James McLellan Langley (October 11, 1894 – June 23, 1968) was an American newspaper editor and diplomat. Born in

Hyde Park, Boston Hyde Park is the southernmost neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Situated 7.9 miles south of downtown Boston, it is home to a diverse range of people, housing types and social groups. It is an urban location with suburban ch ...

, to Frank Elmer Langley and Mary Bradford McLellan, James M. Langley was raised in

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

, where his father, who later served as mayor of Barre and state senator, had founded the '' Barre Times'' in 1894. The younger Langley attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. His college career was broken up by World War I, during which he trained at a Plattsburgh camp, before moving to the Fort Devens-Sudbury Training Annex. After his graduation and discharge from the Army, Langley worked for the ''

Manchester Union Leader The ''New Hampshire Union Leader'' is a daily newspaper from Manchester, the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. On Saturdays, it publishes as the ''New Hampshire Sunday News.'' Founded in 1863, the paper was best known for the c ...

''. In 1923, Langley secured a loan from his father and John G. Winant. He used to money to buy, then merge, the ''

Concord Monitor The ''Concord Monitor'' is the daily newspaper for Concord, the state capital of New Hampshire. It also covers surrounding towns in Merrimack County, most of Belknap County, as well as portions of Grafton, Rockingham and Hillsborough count ...

'' with ''The New Hampshire Patriot''. Langley sold the ''Monitor'' in 1961 to the publishers of the ''

Holyoke Transcript-Telegram The ''Holyoke Transcript-Telegram'', or ''T‑T'', was an afternoon daily newspaper covering the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States, and adjacent portions of Hampden County and Hampshire County. Published as a daily since 1882, afte ...

'', but continued serving as editor of the publication until his death. Langley served on multiple municipal and state conventions, authoring many New Hampshire laws tackling

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

licensing A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...

, and

tax code Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...

s. He helped negotiate the Laurel–Langley Agreement with the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, signed in 1955. Langley was appointed the ambassador to Pakistan in 1957, and served for two years. He died in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 43,976, making it the List of municipalities ...

, on June 23, 1968, aged 73.

References

External links

* 1894 births 1968 deaths Writers from Boston 20th-century American newspaper editors Ambassadors of the United States to Pakistan People from Concord, New Hampshire Editors of New Hampshire newspapers United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army soldiers Dartmouth College alumni People from Barre, Vermont {{US-journalist-19thC-stub