Samuel Gompers is best remembered as a trade-labor organizer, statesman, loyal friend of the working class, and fierce advocate for workers' rights and protections. Perhaps because he came of age in the era of the U.S. Civil War, Gompers developed a deep sensitivity to the human need for economic freedom. As his colleagues on the executive council of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) observed in the January 1925 issue of the American Federationist, "In the great cause of human emancipation the work of Samuel Gompers supplemented that of Abraham Lincoln and established new goals and new ideals of democracy in our common life. The spirit of Samuel Gompers is permanently a part of the world's constructive ideals and forces for human welfare."

Gompers took his leadership role seriously as he worked toward authentic employer and government recognition for labor organizations and their constituents. While hardly a populist...