Background
He was born on November 18, 1854 at East Orange, Vermont, United States. His parents were Charles Edwin and Mary C. (Kinney) Sargent and he was a descendant of William Sargent who was living in Ipswich, Massachussets, as early as 1633.
He was born on November 18, 1854 at East Orange, Vermont, United States. His parents were Charles Edwin and Mary C. (Kinney) Sargent and he was a descendant of William Sargent who was living in Ipswich, Massachussets, as early as 1633.
His early education was received in the common schools, and for one year he attended Northfield Academy, Northfield, Massachussets.
In 1878 he went to Arizona for his health, enlisted there in the United States Cavalry, and was active in the Geronimo campaign against the Apache Indians. Honorably discharged in 1880, he went to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad as an engine wiper at Tucson, Ariz. Within three months he became a locomotive fireman, and joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, his initiation taking place Oct. 20, 1881, in one of the coal bins in the railroad yards.
From 1883 to 1894 he lived in Terre Haute, Ind. , and from 1894 to 1902 in Peoria, Ill. He was a delegate to the national convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen at Terre Haute in September 1882, and at the Denver convention in 1883 he was elected vice grand master. In 1885, at the Philadelphia convention, he was elected grand master of the order, which office he held until 1902.
He was prominent in the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy strike in 1888, and the American Railway Union strike against the Great Northern Railroad in 1894, and became known as a forceful leader for the firemen, while his moderation and reasonable methods in dealing with employers gained their confidence. In 1898 he was appointed by President McKinley on the Industrial Commission, from which he resigned. He declined appointment in 1900 as director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
On May 7, 1902, he was nominated by President Roosevelt as commissioner general of immigration, and the nomination was confirmed the following day. In this office he was instrumental in the initiation of methods which aimed at the prevention of fraud against intending immigrants, and at the exclusion of undesirable and criminal elements.
His writings include: "The Need of Closer Inspection and Greater Restriction of Immigrants" (Century Magazine, January 1904); and "Problems of Immigration" (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 1904). He had the confidence and friendship of Samuel Gompers, and had a part in the conferences of Gompers and John Mitchell with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 which led up to the appointment of the federal commission for the settlement of the great anthracite coal strike.
He was known as the head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen for a period of more than 17 years and as the United States Commissioner General of Immigration during the first years of the 20th Century. Sargent played an important role in the Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888 as well as the 1894 Great Northern Railroad strike. He was also a member of the group chosen to represent the interests of labor in the National Civic Federation. His famous publications: "The Need of Closer Inspection and Greater Restriction of Immigrants"; and "Problems of Immigration".
He thought it was important to pay especial attention to the prevention of the smuggling of Chinese across the Mexican and Canadian borders. He was hindered in carrying out what he conceived to be the policy of American labor, by the opposition of powerful diplomatic, industrial and political forces, which brought influence to bear upon those in higher authority.
After the Chicago and New York anarchistic riots he made a special study of the changing character of the immigration into the United States and called attention to the fact that its sources were no longer so largely among the Germanic races of Northern Europe, but were then, to a great extent, in southern and southeastern Europe and Asia Minor.
He was a man of large stature and commanding personality, and his winning manner and keen executive ability gained and held for him the loyalty of those associated with him.
He was married on Oct. 17, 1881, to Georgia M. McCullough of Saugus, Massachussets, who with an adopted daughter survived him.
