President of Georgia Federation of Labor-- Advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on southern labor issues.
Biography of Alexander Stephens Nance
By O.E.PETRY. *
"Into the moving and troubled scene of our time, a figure was projected by the fine fitness of destiny and need."
"It was that of a man of vision and of physical strength to accomplish an enormous amount of work, although this strength, being human, was unavailing at last against the demands of all the work he saw as necessary to be done yet sought gallantly and heedlessly to do."
"This man was possessed of a heart of great capacity to feel, to love; a heart
that was a well of courage to fight uncompromisingly for all that was right and just. The figure grew as the horizon expanded. It matched that background, into which was crowded all the stir of awakening enterprise and consciousness. Then suddenly, as it neared the fulfillment of its growth, it moved from this scene."
This, in the words of one of his friends, was Steve Nance, a man of great compassion, modesty, honesty and spiritual vitality, whose death April 3rd removed one of the most significant personalities of the times in the South---a labor leader and statesman who was as well a citizen of broad interests, sympathies, activities and solid substance.
A fellow-townsman whose life is touched by affairs, has said, "A dozen times
a day I catch myself reaching for the telephone to call Steve Nance for help."
Steve Nance had helped so many. His was a native force, doubly effective
because he was truly not only a man of the people but of the very soil.
Alexander Stephens Nance came of good Georgia heritage, born May 19,1895, near Bowman in Elbert County. He was the direct descendant of fore-fathers who fought in the Revolution, and his father, Captain John L. Nance, fought in the War Between the States. His mother was Victoria Bond, daughter of John H. Bond, of Madison County.
There is much in a man's heritage. The patriot that was Steve Nance's father lived in him. The sympathies of human feeling of his mother were reflected again in all his works. Of her, at the time of her death in 1901, Rev. J. J. Beck, of Marietta, said:
"She was as purely unselfish as is possible for the best of earth's daughters---
living for the comfort of others, making any sacrifice, at whatever cost, to contribute to the welfare of those for whom she lived." .
It was fortunate that Steve Nance married a woman who was able to share his ideals and encourage him in all that he did-willing to give up the advantages she could have had if her husband had chosen financial success for his goal, instead of human service. He married Miss Frances Katherine McMurtrey in 1916. Katherine, their oldest child, died when thirteen years old, a great tragedy to Steve. The other children are Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Cynthia and John William.
When Steve came to Atlanta as a fifteen year old country boy he went to work in the mail room of the Atlanta Georgian and a year later became a charter member of the Atlanta Mailers Union, Local 34. His qualities of leadership were apparent even then, and in a few years he became President of his Local, an office he held for over twenty years and until his death.
While still a young man, he went to work in the mail room of the "Southern Ruralist" where he rose to the position of foreman. In 1924 he was made Circulation Manager, and when the Ruralist merged with the Progressive Farmer in 1926, he became a Vice-President and Director of the Ruralist Press, Inc. He resigned from these offices in 1936 to give his whole time to organization work in the Wearing Apparel Industries.
In 1927, Steve was elected Vice-President of the Georgia Federation of Labor,
an office he voluntarily relinquished after two years' period. He was appointed legislative representative for the Federation in 1930 and held that office until 1935, when he was elected President. This office he held until April, 1937 when on the order of President William Green of the American Federation of Labor, the Georgia Federation was divided, and Steve was elected President of the State Federation group which remained with him.
He was President of the Atlanta Federation of Trades from 1930 to 1935. During his presidency the Federation became stronger and reached a higher level of influence for the betterment of the workers and the city than at any time in its history.
From the inception of federal relief, Steve served on the various Georgia Boards appointed to cooperate with the federal agencies. He was a representative of labor in Georgia on the N. R. A. Compliance Board and on the National Labor Relations Board established in 1933. His services continued with the second Board created in June 1934 by a public resolution of the U. S. Congress.
Appointed Director of the Southeastern Organization of Wearing Apparel Industries in August 1936, Steven then became responsible for organizing for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers. Less than a year later, April 1937, he was made Directors of the campaign in the Southeast for the Textile Workers Organizing Committee.
In all the years Steve Nance was growing in mental and spiritual stature. His was a growth stimulated by the movements of the day. To quote again, "His keen vision was among the first to detect the implications of the times, the social needs, the defenseless condition of people inarticulate and groping in lack of instruments or alliances to improve their economic condition; therefore, their lives."
