专八人文知识需知的美国名人--塞缪尔.龚帕斯

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--塞缪尔.龚帕斯

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　最伟大的劳工组织者，他为工会的繁荣时期打下了基础。

　　The country’s greatest labor organizer, he made thegolden age of unions possible.

　　Samuel Gompers(January 27, 1850-December 13, 1924) wasan American labor union leader and a key figure in Americanlabor history. Gompers founded the American Federation ofLabor (AF of L), and served as that organization's president from1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924. Hepromoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AF of L, trying tominimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted "thorough" organization and collective bargaining tosecure shorter hours and higher wages, the first essential steps, he believed, to emancipating labor.He also encouraged the AF of L to take political action to "elect their friends" and "defeat theirenemies." During World War I, Gompers and the AF of L worked with the government to avoidstrikes and boost morale, while raising wage rates and expanding membership.

　　Cigarmakers' International Union career

　　Gompers was elected president of Cigarmakers' International Union Local 144 in 1875.

　　As was the case with other unions of the day, the Cigarmaker's Union nearly collapsed in thefinancial crisis of 1877, in which unemployment skyrocketed and ready availability of desperateworkers willing to labor for subsistence wages put pressure upon the gains in wages and shorteningof hours achieved in union shops. Gompers and his friend Adolph Strasser used Local 144 as abase to rebuild the Cigarmakers' Union, introducing a high dues structure and implementingprograms to pay out-of-work benefits, sick benefits, and death benefits for union members in goodstanding.

　　Gompers told the workers they needed to organize because wage reductions were almost a dailyoccurrence. The capitalists were only interested in profits, "and the time has come when we mustassert our rights as workingmen. Every one present has the sad experience, that we are powerlessin an isolated condition, while the capitalists are united; therefore it is the duty of every Cigar Makerto join the organization. ... One of the main objects of the organization," he concluded, "is theelevation of the lowest paid worker to the standard of the highest, and in time we may secure forevery person in the trade an existence worthy of human beings."

　　He was elected second vice-president of the Cigarmakers' International Union in 1886, and firstvice-president in 1896. Despite the commitment of time and energy entailed by his place as headof the American Federation of Labor, Gompers remained first vice-president of the Cigarmakersuntil his death in December 1924.

　　塞缪尔.龚帕斯(Samuel Gompers)(1850-1924年)，美国工会领袖，美国劳联第一任主席。1886-94年和1896-1924年，担任美国劳工联合会主席(AFL，简称劳联)。

　　龚帕斯出生于伦敦。10岁时，成为学徒工。1863年，随父母移居纽约市。后来，他成为雪茄烟厂的熟练工并积极参与雪茄烟工人的工会工作。1877年，他被选为当地工会的主席。1881年，他参与创建了行业工会与劳工组织联合会。1886年，该组织重组为美国劳工联合会，龚帕斯出任主席。在他的领导下，劳联的规模和声势急速壮大。

　　第一次世界大战期间，他加入国防委员会(Council of National Defense)。第一次世界大战后，他作为美国代表之一参与了1919年凡尔赛和会。他著有自传《七十年的生活与劳动》(Seventy Years ofLife and Labor)(两卷本，1925年出版)。

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