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Eben Sumner Draper

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Eben Sumner Draper
Photo c. 1914
44thGovernor of Massachusetts
In office
January 7, 1909 – January 5, 1911
LieutenantLouis A. Frothingham
Preceded byCurtis Guild Jr.
Succeeded byEugene Foss
40thLieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office
January 4, 1906 – January 7, 1909
GovernorCurtis Guild Jr.
Preceded byCurtis Guild Jr.
Succeeded byLouis A. Frothingham
Chairperson of theMassachusetts Republican Party
In office
1896–1897
Preceded byGeorge H. Lyman
Succeeded byA. H. Goetting
In office
1892–1893
Preceded byJoseph Burdett
Succeeded bySamuel Winslow
Personal details
Born(1858-06-17)June 17, 1858
Hopedale, Massachusetts
DiedApril 9, 1914(1914-04-09)(aged 55)
Greenville, South Carolina
Political partyRepublican
SpouseNannie Bristow
Children3
Signature

Eben(sometimes incorrectlyEbenezer)Sumner Draper(June 17, 1858 – April 9, 1914) was anAmericanbusinessman and politician fromMassachusetts.He was for many years a leading figure in what later became theDraper Corporation,the dominant manufacturer of cotton textile process machinery in the world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He served as the 44thgovernor of Massachusettsfrom 1909 to 1911.

Early life and career

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Eben Sumner Draper was born inHopedale, Massachusettson June 17, 1858, the third and youngest son of George and Hannah B. (Thwing) Draper. His brothers wereWilliam F. Draper,who would become ageneraland aU.S. representative,andGeorge A. Draper,with whom he would control the family business. He was educated in the public schools of Hopedale, inAllen's SchoolatWest Newton,and in the class of 1880 of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]

The Drapers were one of the leading families of Hopedale, a community that had been established as an experiment in Christian communal living. At the center of the community were a collection of factories principally engaged in the production of textile manufacturing equipment. Eben's father, a major shareholder of the community, capitalized on financial difficulties in the businesses and the informal means by which they were organized to gain complete control of them in the 1850s. He then took advantage of patents developed by his brother Ebenezer and protectionist tariffs to build a dominant monopoly position in the production of cotton textile processing machinery, and expanded his business interests to include a variety of other industrial manufacturing in Hopedale. All three of his sons were eventually drafted into the business.[2]By the time Eben Draper graduated, his father controlled the largest plant for manufacturing cotton machinery in the world.[1]Draper spent three years in apprenticeship in various cotton mills learning all he could about cotton manufacturing before being made a partner in his father's firm.[1][3]

When the Hopedale companies organized into one, Draper was given charge of the selling department.[3]Following the elder Draper's death in 1887 control (and majority ownership) of the business passed to William.[4]He incorporated the Draper Company (later theDraper Corporation), which introduced the innovativeNorthrop Loomto great success.[5]

William Draper, however, was a largely absentee owner, serving first in theUnited States Congressand then asUnited States Ambassador to Italy.The family business was reorganized (historian William Tucker describes it as a "coup" by Eben and his brother George) in the 1890s, at which time Eben Draper became its president.[4]

Hopedale as at the time seen as a modelcompany town.The Drapers owned most of the housing in the town, but did not charge excessive rents to the factory workers, and offered services such as medical care to their employees.[4]The company was, however, a nonunion shop that did not pay very high wages, and the Drapers also moved some of their production to lower-wage areas of the southern United States during his administration of the business.[6]

Entry into politics

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Draper served as a private in the MassachusettsFirst Corps of Cadetsbefore and during the 1898Spanish–American War,serving as president of the Massachusetts Volunteer Association.[3]

Draper was a leading figure of the "Young Republican Club" (later just the "Republican Club" ), whose members dominated the stateRepublican Partyestablishment in the early 20th century. Like his father and brothers, he was also a strong supporter ofprotectionisttariffs.[7]He assisted his father in founding the Home Market Club of Boston, a protectionist organization in New England. He served as chairman of the Congressional campaign committee which waged a successful campaign to send his brother William as a protectionist to the US House of Representatives. He was then elected as chairman of the Republican State Committee, serving on several victorious campaigns. In 1896 he was elected chairman of the Massachusetts Republican delegation to theSt. Louis Convention,which nominatedWilliam McKinleyforpresident.[1]During the convention, he was instrumental in assistingHenry Cabot Lodgeto secure a plank in the party platform favoring thegold standard.[7]He also served in the presidential election of 1900 as aPresidential elector,again supporting McKinley.[1]