The first time I met Steve Nance was at the Macon Convention of the Georgia Federation of Labor in 1922, when he was fighting for the Mailers Union, then in a strike against the Atlanta papers. Many of us were impressed by his earnestness and sincerity. That impression deepened as the years went by and he and I were associated in the labor movement more and more closely and I came to know his remarkable character intimately.
He recognized the labor movement as a social as well as economic movement, and his activities as a labor leader were intertwined with those of a public man whose first interest was the welfare and improvement of his fellows.
He found time to serve on innumerable civic, social welfare and church boards and committees. He found time always to help people whether they had any claim on him or connection with the labor movement, or not. And so his labors became prodigious.
It was because of his perception of human needs that he was a fighter. The cause of man is worth fighting for. He saw it as the most important thing in this world of men.
Yet, he was invincibly honest and fair with his militancy. Without compromising or retreating from a point of principle, he was accorded the respect of management and was able to do more than others to promote labor organization, to help the passage of beneficial legislation, to help stifle--occasionally he accomplished it almost single handed---vicious and dangerous legislation.
"Aware of the interdependence of man and man," again quoting, "he saw early that social movements among which were movements definitely in behalf of workers as workers, must depend for success upon united and widespread action. Fortunate opportunities for service helped him grow, as few men, into the broad scene, enabled him to act upon his perceptions. His equipment of vision made him inevitably the southern leader to be drawn into the national arena."
It followed naturally that he should have come in contact with national leaders who, like those who knew him longer, were quick to recognize his ability and his consecration---as displayed, for example, in the textile strike of 1934, when he was in close touch with all factors. He moved through all his growing connections into contact with labor leaders of national significance and dynamic power, all of whom acquired great faith in him. And with these men Steve Nance saw the labor movement in its broad range, in connection with the whole social, economic and political picture.
He saw the necessity of organization of all workers and he turned his hand outside the conventional and slowly moving group. He never repudiated the craft movement, but he saw that the rank and file had to be organized on different lines and his concern for the wider movement obviously grew and deepened.
These were great days, days so busy that their demands taxed and sapped the strength even of Steve Nance. In every way he was unsparing of himself. Heedless of warnings about his health, he was likewise indifferent to his personal advancement and gain. The cause of labor and of people came first, his personal fortunes second.
He refused opportunity to become Postmaster in Atlanta, and later to become Regional Director of the Social Security Board. He believed his greatest service lay within the ranks of labor, and it was characteristic that he refused to accept a salary from the TWOC when he added the duties of directing its campaign in the South to his other work.
The service of Steve Nance was beyond measure of money. It was immeasurable and indescribable in human terms because it was a thing of principle, free, serene and unfaltering. It was ennobled by its aims and its intent. It was marked by the truest unselfishness, which counted no cost too great for justice and human good, not even that of life itself.
* O. E. Petry is Superintendent of the composing room of the Newspaper Printing Corporation, printing the "Nashville-Tennessean and Banner". He was for many years a close associate of Mr. Nance in the Georgia Federation of Labor, and later in his work with the "Textile Workers Organizing Committee".
Biography of Alexander Stephens Nance
By O.E.PETRY. *
"Into the moving and troubled scene of our time, a figure was projected by the fine fitness of destiny and need."
"It was that of a man of vision and of physical strength to accomplish an enormous amount of work, although this strength, being human, was unavailing at last against the demands of all the work he saw as necessary to be done yet sought gallantly and heedlessly to do."
"This man was possessed of a heart of great capacity to feel, to love; a heart
that was a well of courage to fight uncompromisingly for all that was right and just. The figure grew as the horizon expanded. It matched that background, into which was crowded all the stir of awakening enterprise and consciousness. Then suddenly, as it neared the fulfillment of its growth, it moved from this scene."
This, in the words of one of his friends, was Steve Nance, a man of great compassion, modesty, honesty and spiritual vitality, whose death April 3rd removed one of the most significant personalities of the times in the South---a labor leader and statesman who was as well a citizen of broad interests, sympathies, activities and solid substance.
