Political Career
Dixon took advantages of the internal dissension among rival factions of the Democratic party to rise rapidly in politics. In 1902 and 1904 he won congressional races, and in 1907 the Montana legislature chose him for a U.S. Senate seat. He became an ardent admirer of President Theodore Roosevelt, and joined the progressive wing of the party and fighting the conservatives. He unsuccessfully ran for reelection in 1912, but that year, he was the campaign manager for Roosevelt and shared the National Progressive Convention that nominated Roosevelt on the third-party Progressive Party ("Bull Moose") ticket as the GOP split between progressives and stand patters. Out of office, Dixon returned to Montana to look after his newspaper properties, and to battle the Amalgamated Copper Company, the behemoth that dominated both political parties through its corrupt spending. He finally sold his newspapers, and they were taken over by Amalgamated. In 1920 farmer unrest weakened the copper company (now named "Anaconda Copper"), and Dixon was carried by the national Republican landslide into office as governor and he served from 1921 to 1925. Although Dixon had many reform proposals, he was unable to enact them because of the severe economic depression in the state, and the systematic opposition of Anaconda Copper. He was defeated for reelection in 1924 and for the Senate in 1928.
In 1929 he was appointed First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and served in that position until 1933. In 1930, he was involved with a project to develop water power on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and with it, a complex network of water rights for the Reservation.
He died in Missoula, Montana on May 22, 1934 due to heart problems. He is interred at the Missoula Cemetery in Missoula, Montana.
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