Title: Joseph A. Padway Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1916-1940, 1946

Creator:

• Padway, Joseph A., 1891-1947

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss 6; Milwaukee Micro 40; Micro 940

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 2 reels of microfilm [35mm]

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department / Milwaukee Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers, 1916-1940, 1946, of a labor lawyer, Wisconsin state senator and Milwaukee County judge. Padway became chief counsel for the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor in 1915 and for the American Federation of Labor in 1938. In addition he was politically active in Wisconsin as a Socialist until the mid 1920's, and as a Progressive thereafter. The papers contain subject files pertaining primarily to his political activities, personal interests, and travel; and scrapbooks covering his legal interests and more noteworthy cases.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00006

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Joseph A. Padway was born July 25, 1891 in England, immigrated to the United States in 1905, and to Milwaukee a year or two later. He received a law degree from Marquette University and was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1912. During his career Padway established himself as one of the nation's premier labor lawyers. He founded the firm which became Padway, Goldberg, and Previant, and later, Goldberg, Previant and Uelmen. In 1915 he became general counsel for the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor and eventually became legal counsel for all American Federation of Labor (AFL) affiliates in the state. In this capacity he was involved with many of the significant labor disputes in the state including the Kohler Company and Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company strikes of 1934. As Wisconsin labor's legal advisor he also had substantial impact on much of the labor and social welfare legislation enacted in the state from the late 1910's through the 1930's. From 1938 until his death Padway served as chief legal counsel for the AFL and maintained offices in both Milwaukee and Washington, D. C. During this period he helped shape the Federation's legal responses to important labor legislation including the National Labor Relations Act and the Taft-Hartley Labor Act, and to the challenge of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Padway was also active in Milwaukee and state politics. Until the mid 1920's he was associated with the Socialist Party, and thereafter with the Progressives. He served briefly as a state senator in 1925, and from 1925-1927 was a Milwaukee County Civil Court judge. He also served in 1931 as treasurer of the Republican state central committee, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1932, and from 1933-1937 was a regent of the state normal schools.

In 1912 Padway married Lydia Rose Paetow; they had one daughter, Ruth Doris (later Mrs. Leo Winshel). Joseph A. Padway suffered a stroke while addressing the 1947 AFL convention in San Francisco and died in that city on October 9, 1947.

Note: Based on biographical sketches which appear in Gary M. Fink (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders (1974); and the Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography (1960).

The Padway papers are strongest in documenting his personal and political activities in the 1920's and 1930's. They are divided into Subject Files and Scrapbooks. The Subject Files are somewhat heterogeneous in character and only a few of them pertain to Padway's legal practice. Individual files contain such things as printed matter, notes, clippings, drafts of articles, speeches, and some correspondence. Most extensive are files of speeches and writings, and of notes and impressions from a world tour taken by Padway and his family in 1926 and 1927. The “Insurance” and “Vocational Schools” files date from his service in the state legislature, and the “Congressional Campaign” file and some of his speeches and writings document other state political activities. Files on “Palestine” and the “United Palestine Appeal” reflect his interests in the formation of a Jewish state. An indication of Padway's work with the labor movement can be obtained from his labor speeches, from the file on the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. strike, and from a few other files.

The Scrapbooks consist almost exclusively of newspaper clippings and provide a fairly consistent record of Padway's political and legal activities. Volumes 1 and 2 date 1924-1932 and include clippings on Padway's legislative and judicial terms and the 1932 congressional race. Volumes 3 through 7, 1934-March 1937, document a number of important state and local legal actions in which Padway was involved. These include an anti-pinball ordinance enacted in Milwaukee; the case of I. J. Rosenberg, a prominent Milwaukee banker convicted and sentenced for violating state banking laws; a scandal at the Milwaukee House of Corrections; and labor disputes at the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co., the Kohler Co., the Luick Dairy, the Boston Store in Milwaukee, Milwaukee area glove factories, the Garton Toy Co. of Sheboygan, and the Seaman Body Corp. of Racine. The final seven volumes, February 1938-December 1939, consist largely of clippings on national labor issues including the National Labor Relations Act and conflicts between the AFL and the CIO. The original scrapbooks were discarded after microfilming.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Goldberg, Previant, and Uelmen Law Firm, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1967 and 1972. Accession Number: M67-32, M72-4

Processing Information

Processed by Harold L. Miller, December 1980.

Milwaukee Mss 6	Series: Subject File
Box   1 Folder   1	American Federation of Labor Convention, 1934
Box   1 Folder   2	Biographical, 1929
Box   1 Folder   3	Congressional Campaign, 1932
Box   1 Folder   4	Correspondence, 1929-1931, 1938, 1946
Box   1 Folder   5	Insurance, 1924-1925
Box   1 Folder   6	National Labor Relations Board, 1938-1940
Box   1 Folder   7	Palestine, 1926-1930
	Speeches and Writings
Box   1 Folder   8	Atlantic Monthly Article (Wagner Act), 1940
Box   1 Folder   9	Cardoza, Benjamin, 1938
Box   2 Folder   1	Disraeli, Benjamin, n.d.
Box   2 Folder   2	Insurance Brief, n.d.
Box   2 Folder   3	Labor, 1916-1936
Box   2 Folder   4	Miscellaneous, 1926-1930
Box   2 Folder   5	Political, 1931-1934
Box   2 Folder   6	“Progressive Wisconsin,” 1934
Box   2 Folder   7	The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co., 1934
Box   2 Folder   8	United Palestine Appeal, 1925-1926, 1935-1936
Box   3 Folder   1	Vocational Schools, 1923, 1925
Box   3 Folder   2	Wisconsin Federation of Labor, 1926, 1934
	World Tour
Box   3 Folder   3	Diary (Italy and England)
Box   3 Folder   4	India
Box   3 Folder   5	Italy
Box   3 Folder   6	Letters of Introduction and Itinerary
Box   3 Folder   7	Palestine
Box   3 Folder   8	Paris
Milwaukee Micro 40/Micro 940	Series: Scrapbooks	⇧
Reel   1	, Vol. 1: 1924-July 1932Vol. :
Reel   1	, Vol. 2: August-November 1932Vol. :
Reel   1	Vol. 3: January-June 9, 1934Vol. :
Reel   1	Vol. 4: June 11-30, 1934Vol. :
Reel   1	Vol. 5: July 1934-August 23, 1935Vol. :
Reel   1	Vol. 6: August 30, 1935-March 26, 1937Vol. :
Reel   1	Vol. 7: April 1937-March 10, 1938Vol. :
Reel   1	, Vol. 8: January-December 1938Vol. :
Reel   2	Vol. 9: February 14-June 7, 1938Vol. :
Reel   2	, Vol. 10: February 15-July 1938Vol. :
Reel   2	, Vol. 11: June-December 1938Vol. :
Reel   2	Vol. 12: August 28, 1938-January 14, 1939Vol. :
Reel   2	, Vol. 13: September-October 1938Vol. :
Reel   2	, Vol. 14: January-December 1939Vol. :