Author Davis James John

ricanized surname. He was married and had five children. Davis served as United States Secretary of Labor from 1921 to 1930 under Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. He is one of only three Cabinet officers in U.S. history to hold the same post under three consecutive Presidents. The other two Cabinet officers to accomplish this were Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon. During his tenure, he focused on immigration, then a Labor Department responsibility, and established the United States Border Patrol and proposed restrictions in immigration quotas. At the urging of the iron and steel workers union, he successfully urged U.S. Steel to abandon the 12-hour workday. He resigned as Secretary of Labor upon his election to the United States Senate from Pennsylvania, accepting the seat denied to William S. Vare. In 1922, he published his autobiography, The Iron Puddler. During his tenure in the Senate, he co-sponsored the Davis-Bacon Act with New York Congressman Robert L. Bacon. He was defeated for re-election in 1944. Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity inititated Davis as its only honorary member in 1923 at the request of the Omega chapter at the University of Pittsburgh. Davis joined the Loyal Order of Moose in 1906 as its 247th member and staged a successful reorganization. He rose to become the Director-General and took the Order internationally to Bermuda, Britain and Canada. In 1926, he founded the Grand Lodge of Britain at his birthplace in Tredegar, South Wales. Davis died in Takoma Park, Maryland, following a heart attack at the age of 74. He is buried at Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh.