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| Campaign poster (detail), 1906-1914, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives |
WILSON, William Bauchop, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Blantyre, Scotland,
April 2, 1862; immigrated to this country with his parents, who settled in
Arnot, Tioga County, Pa., in 1870; attended the common schools; engaged in coal
mining 1871-1898; international secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers
of America 1900-1908; elected as a Democrat to the Sixtieth, Sixty-first, and
Sixty-second Congresses (March 4, 1907-March 3, 1913); chairman, Committee on
Labor (Sixty-second Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912
and for election in 1914 to the Sixty-fourth Congress; appointed Secretary of
Labor in the Cabinet of President Wilson and served from March 5, 1913, to
March 5, 1921; during the First World War was a member of the Council of
National Defense; member of the Federal Board for Vocational Education
1914-1921 and also chairman of the board in 1920 and 1921; appointed on March
4, 1921, a member of the International Joint Commission, created to prevent
disputes regarding the use of the boundary waters between the United States and
Canada, and served until March 21, 1921, when he resigned; unsuccessful
candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1926; engaged in mining
and agricultural pursuits near Blossburg, Tioga County, Pa.; died on a train
near Savannah, Ga., May 25, 1934; interment in Arbon Cemetery, Blossburg, Pa.
BibliographyGengarelly, W. Anthony. Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson
and the Red Scare, 1919-1920.
Pennsylvania History 47 (October 1980): 311-30; Wilhelm,
Clarke L. William B. Wilson: The First Secretary of Labor. Ph.D. diss.,
Johns Hopkins University, 1967.
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