George E. McNeill

George Edwin McNeill (1836–1906), was an American mill worker, labor leader, Christian socialist, and writer from New England. McNeill is best remembered for a pioneering study of the American labor movement, The Labor Movement, or, the Problem of To-day, published in 1892.

Biography Early years

George Edwin McNeill was born August 4, 1836, in Amesbury, Massachusetts. McNeill worked in various Amesbury textile mills from childhood, going to work in the Amesbury Woolen Company at the age of ten. This led McNeill to participation in an 1851 strike, when he was a boy of just 15. Strikers demanded a shortening of the working day to 10 hours at the mill, which the owner, the Salisbury Company, refused.

McNeill became directly involved in electoral politics in 1886, running as a labor candidate for Mayor of Boston.

McNeill was also a poet of some renown and published a 1903 volume of his literary work.

Death and legacy

On May 17, 1906, McNeill was suddenly stricken by intestinal pain and was rushed to the hospital in Somerville, Massachusetts. An emergency operation was conducted, but McNeill was unable to survive the trauma, and he faded and died on May 19, 1906. McNeill was 69 years old at the time of his death.

Numerous leaders of the American labor movement were in attendance at his funeral, with the eulogy delivered by Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor.