Israel Moore Foster (January 12, 1873 – June 10, 1950) was a Republican Representative in the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

from the state of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, serving three terms from 1919 to 1925.

Biography

Born in

Athens, Ohio Athens is a city in Athens County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 United States census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Athe ...

, Foster attended the public schools, and graduated from the

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

at Athens in 1895. He studied law at the Harvard Law School in 1895 and 1896, and graduated from the Ohio State Law School in 1898, commencing practice the same year in Athens, Ohio. He served as prosecuting attorney of

Athens County Athens County is a county in southeastern Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 62,431. Its county seat and largest city is Athens. The county was formed in 1805 from Washington County. Because Ohio's first state university, Ohio ...

from 1902 to 1910. He served as member and secretary of the board of trustees of the

for twenty-four years, and was Secretary of the Republican State central committee in 1912.

Congress

Foster was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth, Sixty-seventh, and Sixty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1919 – March 4, 1925). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1924. While in Congress, he is best known for proposing the

Child Labor Amendment The Child Labor Amendment (CLA) is a proposed and still-pending amendment to the United States Constitution that would specifically authorize Congress to regulate "labor of persons under eighteen years of age". The amendment was proposed on June ...

to the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

Later career

After serving in Congress, he was appointed a commissioner of the court of claims on April 1, 1925, and served until April 1, 1942, when he retired. He died in

Washington, D.C. 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. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and is buried in Washington's

Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth (Washington, D.C.), Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., across ...

. He had a residence hall at Ohio University named after him, it was located on South Green. Ohio University administration demolish the building in 2016. Calvin Coolidge and Israel Moore Foster

Sources

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Israel Moore 1873 births 1950 deaths Child labor in the United States Ohio Bobcats baseball coaches Ohio University trustees Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni County district attorneys in Ohio Ohio University alumni Harvard Law School alumni People from Athens, Ohio Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives