against the growing evil of combinations and trusts. He pleaded the cause of the Cuban insurgents before the house in several eloquent speeches. His reelection in 1896 was by three times the majority he received at his first election, and he has always run far ahead of his ticket. In the fifty-fifth Congress he introduced the measure by which was established the Department of Commerce and Labor with a secretary having a seat in the cabinet. He also introduced a bill creating a Department of Labor intended to regulate and control the corporations and trusts, and the bill as originally introduced by him, made the first scientific classification of labor ever attempted in this country. He introduced the first resolution sympathizing with the Cubans, the first granting to them belligerent rights, the first favoring the independence of the Cubans and the first declaring war against Spain. He also championed the rights of the Boers in congress by introducing a number of resolutions of sympathy for their cause, and denouncing in several pointed speeches the conduct of the war by the British. He is the author of resolutions providing for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States so that United States senators shall be elected by the people, and of the measures known as the eight-hour law and the anti-injunction bill. He was the ranking Democrat on the committee on Military Affairs and also on the committee on Patents. He is a forceful debater, and one of the prominent leaders on the floor of the house. It is claimed for him that he fought more battles before the house for the various bodies of organized labor, in the face of strong opposition, than any other representative in congress. In national politics he was sent as a delegate from New York to the Democratic national conventions of 1896, 1900 and 1904, and was one of the most active supporters of William J. Bryan's nomination before the convention; and when Mr. Bryan was nominated, Mr. Sulzer was one of his most persistent and effective advocates before the people in the presidential canvass. He was a prominent candidate for the nomination for governor of New York at the state conventions of 1898 and 1902.
During the war with Spain he organized a regiment of volunteers and was elected colonel; but the regiment was not called into active service.
He is a thirty-second degree Mason, has held all the honors, and years ago became a life member. He was elected to membership in the Democratic, Manhattan, Masonic and other clubs in New York