A fellow-townsman whose life is touched by affairs, has said, "A dozen times
a day I catch myself reaching for the telephone to call Steve Nance for help."
Steve Nance had helped so many. His was a native force, doubly effective
because he was truly not only a man of the people but of the very soil.
Alexander Stephens Nance came of good Georgia heritage, born May 19,1895, near Bowman in Elbert County. He was the direct descendant of fore-fathers who fought in the Revolution, and his father, Captain John L. Nance, fought in the War Between the States. His mother was Victoria Bond, daughter of John H. Bond, of Madison County.
There is much in a man's heritage. The patriot that was Steve Nance's father lived in him. The sympathies of human feeling of his mother were reflected again in all his works. Of her, at the time of her death in 1901, Rev. J. J. Beck, of Marietta, said:
"She was as purely unselfish as is possible for the best of earth's daughters---
living for the comfort of others, making any sacrifice, at whatever cost, to contribute to the welfare of those for whom she lived." .
It was fortunate that Steve Nance married a woman who was able to share his ideals and encourage him in all that he did-willing to give up the advantages she could have had if her husband had chosen financial success for his goal, instead of human service. He married Miss Frances Katherine McMurtrey in 1916. Katherine, their oldest child, died when thirteen years old, a great tragedy to Steve. The other children are Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Cynthia and John William.
When Steve came to Atlanta as a fifteen year old country boy he went to work in the mail room of the Atlanta Georgian and a year later became a charter member of the Atlanta Mailers Union, Local 34. His qualities of leadership were apparent even then, and in a few years he became President of his Local, an office he held for over twenty years and until his death.
While still a young man, he went to work in the mail room of the "Southern Ruralist" where he rose to the position of foreman. In 1924 he was made Circulation Manager, and when the Ruralist merged with the Progressive Farmer in 1926, he became a Vice-President and Director of the Ruralist Press, Inc. He resigned from these offices in 1936 to give his whole time to organization work in the Wearing Apparel Industries.
In 1927, Steve was elected Vice-President of the Georgia Federation of Labor,
an office he voluntarily relinquished after two years' period. He was appointed legislative representative for the Federation in 1930 and held that office until 1935, when he was elected President. This office he held until April, 1937 when on the order of President William Green of the American Federation of Labor, the Georgia Federation was divided, and Steve was elected President of the State Federation group which remained with him.
He was President of the Atlanta Federation of Trades from 1930 to 1935. During his presidency the Federation became stronger and reached a higher level of influence for the betterment of the workers and the city than at any time in its history.
From the inception of federal relief, Steve served on the various Georgia Boards appointed to cooperate with the federal agencies. He was a representative of labor in Georgia on the N. R. A. Compliance Board and on the National Labor Relations Board established in 1933. His services continued with the second Board created in June 1934 by a public resolution of the U. S. Congress.
Appointed Director of the Southeastern Organization of Wearing Apparel Industries in August 1936, Steven then became responsible for organizing for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers. Less than a year later, April 1937, he was made Directors of the campaign in the Southeast for the Textile Workers Organizing Committee.
In all the years Steve Nance was growing in mental and spiritual stature. His was a growth stimulated by the movements of the day. To quote again, "His keen vision was among the first to detect the implications of the times, the social needs, the defenseless condition of people inarticulate and groping in lack of instruments or alliances to improve their economic condition; therefore, their lives."
The first time I met Steve Nance was at the Macon Convention of the Georgia Federation of Labor in 1922, when he was fighting for the Mailers Union, then in a strike against the Atlanta papers. Many of us were impressed by his earnestness and sincerity. That impression deepened as the years went by and he and I were associated in the labor movement more and more closely and I came to know his remarkable character intimately.
He recognized the labor movement as a social as well as economic movement, and his activities as a labor leader were intertwined with those of a public man whose first interest was the welfare and improvement of his fellows.
He found time to serve on innumerable civic, social welfare and church boards and committees. He found time always to help people whether they had any claim on him or connection with the labor movement, or not. And so his labors became prodigious.
It was because of his perception of human needs that he was a fighter. The cause of man is worth fighting for. He saw it as the most important thing in this world of men.
Yet, he was invincibly honest and fair with his militancy. Without compromising or retreating from a point of principle, he was accorded the respect of management and was able to do more than others to promote labor organization, to help the passage of beneficial legislation, to help stifle--occasionally he accomplished it almost single handed---vicious and dangerous legislation.
