James Alexander Reed (November 9, 1861 – September 8, 1944) was an American
Democratic Party politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
from
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
.
Early life
Reed was born on November 9, 1861 on a farm in
Richland County, Ohio
Richland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 124,936. Its county seat is Mansfield. The county was created in 1808 and later organized in 1813. It is named for the fertile soil found ...
. He was a descendant of
David Reed. He moved with his family to
Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the age of 3. He went to public schools and attended
Coe College
Coe College is a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associatio ...
. He became a lawyer and moved to
Kansas City, Missouri, in 1887.
Political career
Reed served as a city councilor of Kansas City from 1897 to 1898 and as prosecutor of
Jackson County from 1898 to 1900. He unsuccessfully prosecuted
Jesse E. James, son of the bandit
Jesse James, for train robbery in 1899. He was elected
Kansas City mayor from 1900 to 1904.
As mayor, Reed oversaw the "Kansas City Spirit" construction of
Convention Hall
Convention Hall was a convention center in Kansas City, Missouri that hosted the 1900 Democratic National Convention and 1928 Republican National Convention.
It was designed by Frederick E. Hill and built at the corner of 13th and Central and cos ...
in 90 days to host the
1900 Democratic National Convention
The 1900 Democratic National Convention was a United States presidential nominating convention that took place the week of July 4, 1900, at Convention Hall in Kansas City, Missouri.
The convention nominated William Jennings Bryan for president ...
. The original Convention Hall had opened in 1899 but burned down on April 4, 1900. The convention was scheduled to be held on July 4, and Reed, who had not been a supporter of the original hall before he was elected mayor, presided over the opening of the new hall at the same time the convention was convened.
In 1910, he was elected to the
US Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and po ...
from Missouri as a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
. He served in the Senate for three terms, from 1911 to 1929, when he decided to retire. Unlike many members of his party, he
opposed the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
. He sought and failed to receive the Democratic nomination for president. He served as chairman of the Committee on Weights and Measures from 1917 to 1921.
![James A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/James_A._Reed_cph.3b20301.jpg)
One of his biggest contributions to the State of Missouri came in 1913 when as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, he changed his vote to break a deadlock to pass the
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act was passed by the 63rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913. The law created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States.
The Pani ...
, which resulted in Missouri getting 2 of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks (in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
and
Kansas City). Missouri is the only state with multiple headquarters of the Federal Reserve. Reed was very involved in the Senate Banking Committee's work to improve the Federal Reserve Act, including amendments to strengthen the power and independence of the Federal Reserve Board. President Wilson acknowledged the value of Reed's contributions in a letter sent to him while the bill was pending in committee
ee J''ames A. Reed: Legendary Lawyer,'' p. 38
Reed reflected the deep racial prejudices of his region. In the debate over the
Immigration Act of 1917
The Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Literacy Act and less often as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) was a United States Act that aimed to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new categories of inadmissib ...
, he declared that "no man not of the white race ought to be permitted to settle permanently in the United States of America." He fought to expand the immigration restrictions in that bill so that it would prevent the immigration of anyone of African ancestry, in addition to its prohibitions against immigration from Asian nations.
However, Reed was the only senator to vote against the
Emergency Quota Act
__NOTOC__
The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, of May 19, 1921), was formulated mainly in response to the larg ...
of 1921, which enacted strict limits on immigration.
Later in his political career, Reed opposed the
Ku Klux Klan particularly in his reelection campaign of 1922 which cost him numerous votes.
ee J''ames A. Reed: Legendary Lawyer,'' p. 79-80
In 1927, he opposed the reauthorization of the
Sheppard–Towner Act
The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy Act, more commonly known as the Sheppard–Towner Act, was a 1921 U.S. Act of Congress that provided federal funding for maternity and childcare. It was sponsored by Senator Morris ...
, which had been enacted in 1921, to reduce maternal and infant mortality and improve the health of mothers and babies, and he attacked the
Children's Bureau for its "excessive" federal funding and the "power and control" Sheppard-Towner gave to
Grace Abbott, Bureau Chief. On the floor of the Senate, Reed ridiculed the Children's Bureau and suggested, "We would better reverse the proposition and provide for a committee of mothers to take charge of the
old maids n the Children's Bureauand teach them how to acquire a husband and have babies of their own."
In 1929, as Reed was retiring from the Senate,
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
wrote a tribute praising Reed for his opposition to what Mencken called "demagogues" and "charlatans" from both political parties. Reed then retired from politics and moved back to Missouri, where he continued to practice law. He was also meanwhile an active
Civitan. He died at his summer home in
Oscoda County, Michigan
Oscoda County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,219, making it the least populous county in the Lower Peninsula, and the sixth-least populous county in the entire state. The county seat ...
