Francis (Frank) Patrick Walsh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Walsh:

Francis Patrick "Frank" Walsh (July 20, 1864 – May 2, 1939) was an American lawyer. Walsh was noted for his advocacy of progressive causes, including Georgist land value tax,[1] improved working conditions, better pay for workers, and equal employment opportunities for all, including women. He was appointed to several high-profile committees to investigate and report on working conditions. He was also active in championing independence for Ireland.

Early years

Frank P. Walsh was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 20, 1864, into humble circumstances. At age 10 he dropped out of public school and worked as a telegraph boy in St. Louis. He taught himself stenography, and was considered expert in that craft when he was admitted to the bar in 1889.

Walsh was employed as a clerk in lawyers' offices. In 1885 he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and began working in the office of noted KC lawyer Gardiner Lathrop (who is famous for co-founding the Kansas City Country Club, among other things). He gained sufficient experience in legal matters in that employment that he passed the bar exam in 1889 and immediately began to practice law in KC.

In 1891 Walsh married Katherine O'Flaherty of Kansas City. They eventually had nine children, seven of whom lived to adulthood: Katherine Marie, Sarah Louise, Cecilia,Virginia, Jerome Karnes, James, and John Frederick.[2]

Career

Walsh was active in KC municipal improvement projects, and was a member of the Commercial Club in 1913 when he was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to head the newly formed Commission on Industrial Relations.[3] Walsh investigated labor-management clashes from 1913 to 1918, and in 1918 was named co-chairman (with ex-President William Howard Taft) of the National War Labor Board.

Walsh was an Irish nationalist who chaired the American Commission on Irish Independence.[4] He fell out of favor with Wilson for pushing for US recognition of the proclaimed Irish Republic.

Walsh's activities in behalf of Irish Independence were analyzed by author Julie E. Manning in her 1989 book, Frank P. Walsh and the Irish Question.[5]

In 1919 Walsh was retained by the National Women's Trade Union League, whose members had been ousted from their jobs as streetcar conductors at the conclusion of World War I. Walsh argued before the War Labor Board that women had the same rights as men to work. At the end of the case the WLB found in favor of the women's organization, and reversed a lower-court ruling on the subject.[6]

The headline from a 14 April 1922 article in the New York Times concerning Walsh's court maneuvers indicates how Walsh was seen by the nation: "FORGET THE LAW, HE URGES". The article describes a legal appeal to the US Railroad Labor Board, to forget the "legal phrases and technicalities of the laws and pay more attention to the humanitarian side in deciding wages for railroad employees . . . Walsh told the board that the wage matter was one far above the law and went down into the deepest moral questions, the structure of society, and even into the fundamental religion . . regardless of the law, the men must have a living wage."

Walsh's activities in behalf of the American Labor Movement were analyzed by author Maria Eucharia Meehan in her book, Frank P. Walsh and the American Labor Movement.[7]

In 1931 Walsh was Chairman of the New York Power Authority.[8]

Walsh served as the first legal counsel to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, remaining in that role from 1918 until his death in 1939.[9]

In 1936 Walsh was chairman of the Catholic Citizen's Committee for Ratification of the Federal Child Labor Law.

In 1941 the Walsh family donated the collected files of Walsh to the New York Public Library[10]

For a time, Walsh's secretary in New York was Sarah Lucille Turner, who had been one of the first women elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. [11]

Death and legacy

Frank P. Walsh died of a heart attack while walking along a street in New York City on May 2, 1939. He was buried in Kansas City, Missouri on May 6.[12]

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https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=101183477:

Francis Patrick "Frank" Walsh, Sr

Birth: Jul. 20, 1864 Saint Louis St. Louis City Missouri, USA

Death: May 2, 1939 New York New York County (Manhattan) New York, USA

EARLY 20th CENTURY DEMOCRATIC LAWYER, POLITICIAN and CABINET MEMBER. FRANCIS P. "Frank" WALSH, a Midwestern Irish-American born under very humble post-immigrant circumstances who rose to state cabinet positions in New York State, becoming a force in Kansas City, MO and New York City politics (as well as a noted national Catholic lay leader), was born in St. Louis, MO at the close of the Civil War on July 20, 1864 to Irish immigrant parents, the third of six children. His family moved to Kansas City, MO in 1867. His father, a K.C. grain salesman, died four years later when Frank was 7 years of age.

