Frank Morrison

Background

Morrison, Frank, , Canada 1859 1949 Male Labor Leader labor leader, was born in Franktown, Ontario, Canada, the oldest son of Christopher Morrison, a farmer and sawyer, and Elizabeth (Nesbitt) Morrison, the daughter of a physician.

Education

When Frank was five years old, his family moved to Walkerton, Ontario, where he received his education.

In 1873, while still in high school, Morrison began learning the printer's trade in the office of the Walkerton Telescope.

While working as a compositor, he attended Lake Forest University Law School and earned an LL. B.

degree in 1894.

Career

In the late 1870's or early 1880's Morrison migrated to Madison, Wis. , where he worked on the Madison Journal.

Over the next decade his friendly manner, honesty, and dedication to union work helped him rise to prominence in Chicago labor circles.

In 1896 the ITU sent him to the American Federation of Labor (A. F. of L. ) convention, where he was elected to replace a fellow printer, August McCraith, as secretary of the organization.

During his tenure, the A. F. of L. grew from roughly 250, 000 to 4 million members, creating a vastly increased clerical burden.

For the most part, Morrison followed the "Gompers line" on policy matters.

He was a Bryan supporter, an early admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, and an avid backer of Sen. Robert La Follette in 1924.

The passage of the Norris-La Guardia Act in 1932 successfully concluded Morrison's long fight to curtail the use of injunctions in labor disputes.

Earlier, in 1908, he, Gompers, and John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers had been found guilty of contempt for violating an injunction in the Buck's Stove and Range Company case and for years faced the threat of going to prison until the case was finally dismissed by the Supreme Court on May 11, 1914, because of the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Moreover, his administrative practices, which were up-to-date when he assumed office, had become inadequate.

Equally important, various officials, including Daniel Tobin of the Teamsters and William L. Hutcheson of the Carpenters, preferred more vigorous and youthful leadership in the A. F. of L. in order better to meet the challenge of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Under such pressures, the eighty-year-old Morrison declined to run for reelection and was replaced by George Meany.

He was a trustee of the Near East Relief Committee and a member of the Masons, Knights of Pythias, and Order of the Moose.

[Morrison's papers are on file at the Duke Univ.

Lib.

and AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington.

A picture of Morrison can be found in World's Work, Dec. 1924, pp. 150-153, along with a biographical sketch.

Other biographical information can be found in Nat.

Cyc.

Am.

Biog. , Current Vol.

C, 177-178; Am.

Federationist, March 1904, p. 228, and Apr. 1949, pp. 6-7; Am.

Labor Who's Who; Who Was Who in America, II (1950); N. Y. Times, Mar. 13, 1949; Wash.

Post, Mar. 13, 1949. ]

Religion

Morrison's primary contribution to the labor movement was to provide the A. F. of L. with a mature administrative structure, enabling it better to cope with the complexities of bureaucratic society.

He was active in the Congregational church and served on the executive committees of both the Federal Council of Churches of Christ and the Golden Rule Sunday Society.

Politics

Beginning in 1906, when he became secretary of the A. F. of L. labor representation committee, which sought to promote the election to public office of candidates favorable to the views of labor, he served on a number of committees designed to carry out the A. F. of L. 's political policy of rewarding its friends and punishing its enemies.

Personality

Moreover, unlike Gompers and others in the A. F. of L. executive council, he was not opposed either to aggressive political activity by the federation or to government involvement in establishing minimum wages, unemployment relief, and other social programs.

Connections

His Scots-Irish father had emigrated from Somnes, Ireland, to Franktown in 1854.

divorced:

Josephine

Morrison was married twice: first, in 1891, to Josephine Curtis, whom he later divorced, and then to Alice S. Boswell in 1908.

married:

Josephine

Morrison was married twice: first, in 1891, to Josephine Curtis, whom he later divorced, and then to Alice S. Boswell in 1908.

Wife:

Nesbitt

He had two children, a daughter, Esther, by his first wife, and a son, Nesbitt, by his second.

Daughter:

Nesbitt

He had two children, a daughter, Esther, by his first wife, and a son, Nesbitt, by his second.

children:

Nesbitt

He had two children, a daughter, Esther, by his first wife, and a son, Nesbitt, by his second.