act. The National Labor Relations Act, perhaps Wagner's greatest achievement, was a leading event that led to the fair treatment of workers.

Wagner introduced the Social Security Act bill into the United States Senate.

U.S. Senate

Wagner was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1926, and reelected in 1932, 1938 and 1944. He resigned on June 28, 1949, due to ill health. He was unable to attend any sessions of the 80th or 81st Congress from 1947 to 1949 because of a heart ailment.^[2] Wagner was Chairman of the Committee on Patents in the 73rd Congress, of the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys in the 73rd and 74th Congresses, and of the Committee on Banking and Currency in the 75th through 79th Congresses. He was a delegate to the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944.

His most important legislative achievements include the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 and the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act‎ of 1937. After serving as chairman of the National Labor Board and witnessing first-hand its problems, he introduced and won passage of the National Labor Relations Act, or Wagner Act,^[3] that created the National Labor Relations Board in 1935. He also introduced the Railway Pension Law, and cosponsored the Wagner-O'Day Act, the predecessor to the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act.

The Wagner-Hatfield amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 aimed at turning over twenty-five percent of all radio channels to non-profit radio broadcasters did not pass. He also co-sponsored with Rep. Edith Rogers (R-Mass.) the Wagner-Rogers Bill to admit 20,000 Jewish refugees under the age of 14 to the United States from Nazi Germany, but the bill was rejected by the United States Congress in February 1939.

On the cover of Time magazine: March 19, 1934.

Wagner and Edward P. Costigan sponsored a federal anti-Lynching law. In 1935 attempts were made to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt to support the Costigan-Wagner Bill. However, Roosevelt refused to support a bill that would punish sheriffs who failed to protect their prisoners from lynch mobs. He believed that he would lose the support of Southern Democrats in Congress and lose his entire New Deal program. There were 18 lynchings of blacks in the South in 1935, but after the threat of federal legislation the number fell to eight in 1936, and to two in 1939.

Death and legacy

Wagner was a Brother of Phi Sigma Kappa during his college years at the Zeta Chapter of the City College of New York.

After leaving the Senate, Mr. Wagner was a partner in the firm later known as Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey.^[4]

Robert Wagner died in New York City and is interred in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York City.

His son was Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Mayor of New York City from 1954 to 1965.

On September 14, 2004, a portrait of Wagner, along with one of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, was unveiled in the Senate Reception Room. The new portraits joined a group of distinguished former Senators, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Robert A. Taft. Portraits of this group of Senators, known as the "Famous Five", were unveiled on March 12, 1959.

Notes

1. ^ [1]"Birthplace: Nastatten, Hessen-Nassau, Germany"
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/1990_wagner.htm
4. ^ Finley, Kumble, Major Law Firm, Facing Revamping or Dissolution - New York Times

References

• J. Joseph Huthmacher: Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of Urban Liberalism (1968)

New York Assembly
Preceded by Gotthardt Litthauer	New York State Assembly, New York County, 30th District 1905	Succeeded by Maurice F. Smith
Preceded by Thomas Rock	New York State Assembly, New York County, 22nd District 1907 - 1908	Succeeded by George Baumann
New York State Senate
Preceded by John T. McCall	New York State Senate, 16th District 1909 - 1918	Succeeded by Joseph Foley
Political offices
Preceded by George H. Cobb	President pro tempore of the New York State Senate 1911 - 1914	Succeeded by John F. Murtaugh
Preceded by Martin H. Glynn	Lieutenant Governor of New York Acting 1913 - 1914	Succeeded by Edward Schoeneck
Preceded by Elon R. Brown	Minority Leader of the New York State Senate 1915 - 1918	Succeeded by James A. Foley
United States Senate
Preceded by James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.	United States Senator (Class 3) from New York 1927–1949 Served alongside: Royal S. Copeland, James M. Mead, Irving Ives	Succeeded by John Foster Dulles

v • d • e Majority Leaders of the New York State Senate Presidents pro tempore Robertson • McCarthy • vacant • McCarthy • Pitts • Fassett • Cantor • Saxton • O'Connor • Ellsworth • Raines • Allds • Cobb • Wagner • Murtaugh • Brown • Walters • Lusk • Walker • Knight • Fearon • Dunnigan Majority Leaders Pitcher • Hanley • Feinberg • Wicks • Mahoney • Zaretzki • Brydges • Anderson • Marino • Bruno • Skelos • Smith • Leadership crisis • Espada

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v • d • e Presidents of the United States Conference of Mayors Diaz (Miami) · Palmer (Trenton) · Guido (Dearborn) · O'Neill (Long Beach) · Plusquellic (Akron) · Garner (Hempstead) · Menino (Boston) · Morial, M. (New Orleans) · Coles (Boise) · Webb (Denver) · Corradini (Salt Lake City) · Helmke (Fort Wayne) · Daley, R. M. (Chicago) · Rice (Seattle) · Ashe (Knoxville) · Abramson (Louisville) · Althaus (York) · Flynn (Boston) · Isaac (Colorado Springs) · Whitmire (Houston) · Holland (Trenton) · Berkley (Kansas City) · Riley (Charleston) · Morial, E. (New Orleans) · Padilla (San Juan) · Fulton (Nashville) · Young (Detroit) · Boosalis (Lincoln) · Hatcher (Gary) · Carver (Peoria) · McNichols (Denver) · Alexander (Syracuse) · Gibson (Newark) · Landrieu (New Orleans) · Alioto (San Francisco) · Martin (Norfolk) · Welch (Houston) · Maier (Milwaukee) · Tate (Philadelphia) · Maltester (San Leandro) · Schrunk (Portland) · Barr (Pittsburgh) · Cavanaugh (Detroit) · Blaisdell (Honolulu) · Tucker (St. Louis) · Selland (Fresno) · Lee (New Haven) · Celebrezze (Cleveland) · Burns (Jacksonville) · Dilworth (Philadelphia) · Daley, R. J. (Chicago) · Poulson (Los Angeles) · Wagner (New York City) · Hynes (Boston) · Robinson (San Francisco) · Burke (Cleveland) · Kennelly (Chicago) · Lawrence (Pittsburgh) · Green (Birmingham) · Welsh (Grand Rapids) · Kelly (Chicago) · La Guardia (New York City) · Hoan (Milwaukee) · Walmsley (New Orleans) · Curley (Boston) · Murphy (Detroit)

v • d • e New Deal Causes and legacy Great Depression · Coalition · Brain Trust · American Liberty League · Criticism New Deal Emergency Banking Act · Economy Act · Civilian Conservation Corps · Agricultural Adjustment Act · Federal Emergency Relief Administration · Tennessee Valley Authority · Executive Order 6102 · Homeowners Refinancing Act · Farm Credit Administration · Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC) · National Industrial Recovery Act · National Recovery Administration · Public Works Administration · Securities Act · Reciprocal Tariff Act · Civil Works Administration · Communications Act · Railroad Retirement Act · National Housing Act Second New Deal Works Progress Administration · Farm Security Administration · Rural Electrification Administration (Act) · National Labor Relations Board (Act) · Social Security · Federal Energy Regulatory Commission · National Bituminous Coal Conservation Act · Judiciary Reorganization Bill · United States Housing Authority Individuals Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harold L. Ickes · Harry Hopkins · Henry Morgenthau, Jr. · Huey Long · Herbert Hoover · Robert F. Wagner Category · Commons

External links

• Robert F. Wagner at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Robert F. Wagner at Find a Grave

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