Gompers
SAMUEL, an American labor leader, born in London, England, Jan. 27, 1850. He was apprenticed to a cigar maker as a young boy and came to the United States in 1863. In spite of his youth he became in the following year, 1864, the first registered member of the Cigar Makers' Interna- GOMPERS tional Union, serving later as its secretary and president and making it one of most successful of all American trade unions. He was one of the founders of the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (q. v.), and the editor of its official magazine. In 1881 he was elected its vicepresident, and from 1882 on he was annually elected president with the single exception of 1894, in which year he was defeated by John McBride. Under his influence and direction the American Federation of Labor became one of the most powerful and successful labor organizations in the world. Gompers, though sponsoring and supporting many movements and measures in favor of and for the improvement of labor, has consistently thrown his influence toward the conservative elements of American labor.
His opposition to socialistic tendencies SAMUEL GOMPERS within the ranks of American trade unionists has been outspoken and unfaltering. In 1907 he came into special prominence, together with other officers of the American Federation of Labor, for failing to observe an injunction granted to the Buck Stove and Range Company in the latter's complaint against the Federation for having been included in the list of unfair concerns published in the official magazine of the Federation. Mr.
Gompers was tried for contempt and sentenced to a term of prison. Repeated appeals eventually brought the matter before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1914, when this court decided that the statute of limitations made GONAIVES esi- GONZAGA GONOLOBUS (nol'-) the typical genus of the tribe Gonolobeæ. It consists of twining or shrubby plants, common in the United States, with racemes, or corymbs of greenish or dingy purple flowers. About 60 species are known.
The juice of G. macrophyllus is said to be used by the North American Indians to poison their arrows.