Maurice Tobin | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Tobin in 1951 | |
| 6thUnited States Secretary of Labor | |
| In office August 13, 1948 – January 20, 1953 | |
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Lewis B. Schwellenbach |
| Succeeded by | Martin Durkin |
| 56thGovernor of Massachusetts | |
| In office January 4, 1945 – January 2, 1947 | |
| Lieutenant | Robert F. Bradford |
| Preceded by | Leverett Saltonstall |
| Succeeded by | Robert F. Bradford |
| 46thMayor of Boston | |
| In office January 3, 1938 – January 4, 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Frederick Mansfield |
| Succeeded by | John E. Kerrigan (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Maurice Joseph Tobin (1901-05-22)May 22, 1901 Boston,Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | July 19, 1953(1953-07-19) (aged 52) Scituate, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting place | Holyhood Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Boston College |
Maurice Joseph Tobin (May 22, 1901 – July 19, 1953) was an American politician serving as 46th Mayor of Boston, the 56th Governor of Massachusetts and 6th United States Secretary of Labor. He was a member of theDemocratic Party and aliberal that supported theNew Deal andFair Deal programs, and was outspoken in his support forlabor unions. However, he had little success battling against the conservative majorities in theMassachusetts legislature, and theU.S. Congress.[1]
Tobin was born inMission Hill, Boston, Massachusetts on May 22, 1901. Deeply rooted in the highly politicized Irish Catholic community, he was the oldest of four children of James Tobin, a carpenter, and Margaret Daly. He took evening classes[2] atBoston College and worked for Conway Leather andNew England Telephone before entering politics as a protégé of the legendaryJames Michael Curley. Tobin was elected to theMassachusetts House of Representatives at the age of 25 and served from 1927 to 1929.
On November 19, 1932, Tobin married the former Helen Noonan (1906-1987) inBrighton, Massachusetts, with whom he had three children. He served on theBoston School Committee from 1931 to 1937, before shocking the political establishment by defeating Curley in the 1937 race for Mayor of Boston.[3]
Tobin was electedmayor of Boston in1937. He was reelected in1941.[4][5] He served as mayor from 1938 to 1945, during which time he advocated the Fair Employment Practices Bill, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, creed, and national origin in hiring or promotion practices.[citation needed] He was fiscally conservative, choosing to forgo the large public works projects that had characterized the Curley administration, and he smoothed over previously contentious battles with the federal government over access to New Deal relief funding.[6] TheHuntington Avenue subway, a WPA project begun in 1936 and one of its largest projects undertaken, was completed under his administration in 1941.[7] In 1941, theBoston Housing Authority began clearing the land for thewhites-onlyWest Broadway Housing Development (which would open in 1949).[8][9]
During his tenure as mayor, theCocoanut Grove fire occurred in Boston. Prior to the fire, club owner Barney Welansky boasted that that club had not needed to adhere to fire codes because Tobin would not permit his club to be closed. Welansky was convicted of manslaughter, and Tobin himself only narrowly escaped indictment. Four years into Welansky's sentence, then-Governor Tobin pardoned him.[10]
In1944, Mayor Tobin was electedgovernor of Massachusetts, defeating theRepublican nominee, Lieutenant GovernorHorace T. Cahill.[11] He served one term as governor from 1945 to 1947. Tobin proposed a liberal agenda that was not accepted by the Republican-controlledMassachusetts legislature. He called for additional unemployment benefits, veterans benefits, rent control, and laws to end racial discrimination in hiring. He was a strong supporter of labor unions. In1946, he was defeated for re-election by his Republican opponent, Lieutenant GovernorRobert F. Bradford.[12][3]
Governor Tobin remained active in Democratic politics, however, and campaigned vigorously forPresident Truman in 1948. Tobin repeatedly denounced theTaft-Hartley Act of 1947, making 150 speeches against it in the 1948 election campaign. He argued that it was bad for workers. Upon Truman's reelection, Tobin was appointed as U.S. Secretary of Labor, a position he held until the close of the Truman Administration in January 1953.
Tobin discovered that the Department of Labor had minimal influence; it did not control the National Labor Relations Board, or the Mediation Service, which were more influential. In 1949 he had president Truman transfer the United States Employment Service and the Unemployment Insurance Service to his department. He also managed to move several smaller bureaus, and he created a Federal Safety Council. Although the Democrats regained control of Congress in 1948 election, the Conservatives were still dominant and Tobin and Truman were unable to repeal Taft-Hartley.
Tobin's most notable action as Labor Secretary came in the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949, which increased the minimum wage to 75 cents an hour, and strengthened the prohibitions on child labor. Tobin played a role during the Korean War in coordinating defense manpower needs. However, in the steel strike of 1952, Tobin came out on the side of the unions, saying that "the time for impartiality" had passed, and that the unions were justified in their wartime strike. In 1951, Tobin attacked SenatorJoseph McCarthy, a fellow Irish Catholic, calling on fellow Catholics to repudiate McCarthy's "campaign of terror against free thought in the United States."[13]
Shortly after he left his position in the Truman cabinet in January 1953, Tobin died of aheart attack on July 19, 1953, at his summer home inScituate, Massachusetts, at the age of 52.[1] He is buried inHolyhood Cemetery inBrookline, Massachusetts. His funeral was attended by SenatorJohn F. Kennedy.
A men's dormitory facility on the Long Island Hospital campus onLong Island inBoston Harbor is dedicated to Tobin. The Tobin Building's cornerstone was laid on November 9, 1940.[14] In 1967, the Mystic River Bridge was renamed theMaurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge. An elementary school is named after Tobin in theMission Hill neighborhood of Boston, where he was born.[15] The Psychology Department at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst is located in Tobin Hall.
Former Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin, one-time Democratic governor of Massachusetts and twice mayor of Boston, died of a heart attack in the arms of ...
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mayor of Boston 1938–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Massachusetts 1945–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of Labor 1948–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Massachusetts 1944,1946 | Succeeded by |
