William B. Wilson, (center) sitting with Terence V. Powderly to his left and Commissioner-General of Immigration Anthony Caminetti on his right, 1915.

Credit: The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives, Terrence Powderly Collection

In 1915, Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson headed the National Employment Bureau, created to work on solutions to the high unemployment then affecting the nation. Wilson worked in the Bureau with Commissioner of Immigration A. Caminetti and Terence V. Powderly, then Chief of the Division of Information in the Bureau of Immigration. Old friends, Wilson and Powderly both hailed from Pennsylvania and had been leaders in the American labor movement.