Figure 1.--This tin-type portatit shows a young George Norris and his mother Mary. It looks to be a loe-cost portrait, probably takem in the mid-1870s. |
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George W. Norris was born in Sandusky, Ohio (1861). He had a long career in the U.S. Congress, most notably the Senate. George was the eleventh child of poor, uneducated farmers of Scots-Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch descent. Thanks to America's fine public education system, opportunities became available. He is best remembetred for his advocacy of progressive reforms. He was first elected to Congress in Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose camapign, but did not bolt the Republican Party. He was a noted anti-war Isolationist in World War I, becoming one of the Irreconciables that blocked ratification of President Wilson's Treaty (1919). He championed political reforms and opposed Northeasten monied groups, inluding railroads, banks, and stock brokets. Monopolies often called 'trusts' at the time were a major target of the Progressive Movement. Mid-Western families were especially angry with railroad momopolies. He was elected from Nebraska and became the progressive lion championing farmers. While nomimnally a Republican, he supported President Wilson's and Franklin Roosevelt's progressive reforms, especially the agricultural programs of the New Deal during the Depression. He is best known for his support of the Tennessee Valley Authority. As the great totalitarian powers moved toward war (1930s) his foreign policy views began to change, at first the Japanese militarists. Even after Pearl Harbor this may have cosdt him reelection (1942).
George W. Norris was born in Sandusky, Ohio (1861). He had a long career in the U.S. Congress, most notably the Senate. George was the eleventh child of poor, uneducated farmers of Scots-Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch descent.
Thanks to America's fine public education system, opportunities became available. Norris attended Baldwin University (now Baldwin-Wallace College). He then taught school and studied law at Northern Indiana Normal School (now Valparaiso University).
He was admitted to the Ohio Bar (1883) He moved to Nebraska to begin practice (1885). And tge rest of his life would be assiciated with Nebraska.
He was elected to Congress as a Republican(1902). And he was reelected four times in succession.
He is best remembetred for his advocacy of progressive reforms. At the time, the Republican Party had a strong progressive wing which President Roosevelt came to lead. Norris became leader of an insurgent group that in 1910 forced reforms in the House rules to reduce the autocratic control of the Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon. This was one of the many political reformns he championed. It has one unintended impact. Rather than the Speaker controlling appointmebts, priority was given to seniority. As Southern states tended to return incumbents to Congress more than other areas, it raised the political power of the solid South which became the chairmen of maby House Cimmittees. This occurred at just the time that Southern repressiion of African Americans became increasingly brutal. .
He was first elected to the Senate in Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose camapign, but did not bolt the Republican Party. This was the beginning of the progressive/conservative split in the Oarty and many progressives gradually moving to the Democrats.
The Progressive Movement in America was an in part an attempt to address social problems that developed in America after the Civil war as a result of industrialization. Progressives also addressed some more long term problems such as woman's sufferage. America had changed considerably since the Civil War. The frontier had been settled, America had emerged as the world's greatest agricultural and industrial power, there was an experiment with imperialism, great cities had developed, and huge numbers of immigrants accepted. America bustled with wealth, optimism, and industrial expansion. Many Americans had benefitted from the rise of America as an industrial power. Many Americans had not. Large numbers of Americans subsisted on an economic edge. Children and women toiled in sweatshops and mills for pitiful sums. Poor children were often unavle to attend school. Public health programs were week and products sols were sometimes unhealthy. Working conditions were often unsafe and there was no work place protections or disability insurance. There was no protection for widows and orphans and no old age protecion schemes. Prisons and state hospitals for the retarded and mentally ill were commomly horror houses. State and Federal goverments were often run on the spoils system. Legislators in many states as well as senators were not selected by direct vote. Monoplies and trusts gained great power in the American economy. A growing movement to prohibit alcoholic beverages were a part if the progressive movement. And with the outbreak of World War I, many progressives took up the cause of pacifism. Muckraking journalists drew these problems to the attention of the often shocked American public. A new phenomenon, the crusading socially conscious photographer added to the impact. Many at the turn of century believed that the Governments role was to keep expenditures low and to avoid involvement in the economy. President Cleveland made no effort to alieviate economic suffering during the Depression of 1992-93. The central issue raised by the progressives was what is the proper role of the government in social and economic affairs. The progressives were not basically a political party as such, but the progressives influenced the Democrats and Republicans, especially during the Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson administrtions and were a major influence on the Roosevelt's New Deal. While not normally a political party, progressives did organize three challanges to the major parties. The first and most important was Roosevelt's Bull Moose challenge to the Republican Party (1912). There was also the La Follette Progressives (1920s) and Wallace Progressives (late 1940s).
He championed political reforms and opposed Northeasten monied groups, inluding railroads, banks, and stock brokets. Monopolies often called 'trusts' at the time were a major target of the Progressive Movement. Mid-Western families were especially angry with railroad momopolies. He was elected from Nebraska and became the progressive lion championing farmers. Norris always identified himself as a Republican, he became known as an independent. He famously stated that he 'would rather be right than regular' He promoted a range of progressive political reforms. He authored the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished the lame-duck sessions of Congress. He was fought for the adoption of presidential primaries and the direct election of U.S. senators. He also advicated a unicameral legiskatyre for Nebraska.
While nomimnally a Republican, he supported Democratic President President Woodorow Wilson's progressive reforms.