.
Legal career
Reed represented
Suffolk County, Massachusetts District Attorney
Joseph C. Pelletier during his removal proceedings before the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. On February 21, 1922, the court found Pelletier guilty of 10 of the 21 charges against him and removed him from office.
In 1927, Reed unsuccessfully represented
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
in ''Sapiro v. Ford'', a federal libel lawsuit brought by
Aaron Sapiro, leader of the American husbandry movement.
[Victoria Saker Woeste , Insecure Equality: Louis Marshall, Henry Ford, and the Problem of Defamatory Antisemitism, 1920–1929 , The Journal of American History, 91.3 , The History Cooperative](_blank)
In his newspaper, ''
The Dearborn Independent
''The Dearborn Independent'', also known as ''The Ford International Weekly'', was a weekly newspaper established in 1901, and published by Henry Ford from 1919 through 1927. The paper reached a circulation of 900,000 by 1925, second only to the ...
'', Ford had published a series of articles containing excerpts from his book, ''
The International Jew'', which alleged that Sapiro, who was Jewish, and the American husbandry movement were part of an international Jewish conspiracy to defraud American farmers.
The ''Sapiro'' case ended in a mistrial after which Henry Ford agreed to settle the matter by paying a significant amount of money to the plaintiff. The settlement was done without Reed's knowledge and after Reed claimed he had won the case
ee Chapter 15, J''ames A. Reed: Legendary Lawyer''
Bennett case
In March 1931, Reed was the attorney for Myrtle Bennett, who had shot her husband, John Bennett, a perfume salesman, on September 29, 1929 after a quarrel about a just-completed bridge game. The trial, held in the courthouse of Jackson County, Missouri, received worldwide coverage.
During the trial, he discovered that his neighbor and married mistress,
Nell Donnelly Reed, was two months pregnant with his child.
Donnelly's husband had threatened to kill himself if she ever became pregnant since he was unable to have children.
Reed refused to divorce his wife of 43 years, especially to marry an Irishwoman.
Donnelly traveled to Europe and returned in the fall with a supposedly-adopted son, David, born September 10, 1931. Reed and Donnelly agreed not to take any further steps until his wife died.
In December 1931, Donnelly and her chauffeur were abducted at gunpoint and held for ransom.
Reed closely involved himself in the case and was alleged to have called upon the assistance of
John Lazia, a major figure in the Kansas City, Missouri organized crime scene, to help find Donnelly, which occurred within 34 hours of the abduction.
The subsequent court cases led to three men being imprisoned for the crime and to the controversial acquittal of a fourth, who claimed to have thought that he was abducting someone else.
[
After Reed's wife died in 1932, Donnelly divorced her husband, and the two were married in December 1933.][ He died just two days short of his biological son's 13th birthday after he had caught pneumonia after spending a morning fishing in the rain.][
]
Death
Reed died at his summer home in Oscoda County, Michigan
Oscoda County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,219, making it the least populous county in the Lower Peninsula, and the sixth-least populous county in the entire state. The county seat ...
.
See also
* Bridge Murder case
References
Sources
J. Michael Cronan, ''James A. Reed: Legendary Lawyer; Marplot in the United States Senate,'' iUniverse Press (Bloomington, IN, 2018)
*Lela B. Costin, ''Two Sisters for Social Justice,'' Illinois, 1983.
*Jan Hults, ''The Senatorial Career of James Alexander Reed''. Unpublished Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kansas, History, 1987. Bibliography: leaves 317–331.
*Lee Meriwether, ''Jim Reed: Senatorial Immortal; A Biography''. Webster Groves, MO: International Mark Twain Society, 1948. 273 pp. illus., ports. 22 cm.
*James A. Reed, "The Pestilence of Fanaticism", ''American Mercury'', v. 5, no. 17 (May 1925) 1–7.
External links
Mencken's tribute to Reed
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, James
1861 births
1944 deaths
Politicians from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
People from Richland County, Ohio
Coe College alumni
Candidates in the 1928 United States presidential election
Candidates in the 1932 United States presidential election
20th-century American politicians
Democratic Party United States senators from Missouri
Mayors of Kansas City, Missouri
Missouri city council members
Old Right (United States)
Missouri Democrats
Missouri lawyers
Iowa lawyers
People from Oscoda County, Michigan