I don’t know if I’d want to be a called a “puddler.” James J. Davis did. He titled his memoir “The Iron Puddler.” Puddling is part of the method for making iron, and Davis wanted it known that he started at the bottom of industry and worked his way up in the world of politics. He spent all of the '20s as Secretary of Labor, serving under three presidents. Davis was then elected to the Senate, representing Pennsylvania.
In 1931, he co-sponsored a bill with Robert L. Bacon to regulate wages on federal construction projects. Low had been pushing for such legislation for years. The country was in the throes of Depression and seeking all types of solutions to the bleak economic situation, so the bill became law.