Clarence Cleveland Dill (September 21, 1884January 14, 1978) was an

American politician In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches share powers: Congress, which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legis ...

from the state of

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. 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 (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

, he was elected to two terms each in both houses of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

Early years

Dill was born in

Fredericktown, Ohio Fredericktown is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Knox County, Ohio, Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,648 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. History Fredericktown was platted in 1807, and named after ...

, and attended

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (abbrevriated OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Centra ...

, where he was a member of the social

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

Phi Kappa Psi Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1852. The fraternity has over ninety chapters at accredited four-year colleges and uni ...

. He completed his undergraduate work at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

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

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

, 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 The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...

and

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...

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 A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spi ...

Dill, but ultimately voted against doing so. Dill was narrowly defeated for re-election in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

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 in ...

justice J. Stanley Webster. Dill was elected to the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

, beating two-term incumbent Republican

Miles Poindexter Miles Poindexter (April 22, 1868September 21, 1946) was an American lawyer and politician. As a Republican Party (United States), Republican and briefly a Progressive Party 1912 (United States), Progressive, he served one term as a United States ...

. Dill campaigned as a supporter of Progressive reform and pledged to repeal the

Esch–Cummins Act The Transportation Act, 1920, commonly known as the Esch–Cummins Act, was a United States federal law that returned railroads to private operation after World War I, with much regulation. It also officially encouraged private consolidation of rai ...

and push for the

Columbia Basin Project The Columbia Basin Project (or CBP) in Central Washington (state), Washington, United States, is the irrigation network that the Grand Coulee Dam makes possible. It is the largest water reclamation project in the United States, supplying irrigat ...

. Poindexter, who was supported by major newspapers such as ''The Spokesman-Review'' and ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

'', 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 su ...

. Dill carried

Spokane County Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 539,339, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest c ...

, much of

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the H ...

, 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 (state), Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the ...

. Dill was re-elected in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

, but did not seek a third term in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. His election in 1928 marked the last time a candidate from

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 powerhous ...

. In June 1934, Congress amended the Watson-Parker

Railway Labor Act The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, enacted in 1926 and amended in 1934 and 1936, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration, and mediation for strik ...

so it explicitly included non-operating train personnel and sleeping car companies. Senator Dill sponsored the new act since he thought

Pullman porter Pullman porters were men hired to work for the railroads as Porter (railroad), porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Their job was to carry ...

s and maids should be black. A jurisdictional dispute between the Order of Sleeping Car Conductors and the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Founded in 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids (commonly referred to as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation o ...

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 mutual ...

, 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 politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

in 1940 but was narrowly defeated by Republican

Arthur B. Langlie Arthur Bernard Langlie (July 25, 1900 – July 24, 1966) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Seattle, Washington and was the List of governors of Washington, 12th and 14th governor of the Washington (state), U.S. state of W ...

. His last attempt at elective office was for the open seat in Congress from Spokane's fifth district in

1942 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...

, 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 ele ...

, 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 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...

. 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 The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

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 The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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 reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

from his wife in 1936, the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

and author Rosalie Gardiner Jones 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 Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, 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, macros ...

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

, she was raised in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

; 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, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate 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 prac ...

Washington State College Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant universities in the American West. With an un ...

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 **

( R), 126,556 **James Duncan ( FL), 35,352 **David Burgess ( SL), 1,905 **Frans Bostrom (

Com Com or COM may refer to: Computing * COM (hardware interface), a serial port interface on IBM PC-compatible computers * COM file, or .com file, short for "command", a file extension for an executable file in MS-DOS * .com, an Internet top-level ...

), 489 *1928 US Senate **C C Clarence Dill ( D), 261,524 **Kenneth Mackintosh ( R), 227,415 **Alex Noral (

), 666 *1940 Governor **

( R), 392,522 **C C Dill ( D), 386,706 **John Brockway (

), 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 Politics of the United States, American political figures and List of United States political families, political families, along with other informa ...

*
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 Activists from Ohio Lawyers from Spokane, Washington 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century United States senators 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives