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Dewey Jackson Short | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil-Military Affairs | |
| In office March 15, 1957 – November 1958 | |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | George H. Roderick |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Chair of theHouse Armed Services Committee | |
| In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1955 | |
| Speaker | Joseph William Martin Jr. |
| Preceded by | Carl Vinson |
| Succeeded by | Carl Vinson |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMissouri | |
| In office March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1931 | |
| Preceded by | James F. Fulbright |
| Succeeded by | James F. Fulbright |
| Constituency | 14th district |
| In office January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1957 | |
| Preceded by | District inactive |
| Succeeded by | Charles H. Brown |
| Constituency | 7th district |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1898-04-07)April 7, 1898 Galena, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | November 19, 1979(1979-11-19) (aged 81) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Pamela Pauly Chinnis (niece) |
Dewey Jackson Short (April 7, 1898 – November 19, 1979) was an American politician fromMissouri. He wasUS Representative for 12 terms (1929–1931, 1935–1957). A member of theRepublican Party, he was a staunch opponent of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal.
Short was born inGalena, Missouri, on April 7, 1898, to Jackson Grant Short and Permelia C. Long. Short graduatedGalena High School[1] in 1914[2] and attended Marionville College.[3]
Short sought further education, graduating fromBaker University[4] in 1919 and fromBoston University.[5]
While attending Baker University, in 1918, Short entered into aUnited States Armyofficer's training camp atFort Sheridan. He was not old enough to be drafted and his profession as areverend would have exempted him from being drafted, according to theSelective Service Act of 1917. He had two older brothers who were serving in the Army at that time and he felt obligated to be there with them. He went to the training as a representative of Baker University.[6]
Short also attendedHarvard Law School[7] alongside his brother Theodore,[8]Heidelberg University, theUniversity of Berlin,Drew University,[7] andOxford University. Short also received anhonoraryDoctor of Law degree fromDrury University.[7]
Short began his preaching career at 19 years old, when he received his license to preach from theMethodist Church.[9]
After leaving Harvard Law School, Short became a lecturer and later professor ofethics,psychology, andpolitical philosophy atSouthwestern College inWinfield, Kansas. He taught there in 1923–1924, and 1926–1928. Short was a pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church,Springfield, Missouri, in 1927.
He married Helen Gladys Hughes of Washington, DC, on April 20, 1937.[10] The couple had no children.
Short was elected as aRepublican to theSeventy-first Congress (serving March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1931). After theWall Street crash, he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1930 to theSeventy-second Congress.
He resumed his former professional pursuits. He served as a delegate to theRepublican National Convention in 1932. Short was an unsuccessful candidate in 1932 for nomination to theUnited States Senate.
In 1934 he was elected to theSeventy-fourth Congress and the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1957). At the1940 Republican National Convention inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, Short received 108 delegate votes for the party'svice presidential nomination. He was the runner-up to the eventual nominee,Charles L. McNary, who received votes from 848 delegates.[11]
Short served as chairman of theCommittee on Armed Services in theEighty-third Congress. On April 30, 1955, he was presented with an Honorary Ozark Hillbilly Medallion by theSpringfield, Missouri, Chamber of Commerce during a broadcast ofABC-TV'sOzark Jubilee.
| External videos | |
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 Dewey Short receiving award on Ozark Jubilee (April 30, 1955) |
Short did not sign the 1956Southern Manifesto, which was an expression of resistance to desegregation of public schools and other facilities. In 1954 the US Supreme Court had ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, inBrown v. Board of Education.
Short was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1956 to theEighty-fifth Congress. He was defeated byCharles H. Brown; the vote being 90,986 for Brown to 89,926 for Short.
In 1945, he had served as a congressional delegate to inspectconcentration camps inGermany. Short was appointed asAssistant Secretary of the Army, serving from March 15, 1957, to January 20, 1961. Later he was President Emeritus of theNational Rivers and Harbors Congress.
Short died inWashington, D.C., on November 19, 1979. His body was returned to Missouri, where he was interred in Galena Cemetery,Galena.
In his memoir,In the Arena (1990), former PresidentRichard Nixon cited Short as perhaps the finest orator he had ever seen.
"I deeply and sincerely regret that this body has degenerated into a supine, subservient, soporific, superfluous, supercilious, pusillanimous body of nitwits, the greatest ever gathered beneath the dome of our National Capitol, who cowardly abdicate their powers and, in violation of their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution against all of the Nation's enemies, both foreign and domestic, turn over these constitutional prerogatives, not only granted but imposed upon them,to a group of tax-eating, conceited autocratic bureaucrats a bunch of theoretical, intellectual, professorial nincompoops out of Columbia University, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who were never elected by the American people to any office and who are responsible to no constituency. These brain trusters and 'new dealers' are the ones who wrote this resolution, instead of the Members of this House whose duty it is, and whose sole duty it is, to draft legislation." --- Delivered in theU.S. House of Representatives on January 23, 1935.
"Mr. Jefferson founded the Democratic Party and President Roosevelt has dumfounded it."
"I have always been old-fashioned enough to believe it is much better to 'git up and get' than it is to 'sit down and set.' The only animal I know which can sit and still produce dividends is the old hen."
"I know that without change there would be no progress, but I am not going to mistake mere change for progress."
"I look at the Supreme Court and know why Jesus wept."
Wiley, Robert S.,Dewey Short, Orator of the Ozarks. Cassville, Miss.: Litho Printers and Bindery, 1985.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMissouri's 14th congressional district 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by District established | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMissouri's 7th congressional district 1935–1957 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil-Military Affairs) March 15, 1957 – November 1958 | Succeeded by Office abolished |
Chairs of theUnited States House Committee on Armed Services | ||
|---|---|---|
| Military Affairs Committee (1822–1947) |  | |
| Naval Affairs Committee (1822–1947) | ||
| Armed Services Committee* (from 1947) | ||
*Alternately namedNational Security in 104th and 105th Congresses. | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
