Legislator
Rogers was regarded as capable by her male peers, and became a model for younger Congresswomen. Her trademark was an orchid or a gardenia on her shoulder. She was also an active legislator and sponsored more than 1,200 bills, over half on veteran or military issues. She voted for a permanent nurse corps in the Department of Veteran's Affairs, and benefits for disabled veterans and veterans of the Korean War.
In 1937 she sponsored a bill to fund the maintenance of the neglected Congressional Cemetery, even though her husband was placed at rest in their hometown. She opposed child labor, and fought for "equal pay for equal work" and a 48 hour work week for women, though she believed a woman's first priority was home and family. She supported local economic autonomy; on April 19, 1934 she read a petition against the expanded business regulations of the New Deal, and all 1,200 signatures, into the Congressional Record.
Rogers was an advocate for the textile and leather industries in Massachusetts. She acquired funding for flood control measures in the Merrimack River basin, helped Camp Devens become Fort Devens, Massachusetts in 1931, and was responsible for many other jobs and grants in the state.
Read more about this topic: Edith Nourse Rogers
Famous quotes containing the word legislator:
“The legislator must be in advance of his age.
Across the mind of the statesman flash ever and anon the brilliant, though partial, intimations of future events.... Something which is more than fore-sight and less than prophetic knowledge marks the statesman a peculiar being among his contemporaries.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)