Albert Thomas (16 June 1878 – 7 May 1932) was a prominent French Socialist and the first Minister of Armament for the French Third Republic during World War I. Following the Treaty of Versailles, he was nominated as the first Director General of the International Labour Office, a position he held until his death in 1932. As Director-General, he was succeeded by Harold Butler.
Early years
He was born at Champigny-sur-Marne on 16 June 1878. In 1898, he entered the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied history and won a travelling scholarship which enabled him to visit Russia. Other educational distinctions followed, including degrees in literature and history at the University of Paris. In 1904, Thomas was both appointed to the editorial staff of L'humanité and elected a municipal councillor for Champigny, where, eight years later he was elected mayor. As a journalist, Thomas wrote for L'information and the Revue socialiste founded the Revue syndicaliste and subsequently launched L'Information ouvrière et sociale.
National politics and war
In 1910, Thomas was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies for one of the constituencies of the Department of the Seine, and he was re-elected in 1914. He became a member of the public works, railways, and finance committees of the Chamber and was active in shaping legislative measures, notably those relating to conditions in mines, industrial and agricultural workers pensions, and pensions for miners.
When the First World War broke out, Thomas served in a territorial regiment of the French Army for a few weeks after which he was summoned to Paris and placed in control of the railway services, acting as a link between the General Staff and the Ministry of Public Works. In October 1914, the Government gave him the task of organising factories with a view to the intensive production of munitions. In May 1915, he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Artillery and Munitions, becoming Minister of Munitions the following year. Thomas first became a member of the cabinet on 12 December 1915 when he was made the Sub-Minister of Artillery and Munitions under the Minister of War. Due in large part to the need for more shells for the widely used "Soixante-Quinze" cannon, he was promoted again on 12 Dec 1916 to become Minister of Armaments. He answered only to the Prime Minister and subsequently President of the Republic, Raymond Poincaré. Thomas was removed from the Ministry on 12 September 1917 by Louis Loucheur.
International Labour Office
Thomas was elected Deputy for the Tarn. In November 1919, during the inaugural Session of the International Labour Conference in Washington, at which he was not present, the Governing Body of the ILO chose him to be the Director of the Office. From then, Thomas gave himself up entirely to the work of the ILO.
Thomas gave ILO a strong impetus from the very beginning. In a few years, he created, out of a small group of officials housed in a private residence in London, an international institution with a staff of 400 and a building of its own in Geneva. In the first two years, 16 international Labour Conventions and 18 Recommendations had been adopted. From 1920 onwards, the ILO launched an ambitious programme of publications, which included the Official Bulletin, the monthly International Labour Review and various other periodicals and newspapers. As Director, Thomas took personal interest in recruiting an international team to form the Secretariat of the Organisation. His leadership helped to establish the image of the ILO as one of boundless enthusiasm and explosive energy.
Opposition between national governments, organised labour and employer representative bodies soon began to develop, and the optimism that had prevailed immediately following the end of the war gave way to doubt and pessimism. Some members sought to restrict the powers and activities of the Organisation. Firstly, it was felt that the Conference had gone too far and too quickly in the output of Conventions and Recommendations. National governments and parliaments could not or would not keep up. Thomas, noting the disappointing number of ratifications reached the conclusion that over-production of Conventions and Recommendations should stop.