Robert F. Wagner | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Harris & Ewing photo, Library of Congress | |
| United States Senator fromNew York | |
| In office March 4, 1927 – June 28, 1949 | |
| Preceded by | James W. Wadsworth Jr. |
| Succeeded by | John Foster Dulles |
| Justice of theNew York Supreme Court for the First Judicial Division | |
| In office January 1, 1915 – September 28, 1926 | |
| ActingLieutenant 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 |
| Member of theNew York Senate from the 16th district | |
| In office January 1, 1909 – December 31, 1918 | |
| Preceded by | John T. McCall |
| Succeeded by | James A. Foley |
| Member of the New York State Assembly | |
| In office January 1, 1907 – December 31, 1908 | |
| Preceded by | Thomas Rock |
| Succeeded by | George W. Baumann |
| Constituency | 22ndNew York district |
| In office January 1, 1905 – December 31, 1905 | |
| Preceded by | Gotthardt A. Litthauer |
| Succeeded by | Maurice F. Smith |
| Constituency | 30thNew York district |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Ferdinand Wagner (1877-06-08)June 8, 1877 |
| Died | May 4, 1953(1953-05-04) (aged 75) New York City, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Robert F. Wagner Jr. |
| Alma mater | |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| [1][2] | |
Robert Ferdinand Wagner I (June 8, 1877 – May 4, 1953) was a German-born American attorney andDemocratic Party politician who represented the state ofNew York in theUnited States Senate from 1927 to 1949.
Born inPrussia, Wagner immigrated to the United States with his family in 1885. After graduating fromNew York Law School, Wagner won election to theNew York State Legislature, eventually becoming the Democratic leader of theNew York State Senate. Working closely with fellowNew York City DemocratAl Smith, Wagner and Smith embraced reform, especially to the benefit of their core constituency, theworking class. They built a coalition for these reforms that embraced unions, social workers, some businessmen, and numerous middle-class activists and civic reform organizations across the state.[3] Wagner left the state senate in 1918, and served as a justice of theNew York Supreme Court until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1926.
As a Senator, Wagner was a leader of theNew Deal Coalition, putting special emphasis on supporting the labor movement. He was a close associate and strong supporter of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt. He sponsored three major laws: theNational Labor Relations Act of 1935 (also known as the Wagner Act), theSocial Security Act of 1935, and theHousing Act of 1937.[4] Wagner resigned from the Senate in 1949 due to ill health, and died in 1953. His son,Robert F. Wagner Jr., wasmayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965.
Robert Ferdinand Wagner was born on June 8, 1877, inNastätten,Hesse-Nassau,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire (now inRhein-Lahn-Kreis,Rhineland-Palatinate,Federal Republic of Germany). The family immigrated to theUnited States in 1885[2] and settled inNew York City'sYorkville neighborhood, where Wagner attended the public schools. His father was a janitor.
He graduated from the College of the City of New York (now namedCity College of New York) in 1898, where he was a brother ofPhi Sigma Kappa fraternity and fromNew York Law School in 1900. He was admitted to the bar in 1900.
As a young lawyer he became part of the Tammany Hall Democratic machine in Manhattan. He was elected toNew York State Assembly in1905 (New York Co., 30th D.),1907 and1908 (both New York Co., 22nd D.).
He was a member of theNew York State Senate (16th D.) from 1909 to 1918, sitting in the132nd,133rd,134th,135th,136th,137th,138th,139th,140th and141st New York State Legislatures. He wasPresident pro tempore of the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1914. Wagner became ActingLieutenant Governor of New York after the impeachment of GovernorWilliam Sulzer, and the succession of Lieutenant GovernorMartin H. Glynn to the governorship. In 1914, while Wagner remained President pro tempore,John F. Murtaugh was chosen Majority Leader of the State Senate. That was the only time before 2009 that the two offices were not held by the same person. After the Democrats lost their Senate majority, Wagner was Senate Minority Leader from January 1915 until he retired in 1918.
In the aftermath of the horribleTriangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he was Chairman of the State Factory Investigating Committee (1911–1915). His Vice Chairman was fellow Tammany Hall politician,Al Smith. They held a series of widely publicized investigations around the state, interviewing 222 witnesses and taking 3500 pages of testimony. They started with the issue of fire safety and moved on to broader issues of the risks of injury in the factory environment. Their findings led to 38 new laws regulating labor in New York State and gave each of them a reputation as leading progressive reformers working on behalf of the working class. In the process, they changed Tammany's reputation from mere corruption to progressive endeavors to help workers.[5][6][7]
Wagner was a delegate to theNew York State Constitutional Conventions of 1915 and 1938 and a justice of theNew York Supreme Court from 1919 to 1926.
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Wagner was elected as a Democrat to theUnited States Senate in1926 and re-elected in1932,1938, and1944. 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.[8] Wagner was the Chairman of theCommittee on Patents in the73rd Congress, of theCommittee on Public Lands and Surveys in the73rd and74th Congresses, and of theCommittee on Banking and Currency in the75th through79th Congresses. He was a delegate to theUnited Nations Monetary and Financial Conference inBretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944.
Wagner, who had known the future President when they were in the New York state legislature together, was a member ofFranklin Roosevelt'sBrain Trust. He was very involved in labor issues, fought for legal protection and rights for workers, and was a leader in crafting theNew Deal.
In April 1943, a confidential analysis by British scholarIsaiah Berlin of theSenate Foreign Relations Committee for the BritishForeign Office stated of Wagner:
His most important legislative achievements include theNational Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 and theWagner–Steagall Housing Act of 1937. After theSupreme Court ruled the National Industrial Recovery Act and the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional, Wagner helped pass theNational Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act) in 1935,[10] a similar but much more expansive bill. The National Labor Relations Act, perhaps Wagner's greatest achievement, was a seminal event in the history of organized labor in the United States. It created theNational Labor Relations Board, which mediated disputes between unions and corporations, and greatly expanded the rights of workers by banning many "unfair labor practices" and guaranteeing all workers the right to form a union. He also introduced theRailway Pension Law and cosponsored the Wagner–O'Day Act, the predecessor to theJavits–Wagner–O'Day Act.
Wagner was instrumental in writing theSocial Security Act, and originally introduced it in the United States Senate.
TheWagner–Hatfield amendment to theCommunications Act of 1934, aimed at turning over twenty-five percent of all radio channels tonon-profitradio broadcasters, did not pass. In 1939 he co-sponsored with RepresentativeEdith Nourse Rogers (R–MA) theWagner–Rogers Bill to admit 20,000 Jewish refugees under the age of 14 to the United States fromNazi Germany, but the bill never passed.[11]
Wagner andEdward P. Costigan sponsored a federal anti-lynching law in 1934. They tried to persuade President Roosevelt to support the bill but Roosevelt refused for fear of alienating Southern Democrats and losing their support for New Deal programs. 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.[12]
On June 28, 1949, Wagner resigned from the Senate because of ill health;John Foster Dulles was appointed by GovernorThomas E. Dewey on July 7, 1949, to fill the vacancy temporarily.
Wagner was raised as aLutheran, but he became aMethodist in his college years and taught Sunday school; he converted toRoman Catholicism in 1946.[13]
In 1908, Wagner married Margaret Marie McTague.[14] She died in 1919. They had one son,Robert F. Wagner Jr.
In 1927, he received the first honorary citizenship of Nastaetten, his town of birth.[15]
In the 1930s, Wagner dated the communist journalistMarguerite Young.[16]
He died on May 4, 1953, in New York City, and was interred inCalvary Cemetery, Queens.
His sonRobert F. Wagner Jr. wasMayor of New York City from 1954 to 1965. His grandson, Robert (Bobby) Ferdinand Wagner III, was a Deputy Mayor, Director Urban Planning Commission and President of the New York City Board of Education in the 80s and 90s.
On September 14, 2004, a portrait of Wagner, along with one of SenatorArthur H. Vandenberg, was unveiled in the Senate Reception Room. The new portraits joined a group of distinguished former senators, includingHenry Clay,Daniel Webster,John C. Calhoun,Robert M. La Follette, andRobert A. Taft. Portraits of this group of senators, known as the "Famous Five", were unveiled on March 12, 1959.
The public middle school located at 220 East 76th Street in New York City is named after him.
The former Wagner Hall on the campus of theCity College of New York is named for him.[17]
Birthplace: Nastatten, Hessen-Nassau, Germany
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), CCNY Libraries Exhibitions website| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromNew York (Class 3) 1926,1932,1938,1944 | Succeeded by |
| New York State Assembly | ||
| Preceded by | New York State Assembly New York County, 30th District 1905 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | New York State Assembly New York County, 22nd District 1907–1908 | Succeeded by |
| New York State Senate | ||
| Preceded by | New York State Senate 16th District 1909–1918 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Majority Leader of the New York State Senate 1911–1914 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President pro tempore of the New York State Senate 1911–1914 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of New York Acting 1913–1914 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minority Leader of the New York State Senate 1915–1918 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 3) from New York 1927–1949 Served alongside:Royal S. Copeland,James M. Mead,Irving Ives | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Public Lands Committee 1933–1937 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Banking Committee 1937–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Charles W. Tobey | Ranking Member of theSenate Banking Committee 1947–1949 | |
| Class 1 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
| Banking and Currency (1913–1970) | | |
|---|---|---|
| Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (1970–present) | ||
| Public Lands (1816–1921) | | |
|---|---|---|
| Public Lands and Surveys (1921–1947) | ||
| Interior and Insular Affairs (1947–1977) | ||
| Energy and Natural Resources (1977–) | ||
