Curtis Guild Jr.

Curtis Guild Jr.
Curtis Guild Jr.
	George T. Marye
43rd Governor of Massachusetts
	In office; January 4, 1906 – January 7, 1909
Lieutenant	Eben Sumner Draper
Preceded by	William L. Douglas
Succeeded by	Eben Sumner Draper
39th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
	In office; January 8, 1903 – January 4, 1906
Governor	John L. Bates; William L. Douglas
Preceded by	John L. Bates
Succeeded by	Eben Sumner Draper
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
	In office; 1881
Personal details
Born	February 2, 1860; Boston, Massachusetts
Died	April 6, 1915 (aged 55); Boston, Massachusetts
Political party	Republican
Profession	Politician
Signature

Curtis Guild Jr. (February 2, 1860 – April 6, 1915) was an American journalist, soldier, diplomat and politician from

Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, seeing active duty in Cuba during the Spanish–American War

. He was publisher of the Boston Commercial Bulletin, a trade publication started by his father.

Educated at

United States Ambassador to Russia

.

Early life and education

Curtis Guild Jr. was born in

Commercial Bulletin, a Boston trade publication.^[2] Guild was educated at Chauncy Hall, a private day school in Boston, and then attended Harvard University. At both schools he was involved in military organizations, rising to become a lieutenant in Harvard's rifle corps in 1879. He was also a good fencer, twice winning the university fencing championship, and worked as a writer on both The Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Lampoon. He graduated from Harvard in 1881 with high honors, and was the orator of his class. During his years at Harvard he became friends with Theodore Roosevelt.^[1]

Business and military activities

After graduation from college, Guild undertook a short tour of Europe before beginning employment at his father's newspaper.[3] He rose through the ranks of the business, making rounds of local woolen manufacturers weekly for news, and developing the Bulletin into an authoritative journal of the trade.^[2] He took over proprietorship of the publication in 1902.^[1]

Guild also continued the military activities he had begun during his school years. In 1891, Guild joined the

Inspector General of Havana during the American occupation.^[4] He was mustered out of the Army in May 1899. He officially retired from the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in 1909 with the rank of major general.^[5]

Political career

Guild was, along with Roger Wolcott, one of the organizers of the "Young Republican Club" (later just the "Republican Club"), founded in 1891 to inject new life into the

William Russell.^[7]

Guild entered politics in 1881, serving as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.^[4] He became a member of the state Republican Party Committee in 1894 and became nationally prominent when he served as vice-president of the 1896 Republican National Convention. In 1900 he worked on Roosevelt's vice presidential campaign, and toured with Roosevelt after President William McKinley's assassination elevated Roosevelt to the presidency.

Lieutenant governor

In 1899, Guild was put forward as the party leadership's (in particular Lodge's) choice as the next

William L. Douglas, while Guild was reelected to the second chair.^[11]

Governor

Following the party process, Guild received the nomination for governor in 1905. The major issue within the party that year was reciprocity, or tariff reform equalizing trade with neighboring Canada. Guild stood in favor of reciprocity, but much of the more conservative party leadership did not, and the lieutenant governor nomination went to Eben Sumner Draper, a wealthy businessman and strong protectionist.^[12] The Republicans won a comfortable victory against a disorganized Democratic opposition.^[13] Guild served three one-year terms,^[14] before stepping back in favor of Draper.^[15]

As governor, Guild was one of the most progressive of period, seeing enaction of a significant body of reform legislation. The state required medical inspections of school children, and passed a

African-American court clerk.^[17]

The provision of state-funded care for the state's mental patients, mandated by the state legislature in 1900 and introduced in 1904, had caused a significant expansion of the state budget (by more than $1 million, about 10% of the budget), without an accompanying increase in revenue. Guild, who inherited this funding problem from his predecessors, called unsuccessfully for increases in corporate taxes in a bid to close the gap, but was only able to secure the introduction of an inheritance tax. Guild would, after he left office, chair the founding meeting of the National Tax Association, and helped draft a model income tax law.^[18]

One issue that divided Guild from the more conservative elements of his party was his opposition to attempts by the railroad executives to bypass state law banning the merger of the

holding companies, and then legislatively approved, after the fact, during the Draper administration.^[19]

In 1907, an escaped asylum patient entered the Massachusetts State House with a handgun. Upon seeing a group of men entering the State House, the patient fired, killing Edward Cohen, a trade union leader, mistakenly believing him to be the governor.^[20]

During much of 1908, Guild was seriously ill (with pneumonia and appendicitis), and was unable to carry out his office. During these periods, Lieutenant Governor Draper acted as governor. In another act highlighting the divisions within the party, Draper vetoed one of Guild's choices for commissioner of the state's board of labor statistics, for his pro-labor stance.^[21]

Diplomat

After his tenure as governor ended, Guild received support for the 1908 Republican nomination for

Imperial Russia.^[23]

Later life and death

After finishing his ambassadorial duties, Guild returned to Boston, and resumed control of the Commercial Bulletin.

interred at Boston's Forest Hills Cemetery.^[26]

He had married Charlotte Howe Johnson, daughter of Edward Crosby Johnson and Alice Robbins, in 1892; they had no children.[27]

Honors

Awards that he received include the Russian

Freemason and a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.^[28] In 1897 he became a compatriot of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution

.