Governorship

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In 1905, Draper was nominated and elected asLieutenant Governor of Massachusetts,considered by the party to be a stepping stone in an "escalator"of statewide offices culminating in the governorship. Draper served for three terms under GovernorCurtis Guild Jr.,acting as governor for a significant part of 1908, when Guild was ill withpneumoniaandappendicitis.Draper and Guild were emblematic of growing divisions in the party: Guild was progressive and reform-oriented, supporting tariff reform, while Draper was conservative, pro-business, and anti-reform.[8]While acting as governor, Draper rejected a pro-labor nominee chosen by Guild for the state's bureau of labor statistics.[9]

Draper accompaniesPresident TaftinWorcester, Massachusettsin 1910

In 1908, Draper was elected Governor, standing against DemocratJames H. Vahey.Vahey attacked the Republican ticket, which included another pro-business conservative inLouis A. Frothingham,as demonstrative of the influence of money in politics. The Democrats were otherwise poorly organized, with Vahey, anIrish AmericanfromWatertownfailing to get support from old-line Democrats and theBostonpolitical machine, and Draper won a comfortable (60,000-vote) victory in a fairly listless campaign.[10]

Draper's two terms as governor deepened the divisions in the Republican party. He vetoed pro-labor bills, including one that would have closed a contractor loophole allowing extended work hours, and the party-controlled legislature refused to enact a bill lowering the maximum weekly work time from 56 to 54 hours. These positions led to a loss of support in the state's urban centers, but did not prevent him from winning reelection over Vahey in 1909, albeit by a reduced margin.[11]Draper also signed a bill legalizing thede factomerger of theBoston and Maine Railroadwith theNew York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad,signaling approval of what were seen then as monopolistic business practices.[9]

In 1910, Governor Draper drove with PresidentWilliam Howard Taft,in the state on an official visit, to pay respects to Taft's ancestral family homes inMendonandUxbridge,just west of Hopedale.[12]

Later years

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The 1910 election saw the party divisions lead to a fracture.Eugene Noble Foss,a Boston businessman, bolted the Republican Party, and ran for election as a Democrat, effectively self-financing his campaign. He ran as an essentially single-issue candidate, seeking tariff reform, in particularreciprocityin trade withCanada.Draper, running for a third term, upset local dairy farmers by allowing the railroads to raise rates on milk shipments. This led to protests and a brief embargo of deliveries to the Boston area, which Draper countered weakly by criticising railroad management for its pricing tactics. Foss won the governor's race by a 32,000-vote margin, but his win was not reflected in Democratic gains anywhere else.[13]

Draper continued to serve as the managing head of the family business.[14]He was considered a candidate for theUnited States Senateseat of fellow RepublicanMurray Cranein 1913. The party, then under the control of its hardline conservative faction (and in control of the legislature, which then elected senators), choseJohn W. Weeks.[15]His company became the focus of labor organization by theIndustrial Workers of the World(IWW, or "Wobblies" ), who engineered a strike in 1912. Although they nominally sought higher wages and a shorter work week, there was a political dimension to the strike: the IWW specifically targeted Draper because of his protectionist and anti-labor actions taken while governor.[16]BothNicola Sacco,a former employee of The Draper Company, andBartolomeo Vanzettiwere very active in this strike and several others that affected The Draper Company.[17]

Personal life and death

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Draper married Nannie Bristow, the daughter ofUnited States Secretary of the TreasuryBenjamin Bristow,in 1883. The couple had three children:[1]

Draper was active in theUnitarianchurch. His wife died in 1913. Draper died on April 9, 1914, inGreenville, South Carolina,following what was described in his obituary as "a shock of paralysis" suffered as he was making "a visit to the far South in search of health."[1][14]His funeral in Boston was attended by then GovernorDavid I. Walsh,among others. Burial was in the family mausoleum in the Hopedale Village Cemetery.[14]

References

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  1. ^abcdefgNational Association of Wool Manufacturers, pp. 187-189
  2. ^Tucker,The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund,pp. 17-19
  3. ^abcdCommercial and Financial New England Illustrated,pp. 125-126
  4. ^abcTucker, pp. 19-20
  5. ^National Cyclopedia of American Biography,pp. 386-387
  6. ^Abrams, p. 187
  7. ^abAbrams, p. 41
  8. ^Abrams, pp. 117, 122, 177
  9. ^abAbrams, p. 188
  10. ^Abrams, pp. 183-187
  11. ^Abrams, pp. 225, 232-233
  12. ^"Taft Visits Home of His Ancestors"(PDF).New York Times.August 20, 1910.RetrievedNovember 27,2007.
  13. ^Abrams, pp. 248-257
  14. ^abcThe Tariff Review,p. 235
  15. ^Abrams, p. 285
  16. ^Tucker, pp. 20-21
  17. ^Tejada, p. 51

Sources

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Party political offices
Preceded by Republicannominee forGovernor of Massachusetts
1908,1909,1910 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
1906–1909 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Massachusetts
1909–1911 		Succeeded by
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