Clarence Cleveland Dill (September 21, 1884January 14, 1978) was an American politician from the state of Washington. A Democrat, he was elected to two terms each in both houses of Congress.

Early years

Dill was born in Fredericktown, Ohio, and attended Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was a member of the social

fraternity A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, "brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in ...

Phi Kappa Psi. He completed his undergraduate work at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...

in 1907. As a young man, Dill was a teacher, and moved west to

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

, in 1908. He taught English at South Central High School and was a newspaper reporter at ''

The Spokesman-Review ''The Spokesman-Review'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, the city's sole remaining daily publication. It has the third-highest readership among daily newspapers in the state, with most of its readership base in ...

'' in the summer.

Political career

Dill became a lawyer in 1910, and soon entered politics. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1914 and 1916 from the newly created fifth district. On April 5, 1917, Dill was one of 50 representatives who voted against declaring war on Germany. His vote was controversial among his constituents, including members of his own party. The Spokane County Democratic Committee debated censuring Dill, but ultimately voted against doing so. Dill was narrowly defeated for re-election in

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

state supreme court In the United States, a state supreme court (known by other names in some states) is the highest court in the state judiciary of a U.S. state. On matters of state law, the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding i ...

justice

J. Stanley Webster John Stanley Webster (February 22, 1877 – December 24, 1962) was a justice of the Washington Supreme Court, a United States representative from Washington and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern Di ...

. Dill was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1922, beating two-term incumbent Republican Miles Poindexter. Dill campaigned as a supporter of

Progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

reform and pledged to repeal the Esch–Cummins Act and push for the Columbia Basin Project. Poindexter, who was supported by major newspapers such as ''The Spokesman-Review'' and ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington s ...

'', attempted to portray Dill as a radical for his war record and his support of the

Plumb Plan Glenn Edward Plumb (1866 - 1 August 1922) was an American lawyer who was famous for proposing a radical plan for cooperative railway ownership, the Plumb plan, in 1918. He founded the Plumb Plan League to support the proposal. Despite strong supp ...

. Dill carried Spokane County, much of Eastern Washington, and the urban counties of the

Puget Sound region The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the Olympic Mountai ...

. Dill was re-elected in 1928, but did not seek a third term in 1934. His election in 1928 marked the last time a candidate from Eastern Washington was elected U.S. Senator. In the Senate, he was the chief sponsor of both the 1927 Radio Act and the 1934 Communications Act, and was a staunch proponent of the

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerho ...

. In June 1934, Congress amended the Watson-Parker Railway Labor Act so it explicitly included non-operating train personnel and sleeping car companies. Senator Dill sponsored the new act since he thought Pullman porters and maids should be black. A jurisdictional dispute between the

Order of Sleeping Car Conductors The Order of Sleeping Car Conductors (OSCC) was a labor union that represented white sleeping car conductors in the United States and Canada between 1918 and 1942, when it merged with the Order of Railway Conductors. Foundation During World War I ...

and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters had to be first settled in the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...

, but the effect was to quadruple membership in the Brotherhood. Black workers could now join the union without fear of losing their jobs. Dill ran for

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

in 1940 but was narrowly defeated by Republican Arthur B. Langlie. His last attempt at elective office was for the open seat in Congress from Spokane's fifth district in 1942, but was easily defeated by

Walt Horan Walter Franklin Horan (October 15, 1898 – December 19, 1966) was an American politician, a congressman from eastern Washington for 22 years. First elected in 1942, he was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for elev ...

, the first Republican to win that district in twenty years. Horan had lost to Charles Leavy by eleven points in the previous race in 1940. Dill then served as a member of the Columbia Basin Commission from 1945 to 1948, and as a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General from 1946 to 1953. In between all of these jobs, he usually practiced law. He died in 1978 in Spokane at the age of 93, the last living U.S. senator elected before the Great Depression.

Personal

After he left the Senate, Dill sought a

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

from his wife in 1936, the feminist suffragist and author

Rosalie Gardiner Jones Rosalie Gardiner Jones (February 24, 1883 – January 12, 1978) was an American suffragette. She took the "Pankhursts" as role models and after hearing of the " Brown Women" she organised marches to draw attention to the suffrage cause. She was ...

of New York. Dill claimed that Jones told his friends that he was "a political coward" for not seeking re-election in 1934, and that she buried dogs and garbage in the backyard. Separated while he was still in office, the well-publicized divorce proceedings began in late June 1936 in Spokane. The court found in his favor: he kept the house, she got the furniture. Dill met home economics educator Mabel Aileen Dickson (1905–1969) in November 1936 in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and they were married in May 1939. Born in

Crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macr ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, S ...

, she was raised in

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; Dickson graduated from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Ruth ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

at Washington State College in Pullman. They were married for thirty years, until her death from a heart ailment. Their home, ''Cliff Aerie'', built in 1941 at 708 W. Cliff Drive, is a Spokane landmark.

Electoral history

*1914 Congress 5 **C C Dill ( D), 24,410 **Harry Rosenhaupt ( R), 20,063 **Thomas Corkery (Prog), 15,509 **J O Harkness ( S), 4,502 **F H Flanders (Proh), 2,270 *1916 Congress 5 **C C Dill ( D), 37,479 **Thomas Corkery ( R), 32,298 **John M Powers ( S), 2,952 *1918 Congress 5 ** Stanley Webster ( R), 22426 **C C Dill ( D), 20,061 **Peter Harrison ( S), 473 *1922 US Senate **C C Clarence Dill ( D), 130,375 ** Miles Poindexter ( R), 126,556 **James Duncan ( FL), 35,352 **David Burgess ( SL), 1,905 **Frans Bostrom ( Com), 489 *1928 US Senate **C C Clarence Dill ( D), 261,524 **Kenneth Mackintosh ( R), 227,415 **Alex Noral ( Com), 666 *1940 Governor ** Arthur B. Langlie ( R), 392,522 **C C Dill ( D), 386,706 **John Brockway ( Com), 1,674 **P J Ater ( SL), 426 *1942 Congress 5 **

( R), 29,380 **C C Dill ( D), 18,766

References

External links

Washington Secretary of State
– History Makers – Clarence Dill

at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations ...

*
Historic Spokane
– Senator Clarence & Mabel Dill House (Cliff Aerie) – 708 W. Cliff Drive {{DEFAULTSORT:Dill, Clarence 1884 births 1978 deaths Ohio Wesleyan University alumni People from Fredericktown, Ohio Politicians from Spokane, Washington Democratic Party United States senators from Washington (state) Washington (state) lawyers Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Washington (state) American anti–World War I activists 20th-century American politicians Activists from Ohio Lawyers from Spokane, Washington 20th-century American lawyers