Bronson Cutting | |
|---|---|
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| United States Senator fromNew Mexico | |
| In office March 4, 1929 – May 6, 1935 | |
| Preceded by | Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo |
| Succeeded by | Dennis Chavez |
| In office December 29, 1927 – December 6, 1928 | |
| Appointed by | Richard C. Dillon |
| Preceded by | Andrieus A. Jones |
| Succeeded by | Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bronson Murray Cutting (1888-06-23)June 23, 1888 Great River, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 6, 1935(1935-05-06) (aged 46) nearAtlanta, Missouri, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Relatives | Bayard Cutting (brother) Justine Ward (sister) |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1917–1918 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
Bronson Murray Cutting (June 23, 1888 – May 6, 1935) was aUnited States senator fromNew Mexico. A prominent progressive Republican, he had also been a newspaper publisher andmilitary attaché.
Bronson Cutting was born inGreat River,Long Island, New York, on June 23, 1888, at his family's country seat ofWestbrook. He was the third of four children born toWilliam Bayard Cutting (1850–1912) and Olivia Peyton Murray (1855–1949).
He attended the common schools andGroton School and graduated fromHarvard University in 1910 where he was a member of theDelphic Club. Shortly after graduation, he became aninvalid due to recurrenttuberculosis and moved toSanta Fe, New Mexico, at the advice of his doctors to restore his health. He became a newspaper publisher in 1912 and published theSanta Fe New Mexican andEl Nuevo Mexicano. From 1912 to 1918 he served as president of theNew Mexican Printing Company, and of theSanta Fe New Mexican Publishing Corporation from 1920 until his death.
During World War I, Cutting was commissioned acaptain and served as an assistant military attaché of theAmerican Embassy in London, in 1917 and 1918. He wasregent of theNew Mexico Military Institute in 1920 and served as chairman of the board of commissioners of theNew Mexican State Penitentiary in 1925.
On December 29, 1927, Cutting was appointed as a Republican to theUnited States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death ofAndrieus A. Jones. He served until December 6, 1928, when a duly elected successor,Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, qualified to serve the remainder of the term, which expired March 3, 1929. Cutting was not a candidate in the special election to fill this vacancy, which took place on November 6, 1928, the same day as the general election in which the seat was up for a full six-year term, beginning March 4, 1929. Larrazolo was not a candidate for election to the full term, and Cutting was elected to it, returning to the Senate after only three months away. Cutting was re-elected in 1934, winning a very close race (with 76,226 votes to DemocratDennis Chavez's 74,944) in a failed year for Republicans.
He was a co-sponsor of theHare–Hawes–Cutting Independence Act which aimed to grant thePhilippine Islands a ten-yearcommonwealth status with virtually full autonomy, to be followed by the recognition ofFilipino independence. The bill was enacted over PresidentHerbert Hoover's veto. However, the law was rejected by the Philippines legislature, and theTydings–McDuffie Act (authored byMillard Tydings, a Maryland Democrat), was instead passed by Congress and accepted by the Philippines legislature.
Cutting raised the debate on the national level about the government's censorship powers. Via tariff bills dating back to the nineteenth century, the U.S. government, through the Customs Service, had the power to confiscate "obscene" materials arriving to the country.[1] A tariff bill introduced in 1929 sought to expand this power by modifying Section 305 to prohibit printed materials suggesting treason or threatening the life of the president. Senator Cutting, inspired by the complaints of a constituent, opposed the change and attacked Section 305 in its entirety as "irrational, unsound, and un-American."[2] Through several impassioned speeches, Cutting suggested eliminating Section 305. Ultimately, he was forced to compromise and introduced an amendment removing the references to treason. The amendment passed by only two votes and Cutting received widespread public praise from publishers, librarians, booksellers, authors and civil liberties organizations.[3]
As the tariff bill moved toward final confirmation, various senators, notablyReed Smoot of Utah, attempted to restore Section 305 to its original state, while others proposed further draconian measures. Ultimately, portions of Smoot's amendments were combined with those of other senators to create a compromise. Cutting's efforts to create a national debate about censorship were successful, but are now forgotten because the 1929 tariff bill became known as theSmoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
Crossing party lines, Cutting supportedFranklin D. Roosevelt in the1932 presidential election. Cutting was offered a position in Roosevelt's cabinet asSecretary of the Interior, which he ultimately declined due to his unstable health and instead went toHarold L. Ickes. Cutting played a key role in the political struggles over the reform of banking which Roosevelt undertook while dealing with the Great Depression, and which resulted in the Banking Reform Acts of 1933 and 1935. As a supporter of theChicago plan proposed by economistIrving Fisher and others at the University of Chicago, Cutting was among a handful of influential senators who might have been able to remove from the private banks their ability to manipulate the money supply by enforcing a 100 percent reserve requirement for all credit creation, as stipulated in the Chicago plan. His death in an airliner crash cut short what may have been his most enduring legacy to the nation.[4]
On May 6, 1935, on his way from Albuquerque to Washington, D.C., Cutting died in the crash ofTWA Flight 6 (aDouglas DC-2) in bad weather nearAtlanta, Missouri.[5]
Senator Cutting's death had national impact, leading Congress to commission the highly controversialCopeland Committee report on air traffic safety.[6]
Dennis Chavez, who had been Cutting's Democratic opponent in 1934, was appointed by the governor to fill Cutting's seat in the Senate.
Cutting is interred inGreen-Wood Cemetery inBrooklyn, New York.
| U.S. Senate | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from New Mexico 1927–1928 Served alongside:Sam G. Bratton | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from New Mexico 1929–1935 Served alongside:Sam G. Bratton,Carl Hatch | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromNew Mexico (Class 1) 1928,1934 | Succeeded by Ernest Everly |
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 2 | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
