Charles Patrick Neill (December 12, 1865 – October 3, 1942) was an American civil servant who was raised in Austin, Texas, after his family emigrated from Ireland in 1850.

He then decided to continue teaching at the Catholic University of America, where he taught as an economics professor from 1896 to 1905 along with his peer Carroll D.

In 1902, Charles was appointed by President Roosevelt to serve as assistant recorder of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission and his work received recognition.

Shortly after, in 1905, Roosevelt selected Neill to succeed Carroll D. Wright, who had also taught economics at Catholic University, as United States Commissioner of Labor from 1905 to 1913.

However, this was proved untrue, as reports were publicized about the bad ventilation in these factories and the unsanitary conditions in which they were put to work.

The more I had studied the subject the more strongly I had become convinced that an eight-hour day under the conditions of labor in the United States was all that could, with wisdom and propriety, be required either by the Government or by private employers; that more than this meant, on the average, a decrease in the qualities that tell for good citizenship.

I finally solved the problem, as far as Government employees were concerned, by calling in Charles P. Neill, the head of the Labor Bureau; and, acting on his advice, I speedily made the eight-hour law really effective.

Any man who shirked his work, who dawdled and idled, received no mercy; slackness is even worse than harshness; for exactly as in battle mercy to the coward is cruelty to the brave man, so in civil life slackness towards the vicious and idle is harshness towards the honest and hard-working.

He had numerous memberships and positions of leadership in several professional societies, including serving as president of the American Statistical Association, which elected him as a Fellow in 1916.

The Charles Patrick Neill Papers consist of seven manuscript boxes and one reel of microfilm from the years 1893 to 1956.

Neill's professional papers contain correspondence (1904–1942) written while performing one of his various positions as professor, arbitrator, labor commissioner and so on.