"Aware of the interdependence of man and man," again quoting, "he saw early that social movements among which were movements definitely in behalf of workers as workers, must depend for success upon united and widespread action. Fortunate opportunities for service helped him grow, as few men, into the broad scene, enabled him to act upon his perceptions. His equipment of vision made him inevitably the southern leader to be drawn into the national arena."
It followed naturally that he should have come in contact with national leaders who, like those who knew him longer, were quick to recognize his ability and his consecration---as displayed, for example, in the textile strike of 1934, when he was in close touch with all factors. He moved through all his growing connections into contact with labor leaders of national significance and dynamic power, all of whom acquired great faith in him. And with these men Steve Nance saw the labor movement in its broad range, in connection with the whole social, economic and political picture.
He saw the necessity of organization of all workers and he turned his hand outside the conventional and slowly moving group. He never repudiated the craft movement, but he saw that the rank and file had to be organized on different lines and his concern for the wider movement obviously grew and deepened.
These were great days, days so busy that their demands taxed and sapped the strength even of Steve Nance. In every way he was unsparing of himself. Heedless of warnings about his health, he was likewise indifferent to his personal advancement and gain. The cause of labor and of people came first, his personal fortunes second.
He refused opportunity to become Postmaster in Atlanta, and later to become Regional Director of the Social Security Board. He believed his greatest service lay within the ranks of labor, and it was characteristic that he refused to accept a salary from the TWOC when he added the duties of directing its campaign in the South to his other work.
The service of Steve Nance was beyond measure of money. It was immeasurable and indescribable in human terms because it was a thing of principle, free, serene and unfaltering. It was ennobled by its aims and its intent. It was marked by the truest unselfishness, which counted no cost too great for justice and human good, not even that of life itself.
* O. E. Petry is Superintendent of the composing room of the Newspaper Printing Corporation, printing the "Nashville-Tennessean and Banner". He was for many years a close associate of Mr. Nance in the Georgia Federation of Labor, and later in his work with the "Textile Workers Organizing Committee".
President of Georgia Federation of Labor-- Advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on southern labor issues.
Biography of Alexander Stephens Nance
By O.E.PETRY. *
"Into the moving and troubled scene of our time, a figure was projected by the fine fitness of destiny and need."
"It was that of a man of vision and of physical strength to accomplish an enormous amount of work, although this strength, being human, was unavailing at last against the demands of all the work he saw as necessary to be done yet sought gallantly and heedlessly to do."
"This man was possessed of a heart of great capacity to feel, to love; a heart
that was a well of courage to fight uncompromisingly for all that was right and just. The figure grew as the horizon expanded. It matched that background, into which was crowded all the stir of awakening enterprise and consciousness. Then suddenly, as it neared the fulfillment of its growth, it moved from this scene."
This, in the words of one of his friends, was Steve Nance, a man of great compassion, modesty, honesty and spiritual vitality, whose death April 3rd removed one of the most significant personalities of the times in the South---a labor leader and statesman who was as well a citizen of broad interests, sympathies, activities and solid substance.
A fellow-townsman whose life is touched by affairs, has said, "A dozen times
a day I catch myself reaching for the telephone to call Steve Nance for help."
Steve Nance had helped so many. His was a native force, doubly effective
because he was truly not only a man of the people but of the very soil.
Alexander Stephens Nance came of good Georgia heritage, born May 19,1895, near Bowman in Elbert County. He was the direct descendant of fore-fathers who fought in the Revolution, and his father, Captain John L. Nance, fought in the War Between the States. His mother was Victoria Bond, daughter of John H. Bond, of Madison County.
There is much in a man's heritage. The patriot that was Steve Nance's father lived in him. The sympathies of human feeling of his mother were reflected again in all his works. Of her, at the time of her death in 1901, Rev. J. J. Beck, of Marietta, said:
"She was as purely unselfish as is possible for the best of earth's daughters---
living for the comfort of others, making any sacrifice, at whatever cost, to contribute to the welfare of those for whom she lived." .
