Thomas D. Schall
Thomas David Schall | |
---|---|
United States Senator fromMinnesota | |
In office March 4, 1925 – December 22, 1935 | |
Preceded by | Magnus Johnson |
Succeeded by | Elmer Austin Benson |
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 10th district | |
In office March 4, 1915 – March 3, 1925 | |
Preceded by | District Created |
Succeeded by | Godfrey G. Goodwin |
Personal details | |
Born | Reed City, Michigan | June 4, 1878
Died | December 22, 1935 Washington, D.C. | (aged 57)
Political party | Republican |
Alma mater | University of Minnesota William Mitchell College of Law |
Thomas David Schall(June 4, 1878 – December 22, 1935) was an Americanlawyerandpolitician.He served in both theUnited States House of Representativesand theUnited States SenatefromMinnesota.He was initially elected and then re-elected as aProgressivebut later joined theRepublican Party.
Schall was born inReed City, Michigan,and moved with his family toCampbell, Minnesota,in 1884. He initially attendedHamline University,but graduated from theUniversity of Minnesotain 1902, followed byWilliam Mitchell College of Law(then the St. Paul College of Law) in 1904. Three years later, he was blinded by an electrical shock from a cigar lighter.[1]
Schall was elected to the House of Representatives in 1914 and served from March 4, 1915, to March 3, 1925, in the64th,65th,66th,67th,and68th congresses.As he was legally blind, he was granted, by House vote, a full-time page to assist him with his work.[2]
After losing the Republicanprimaryfor aspecial electionto the Senate in 1923, Schall was elected to the Senate in 1924, defeatingMagnus Johnsonwith 46% of the vote. He served from March 4, 1925, until his death, in the69th,70th,71st,72nd,and73rd congresses.Johnson would challenge Schall's election, leading the blind Senator to infamously label him "a marionette who kicked and waved his hands and opened his mouth according to the tension of the string." He had a tough re-election campaign in 1930, facing strong candidates from both the Democratic and Farmer Labor parties, and eventually won with 37% of the vote with the support of the NAACP owing to support of theDyer Anti-Lynching Bill.
Long noted as a vitriolic and personal campaigner, Schall would emerge as a leading opponent of theNew Deal,going so far as to compareFranklin D. Rooseveltto Satan and claim his reform program was communistic in nature. Going further, Schall would accuse Eleanor Roosevelt of corruption and liken President Roosevelt to Mussolini and Hitler, while at the same time accusing him of plotting "the destruction of all private industry."[3]
Schall was struck by ahit and rundriver while walking across theWashington-Baltimore Boulevard,now known as Bladensburg Road, inCottage City, Maryland,on December 19, 1935. He died in Washington three days later, becoming one of the few United States Senators or Congressmen to die in a road crash while in office. He is buried inLakewood CemeteryinMinneapolis.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]George Daniel Harden,The Career of Thomas Schall of Minnesota,unpublished M.S. thesis, Winona State University, Winona, Minn., 1968.
- ^ab"SCHALL, Thomas David - Biographical Information".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.RetrievedApril 16,2018.
- ^"Thanked by Blind Member," New York Times, Jan. 29, 1916.Link to.pdf text
- ^Wolfskill, George (1993).All But The People.
External links
[edit]- Media related toThomas D. Schallat Wikimedia Commons
- United States Congress."Thomas D. Schall (id: S000113)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- 1878 births
- 1935 deaths
- University of Minnesota alumni
- William Mitchell College of Law alumni
- Minnesota lawyers
- American Episcopalians
- People from Reed City, Michigan
- Pedestrian road incident deaths
- Road incident deaths in Maryland
- American blind people
- Blind politicians
- Republican Party United States senators from Minnesota
- Minnesota Progressives (1912)
- American politicians with disabilities
- Progressive Party (1912) members of the United States House of Representatives
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota
- People from Wilkin County, Minnesota
- Blind lawyers
- American lawyers with disabilities