Legacy

After Guild's death, a memorial tablet, paid for by private subscription, was installed in the Massachusetts State House in 1916. The Curtis Guild Elementary School in East Boston is named for the former governor, and the Massachusetts National Guard Base Camp Curtis Guild is named in his memory. The defunct Camp Curtis Guild Composite Squadron of the Massachusetts Wing of the Civil Air Patrol bore his name.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Hill, p. 30
^ ^a ^b National Association of Wool Manufacturers, p. 189
^ ^a ^b Thayer, p. 3
^ ^a ^b ^c Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Biography of Curtis Guild Retrieved July 19, 2012.
^ Hill, p. 31
^ Abrams, p. 40
^ Abrams, p. 41
^ Abrams, p. 95
^ Abrams, p. 117
^ Abrams, p. 96
^ Abrams, p. 107
^ Abrams, pp. 116-117
^ Abrams, pp. 121-123
^ Hill, p. 32
^ Abrams, pp. 176-177
^ Abrams, pp. 131-132
^ ^a ^b Jones, p. 312
^ Higgins-Evenson, pp. 67-68
^ Abrams, pp. 188, 198-199, 205-207
^ Brandeis, p. 59
^ Abrams, p. 188
^ National Association of Wool Manufacturers, p. 190
^ ^a ^b Mayers, pp. 55-60
^ Williams, p. 18
^ Thayer, p. 4
^ Sammarco
^ Thayer, p. 7
^ ^a ^b Thayer, p. 6

Sources

Abrams, Richard (1964). Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
OCLC 475077
.

Brandeis, Louis (1971). Letters of Louis Brandeis: Volume II, 1907-1912: People's Attorney. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
OCLC 149993
.

Higgins-Evenson, R. Rudy (2003). The Price of progress: public services, taxation, and the American corporate state, 1877 to 1929. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
OCLC 475250860
.

Hill, Edwin (1919). The Historical Register. New York: Edwin Hill. p. 30.
OCLC 7782556
.

Jones, J.E. (June 1908). "New England's Choice for the Vice-Presidency". The National Magazine.
Mayers, David (1996) [1995]. The Ambassadors and America's Soviet Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.
OCLC 37828502
.

National Association of Wool Manufacturers (1915). Bulletin, Volume 45. Boston.
OCLC 42341986.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
)

Sammarco, Anthony (2009). Forest Hills Cemetery. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.
OCLC 677921414
.

Thayer, William (1917). Curtis Guild. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society.
OCLC 235945904
.

Williams, Andrew J (1992). Trading with the Bolsheviks: The Politics of East-West Trade, 1920-1939. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
OCLC 26553046
.

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by John L. Bates	Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts 1905, 1906, 1907	Succeeded by Eben Sumner Draper
Political offices
Preceded by John L. Bates	Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 1903–1906	Succeeded by Eben Sumner Draper
Preceded by William L. Douglas	Governor of Massachusetts 1906–1909	Succeeded by Eben Sumner Draper
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by William Woodville Rockhill	United States Ambassador to Russia 1911–1913	Succeeded by George T. Marye

[Hill30-1] Hill, p. 30

[Bulletin189-2] National Association of Wool Manufacturers, p. 189

[Thayer3-3] Thayer, p. 3

[Mass.gov-4] Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Biography of Curtis Guild Retrieved July 19, 2012.

[Hill31-5] Hill, p. 31

[6] Abrams, p. 40

[Abrams41-7] Abrams, p. 41

[8] Abrams, p. 95

[9] Abrams, p. 117

[10] Abrams, p. 96

[11] Abrams, p. 107

[12] Abrams, pp. 116-117

[13] Abrams, pp. 121-123

[Hill32-14] Hill, p. 32

[15] Abrams, pp. 176-177

[16] Abrams, pp. 131-132

[Jones312-17] Jones, p. 312

[18] Higgins-Evenson, pp. 67-68

[19] Abrams, pp. 188, 198-199, 205-207

[20] Brandeis, p. 59

[21] Abrams, p. 188

[NAWM190-22] National Association of Wool Manufacturers, p. 190

[Mayers-23] Mayers, pp. 55-60

[Williams-24] Williams, p. 18

[25] Thayer, p. 4

[26] Sammarco

[27] Thayer, p. 7

[Thayer6-28] Thayer, p. 6

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v t e United States Ambassadors to Russia
Russian Empire (1780–1917)	Dana Adams Pinkney Campbell Middleton Randolph Buchanan Wilkins J. Clay Dallas Cambreleng Todd Ingersoll Bagby Brown Seymour Pickens Appleton C. Clay Cameron C. Clay Curtin Orr Jewell Boker Stoughton Foster Hunt Taft Lothrop Tree C. Smith White Breckinridge Hitchcock Tower McCormick Meyer Riddle Rockhill Guild Marye Francis
Soviet Union (1933–1991)	Bullitt Davies Steinhardt Standley Harriman W. Smith Kirk Kennan Bohlen Thompson Kohler Thompson Beam Dubs Stoessel Toon Watson Hartman Matlock Strauss
Russian Federation (1991–present)	Strauss Pickering Collins Vershbow Burns Beyrle McFaul Tefft Huntsman Sullivan Tracy