John Andrews Fitch, a writer, editor, teacher, labor economist, and labor relations theorist, was born in Cumberland, Wisconsin, on April 20, 1881. He attended Yankton (South Dakota) College (B.A., 1904; Honorary LL.D. 1929), writing his thesis on trade union problems. The college president (and one of Fitch's instructors), Rev. Henry Kimball Warren, had studied under Richard T. Ely at the University of Wisconsin. After two years as instructor of history and civics at Weeping Water (Nebraska) Academy (1904-1906), Fitch went to Wisconsin (1906-1907, 1909) to do graduate study in economics and political science under Ely and Ely's protégé John R. Commons, although he never completed his degree work. He also attended Frederick Jackson Turner's graduate seminar on the history of the American West.
Fitch and fellow student William M. Leiserson went with Commons to work on the Pittsburgh Survey (1907-1908). This project, directed by Paul U. Kellogg, was to study the economic and political changes brought about by the growth of the steel industry in Pittsburgh using modern sociological research methods. Fitch's assignment was the skilled steel workers, and Leiserson's the unskilled. Fitch's research involved many worker interviews and factory tours. The result of his work was published as The Steel Workers (1910), one of a series edited by Kellogg, based on the Pittsburgh Survey.
After his work in Pittsburgh, Fitch continued to tour steel industry sites in the U.S. and write about the conditions he found, especially the industrial strife between miners and owners in Pueblo, Colorado. Then for a year (1909) Fitch worked as an expert for the New York State Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. There he made investigations, studied Workmen's Compensation, and compiled decisions on the twelve-hour work day.
Continuing his study of the steel industry, he wrote a series of articles starting in 1911 for Paul Kellogg's magazine, The Survey. From 1912 to 1919 he was also industrial editor of The Survey, while continuing his personal investigating and writing. The Cabot Fund, set up by Charles M. Cabot, a United States Steel Corporation stockholder, enabled him to continue investigations; topics included strikes, the effects of the twelve-hour day, and the case of Tom Mooney, a labor organizer accused of murder in 1917.
Moving away from investigative journalism in 1917, he joined the faculty at the New York School of Social Work at Columbia University. Until his retirement in 1946 as professor emeritus, he taught industrial relations and economics. After his retirement, he continued to teach and lecture on labor relations to the public and at various schools, including the School of Business at Columbia (1947-1948, 1953-1954), the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell (1948-1949), and the New School for Social Research (1950-1951).
Fitch's study of trade unions under the auspices of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S. (1947-1955), led to his book The Social Responsibilities of Labor Organizations (1957). In addition to his first and last books -- The Steel Workers (1910) and The Social Responsibilities of Labor Organizations (1957) -- Fitch also wrote The Causes of Industrial Unrest (1924), Capital and Labor (1929), Vocational Guidance in Action (1935), and numerous articles on labor subjects in The Survey, American Magazine, The Reporter, National Council of Churches Information Service, Christianity and Crisis, and other journals.
Throughout his professional career, as well as during his retirement, Fitch served on many labor arbitration boards. He was a member of boards for the American Arbitration Association and the New York State Board of Mediation; a member of the public panel of the National War Labor Board's Regional Labor Board, Region 2 (New York, 1943-1945); and a member of the National Railway Labor Panel, Railroad Emergency Board, which dealt with railroad labor disputes during World War II (1942-1947). The latter was chaired by his colleague from the University of Wisconsin, William Leiserson.
Fitch married Florence Lee, whom he met at Weeping Water Academy, in 1909. They had two daughters, Faith Lee and Jean Andrews. Fitch resided in New York, and died June 15, 1959.
[This biography was compiled from the materials in the Biographical Materials folder and from a 1991 unpublished paper by Fitch's great-grandson, Joshua Benjamin Hill.]
