biography
| name: |
Wagner, Robert F(erdinand)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1877–1953)
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| biography:
| US senator, born in Hesse-Nassau, Germany. He emigrated to the USA in 1896 and took a law degree from New York Law School (1900). Active in the New York State legislature, he became lieutenant-governor (1914), and was elected to the New York Supreme Court (1918) and to the US Senate (Democrat, New York, 1927–49). He won fame as an advocate of labour rights, and while in the New York legislature he was chairman of the committee that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 and helped establish new legal protections for worker safety. As a senator during the Great Depression, his hand touched practically every piece of important relief and labour legislation, including the National Industrial Recovery Act, the National Labour Relations Act (or Wagner Act), the Social Security Act, the Wagner–Steagall Act (concerning public housing), and the Home Loan Act. A leader in post-war planning, he was the prime mover behind the Public Housing Act of 1949, and he also helped shape the GI Bill and Veteran Placement Service. |
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