Burton Wheeler | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Wheeler in 1922 | |
| United States Senator fromMontana | |
| In office March 4, 1923 – January 3, 1947 | |
| Preceded by | Henry L. Myers |
| Succeeded by | Zales Ecton |
| United States Attorney for the District of Montana | |
| In office 1912 – October 1918 | |
| Member of theMontana House of Representatives | |
| In office 1910–1912 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Burton Kendall Wheeler (1882-02-27)February 27, 1882 Hudson, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 6, 1975(1975-01-06) (aged 92) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Other political affiliations | Progressive (1924) |
| Spouse | Lulu White |
| Children | 6, includingFrances |
| Education | University of Michigan (LLB) |
Burton Kendall Wheeler (February 27, 1882 – January 6, 1975) was an attorney and an American politician of theDemocratic Party inMontana, which he represented as aUnited States senator from 1923 until 1947.[1]
Born in Massachusetts, Wheeler began practicing law inMontana almost by chance, after losing his belongings while en route to Seattle. As theU.S. Attorney forMontana, he became known for his criticism of theSedition Act of 1918 and defense of civil liberties duringWorld War I. An independent Democrat who initially represented theprogressive wing of the party, he received support from Montana'slabor unions in his election to the Senate in1922.
As a freshman senator, Wheeler played a crucial role in exposing theHarding administration's unwillingness to prosecute people involved in theTeapot Dome scandal.[2] He ran forvice president in1924 on theProgressive Party ticket headed by Wisconsin SenatorRobert La Follette Sr. An ardentNew Deal liberal until 1937, Wheeler broke with PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt on the issue ofpacking the Supreme Court. In foreign policy, from 1938 to 1941, he became a leader of the non-interventionist wing of the party, fighting against entry intoWorld War II until theattack on Pearl Harbor.
Wheeler lost reelection in 1946 and retired to private practice in Washington, D.C.
Wheeler was born inHudson, Massachusetts, to Mary Elizabeth Rice (née Tyler) and Asa Leonard Wheeler.[3] He grew up in Massachusetts, attending the public schools. He first worked as a stenographer inBoston.
He traveled west to attendUniversity of Michigan Law School, where he graduated in 1905. He initially intended to settle inSeattle, but after getting off the train inButte, Montana, he lost his belongings in apoker game. The new attorney settled there and began practicing law.[4][5]
Wheeler was elected as aMontana state legislator in 1910, and in that position, he gained a reputation as a champion of labor against theAnaconda Copper Mining Company that dominated the state's economy and politics. He was appointed as aUnited States Attorney. During his tenure, he refused to prosecute allegedsedition cases duringWorld War I, arguing that to do so would violate free speech. His refusal is significant as Montana was a stronghold of theIndustrial Workers of the World. In other parts of the country, IWW membership was suppressed under theSedition Act. Wheeler's defense of free speech was seen as unpatriotic if not treasonous by conservatives. He further riled conservatives when he served as defense attorney forWilliam F. Dunne, a socialist newspaper editor who was accused of sedition. Wheeler's actions made him unpopular in the pro–World War I political climate, and he was forced to resign his office as a U.S. attorney in October 1918.[6]
In1920, Wheeler ran forGovernor of Montana, easily winning theDemocratic primary, and he won the support of theNon-Partisan League in the general election. The ticket included a multi-racial set of candidates, unusual for 1920, including anAfrican American and aBlackfoot Indian.[7] Wheeler was defeated byRepublican former U.S. SenatorJoseph M. Dixon.[5]
Wheeler ran as a Democrat for the Senate in1922, and was elected over CongressmanCarl W. Riddick, the Republican nominee, with 55% of the vote. He broke with the Democratic Party in1924 to run forVice President of the United States on theProgressive Party ticket led by La Follette. They carried one state—La Follette's Wisconsin—and ran well in union areas and railroad towns.
Early on in his career as a U.S. senator, Wheeler played a leading role in exposing the Harding administration's unwillingness to prosecute administration officials involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. His special committee held sensational Senate hearings regarding bribery and other corruption in Attorney GeneralHarry M. Daugherty's Justice Department, which ultimately resulted in the indictment of Daugherty and others.[8][9] He voted for theImmigration Act of 1924 which limited Catholic and Jewish immigration, and almost entirely banned Asian immigrants.[10] In 1925, Wheeler faced investigation, without major impact, byBlair Coan, a Justice Department investigator from Chicago, who suspected Wheeler of involvement in communist conspiracy.[11][12][13][14][15] In an otherwise negative assessment of Wheeler's career and views, journalistJohn Gunther called the indictment "pure vindictive retaliation, a frameup," laying the blame upon Attorney General Daugherty.[16]
Wheeler returned to the Democratic Party after the election, which RepublicanCalvin Coolidge won in an Electoral College landslide. He served a total of four terms and was re-elected in1928,1934, and1940.
