Jouett Shouse

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jouett Shouse
George Neeley
Succeeded byJasper N. Tincher
Personal details
BornDecember 10, 1879
Midway, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedJune 2, 1968 (aged 88)
Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
Marion Edwards
​
(div. 1931)​
​
​
(m. 1931)​
Children3

Jouett Shouse (December 10, 1879 – June 2, 1968) was an American lawyer, newspaper publisher, and leading Democratic politician. A conservative, he was best known for opposing the New Deal in the 1930s.

Born in Midway, Kentucky, his family moved to Mexico, Missouri in 1892 where he attended public school. After studying at the University of Missouri at Columbia he returned to his native Kentucky where he served on the staff of the Lexington Herald from 1898 to 1904 and eventually became the owner/editor of The Kentucky Farmer and Breeder.

In 1911, Jouett Shouse moved to

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
. At the Treasury Department he was in charge of customs, internal revenue and reorganized the War Risk Insurance division until November 15, 1920, when he resigned "in order to adjust his personal affairs."

Shouse was very active in the

Alfred E. Smith.[2]

In early 1930s Shouse divorced his wife of twenty-one years and married the wealthy divorcee, Catherine Filene Dodd. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, the new Mrs. Shouse was a daughter of A. Lincoln Filene, head of Filene's department stores. She would serve on the board of trustees of the Filene Foundation. After their marriage, Jouett and Catherine Shouse took in and brought up a boy whom they renamed William Filene Shouse.

Liberty League

See also: American Liberty League

After Roosevelt's election, Shouse left his leadership position to become president of the

repeal of prohibition
in 1933. In this campaign Shouse worked together with Roosevelt's people.

Shouse broke with the liberals and became the president of the

property rights, too little on human rights." The League, he said, was sworn to "uphold two of the Ten Commandments".[4]

Regarding the controversial National Recovery Administration, Shouse was ambivalent. He commented that "the NRA has indulged in unwarranted excesses of attempted regulation"; on the other hand, he added that "in many regards [the NRA] has served a useful purpose."[5] Shouse said that he had "deep sympathy" with the goals of the NRA, explaining, "While I feel very strongly that the prohibition of child labor, the maintenance of a minimum wage and the limitation of the hours of work belong under our form of government in the realm of the affairs of the different states, yet I am entirely willing to agree that in the case of an overwhelming national emergency the Federal Government for a limited period should be permitted to assume jurisdiction of them."[6]

In 1936 Roosevelt built his campaign on crusading against the American Liberty League as a band of economic royalists.

Shouse practiced law in Kansas City, Missouri as well as in Washington, D.C. In 1953, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors of New York City-based Anton Smit and Co. Inc., now part of 3M.

Thoroughbred horse racing

Shouse grew up in Kentucky, where

flat racing. A part of the farm was later donated by Mrs. Shouse to become the site of the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
.

Shouse retired in 1965 and died in 1968. He is buried in the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky.

References

  1. ^ "National Affairs: Campaign Captains". Time. November 10, 1930 – via content.time.com.
  2. ^ "Franklin D. Roosevelt - American Heritage Center, Inc". www.fdrheritage.org. Archived from the original on 18 February 2004. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  3. ^ Gregory L. Schneider, The conservative century: from reaction to revolution (2009) p. 26
  4. ^ George Wolfskill The revolt of the conservatives: a history of the American Liberty League (1962) p 34
  5. ^ Ronen Shamir, Managing Legal Uncertainty: Elite Lawyers in the New Deal (1995) p. 22
  6. ^ Shamir, pp 24-25

Further reading

  • Kyvig, David. Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
  • Rudolph, Frederick. "The American Liberty League, 1934-1940," American Historical Review 56 (October 1950): 19–33, in JSTOR
  • Shamir, Ronen. Managing Legal Uncertainty: Elite Lawyers in the New Deal (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995)
  • Wolfskill, George. The Revolt of the Conservatives: A History of the American Liberty League, 1934-1940 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962)

External links

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
George Neeley
 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Kansas's 7th congressional district
March 4, 1915–March 3, 1919 		Succeeded by
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