Joseph Walsh (December 16, 1875 – January 13, 1946) was a member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from Massachusetts.

Biography

Walsh was born December 16, 1875, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston. He attended public schools in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and the Boston University School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in 1906 and practiced in

New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...

. He served as a fish culturist and clerk in the United States Bureau of Fisheries at Woods Hole, Mass., from 1900 to 1905, and also engaged in newspaper reporting in Boston and New Bedford. He was a member of the State House of Representatives in 1905, elected as a Republican to the Sixty-Fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses, where he served from March 4, 1915, to August 21, 1922, when he resigned to accept a judicial position. In 1917, he opposed the creation of a committee to deal with

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. Walsh thought the creation of a committee would be yielding to "the nagging of iron-jawed angels" and referred to the women picketing Woodrow Wilson's White House (the

Silent Sentinels The Silent Sentinels, also known as the Sentinels of Liberty, were a group of over 2,000 women in favor of women's suffrage organized by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, who protested in front of the White House during Woodrow Wilson's ...

) as "bewildered, deluded creatures with short skirts and short hair." It is from this that the film ''

Iron Jawed Angels ''Iron Jawed Angels'' is a 2004 American historical drama film directed by Katja von Garnier. The film stars Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelica Hus ...

'' gets its name. (The use of steel to hold open the jaws of women being force-fed after the

arrests and hunger strike is also one of the film's plot points.) Walsh was appointed a justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts on August 2, 1922, where he served until his death. He died in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on January 13, 1946, and was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Joseph 1875 births 1946 deaths Boston University School of Law alumni Massachusetts state court judges Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts