Royal Meeker | |
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| Commissioner of theU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | |
| In office August 11, 1913 – June 1920 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Preceded by | George Wallace William Hanger |
| Succeeded by | Ethelbert Stewart |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1873-02-23)February 23, 1873 |
| Died | August 16, 1953(1953-08-16) (aged 80) New Haven, Connecticut |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | |
Royal Meeker (February 23, 1873 – August 16, 1953[1]) was aprogressive American economist, born atQuaker Lake,Susquehanna County,Pennsylvania. He graduated fromIowa State College in 1898, then studied withE.R.A. Seligman atColumbia (Ph.D., 1906) and for a year at theUniversity of Leipzig (1903–1904). His dissertation was entitledHistory of Shipping Subsidies (1905).
From 1906 to 1913, Meeker was a professor of history, economics, and political science atUrsinus College,Collegeville, Pennsylvania and a preceptor and professor of economics atPrinceton. He knewWoodrow Wilson, then the president of Princeton, and they served together on New Jersey political boards. Both were associated with theProgressive movement for an active role for government.[2]
PresidentWilson appointed Meeker Commissioner of Labor Statistics in 1913. As the commissioner of theBureau of Labor Statistics, Meeker managed special economic studies during World War I and began its regular publication, theMonthly Labor Review, in 1915.[3] In 1916 he was elected as aFellow of theAmerican Statistical Association.[4] In 1919-1920 he served as a member of theFederal Electric Railways Commission.[5] Meeker resigned from the administration in June 1920 to take up the opportunity to help organize the newInternational Labour Organization, where he was the Chief of the Scientific Division from 1920 to 1923.[6]
Meeker served as Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry from 1923–1924, and later joined the faculty ofCarleton College (1926–1927) andYale University (1930–1936, perhaps longer). He was Director of Research of the Connecticut Department of Labor (1941–1946).[7] He died inNew Haven, Connecticut in 1953.
Meeker advocated progressive reforms, including a minimum wage, national health insurance,[8] child labor restrictions combined with strong, State-controlled schools, workmen's compensation, and a nationwide system of public employment offices.[9]
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