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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name== Dewey Jackson Short | image=Dewey Short of MO.jpg | office=United States Representative for <br>Missouri's 7th congressional district |..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name== Dewey Jackson Short
| image=Dewey Short of MO.jpg
| office=[[United States Representative]] for <br>[[Missouri]]'s 7th congressional district
| term_start=January 3, 1935
| term_end=January 3, 1957
| succeeded=Charles Harrison Brown
|office2=U.S. Representative for Missouri's 14th congressional district
| term_start2=March 4, 1929
| term_end2=March 3, 1931
|preceded2=James F. Fulbrght
|succeeded2=James F. Fulbright
| office3=Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee
| term_start3=January 3, 1953
|term_end3=January 3, 1955
|preceded3=[[Carl Vinson]]
|succeeded3=Carl Vinson
|office4=Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil-Military Affairs
| term_start4=March 15, 1957
| term_end4=November 1958
| president4 = [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]
| preceded4=George H. Roderick
| succeeded4=Position abolished
| birth_date=April 7, 1898
| birth_place=Galena, Stone County,<br>Missouri
| death_date=November 19, 1979 (aged 81)
| death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]]
| resting_place=Galena Cemetery
| nationality=United States|American]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| spouse=Helen Gladys Hughes Short (married 1937-1979, his death)
| children=No children<br>
'''Parents:''' <br>
Jackson Grant and Permelia Cordelia Long Short
| residence=Springfield, Missouri<br>
[[Washington, D.C.]]
| alma_mater=Baker University ([[Kansas]])<br>
[[Boston University]]<br>
Heidelberg University<br>
[[Harvard University]]<br>
University of Berlin<br>
[[Oxford University]]
| occupation=[[Professor]] and [[pastor]]
| religion=Methodist-Episcopal
| branch=[[United States Army]] Infantry
| battles=[[World War I]]
}}
'''Dewey Jackson Short''' (April 7, 1898 – November 19, 1979) was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] 12-term [[United States Representative]] for two districts in his native [[Missouri]]. He represented District 14 from 1929 to 1931 and District 7 from 1935 to 1957. A [[conservative]] known as the "Orator of the Ozarks," he was a staunch opponent of [[U.S. President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]]. He was an unsuccessful contender for [[Vice President of the United States]] in 1940.<ref name=findagrave>Dewey Jackson Short (1898-1979) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref>
==Background==
Short was born in Galena in Stone County in southwestern Missouri to Jackson Grant Short (1864-1947) and the former Permelia Cordelia Long (1868-1924). After his graduation from Galena High School and Marionville College, he served in the infantry during [[World War I]] and graduated in 1919 from Baker University in Baldwin City in Douglas County in northeastern [[Kansas]] and in 1922 from [[Boston University]] in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]. Short also attended [[Harvard University]], Heidelberg University, the University of Berlin, both in [[Germany]], and [[Oxford University]], dates unavailable. In 1923, 1924, and 1926-1928, he was a [[professor]] of [[ethics]], [[psychology]], and political philosophy at Southwestern College in Winfield in Cowley County in southeastern Kansas. In 1927, he was a pastor of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in Springfield in southwestern Missouri.<ref name=biodir>>Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - Retro Member details, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref> Springfield is 225 miles west of Winfield; so it is unclear how he handled the distance between the two cities.
On April 20, 1937, Short wed the former Helen Gladys Hughes (1901-1990, a native of [[Washington, D.C.]] The couple had no children.<ref name=mrsshort>Helen Gladys Hughes Short (1901-1990) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref>
==Political career==
Short was elected in 1928 in Missouri congressional district 14, since disbanded. However, he was defeated in 1930 and returned to Congress from District 7 in the election of 1934.<ref name=biodir/> He was a delegate to the [[Republican National Convention]] in 1932, which renominated [[U.S. President]] [[Herbert Hoover]]. Short ran unsuccessfully that same year for the Republican nomination to the [[United States Senate]]<ref name=findagrave/> for the seat held by the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Joel Bennett "Champ" Clark (1890-1954), the son of a Democratic former House Speaker and a candidate for the 1912 presidential nomination. Short was elected again to Congress in 1934, this time from district 7 and held the seat for eleven terms. At the 1940 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], Short received 108 delegate votes in second place for the party's vice-presidential nomination, which went instead to U.S. Senator [[Charles McNary]] of [[Oregon]]. [[Wendell Willkie]] led the party to its third consecutive national defeat.<ref>Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, ''Convention Decisions and Voting Records'' (1973), pp. 254-256.</ref>
Short was the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee., when his party held the majority from 1953 to 1955. On April 30, 1955, Representative Short was presented with an "Honorary Ozark Hillbilly Medallion" by the [[Chamber of Commerce]] in Springfield, Missouri, during a broadcast of the 1955-1961 [[ABC]] [[television]] series, ''Ozark Jubilee, starring Clyde Julian "Red" Foley (1910-1968) and popularizing [[Country music]]. The series was produced in om Springfield.
Short did not join his southern House colleagues in support of the 1956 [[Southern Manifesto]],introduced by House Rules Committee chairman [[Howard W. Smith]] of [[Virginia]], which sought to defend [[segregation]], especially in public education.<ref> The Southern Manifesto of 1956 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref>He had already left the House prior to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
In the 1956 House election, Short was unseated by the Democrat Charles Harrison Brown (1920-2003) even though President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] won a second presidential term but lost Missouri to [[Adlai Stevenson]], which Eisenhower had carried in 1952. Short polled 89,926 votes; Brown, 90,986.