It was fortunate that Steve Nance married a woman who was able to share his ideals and encourage him in all that he did-willing to give up the advantages she could have had if her husband had chosen financial success for his goal, instead of human service. He married Miss Frances Katherine McMurtrey in 1916. Katherine, their oldest child, died when thirteen years old, a great tragedy to Steve. The other children are Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Cynthia and John William.
When Steve came to Atlanta as a fifteen year old country boy he went to work in the mail room of the Atlanta Georgian and a year later became a charter member of the Atlanta Mailers Union, Local 34. His qualities of leadership were apparent even then, and in a few years he became President of his Local, an office he held for over twenty years and until his death.
While still a young man, he went to work in the mail room of the "Southern Ruralist" where he rose to the position of foreman. In 1924 he was made Circulation Manager, and when the Ruralist merged with the Progressive Farmer in 1926, he became a Vice-President and Director of the Ruralist Press, Inc. He resigned from these offices in 1936 to give his whole time to organization work in the Wearing Apparel Industries.
In 1927, Steve was elected Vice-President of the Georgia Federation of Labor,
an office he voluntarily relinquished after two years' period. He was appointed legislative representative for the Federation in 1930 and held that office until 1935, when he was elected President. This office he held until April, 1937 when on the order of President William Green of the American Federation of Labor, the Georgia Federation was divided, and Steve was elected President of the State Federation group which remained with him.
He was President of the Atlanta Federation of Trades from 1930 to 1935. During his presidency the Federation became stronger and reached a higher level of influence for the betterment of the workers and the city than at any time in its history.
From the inception of federal relief, Steve served on the various Georgia Boards appointed to cooperate with the federal agencies. He was a representative of labor in Georgia on the N. R. A. Compliance Board and on the National Labor Relations Board established in 1933. His services continued with the second Board created in June 1934 by a public resolution of the U. S. Congress.
Appointed Director of the Southeastern Organization of Wearing Apparel Industries in August 1936, Steven then became responsible for organizing for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers. Less than a year later, April 1937, he was made Directors of the campaign in the Southeast for the Textile Workers Organizing Committee.
In all the years Steve Nance was growing in mental and spiritual stature. His was a growth stimulated by the movements of the day. To quote again, "His keen vision was among the first to detect the implications of the times, the social needs, the defenseless condition of people inarticulate and groping in lack of instruments or alliances to improve their economic condition; therefore, their lives."
The first time I met Steve Nance was at the Macon Convention of the Georgia Federation of Labor in 1922, when he was fighting for the Mailers Union, then in a strike against the Atlanta papers. Many of us were impressed by his earnestness and sincerity. That impression deepened as the years went by and he and I were associated in the labor movement more and more closely and I came to know his remarkable character intimately.
He recognized the labor movement as a social as well as economic movement, and his activities as a labor leader were intertwined with those of a public man whose first interest was the welfare and improvement of his fellows.
He found time to serve on innumerable civic, social welfare and church boards and committees. He found time always to help people whether they had any claim on him or connection with the labor movement, or not. And so his labors became prodigious.
It was because of his perception of human needs that he was a fighter. The cause of man is worth fighting for. He saw it as the most important thing in this world of men.
Yet, he was invincibly honest and fair with his militancy. Without compromising or retreating from a point of principle, he was accorded the respect of management and was able to do more than others to promote labor organization, to help the passage of beneficial legislation, to help stifle--occasionally he accomplished it almost single handed---vicious and dangerous legislation.
"Aware of the interdependence of man and man," again quoting, "he saw early that social movements among which were movements definitely in behalf of workers as workers, must depend for success upon united and widespread action. Fortunate opportunities for service helped him grow, as few men, into the broad scene, enabled him to act upon his perceptions. His equipment of vision made him inevitably the southern leader to be drawn into the national arena."
It followed naturally that he should have come in contact with national leaders who, like those who knew him longer, were quick to recognize his ability and his consecration---as displayed, for example, in the textile strike of 1934, when he was in close touch with all factors. He moved through all his growing connections into contact with labor leaders of national significance and dynamic power, all of whom acquired great faith in him. And with these men Steve Nance saw the labor movement in its broad range, in connection with the whole social, economic and political picture.
He saw the necessity of organization of all workers and he turned his hand outside the conventional and slowly moving group. He never repudiated the craft movement, but he saw that the rank and file had to be organized on different lines and his concern for the wider movement obviously grew and deepened.
