Everything about George Norris totally explained
George William Norris (
July 11,
1861 –
September 2,
1944) was a
U.S. leader of
progressive and
liberal causes in Congress. He represented the state of
Nebraska in the
United States Senate from
1913 until
1943.
Norris was born in 1861 in
York Township,
Sandusky County,
Ohio and was the eleventh child of poor, uneducated, unchurched farmers of Scots-Irish and
Pennsylvania Dutch descent. He graduated from
Baldwin University and took an LL.B. degree in 1883 at the law school of
Valparaiso University. He moved to a prosperous town in Nebraska,
Beaver City, to practice law. In 1889 he married Pluma Lashley, who died in 1901; they'd three daughters. He married Ellie Leonard in 1903; they'd no children.
Political career
Norris relocated to the larger town of
McCook in 1900, where he became active in local politics. He was elected to the
House of Representatives as a
Republican in 1902, with railroad support. He broke with them in 1906 and supported
Theodore Roosevelt's plans to regulate rates for the benefit of shippers, such as the merchants who lived in his district. A prominent insurgent after 1908, he led the revolt against Speaker
Joseph G. Cannon in 1910. By a vote of 191 to 156, the House created a new system in which seniority would automatically move members ahead, not the wishes of the leadership.
In January 1911, he helped create The National Progressive Republican League and was its vice president. He originally supported
Robert La Follette, Sr. for the 1912 nomination, then switched to Roosevelt. He refused to bolt the convention and join Roosevelt's
Progressive Party and instead ran for the
Senate as a Republican. As a leading Progressive Republican, Norris supported the
direct election of senators and also the conversion of all
state legislatures to the
unicameral system, which was eventually implemented in 1934 in the
Nebraska Legislature.
Norris supported some of Wilson's programs but became a die-hard
isolationist, who feared bankers were manipulating the country into war. In the face of enormous pressure from the media and the administration, Norris was one of only six senators to vote against the declaration of war on
Germany in 1917. He joined the "irreconcilables" who vehemently opposed and defeated the
Treaty of Versailles and the
League of Nations in 1919.
Seniority brought him the chairmanship of the
Agriculture and Forestry and the
Judiciary committees. Norris was a leader of the Farm Bloc, advocated the rights of labor, and proposed to abolish the
Electoral College. He failed on these issues in the 1920s, but did block
Henry Ford's proposals to modernize the
Tennessee Valley, insisting that it be a project the government should handle. Although a nominal Republican (which was essential to his seniority), he routinely attacked and voted against the Republican administrations of
Harding,
Coolidge, and
Hoover. Norris supported Democrats
Al Smith in 1928 and
Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Republicans regulars called him one of the "sons of the wild jackass."
In 1932, along with Rep.
Fiorello H. La Guardia, Norris secured passage of the
Norris-La Guardia Act, which outlawed the practice of requiring prospective employees not to join a labor union as a condition of employment (the so-called
yellow-dog contract) and greatly limited the use of court
injunctions against strikes.
A staunch supporter of
President Roosevelt's New Deal programs, Norris sponsored the
Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933. In appreciation, the
TVA Norris Dam
and
a new planned city in Tennessee were named after him. Norris was also the prime Senate mover behind the
Rural Electrification Act that brought electrical service to under-served and unserved rural areas across the United States.
Norris left the GOP in 1936 (since seniority in the minority party was useless, and the Democrats offered him chairmanships) and was re-elected to the
Senate as an
Independent with
Democratic Party support in 1936.
Norris opposed Roosevelt's
plan to pack the Supreme Court, and railed against corrupt patronage. He was a half-hearted isolationist in from 1939 until 1941. Unable to secure Democratic support in the state in 1942, he was defeated by Republican
Kenneth S. Wherry.
He is one of the 8 senators profiled in
John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.
Memorials
The main north south road in McCook, Nebraska is named after George Norris. It is called Norris Avenue.
Further Information
Get more info on 'George Norris'.
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