In 1930, Wheeler gained national attention when he successfully campaigned for the reelection to the U.S. Senate of his friend and Democratic colleagueThomas Gore, the colorful "Blind Cowboy" ofOklahoma. Wheeler supported PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt's election, and many of hisNew Deal policies. He broke with Roosevelt over his opposition to theJudicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, and also opposed much of Roosevelt's foreign policy beforeWorld War II. In the1940 presidential election, there was a large movement to "Draft Wheeler" into the presidential race, possibly as athird party candidate, led primarily byJohn L. Lewis.[citation needed]
In 1938, Wheeler introduced Senate Resolution 294, a "sense of the senate" statement that, in order to ensure fair competition, AM radio stations in the United States should be limited to a transmitter power of 50,000 watts.[17]Now commonly known as theWheeler resolution, it was approved on June 13, 1938[18] and the next year theFederal Communications Commission implemented a 50,000 watt cap, which still remains in force.[19]
Wheeler, an outspokennon-interventionist, opposed U.S. entry intoWorld War II.[20]
He strongly supported the isolationistAmerica First Committee but never joined. He gave advice and many speeches to its chapters. His wife Lulu was on its national committee and she was the treasurer of the Washington, DC, chapter.[21][22] Because he and other speakers at an antiwar rally, includingNorman Thomas, gave the palm-outBellamy Salute, critics drew comparisons to the Nazi salute. The Bellamy Salute had been widely used in the U.S. since the 1890s.[23]
As chair of the "Wheeler Committee" (formally, the Subcommittee to Investigate Railroads, Holding Companies, and Related Matters of theUnited States Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce),[24] Wheeler announced in August 1941 he would investigate “interventionists” in the motion picture industry, which his detractors characterized as anti-Semitic. He questioned why so many foreign-born favored American participation in the war. "Critics charged that the Committee was motivated by animus to Jewish studio heads."[25] Representing the studios was 1940 Republican presidential candidateWendell Willkie who charged that Wheeler and other critics sought to impose the same kind of censorship thatNazi Germany was enacting all over Europe. Wheeler also led the attack on Roosevelt'sLend Lease Bill, charging that if passed "it would plow under every fourth American boy".[26] Roosevelt in response charged that Wheeler's statement was "the damnedest thing said in a generation".
After the start of World War II in Europe, Wheeler opposed aid to Britain or France. On October 17, 1941, Wheeler said: "I can't conceive of Japan being crazy enough to want to go to war with us." One month later, he added: "If we go to war with Japan, the only reason will be to help England." The United States Army's secretVictory Program was leaked on December 4, 1941 to Wheeler, who passed this information on to three newspapers.[5][27][28]
Following Japan'sattack on Pearl Harbor, Wheeler supported a declaration of war saying, "The only thing now to do is to lick the hell out of them."[29]
Wheeler had always considered himself to be a champion of civil liberties for unpopular groups and World War II was no exception. Agreeing with such critics of the Sedition Trial of 1944 as SenatorRobert A. Taft and leading constitutional scholarZechariah Chafee, he regarded the Sedition Trial of 1944 a "disgrace" and a scheme to smear more mainstream critics of FDR's pre-war foreign policy. Wheeler also criticized the internment of Japanese Americans though he apparently did not speak out publicly. In 1962, he recalled that he had "protested to various high-level government officials", including his friend Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, asserting that internment violated the "principles of the Four Freedoms". He warned that if the government "can get away with such treatment of citizens of Japanese descent, it can do the same to any minority".[30]
In 1945, Wheeler was among the seven senators who opposed full United States entry into theUnited Nations.[31]
Wheeler sought renomination in 1946 but was defeated in the Democratic primary byLeif Erickson, who attacked Wheeler as insufficiently liberal and for his "pre-war isolationist" views. Erickson in turn was defeated by Republican state representativeZales Ecton. Wheeler's defeat has been attributed, in part, to a pamphlet byDavid George Plotkin entitledThe Plot Against America: Senator Wheeler and the Forces Behind Him. Published by supporters of theCommunist Party, the pamphlet accused Wheeler, along with PresidentHarry S. Truman, of being part of afascist conspiracy.[32] Montana writerJoseph Kinsey Howard called it "one of the worst books ever written" about a politician. It later emerged that the pamphlet had been backed by an aide ofJerry J. O'Connell, a political rival of Wheeler's in Montana politics.[33]
One political commentator characterized the fall of Wheeler's political fortunes by the end of his career:
Though Wheeler was accused of becoming a conservative, even reactionary, he remained consistent to the Populist-Progressive tradition in blaming eastern bankers for his ills. In his early years he lumped together the eastern financial interests with capitalism; in 1946 they were partners in crime with Communism. The man was the same, as were his methods, but his sense of timing and knowledge of the Montana voter were not as acute as they had been. By 1946, Wheeler was more acceptable to conservatives than liberals.[34]
On September 15, 1950, Wheeler served as counsel toMax Lowenthal, a fellow Democrat from Minnesota, as the latter testified before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee.[35]
Wheeler did not return to politics, nor full-time to Montana, but took up his law practice inWashington, D.C. Aided by research from his daughter, Frances (died 1957), Wheeler wrote his autobiography, with Paul F. Healy,Yankee from the West, published in 1962 by Doubleday & Company. He dedicated the book to his wife and daughter.
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Wheeler married Lulu M. White. She was a major political advisor. They had six children: John, Elizabeth, Edward,Frances, Richard, and Marion. One of his great grandchildren (a grand-daughter of Edward), was named Willa K. Snow. Frances helped her father with his research for his autobiography,Yankee from the West: The Candid, Turbulent Life Story of the Yankee-born U.S. Senator from Montana, which he published in 1962 and dedicated to her and his wife.[36]
Wheeler died age 92 on January 6, 1975, in Washington, D.C., and is interred in the District of Columbia'sRock Creek Cemetery.[37]His Butte home is aNational Historic Landmark in recognition of his national political role.[38]
In 2004, political writerBill Kauffman ofThe American Conservative described Wheeler as an "anti-draft, anti-war, anti-big business defender of civil liberties".[39]
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