E. Wallace Chadwick - Record in Washington

Record in Washington

When the Eightieth Congress convened, the first seated Republican majority since 1928 elected Joseph W. Martin of Massachusetts to Speaker of the House. In the Senate, Wallace H. White of Maine was chosen Majority Leader of that body.

Congressman Chadwick went to Washington on January 3, 1947 and established a typically conservative Republican voting record. He sought to maintain higher visibility before the voters than either his predecessor or successor did. He introduced bills to protect GI insurance and relegate to the states all federal interest in coastal tidelands. A vigorous anti-Communist, he strongly defended the appropriation for the House Un-American Activities committee.

Some of his votes on major legislation were: the Labor Disputes Act, establishing a Mediation Board (Y); the now well-known Taft-Hartley Act, which curbed some union abuses and was passed over President Truman's veto (Y); the constitutional amendment to limit a president to two terms, (Y); extending rent controls, (Y); reducing income taxes, (Y); aid to Greece and Turkey to resist Communist aggression, (Y); to admit Hawaii as a state (N); an Anti-Poll Tax bill (Y).

He brought the office of congressman more up-to-date by adopting a policy of answering personally every piece of correspondence he received from his constituents. "After all, if people can't get help from their public officers when they need it, they may well conclude that the subversionists are right, and that democracy...is really a farce so far as the little guy is concerned," Chadwick said in another radio address to his constituents.