These were great days, days so busy that their demands taxed and sapped the strength even of Steve Nance. In every way he was unsparing of himself. Heedless of warnings about his health, he was likewise indifferent to his personal advancement and gain. The cause of labor and of people came first, his personal fortunes second.
He refused opportunity to become Postmaster in Atlanta, and later to become Regional Director of the Social Security Board. He believed his greatest service lay within the ranks of labor, and it was characteristic that he refused to accept a salary from the TWOC when he added the duties of directing its campaign in the South to his other work.
The service of Steve Nance was beyond measure of money. It was immeasurable and indescribable in human terms because it was a thing of principle, free, serene and unfaltering. It was ennobled by its aims and its intent. It was marked by the truest unselfishness, which counted no cost too great for justice and human good, not even that of life itself.
* O. E. Petry is Superintendent of the composing room of the Newspaper Printing Corporation, printing the "Nashville-Tennessean and Banner". He was for many years a close associate of Mr. Nance in the Georgia Federation of Labor, and later in his work with the "Textile Workers Organizing Committee".
Biography of Alexander Stephens Nance
By O.E.PETRY. *
"Into the moving and troubled scene of our time, a figure was projected by the fine fitness of destiny and need."
"It was that of a man of vision and of physical strength to accomplish an enormous amount of work, although this strength, being human, was unavailing at last against the demands of all the work he saw as necessary to be done yet sought gallantly and heedlessly to do."
"This man was possessed of a heart of great capacity to feel, to love; a heart
that was a well of courage to fight uncompromisingly for all that was right and just. The figure grew as the horizon expanded. It matched that background, into which was crowded all the stir of awakening enterprise and consciousness. Then suddenly, as it neared the fulfillment of its growth, it moved from this scene."
This, in the words of one of his friends, was Steve Nance, a man of great compassion, modesty, honesty and spiritual vitality, whose death April 3rd removed one of the most significant personalities of the times in the South---a labor leader and statesman who was as well a citizen of broad interests, sympathies, activities and solid substance.
A fellow-townsman whose life is touched by affairs, has said, "A dozen times
a day I catch myself reaching for the telephone to call Steve Nance for help."
Steve Nance had helped so many. His was a native force, doubly effective
because he was truly not only a man of the people but of the very soil.
Alexander Stephens Nance came of good Georgia heritage, born May 19,1895, near Bowman in Elbert County. He was the direct descendant of fore-fathers who fought in the Revolution, and his father, Captain John L. Nance, fought in the War Between the States. His mother was Victoria Bond, daughter of John H. Bond, of Madison County.
There is much in a man's heritage. The patriot that was Steve Nance's father lived in him. The sympathies of human feeling of his mother were reflected again in all his works. Of her, at the time of her death in 1901, Rev. J. J. Beck, of Marietta, said:
"She was as purely unselfish as is possible for the best of earth's daughters---
living for the comfort of others, making any sacrifice, at whatever cost, to contribute to the welfare of those for whom she lived." .
It was fortunate that Steve Nance married a woman who was able to share his ideals and encourage him in all that he did-willing to give up the advantages she could have had if her husband had chosen financial success for his goal, instead of human service. He married Miss Frances Katherine McMurtrey in 1916. Katherine, their oldest child, died when thirteen years old, a great tragedy to Steve. The other children are Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Cynthia and John William.
When Steve came to Atlanta as a fifteen year old country boy he went to work in the mail room of the Atlanta Georgian and a year later became a charter member of the Atlanta Mailers Union, Local 34. His qualities of leadership were apparent even then, and in a few years he became President of his Local, an office he held for over twenty years and until his death.
While still a young man, he went to work in the mail room of the "Southern Ruralist" where he rose to the position of foreman. In 1924 he was made Circulation Manager, and when the Ruralist merged with the Progressive Farmer in 1926, he became a Vice-President and Director of the Ruralist Press, Inc. He resigned from these offices in 1936 to give his whole time to organization work in the Wearing Apparel Industries.
In 1927, Steve was elected Vice-President of the Georgia Federation of Labor,
an office he voluntarily relinquished after two years' period. He was appointed legislative representative for the Federation in 1930 and held that office until 1935, when he was elected President. This office he held until April, 1937 when on the order of President William Green of the American Federation of Labor, the Georgia Federation was divided, and Steve was elected President of the State Federation group which remained with him.
