Evening star., 1953-05-05
Ex-senator Wagner Dead;
Was StoIwort of New Deal
Served New York
Here for % Years;
Funeral Thursday

He was q Democratic Senator
from New York for nearly %
years.
Funeral services will be held
in New York Thursday.
Senator Wagner died at the
home of his son. Robert F. Wag-
ner, jr., Manhattan Borough
president. after a long illness.
One of Franklin D. Roosevelt's
strongest supporters. Senator
Wagner resigned in June. 1949,
after illness kept him from at
tending sessions in the 80th and
81St Congresses. His unexpired
term was filled by John Foster
Dulles. now Secretary Of State.
Received Last Rites.
Senator Wagner received the
last rites of the Catholic church,
to which he was converted sew
eral years ago. Besides his son,
he leaves three sisters. His wife,
Margaret McTeague Wagner,
died in 1918.
It was as author Of the ma
tional labor relations law that
Senator Wagner reached the
pinnacle as q champion of the
workingman and firmly estab-
lished himself as a bulwark of
the New Deal legislative pro-
gram.
Passed in 1885 and upheld by
the Supreme Court two years
later. the labor relations law, or
Wagner Act. legalized collective
bargaining through employee
chosen representatives. COM
PEELED employers to negotiate
with these representatives and
provided national and regional
boards to conduct bargaining,
agent elections and to rule on
charges of unfair labor practices.
The Wagner Act signaled q
decade Of labor ascendancy and
growth resulting in manage
ment charges that the balance
Of power had swung too sharply
to organized labor and cluminat-
ing with passage of the Taft
Hartley Act.
Crusade for Labor.
Even before he was elected
to the Senate in 1926, Mr.. Wag-
ner'S own crusade for labor and
social legislation ran through his
service on the New York State
Legislature. a term on the New
York Supreme Court bench and
his private law practice.
But it was the administration
Of President Roosevelt that gave
him his head for sponsorship of
long list Of measures such as
unemployment insurance, hous-
ing, workmen's compensation,
widows pension, regulation of
hours for women and children in
industry. minimum wage laws
and safety codes.
After 1888 he introduced and
piloted the bills creating the
Public Works Administration
tPWA), the Works Progress Ad-
ministration (WPA) and the
Federal Emergency Relief Ad-
ministration (FERA).
These depression fighting
moves were marked by Senator
Wagner's active backing of such
programs and the ReconStruc-
ton Finance Corp. and the
FERA which provided more than
81 billion for various aids to the
unemployed.
Sponsored Inflated NRA.
He also sponsored the prece-
dent-shattering and Inflated
National Industrial Recovery Act
passed June 16. 1888.
Senator Wagner was born at
Nastaetten, a village near Weis-
baden. Germany. on June 8, 1877.
When he was 8, his family
brought him to this country, set
ting in Yorkville, a German set
tlement on the upper eastside of
Manhattan.
His beginning was of the Sue
cess story material of which
America is proud.
He worked his way through
public school selling newspapers
and through high school as a bus
boy at the New York Athletic
Club, which he later Joined. Still
working, he obtained a bachelor
Of science degree from the Col
lege Of the City of New York,
and in 1900, two years later,
graduated from New York Law
School with a degree in law. In
both cases he was an honor stu
dent.
A capable speaker, he was well
coined to the Democratic organ
ization in New York City and, in
1905, was elected to the State
Assembly. Four years later he
was chosen State Senator, hold
ing the Office for 10 years and
serving as president pro tenn. the
last eight years.
When Gov. William Sulzer was
impeached in 1912 he automati-
cally became lieutenant governor.
Efforts Bear Fruit.
In 1911 Senator Wagner's ef-
forts on behalf of labor began
to bear fruit. Leading a legisla-
tive investigation into a Tri-
angle Shirtwaist Factory fire that
took lat lives, he instituted a
revision Of New York factory
laws that became a model for
State codes elsewhere.
For eight years, beginning in
1918, he served as a justice of
the New York Supreme Court
and during this period issued
the first Injunction granted to
labor union against an en-
ployer and upheld employees in