One of the most important isolationist in the U.S. Senate was progressive lion, George W. Norris of Nebraska Although nominally a Republican, he was a strong supporter of President Roosevelt's New Deal. His isolationism dated back to World War I. Norris supported many of President Wilson's progressive firnms, but was staunch isolationist. This was related to his domestiv outlook that the northeastern bankers and railroad companies were unfair to farmers. Here he had considerable reason for his concerns. With the outbreak of World War I, he extended his outlook and began to think that that the big northeastern banks, led by J.P. Morgan, were pressuring the United States to enter the War. Now Norris was correct that Morgan and other bankers were lending huge sums to the Allies. There is no evidence, however, that they were had any impact on the Wison Administration. {resident Wilson's decisiion to seek a declaration of war from Congres was based on Germany's decisiin to seek a military sollution. American attitides toward the Germans has been adversely affected by their invasion of neutral Beligum and sinking of RMS Lusitania. German actions in 1917, however, inflamed public opinion, including resuming unrestricted submarine warfare and other hostile acts like the Zimmermann Telegram. These efforts created a rising anti-German tide in public opinion. Norris was one of only six senators to vote against the declaration of war (April 1917). Norris did not destinguish between the Allies and Germans. He insisted, "Many instances of cruelty and inhumanity can be found on both sides." Norris believed that the President decided to enter the war only because wealthy interesrs were financing the British war effort. He spoke in the Senate, saying that the only people who would benefit from the war were 'munition manufacturers, stockbrokers, and bond dealers.' He added, 'war brings no prosperity to the great mass of common and patriotic citizens.... War brings prosperity to the stock gambler on Wall Street 'to those who are already in possession of more wealth than can be realized or enjoyed.' [Norris] Norris joined the Irreconcilables, who opposed ratification of the Versailles Peace Treaty, in large measure becauuse of the League of Nations (1919). Norris charges that American entry into the War was the work of the vmerchants of death was exhaustivly invesigated after the War and no evidence was found that the charges were valid.
One of the projects authorized by the National Defense Act (1916) was nitrate-manufacturing plants and a dam to provide needed hydropower. Nitrates could be used for either ammunition or fertilizer. President Wilson selected Muscle Shoals, Alabama as the site of the dam and nitrate plants. The dam after the death of President Wilson was named Wilson Dam. It was not completed until after the war (1924). The factory which beame known as Factoy No. 1 was designed to produce ammonium nitrate using the Haber process. The Haber process could not produce the amount of nitrate needed. Factory No. 2 was built using the cyanamide process. In addition to the dam and factories, the plan included an industrial village to house the construction and than the factory workforce. Construction of the village began (late-1918). Noted architect Harold Caparn designed the village in the shape of a handbell. Houses surrounded the handle, body, and clapper. A school was situated at the base. The completed village included 112 homes, 2 school buildings, and one large apartment complex to housed unmarried officers. Events in Europe proceeded more raidly than the dam construction. Germany asked for an armistice (November 11, 1918). This ended the War and meant that the United States would not need an expanded supply of ammounium nitrate. The Government closed the plant. And all the newly built houses and schools stood unoccupied. Henry Ford offered to buy the dam and plant which could be used make fertilizer (1921). He saw the potential for an important industrial comolex in a poor, agricultiral area based on the electrical power generated by the river. Thomas Edison was interested in investing in the project. Ford was, however, only willing to pay a fraction of the cost of building the dam. Congress rejected Ford's offer as insufficient The effort to reject the Ford offer was led by progressive Senator George Norris. The Government, however, had to pay more money to complere and maintain the dam. The dam was finally completed (1924). President Coolidge appointed fomer South Carolina Senator, Nathanial Deal, to a commision to investigate the resulting costly deabacle. Senator Norris had no confidence in the Ccommission. The project languished for a decade and for the most parts the houses remained unoccupied. A few were used by the Alabama Power Company workers at the dam.
As with President Wilson New Freedoms, Norris supported President Roosevelt's New Deal reforms during the Depression, especially the agricultural programs. In oart because of his Musle vShoals experience, he became an advoate for public electrical power, He is best known for his support of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). He intoduced the bill establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority. Norris Dam, one of the major TVA dams is named after him. He was a string supporter of the Rural Electrifiaction Act (REA). He was no only involved in rural issuyes. He was coauthor of the Norris–La Guardia Act, which restricted the use of injunctions in labour disputes.
Norris was still in the Senate as the world moved toward another war (1930s). He at first remained a firm Isolationist. He criticised defense spending and wanted more money to be used for programs to deal with the Depression. There was, however, achange of mind when the Japanese invaded China (1937). Norris saw the famous photograph 'Bloody Saturday' showing a burned Chinese baby crying in a bombedout train station. He moved away from isolationist and non-interventionist stance. He called the Japanese 'disgraceful, ignoble, barbarous, and cruel, even beyond the power of language to describe'. [Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan] Senator Norris was 82 years old when he ran for election (1942). He was overwhealming defeated by the Republican candidate. This largely reflected the growing conservative, Republican sentiment of the electorate. His age could have been a factor, but the Senstor's support for the President's foreign policy, especially the pre-War resistance to the Axis was probably a factor. German-Americans voted overwheamingky for the Republican candidate. [Dalstrom] This did nor imply any affection for Hittler and the NAZIs, but despite Pearl Larbor, it seems to have been residual support for Isolationism and desire to avoid war.
After his electoral degfeat, Nirris wrote his political reciord--Fighting Liberal. It was punlished postumouslyd.
Dalstrom, Harl A. "The defeat of George W Norris in 1942,"€ Nebraska History Vol. 59 (1978): pp. 231-58.
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