Homer Stille Cummings
Cummings in 1920
55thUnited States Attorney General
In office March 4, 1933 – January 2, 1939
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	William D. Mitchell
Succeeded by	Frank Murphy
Chair of theDemocratic National Committee
In office February 27, 1919 – July 28, 1920
Preceded by	Vance C. McCormick
Succeeded by	George White
State Attorney ofFairfield County
In office 1914–1924
Preceded by	Elmore S. Banks[1]
Succeeded by	William H. Comley[2]
Mayor of Stamford, Connecticut
In office 1904–1906
Preceded by	Edward J. Tupper
Succeeded by	Charles H. Leeds
In office 1900–1902
Preceded by	Charles H. Leeds
Succeeded by	Edward J. Tupper
Personal details
Born	Homer Stille Cummings (1870-04-30)April 30, 1870 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	September 10, 1956(1956-09-10) (aged 86) Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Helen W. Smith ​ ​ (m. 1897; div. 1907)​ Marguerite T. Owings ​ ​ (m. 1909; div. 1928)​ Mary C. Waterbury ​ ​ (m. 1929; died 1939)​ Julia Alter ​ ​ (m. 1942; died 1955)​
Children	1
Education	Yale University (BPhil,LLB)
Homer S. Cummings's voice Homer S. Cummings’s “Summons to Duty” speech (recorded 1920)

Homer Stille Cummings (April 30, 1870 – September 10, 1956) was an American lawyer and politician who was theUnited States attorney general from 1933 to 1939. He also was electedmayor of Stamford, Connecticut, three times before founding the legal firm of Cummings & Lockwood in 1909. He served as chairman ofDemocratic National Committee between 1919 and 1920.^[3]

Cummings was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 30, 1870,^[4] and graduated from the Heathcote School inBuffalo, New York. He earned aBachelor of Philosophy degree from theSheffield Scientific School ofYale University in 1891, and completed his degree atYale Law School two years later. Practicing law in Stamford, he joined withCharles D. Lockwood in 1909 to form Cummings & Lockwood, remaining a partner in the firm until 1933.

Three years after entering private practice, Cummings supportedWilliam Jennings Bryan's 1896 presidential bid.Connecticut (Silver) Democrats nominated him for Secretary of State. As a Progressive whose oratorical skills made him a dramatictrial lawyer, Cummings seemed a natural for the political arena.

In 1900, 1901, and 1904, Cummings was elected mayor ofStamford. His two tenures as mayor were served from 1900 to 1902 and again from 1904 to 1906.^[5] At the time of his first election, he began a quarter-century of service as a committeeman from Connecticut with the nationalDemocratic party. As mayor, he helped construct and improve streets and sewers, reorganized the police and fire departments, and secured a shorefront park that later was named for him.

Nominated for Congressman-at-large in 1902 and for U.S. Senator in 1910 and 1916, Cummings lost all three races by narrow margins. During the 1912 campaign, he directed the Democratic speaker's bureau fromWashington, D.C., then served as vice-chairman of the national committee from 1913 to 1919. He served as chairman for the next two years.

During the period from 1914 to 1924, Cummings served as the state attorney for Connecticut inFairfield County. During his last year as county prosecutor, a vagrant and discharged army soldier,Harold Israel, was indicted for the murder inBridgeport of Father Hubert Dahme, a popular parish priest.^[6] Despite police evidence that included a confession and a .32 revolver, which the suspect had and which produced a fired cartridge consistent with the bullet in the deceased, Cummings conducted a thorough investigation of the crime. He eventually found Israel innocent and dropped the indictment. In 1931, theNational Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (the Wickersham Commission) praised this act. A 1947 filmBoomerang! was based on the case, directed byElia Kazan, withDana Andrews as Cummings.

During the bitterly divided1924 Democratic National Convention, Cummings tried to calm the delegates by formulating a compromise plank on the controversial issue of theKu Klux Klan, which had been revived in the previous decade. Unlike most Northeastern Democrats, he supportedWilliam G. McAdoo overAlfred E. Smith for the presidential nomination.

