| Joe Guffey |
Website Links For Joseph |
Information AboutJoe Guffey |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JOSEPH F. GUFFEY | |
| 1870 births | |
| guffey, joseph f. | |
| 1959 deaths | |
| united states senators from pennsylvania | |
| people from westmoreland county, pennsylvania | |
| guffey, joseph f | |
|
EARLY LIFE Guffey was born at Guffey's Station in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania . He attended but did not graduate from Princeton University . As a Princeton student, he became a devote of Professor Woodrow Wilson . During Wilson's tenure as Princeton president, Guffey, and other former students were vocal supporters of Wilson's Quad Plan. He was instrumental in helping Wilson to secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912. WORLD WAR II He was a member of the War Industries Board (Petroleum Service Division), as well as the Director of the Bureau of sales in the Alien Property Custodian's office during World War One . He was a member of A. Mitchell Palmer 's Pennsylvania political machine. Guffey, who owned an oil company with his two sisters, suffered financial setbacks in oil speculation during WWI and was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for mis-use of the funds under his control as Sales Director. The charges were later dropped as part of deal made during the Harding/Coolidge Administrations' Teapot Dome Scandal . He was a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1920 until 1932. UNITED STATES SENATE He was elected to the United States Senate in 1934. He was the chairperson of the Mines and Mining committee, and was a supporter of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal in the 1930's. He supported the aggressive politics of Henry Wallace , who compared the Republicans with Fascists . Guffey spoke out against Harry J. Anslinger (who had been appointed to lead the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics by his father-in-law Andrew Mellon ) for referring to "niggers" in official correspondence. He caused a controversy in Pennsylvania when he backed Charles Alvin Jones for the Democratic nomination as governor in 1938, instead of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Kennedy , who was a close associate of mine workers union head John Lewis . As the leader of the Democratic political machine, his endorsement gave the nomination to Jones, who later lost the general election (to Republican Arthur James ). Guffey was at the same time working with Lewis, demanding that Pleas E. Greenlee replace Charles F. Hosford Jr. who had been ineffective as chairman of the National Bituminous Coal Commission. He was reelected in 1940, with Claude Pepper campaigning with him. Guffey was less influential after the Republicans took control of the Congress and reversed some of the laws helping labor unions, eventually passing the Taft-Hartley Act after Guffey was defeated in 1946. RETIREMENT After leaving the senate he retired and lived in Washington DC for the remainder of his life. He was a proponent of President Truman 's recognition of the State Of Israel in 1948. He died there in 1959, but was returned to his birthplace for burial in the ''West Newton Cemetery'' in West Newton, Pennsylvania . BIBLIOGRAPHY
EXTERNAL LINK
|
|
|