Secretaries of L&I
1923-1924
Royal Meeker
Royal Meeker was born February 23, 1875, at Silver Lake in Susquehanna county. He received a Bachelor of Science degree at Iowa State College in 1898; and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University in 1906. He attended the University of Leipzig from 1903 to 1904.
In 1904 he became Professor of History, Politics and Economics at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania; from 1905-1908 he served as preceptor of that institution. From 1908-1913 he was Assistant Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Meeker as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor. He served in this capacity until 1920, when he left the U.S. to take up the duties of Chief of the Scientific Division of the International Labor Office of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, where he remained until 1923. He established the International Labour Review and other publications of the International Labour Office. He left Geneva in January 1923 to accept the appointment by Governor Gifford Pinchot as Secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry.
During his career Meeker was appointed to several commissions and committees, including: the U.S. Government Meat Commission in April, 1918; the International Association of Industrial Accidents Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) from 1916-1920 where he served as Secretary-Treasurer and was appointed to the Executive Committee in 1923; the Federal Electric Railways Commission in June 1919; the American Economic Association; the American Statistical Association; the American Association for Labor Legislation; and the American Public Health Association. He wrote "History and Theory of Shipping Subsidies" in 1905, and various articles on economic and statistical subjects which appeared in the Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, and other scientific and official journals.
From Smull's Legislative Handbook, 1923-1924.