Cummings was married four times, the first two ending in divorce. In 1897, he wed Helen W. Smith, a union that lasted 10 years. The couple had one son, Dickinson Schuyler Cummings, before their divorce. His 1909 marriage to Marguerite T. Owings ended in divorce in 1928.

The following year, he married Mary Cecilia Waterbury, and it lasted until her death in 1939. He had a memoir,The Tired Sea (1939), published as a tribute to her. In 1942, he married Julia Alter, who died in 1955.

After nearly a decade out of the spotlight, Cummings reentered politics. In 1932, he helped persuade 24 senators and numerous congressmen to announce their support forFranklin D. Roosevelt. At theChicago convention, he planned strategy, operated as floor manager, and delivered a resounding seconding speech.

Following the election, Roosevelt chose Cummings as governor-general of thePhilippines. Two days before the inauguration,Thomas J. Walsh, who had been designated attorney general, died. Upon taking office on March 4, 1933, Roosevelt named Cummings to lead the Justice Department. Cummings served almost six years as attorney general.^[4] OnlyWilliam Wirt (1817–1829),Janet Reno (1993–2001), andEric Holder (2009–2015) have had longer tenures in the position.

Cummings transformed the Department of Justice by establishing uniform rules of practice and procedure in federal courts. He secured the passage of twelve laws that buttressed the "Lindbergh Law" on kidnapping, made bank robbery a federal crime, cracked down on interstate transportation of stolen property, and extended federal regulations over firearms. He strengthened theFederal Bureau of Investigation, called a national crime conference, supported the establishment ofAlcatraz as a model prison for hardened offenders, and reorganized the internal administration of the department. In 1937, Cummings published "We Can Prevent Crime", and, withCarl McFarland, an assistant attorney general,Federal Justice, a departmental history.The Selected Papers of Homer Cummings (1939), edited byCarl B. Swisher, supplemented the history.

Cummings served as the chief protector ofNew Deal programs. During his first week as attorney general, he advised Roosevelt that theTrading with the Enemy Act of 1917 permitted the president to close banks and regulate gold hoarding and export. Cummings personally argued the right of the government to ban gold payments before theU.S. Supreme Court and won the "gold clause" cases. But, during 1935–1936, the Court overthrew eight key New Deal statutes, including theNational Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and theAgricultural Adjustment Act (AAA).

Frustration over the conservative nature of the Court, coupled with outrage over the proliferation of lawsuits and injunctions against the government, made Cummings eager to expand the judiciary. After the1936 presidential election, Roosevelt instructed him to draft legislation for court reform. Neither man wanted to attempt to amend the Constitution.

Conservative JusticeJames McReynolds had proposed to add a judge for every judge who refused to retire at age seventy at full pay. Such a measure might give the president the opportunity to appoint fifty new judges, including six to the Supreme Court. Roosevelt launched the proposal, prepared secretly by Cummings, on February 5, 1937. The ensuing uproar over the"court-packing plan" helped kill the bill after 168 days; the Senate returned it to committee. (Of the so-called "four horsemen" of the US Supreme Court who consistently opposed the New Deal: Van Devanter resigned May 18, 1937; Sutherland resigned January 17, 1938; Butler died November 16, 1939; and McReynolds resigned January 31, 1941.)

Cummings retired on January 2, 1939, entering private law practice in Washington. He helped develop a spring golf tournament that annually brought executives, lawyers, and politicians together. He also retained his interest in the Connecticut Democratic party, along with a residence inGreenwich, Connecticut. He served on the Greenwich Town Committee until 1951.

Cummings's papers are held at theAlbert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at theUniversity of Virginia.

In 1961,character actorRobert F. Simon appeared as Cummings in an episode ofABC'scrime drama,The Untouchables.

• Powers, Richard Gid. "The Attorney General And the G-Man: Hollywood's Role in Hoover's Rise to Power."Southwest Review 62.4 (1977): 329–346.online

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