Background
Tobin was born on May 22, 1901 in Roxbury (now Boston), Massachussets. He was the son of Irish immigrants Margaret M. Daly and James J. Tobin, a carpenter.
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Tobin was born on May 22, 1901 in Roxbury (now Boston), Massachussets. He was the son of Irish immigrants Margaret M. Daly and James J. Tobin, a carpenter.
He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School and the High School of Commerce in Boston before taking a job in 1919 as a sorter for the Conway Leather Company; he worked there for three years. During that time he took extension courses in law at Boston College but did not complete the requirements for a degree.
In 1922, he went to work for the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, serving as unit and district traffic manager from 1928 to 1937.
In 1926 Tobin began his career in public life by winning election as a Democrat to a two-year term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In 1931, Tobin was elected to a four-year term on the five-member Boston School Committee, an important step toward political power in the city. He quickly became a favorite of Mayor James M. Curley, who predicted that "perhaps he will be the next mayor of Boston. " An avid joiner of local civic, religious, and social organizations, Tobin was easily reelected to the school committee in 1935. Two years later, running for mayor on a platform of reform and economy, Tobin defeated Curley by a vote of 105, 212 to 80, 376. He was handily reelected in 1941.
In November 1944, Tobin was elected governor of Massachusetts, succeeding Leverett Saltonstall. The New York Times then charged that during his last two months as mayor, Tobin had "established a record for 'lame duckery' by salary increases and appointments. " Assuming office in January 1945, Governor Tobin challenged the predominantly Republican legislature with a liberal social program.
He was renominated in June 1946, but an open break with the popular Mayor Curley and a nationwide Republican landslide in November led to his defeat by Lieutenant Governor Robert F. Bradford, by a vote of 893, 523 to 741, 882.
In August 1948, President Harry S. Truman appointed Tobin secretary of labor.
Tobin also involved the department in international labor affairs, addressing the International Labor Conferences held in Switzerland in 1950, 1951, and 1952.
Following the Republican presidential victory of 1952 he retired to his home in Scituate, Massachussets, where he died.
Maurice Joseph Tobin was a Democrat and a liberal who supported the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, and was outspoken in his support for labor unions. However, he had little success battling against the conservative majorities in the Massachusetts legislature, and the US Congress. A men's dormitory facility on the Long Island Hospital campus on Long Island in Boston Harbor is dedicated to Tobin. The Tobin Building's cornerstone was laid on November 9, 1940. In 1967, the Mystic River Bridge was renamed the Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge. An elementary school is named after Tobin in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, where he was born. The Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is located in Tobin Hall.
During World War II he also served on the Civilian Defense Board while battling such municipal problems as a severe fuel shortage, a police department scandal in 1943, a widely publicized report that characterized Boston schools as "obsolete and inefficient, " and a serious outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in 1944.
Its highlights included proposals to end the unofficial literary censorship that resulted from prosecuting booksellers and to enact a bill for fair employment practices that would outlaw discrimination on the grounds of race, creed, color, or national origin.
Modeled on the New York State fair employment law, the measure passed by the General Court during its 1946 session made Massachusetts the second state in the nation to outlaw such discriminatory practices. In 1946 Tobin proposed bills to provide for rent control, residential housing, veterans' benefits, and additional unemployment aid.
Setting out to rebuild and reorganize the department, Tobin persuaded the president in 1949 to transfer the United States Employment Service and the Unemployment Insurance Service from the Federal Security Agency to the Department of Labor. The following year the same transfer was effected with the Bureau of Employees' Compensation and the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board.
Also in 1950, Tobin set up the Federal Safety Council in the Bureau of Labor Standards. Tobin vigorously supported a series of amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, including an increase of the statutory minimum wage to 7550 an hour, a clarification of the act's overtime provisions, and a strengthening of child labor regulations.
In addition, Tobin helped persuade Congress to amend laws to improve the wages, welfare benefits, and working conditions of railway workers, seamen, and federal employees.
During the Korean War, Tobin was in charge of civilian manpower activities. He established a special administration within his department as well as national, regional, and area labormanagement committees, an interdepartmental committee, and a women's advisory committee.
On November 19, 1932, Tobin married Helen M. Noonan. They had three children.