He was President of the Atlanta Federation of Trades from 1930 to 1935. During his presidency the Federation became stronger and reached a higher level of influence for the betterment of the workers and the city than at any time in its history.
From the inception of federal relief, Steve served on the various Georgia Boards appointed to cooperate with the federal agencies. He was a representative of labor in Georgia on the N. R. A. Compliance Board and on the National Labor Relations Board established in 1933. His services continued with the second Board created in June 1934 by a public resolution of the U. S. Congress.
Appointed Director of the Southeastern Organization of Wearing Apparel Industries in August 1936, Steven then became responsible for organizing for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers. Less than a year later, April 1937, he was made Directors of the campaign in the Southeast for the Textile Workers Organizing Committee.
In all the years Steve Nance was growing in mental and spiritual stature. His was a growth stimulated by the movements of the day. To quote again, "His keen vision was among the first to detect the implications of the times, the social needs, the defenseless condition of people inarticulate and groping in lack of instruments or alliances to improve their economic condition; therefore, their lives."
The first time I met Steve Nance was at the Macon Convention of the Georgia Federation of Labor in 1922, when he was fighting for the Mailers Union, then in a strike against the Atlanta papers. Many of us were impressed by his earnestness and sincerity. That impression deepened as the years went by and he and I were associated in the labor movement more and more closely and I came to know his remarkable character intimately.
He recognized the labor movement as a social as well as economic movement, and his activities as a labor leader were intertwined with those of a public man whose first interest was the welfare and improvement of his fellows.
He found time to serve on innumerable civic, social welfare and church boards and committees. He found time always to help people whether they had any claim on him or connection with the labor movement, or not. And so his labors became prodigious.
It was because of his perception of human needs that he was a fighter. The cause of man is worth fighting for. He saw it as the most important thing in this world of men.
Yet, he was invincibly honest and fair with his militancy. Without compromising or retreating from a point of principle, he was accorded the respect of management and was able to do more than others to promote labor organization, to help the passage of beneficial legislation, to help stifle--occasionally he accomplished it almost single handed---vicious and dangerous legislation.
"Aware of the interdependence of man and man," again quoting, "he saw early that social movements among which were movements definitely in behalf of workers as workers, must depend for success upon united and widespread action. Fortunate opportunities for service helped him grow, as few men, into the broad scene, enabled him to act upon his perceptions. His equipment of vision made him inevitably the southern leader to be drawn into the national arena."
It followed naturally that he should have come in contact with national leaders who, like those who knew him longer, were quick to recognize his ability and his consecration---as displayed, for example, in the textile strike of 1934, when he was in close touch with all factors. He moved through all his growing connections into contact with labor leaders of national significance and dynamic power, all of whom acquired great faith in him. And with these men Steve Nance saw the labor movement in its broad range, in connection with the whole social, economic and political picture.
He saw the necessity of organization of all workers and he turned his hand outside the conventional and slowly moving group. He never repudiated the craft movement, but he saw that the rank and file had to be organized on different lines and his concern for the wider movement obviously grew and deepened.
These were great days, days so busy that their demands taxed and sapped the strength even of Steve Nance. In every way he was unsparing of himself. Heedless of warnings about his health, he was likewise indifferent to his personal advancement and gain. The cause of labor and of people came first, his personal fortunes second.
He refused opportunity to become Postmaster in Atlanta, and later to become Regional Director of the Social Security Board. He believed his greatest service lay within the ranks of labor, and it was characteristic that he refused to accept a salary from the TWOC when he added the duties of directing its campaign in the South to his other work.
The service of Steve Nance was beyond measure of money. It was immeasurable and indescribable in human terms because it was a thing of principle, free, serene and unfaltering. It was ennobled by its aims and its intent. It was marked by the truest unselfishness, which counted no cost too great for justice and human good, not even that of life itself.
* O. E. Petry is Superintendent of the composing room of the Newspaper Printing Corporation, printing the "Nashville-Tennessean and Banner". He was for many years a close associate of Mr. Nance in the Georgia Federation of Labor, and later in his work with the "Textile Workers Organizing Committee".
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