Background
Leo Wolman was born on February 24, 1890, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He was a son of Morris Wolman, a garment worker, and Yetta Rosa (Wachsman) Wolman, who came to the United States from Poland.
1921
Leo Wolman and other representatives to the 1921 Conference on Unemployment.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States
In 1911, Leo received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University. Later, in 1914, he attained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Economy from the same university.
Leo Wolman was born on February 24, 1890, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He was a son of Morris Wolman, a garment worker, and Yetta Rosa (Wachsman) Wolman, who came to the United States from Poland.
In 1911, Leo received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University. Later, in 1914, he attained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Economy from the same university.
Early in his career, in 1910, Wolman began directing the publication of The Clothing Workers of Chicago, which recounted the "growth of the workers' rights as free partners in the enterprise of producing clothing". Leo held the post till 1922.
After receiving his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1914, Leo was appointed a special agent of the National Industrial Relations Commission and began studies of the membership of trade unions, that were to occupy him at intervals for many years. In 1915-1918, Wolman taught Economics at Hobart College (present-day Hobart and William Smith Colleges), the University of Michigan and his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University.
After American entry into World War I in 1917, Leo was on the staff of the Council of National Defense and in 1918 became chief of the section of production statistics of the War Industries Board. His responsibility was to prepare, often on short notice, memoranda on the economies of various dependent countries. It's important to note, that Wolman's war service led to his attachment to the mission, that negotiated peace at Versailles.
In 1920, Wolman joined the faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he taught for the next 19 years. The New School, organized by professors, who had differences with Columbia University, numbered among its lecturers national and international leaders in the social sciences. Wolman first taught Statistics and later Labor Relations.
It was also in 1920, that Leo was made director of research for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the post he held until his retirement in 1931. During his tenure at the union, Leo was the close adviser of its president, Sidney Hillman, in establishing unemployment insurance, Amalgamated banks in Chicago and New York, and housing developments in New York.
It's worth noting, that in the 1920's, Wolman became active in supporting Jewish people in Palestine. He issued a report on ways to improve economic conditions in the area, and joined the newly formed Friends of Palestine in 1929 to support Jewish institutions of culture and higher education in the region.
In 1930-1933, Wolman was director of the Amalgamated banks and president of Amalgamated Investors, a labor-owned investment trust. After lecturing at Harvard University in 1930, the following year Wolman became a professor of Economics at the graduate school of Columbia University, remaining there until his retirement in 1958.
In the early 1930's, Wolman was also on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research, which was committed to fact-finding. There, his publications dealt with union membership. Wolman was known for unobtrusive prompting of his junior associates to avoid overly technical language and to present realities in a straightforward manner. Besides, Leo authored a number of studies for the Bureau, which became the subject of national attention and debate. While there, Leo also directed the Bureau's labor research programs and acted as director-at-large for research.
In his later years, Wolman became involved with the New Deal (a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms and regulations, enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939) less because of his enthusiasm, than because of his sense of duty. He was made chairman of the Labor Advisory Board in June 1933 and was appointed member of the National Labor Board on August 5 of the same year. When Hugh Johnson, head of the National Recovery Administration, did not crack down on noncomplying automobile manufacturers, Wolman was assigned, in 1934, the troublesome position of chairman and neutral member of the three-man Automobile Labor Board. For more than a year in Detroit, he was obliged to substitute skill for authority.
Later, Wolman surprised and disappointed his former labor associates by becoming increasingly critical of the growing power of unions and of governmental policies, regulating labor relations. In 1937, he proposed amendments to the Wagner Act, that would forbid the use of certain coercive methods by unions, outlaw strikes against the government, require unions to file financial reports, prevent union contributions to political parties and assure independent unions equal treatment before the National Labor Relations Board. In January 1947, Wolman repeated these proposals in testimony before the Senate Labor Committee on what became the Taft-Hartley Act. Asserting, that increasing governmental favoritism toward labor "was the whole spirit and letter of the labor policy since 1930", he urged, that in the interest of equality, proper freedom in dealing with unions must be restored to employers. He condemned industrywide collective bargaining, believing, that it produced irresponsible monopoly in the automobile, railroad, coal, iron and steel industries.
Wolman's writings include "The Boycott in American Trade Unions" (1916), "The Clothing Workers of Chicago, 1910-1922" (1922), "The Growth of American Trade Unions, 1880-1923" (1924), "Ebb and Flow in Trade Unionism" (1936), among others.
It's also worth mentioning, that Leo served on numerous public commissions and academic bodies.
In his later years, Leo repeatedly voiced strong criticism of the new National Labor Relations Act and argued, that organized labor's goal was totalitarian control over the economy. His criticisms of labor unions led directly to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. He also became a strong critic of the New Deal in his later years.
Leo was a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Economic Association, American Statistical Association and Phi Beta Kappa.
In a debate, Wolman was informed and positive, but not abrasive. At Columbia University, he was notably solicitous of his students.
Wolman's recreations were reading, theatergoing and music, including near-professional competence as a pianist.
Wolman married Cecil (Clark) Wolman on May 17, 1930. Their marriage produced one son - Eric.