David A. Morse; Leader in World Labor Reforms

NEW YORK —  David A. Morse, a former acting U.S. labor secretary who later accepted the Nobel Peace Prize as director of the International Labor Organization, died Saturday at a New York hospital. He was 83 and had recently suffered a heart attack.

Morse, an assistant labor secretary under President Harry S. Truman, was appointed acting secretary after Lewis B. Schwellenbach’s death in 1948.

In June, 1948, Morse was named chief of the U.S. delegation to the International Labor Organization. He later became director general.

As director of the ILO, which as early as 1919 advocated an eight-hour work day, Morse accepted the group’s 1969 Nobel Prize. He was recognized for working with an international force of labor leaders despite the extreme philosophies represented among the dozens of member nations.

The international organization was born of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I and became incorporated into the United Nations.

It brought technology to thousands of workers and farmers around the world and served as an international focal point in the fight for child labor laws, maternity leave, workers compensation and safety regulations.

Morse, a Harvard-educated lawyer, worked in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs and after World War II served as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.

After leaving the ILO in 1970, Morse formed a law firm in New York City.