Educated briefly in parochial and public schools until age 10, Walsh then dropped out of school, taught himself stenography, and secured a job with the office of noted Kansas City attorney Gardner Lathrop, where he read law in his spare time. As a result of this effort, Walsh was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1889 at age 25, when he was considered an expert stenographer in the state of Missouri.

Walsh, who considered himself "a self-made man," developed a significant political and public service career in Kansas City and later in New York which brought him to the attention of U.S. national Democratic Party leaders.

He consistently sided with the rights of Labor and the underprivileged to assure their ongoing legal protection--and frequently donated his time and professional services to noteworthy legal defenses he believed in.

By 1913, Walsh had distinguished himself as a social reformer and noted labor attorney, appointed by Pres. Woodrow Wilson to be chairman of the national Industrial Relations Commission with former U.S. President William Howard Taft. Walsh also served as co-chairman of the War Labor Board during World War I. In the 1920's, he was active in safeguarding civil liberties and promoting Irish national independence in his ancestral country.

Walsh backed progressive candidate Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin for President in 1924. Moving to New York City in 1928, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Walsh to the New York State Power Authority in 1931, where Walsh advocated lower power rates and municipal ownership of utlities.

In 1937, he campaigned for the reelection of New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, and helped organize the Catholic Citizens Committee for the Ratification of the Child Labor Amendment. He also helped found the National Lawyers Guild in 1936, but resigned three years later. Becoming a noted Catholic lay leader in New York Irish-American circles, Walsh was named a Trustee of St. Patrick's Cathedral by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, and later, a Pontifical Knight of the Holy Sepulchre for his extensive church involvement.

Married to the former Katherine M. O'Flaherty (1866-1949) of Kansas City, MO in October, 1891, they were the parents of nine children: Katherine Marie, Sarah Louise, Cecelia, Frank P. Jr., John Frederick, Edgar (stillborn), Jerome, James G. (1906-1958) and Virginia A. Walsh. His son Jerome would develop a significant legal and political career in Kansas City; two of the daughters became Sisters of Loretto, one serving as an administrator of the American order of Roman Catholic nuns headquartered in Nerinx, KY. (A younger brother of Frank's, James W. Walsh, Sr., served as a lawyer in Missouri Governor Joseph M. Folk's administration in the early 1900's).

Frank P. Walsh died of a heart attack while walking down the street in New York City on May 2, 1939. After a funeral Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, his remains was returned to Kansas City, MO and interred at Mount St. Mary's Cemetery there.

Walsh will be remembered as an accomplished public figure of that era--a product of immigrants whose talent and savvy developed under hardship significantly impacted the evolution of 20th century urban political systems of large cities, particularly in the urban centers of the Midwest and Northeast, as well as the U.S. Labor Movement.

Successful political and legal careers similar to that of Mr. Walsh paved the way for the later ascendancy of other national Irish-American political leaders of the mid-20th century such as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and President John F. Kennedy. (Adapted from the entry in the 1966 CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA and Midwestern history sources).

EDITOR's NOTE: The FRANK P. WALSH Papers are on permanent file at the New York Public Library in New York City. They were donated by the Walsh Family in 1941 to the library's permanent collection.

Family links:

Spouse:

 Katherine M. O'Flaherty Walsh (1866 - 1949)

Note: Irish-American national and regional political leader and cabinet appointee.

Burial: Mount Saint Marys Cemetery Kansas City Jackson County Missouri, USA Plot: Sec C, Lot 81, Graves 8and9

Created by: Max S. Kaiser, Jr. Record added: Nov 23, 2012 Find A Grave Memorial# 101183477

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