unions of a city. The city centrals are smaller replicas of the
state federations and are made up of delegates elected by the
individual unions. They meet at stated intervals and freely
discuss questions relating to the welfare of organized labor in
general as well as to local labor conditions in every trade.
Indeed, vigilance seems to be the watchword of the Central.
Organization, wages, trade agreements, and the attitude of public
officials and city councils which even remotely might affect
labor rarely escape their scrutiny. This oldest of all the groups
of labor organizations remains the most vital part of the
Federation. The success of the American Federation of Labor is
due in large measure to the crafty generalship of its President,
Samuel Gompers, one of the most astute labor leaders developed by
American economic conditions. He helped organize the
Federation, carefully nursed it through its tender years, and
boldly and unhesitatingly used its great power in the days of its
maturity. In fact, in a very real sense the Federation is
Gompers, and Gompers is the Federation. Born in London of
Dutch-Jewish lineage, on January 27, 1850, the son of a
cigarmaker, Samuel Gompers was early apprenticed to that craft.
At the age of thirteen he went to New York City, where in the
following year he joined the first cigar-makers' union organized
in that city. He enlisted all his boyish ardor in the cause of
the trade union and, after he arrived at maturity, was elected
successively secretary and president of his union. The local
unions were, at that time, gingerly feeling their way towards
state and national organization, and in these early attempts
young Gompers was active. In 1887, he was one of the delegates to
a national meeting which constituted the nucleus of what is now
the Cigar-makers' International Union.