TABLE OF CONTENTS

To search for text within this finding aid press Ctrl+F to open your web browser's search box.

Descriptive Summary

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents

Arrangement

Restrictions

Administrative Information

Index Terms

Detailed Description of the Collection

Series 1: Personal Papers, ca. 1893-1946

Series 2: Professional Papers, 1899-1956

Series 3: Microfilm, 1904-1923

Charles Patrick Neill

An inventory of the Charles Patrick Neill Papers at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Mailing Address: The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064

Telephone: 202-319-5065

Email: archives@mail.lib.cua.edu

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html

Biographical Note

Charles Patrick Neill was born on 12 December 1865 at Rock Island, Illinois to James and Julia (Walsh) Neill, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1850. The family moved to Austin, Texas in 1871, where James practiced law. Charles was employed from age 10 in 1876 until 1885 as a bank messenger. He attended the University of Notre Dame from 1885 until 1888, the University of Texas at Austin from 1888 to 1889 and graduated from Georgetown University with a degree AB summa cum laude. He taught at Notre Dame from 1891 until 1894. He studied at Johns Hopkins University from 1894 until 1897 and earned a doctorate in economics and politics. He joined the faculty of the Catholic University of America, where he served successively as instructor, associate professor and professor economics from 1896 until 1905. He married Esther Waggaman of Washington, D.C., in 1901.

In 1902 Neill was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to serve as assistant recorder of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission and his work received recognition. In 1904 an ultimately successful board of arbitration was appointed to defuse a threatened coal strike in Alabama and one of the members, Judge George Gray of Delaware, made his participation dependent upon Neill serving as recorded, adding much to Neill's prestige. Shortly thereafter, in 1905, Roosevelt selected Neill to succeed Carroll D. Wright, who had also taught economics at Catholic University, as United States Commissioner of Labor. President William Howard Taft reappointed him in 1909. Woodrow Wilson appointed him Commissioner of Labor Statistics in 1913 when the Department of Commerce and Labor was divided and the Bureau of Labor Statistics was established in the new Department of Labor. Neill provided federal mediation services in railroad labor disputes and he drafted the Newlands Labor Act in 1913. His investigation of the meat packing industry, prompted by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, resulted in a federal inspection law in 1906. In addition, his detailed report on child labor provided a basis for congressional legislation.

After his departure from the Department of Labor later in 1913, Neill specialized as an arbitrator while working for the Southeastern Railways from 1915 to 1939 and the United States Railroad Board of Adjustments from 1919 to 1921. He also promoted industrial safety and workmen's compensation laws. His charitable work included serving as a member of the Board of Charities of the District of Columbia and as a trustee of the Girls' Reform School. He had membership and positions of leadership in several professional societies, including the American Statistical Association. He was honored by Notre Dame with an LLD in 1908 and the Laetare Medal in 1922. Charles Patrick Neill died in Washington, D.C., on 3 October 1942.

Return to the Table of Contents

Scope and Contents

The Charles Patrick Neill Papers consist of seven manuscript boxes (three linear feet) and one reel of microfilm spanning the years 1893-1956. His personal papers include correspondence, tax information (1940-1946), clippings and a scrapbook (1893-1903).

Neill's professional papers contain correspondence (1904-1942) written while performing one of his various positions as professor, arbitrator, labor commissioner and so on. Included within these papers are: lectures, class notes and publications from his teaching career at the University of Notre Dame (1891-1894) and the Catholic University of America (1897-1905); legal papers (1912-1929) regarding various grievances brought by workmen against their bosses and the charges brought against Neill when he became Commissioner of Labor Statistics in 1913; news clippings and other printed material dealing with his work for the Department of Labor (1905-1913), the American Smelting and Refining Company (1913-1915) and the Bureau of Information of Southeastern Railways (1915-1939); and scrapbooks on microfilm concerning his Labor Department activities and his membership on the Railway Commission.

The third series contains Charles Patrick Neill scrapbooks, 1904-1923. One reel (about 50 feet) of microfilm, made from four scrapbooks in posession of his son, J. Kerby Neill. Newspaper accounts of his appointment to the Department of Labor while an economics professor at the Catholic University of America. Important labor disputes - coal, slaughterhouses, railroads, etc. Membership on the Railway Commission. Obituary notices, October 1942.

Return to the Table of Contents

Arrangement

The Charles Patrick Neill Papers consists of three series:

Return to the Table of Contents

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

None.

Return to the Table of Contents

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donated by James Kerby Neill in 1956. Additional donations occurred on January 10, 1958, and April 18, 1984.

Processing Information

Original processing completed in 1985 by Sister Anne Marie Crowley. Revision completed in 2001 by William John Shepherd, Rebecca Hurley, and Mary Beth Fraser. EAD markup completed in November 2005 by Leslie Knoblauch and Jane Stoeffler.

Return to the Table of Contents

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Persons:

Organizations:

Places:

Subjects:

Return to the Table of Contents

Detailed Description of the Collection

All contents copyright , The Catholic University Of America. All rights reserved.