Lynn’s Cohen memorialized at State House

LYNN – More than a century after labor leader Edward Cohen was fatally wounded in a State House shooting, elected officials and historians honored his memory Monday by placing a bronze plaque near the site of his assassination.Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin and state Rep. Steven M. Walsh unveiled the plaque along with Margaret Bergmann, the artist who created it, and labor historian James Green in a State House ceremony Monday evening.Cohen was president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Federation of Labor in 1907 when a man on parole from the “insane hospital” in Danvers shot Cohen on Dec. 5 as he waited outside Gov. Curtis Guild Jr.’s office for a meeting.Another labor leader was wounded. Newspaper reports on the assassination said John F. Steele intended to kill Guild, who rushed from his office at the sound of the shots and, according to an Item report on the shooting, “hastened to assist in disarming the assassin.”Cohen, an Ingalls Street resident, died on Dec. 6 with his wife, sons and Guild at his side. Cohen, 49, had just begun his second term as AFL state president when he was killed. He enjoyed a close association with Guild.A native of England who worked in a cigar factory, Cohen fought to increase benefits for injured workers and lobbied for employer liability law reforms. He was an early champion of worker compensation laws.