OOIVIEZ 358 GOMPERS same position under the presidency of Estrada Palma. He was a candidate for the presidency in 1905 but withdrew pi'ior to the election. He was arrested in 1906 on the charge of attempting to foment a revolution, and he remained in prison until the Second American Inter- vention. He was elected President of the Republic in 1908. His administration was marked by financial and economic difficulties and there were charges of corruption on the part of the adminis- tration. A revolution broke out in 1912 which was crushed. In the following year President Gomez retired from of- fice. He was again a candidate for the presidency in 1920, but was defeated by Alfredo Zayas. GOMEZ, MAXIMO (go'meth), a Cuban military officer; born in Bani, San Domingo, in 1838; served as a lieutenant of cavalry in the last Spanish army sent to occupy that island. Dur- ing the war with Haiti he won distinc- tion at the battle of San Tome, in which action at the head of 20 men he con- quered a much superior number. When the freedom of San Domingo was de- clared he accompanied the Spanish force to Cuba; but later, when General Villar maltreated some Cuban refugees, he be- came angry, and after personally as- saulting that officer _ left the Spanish army. In 1868 he joined the Cuban in- surrection known as the Ten Years' War. He aided in the capture of Jugnani, Bayamo, Tunas, and Holguin, and was a leading actor in many other success- ful engagements; was promoted Major- General and later succeeded General Agramonte as commander-in-chief. At the beginning of the war of 1895-1898 he again took up arms with the Cubans and fought with marked distinction till the Americans occupied Cuba. On Feb. 25, 1899, after marching through Havana with 2,500 of his soldiers, he was given a reception and banquet in that city by the United States military authorities. Later he was of invaluable service to General Brooke, the American governor- general, in the work of reconstruction on the island. In 1900-1901 he was con- spicuously mentioned for the presidency of the Cuban republic. Among his sketches are "Panchito Gomez" and "Mi Escolta." He died June 17, 1905, at Havana. GOMPEBS, SAMUEL, an American labor leader, bom in London, Eng- land, Jan. 27, 1850. He was apprenticed to a cigar maker as a young boy and came to the United States in 1863. In spite of his youth he became in the fol- lowing year, 1864, the first registered member of the Cigar Makers' Interna- tional Union, serving later as its secre- tary and president and making it one of most successful of all American trade unions. He was one of the founders of the American Federation of Labor (q. v.), and the editor of its official maga- zine. In 1881 he was elected its vice- president, and from 1882 on he was an- nually elected president with the single exception of 1894, in which year he was defeated by John McBride. Under his influence and direction the American Federation of Labor became one of the most powerful and successful labor or- ganizations in the world. Gompers^ though sponsoring and supporting many movements and measures in favor of and for the improvement of labor, has con- sistently thrown his influence toward the conservative elements of American labor. His opposition to socialistic tendencies .^/-^^Z^"^^ SAMUEL GOMPERS within the ranks of American trade unionists has been outspoken and unfal- tering. In 1907 he came into special prominence, together with other officers of the American Federation of Labor, for failing to observe an injunction granted to the Buck Stove and Range Company in the latter's complaint against the Fed- eration for having been included in the list of unfair concerns published in the official magazine of the Federation. Mr. Gompers was tried for contempt and sen- tenced to a term of prison. Repeated appeals eventually brought the matter before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1914, when this court decided that the statute of limitations made
