Charles Perry Howard (September 14, 1879 – July 21, 1938) was an American labor union leader. Born in

Harvel, Illinois Harvel is a village in Christian and Montgomery counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 178 at the 2020 census. Geography Harvel is located at (39.355804, -89.531317). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Harvel has ...

, Howard worked on the railroads and in mining before becoming a printer. In 1907, while living in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, he joined the

International Typographical Union The International Typographical Union (ITU) was a US trade union for the printing trade for newspapers and other media. It was founded on May 3, 1852, in the United States as the National Typographical Union, and changed its name to the Interna ...

(ITU). He became president of the union's

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

local in 1914, then served as president of the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Central Labor Council from 1916. In 1918, he became a Commissioner of Conciliation of the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

. From 1919 until 1922, Howard edited the ''Maintenance of Way Journal''. In 1922, Howard was elected as the ITU's vice president, and president in 1923, serving continuously in the post from 1926. Howard supported

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...

Committee for Industrial Organization A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

, becoming its secretary, although the ITU never formally affiliated to the new federation. He was defeated for re-election as president of the ITU in 1938, but he died of a heart attack before handing over the post.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Charles P. 1879 births 1938 deaths American trade union leaders Congress of Industrial Organizations people Trade unionists from Illinois