Robert F. Wagner Biography

The Honorable Robert F. Wagner Class of 1900
United States Senator from New York
(1877-1953)

Author of the National Labor Relations Act
and the Social Security Act.

New York Law School sponsors the Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Competition in honor of our distinguished alumnus, United States Senator Robert F. Wagner. During his four consecutive terms in the Senate, Wagner authored sweeping legislation that dramatically changed the American social and economic landscape.

Born in Germany, Senator Wagner immigrated to the United States as a child. He graduated from the City College, City University of New York, and received a law degree from New York Law School in 1900. As a young lawyer, he began his career in politics in 1904, when he was elected to the New York State Assembly (1905-1908) and then the Senate (1909-1918), the last eight years as Democratic floor leader. While chairman of the State Factory Investigating Commission (1911-1915), he investigated the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and other industrial hazards. From 1919 to 1924, he served as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. 

In 1926, Wagner was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate, representing the State of New York. He was re-elected in 1932, 1938 and 1944 and served until his resignation on June 28, 1949, due to ill health.

During his tenure as a United States Senator, Wagner served as chairman of several important committees: Committee on Patents (Seventy-third Congress), Committee on Public Lands and Surveys (Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses), and the Committee on Banking and Currency (Seventy-fifth through Seventy-ninth Congresses).

Contemporaries attributed Wagner's successes to his progressive philosophy, his ability to maneuver bills through the legislative process, and his determination to stick to his convictions on the issues. His two greatest legislative achievements occurred in 1935 with the passage of the Social Security Act to provide old-age pensions to Americans, and the National Labor Relations Act to guarantee labor's right to organize and bargain collectively.

Wagner was a delegate to the historic United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods in 1944. He died in New York City, May 4, 1953.

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Biographic information from the United States Senate Commission on Art.
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