John M. Coffee
John Main Coffee | |
|---|---|
 Coffee as depicted in thePictorial Directory of the79th Congress | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWashington's6thdistrict | |
| In office January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1947 | |
| Preceded by | Wesley Lloyd |
| Succeeded by | Thor C. Tollefson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 23, 1897 Tacoma, Washington,U.S. |
| Died | June 2, 1983(aged 86) |
| Political party | Democratic |
John Main Coffee(January 23, 1897 – June 2, 1983) was aU.S. RepresentativefromWashington.
Education
[edit]John Coffee was born inTacoma, Washingtonand attended the public schools. He then attended theUniversity of Washingtonin Seattle, earning an A.B. and LL.B., 1920 and graduated from the law department ofYale Law School,J.D., in 1921.
He wasadmitted to the barin 1922 and commenced practice as a lawyer inTacoma, Washington.
Public service
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In 1922, Coffee was appointed Secretary toUnited States SenatorC.C. Dilluntil 1924. He then became Secretary of the Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration, 1933-1935.
Coffee also served as Appraiser and examiner ofPierce County, Washingtonfor the State Inheritance Tax and Escheat Division from 1933 to 1936 as well as Civil service commissioner for Tacoma, Washington, in 1936.
Election
[edit]Coffee was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936 as aDemocratand served inSeventy-fifthand to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1947).
On August 13, 1937, Rep. Coffee introduced a bill to create a permanent Federal Bureau of Fine Arts with six departments: theatre, dance, music, literature, graphic and plastic arts, and architecture and decoration. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Florida SenatorClaude Pepper.Opera singerLawrence Tibbettchaired a citizens' committee promoting the bill, which was supported byRobert Montgomery,Theodore Dreiser,Lillian Gish,Martha Graham,Rockwell Kent,Hendrik Willem van Loon,andSherwood Anderson,among others.[1]Frank Lloyd Wrightalso supported the bill.[2]The bill was opposed by sculptorGutzon Borglumand composerWalter Damrosch.[3]The Fine Arts Federation of New York called the bill an attempt to unionize artists, warning that it would sap their creative spirit, and the advent of World War II led to its abandonment.[4]
In 1946 it was revealed during theGarsson/Mayinvestigation that Coffee had accepted a $2500 check from aTacomacontractor in 1941 and failed to list it as acampaign contribution.Coffee promised not to accept such gifts in the future.[5]
Coffee was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to theEightiethCongress when he was defeated by RepublicanThor Tollefson.Coffee would also run losing races in 1950 for theEighty-secondCongress and in 1958 to theEighty-sixthCongress.
Death
[edit]Coffee then became a practicing attorney in Tacoma, Washington, until his death in June 1983.
John Main Coffee Jr.
[edit]Coffee's son,John Main Coffee Jr.(November 20, 1928 – May 8, 2012), was aUnitarianminister and a longtime professor of history atEmerson CollegeinBoston,Massachusetts,and coauthoredACentury of Eloquence: the history of Emerson College, 1880-1980.He was also editor ofThe Fare Box,a publication from theAmerican Vecturist Association.[6]
References
[edit]- United States Congress."John M. Coffee (id: C000584)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- ^"A Federal Bureau... of Fine Arts,"City of Destiny,Winter 1938, p. 3.
- ^John Franklin White,Art in Action: American Art Centers and the New Deal,(Scarecrow Press, 1987), p. 120.
- ^"Sculptor Gutzon Borglum (center left) and composer Walter Damrosch (center right) discussing their opposition to the creation of a Federal Bureau of Fine Arts with Senator Claude Pepper (left) and Senator Allen J. Ellender (right)".Library of Congress.
- ^James T. Bennett,Subsidizing Culture: Taxpayer Enrichment of the Creative Class(Routledge, 2017), pp. 51ff.
- ^Gunther, John(1947).Inside U.S.A.New York,London:Harper & Brothers.pp. 99–100.
- ^Rhea Becker and Amanda Jenkins (May 16, 2012)."Emerson mourns the loss of Rev. John Coffee".Emerson College Today.Emerson College.RetrievedJune 16,2012.
External links
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This article incorporatespublic domain materialfrom theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
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