In 1945, Short served as a congressional delegate to inspect [[concentration camps]] in [[Germany]]. From 1957 to 1961, Short served as Assistant Secretary of the Army under President Eisenhower. He was later president-emeritus of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress.
Short died at the age of eighty-one in Washington, D.C. and is interred at Galena Cemetery. It is unclear if Mrs. Short is also buried there.<ref name=mrsshort/> In his book, ''In the Arena,'' [[Richard Nixon]] cited Short as perhaps the finest orator he had ever seen. In 1985, Robert S. Wiley published, ''Dewey Short: Orator of the Ozarks.''<ref>Robert S. Wiley, ''Dewey Short, Orator of the Ozarks'' (Cassville, [[Mississippi]]: Litho Printers and Bindery, 1985).</ref>
==Short's rhetoric==
On January 23, 1935, Short spoke to the House chamber. He claimed that the lawmakers had "degenerated into a supine, subservient, soporific, superfluous, supercilious, pusillanimous body of nitwits, the greatest ever gathered beneath the dome of our National Capitol, who cowardly abdicate their powers and, in violation of their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution against all of the Nation's enemies, both foreign and domestic, turn over these constitutional prerogatives, not only granted but imposed upon them, to a group of tax-eating, conceited autocratic bureaucrats, a bunch of theoretical, intellectual, professorial nincompoops out of [[Columbia University]], at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who were never elected by the American people to any office and who are responsible to no constituency. These 'brain trusters' and 'new dealers' are the ones who wrote this resolution, instead of the Members of this House whose duty it is, and whose sole duty it is, to draft legislation."<ref>''Congressional Record,'' January 23, 1935.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Dewey}}
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Kansas]]
[[Category:Former United States Representatives]]
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:Methodists]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:Orators]]
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
| name== Dewey Jackson Short
| image=Dewey Short of MO.jpg
| office=[[United States Representative]] for <br>[[Missouri]]'s 7th congressional district
| term_start=January 3, 1935
| term_end=January 3, 1957
| succeeded=Charles Harrison Brown
|office2=U.S. Representative for Missouri's 14th congressional district
| term_start2=March 4, 1929
| term_end2=March 3, 1931
|preceded2=James F. Fulbrght
|succeeded2=James F. Fulbright
| office3=Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee
| term_start3=January 3, 1953
|term_end3=January 3, 1955
|preceded3=[[Carl Vinson]]
|succeeded3=Carl Vinson
|office4=Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil-Military Affairs
| term_start4=March 15, 1957
| term_end4=November 1958
| president4 = [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]
| preceded4=George H. Roderick
| succeeded4=Position abolished
| birth_date=April 7, 1898
| birth_place=Galena, Stone County,<br>Missouri
| death_date=November 19, 1979 (aged 81)
| death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]]
| resting_place=Galena Cemetery
| nationality=United States|American]]
| party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| spouse=Helen Gladys Hughes Short (married 1937-1979, his death)
| children=No children<br>
'''Parents:''' <br>
Jackson Grant and Permelia Cordelia Long Short
| residence=Springfield, Missouri<br>
[[Washington, D.C.]]
| alma_mater=Baker University ([[Kansas]])<br>
[[Boston University]]<br>
Heidelberg University<br>
[[Harvard University]]<br>
University of Berlin<br>
[[Oxford University]]
| occupation=[[Professor]] and [[pastor]]
| religion=Methodist-Episcopal
| branch=[[United States Army]] Infantry
| battles=[[World War I]]
}}
'''Dewey Jackson Short''' (April 7, 1898 – November 19, 1979) was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] 12-term [[United States Representative]] for two districts in his native [[Missouri]]. He represented District 14 from 1929 to 1931 and District 7 from 1935 to 1957. A [[conservative]] known as the "Orator of the Ozarks," he was a staunch opponent of [[U.S. President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]]. He was an unsuccessful contender for [[Vice President of the United States]] in 1940.<ref name=findagrave>Dewey Jackson Short (1898-1979) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref>
==Background==
Short was born in Galena in Stone County in southwestern Missouri to Jackson Grant Short (1864-1947) and the former Permelia Cordelia Long (1868-1924). After his graduation from Galena High School and Marionville College, he served in the infantry during [[World War I]] and graduated in 1919 from Baker University in Baldwin City in Douglas County in northeastern [[Kansas]] and in 1922 from [[Boston University]] in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]. Short also attended [[Harvard University]], Heidelberg University, the University of Berlin, both in [[Germany]], and [[Oxford University]], dates unavailable. In 1923, 1924, and 1926-1928, he was a [[professor]] of [[ethics]], [[psychology]], and political philosophy at Southwestern College in Winfield in Cowley County in southeastern Kansas. In 1927, he was a pastor of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in Springfield in southwestern Missouri.<ref name=biodir>>Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - Retro Member details, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref> Springfield is 225 miles west of Winfield; so it is unclear how he handled the distance between the two cities.
On April 20, 1937, Short wed the former Helen Gladys Hughes (1901-1990, a native of [[Washington, D.C.]] The couple had no children.<ref name=mrsshort>Helen Gladys Hughes Short (1901-1990) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref>
==Political career==
Short was elected in 1928 in Missouri congressional district 14, since disbanded. However, he was defeated in 1930 and returned to Congress from District 7 in the election of 1934.<ref name=biodir/> He was a delegate to the [[Republican National Convention]] in 1932, which renominated [[U.S. President]] [[Herbert Hoover]]. Short ran unsuccessfully that same year for the Republican nomination to the [[United States Senate]]<ref name=findagrave/> for the seat held by the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Joel Bennett "Champ" Clark (1890-1954), the son of a Democratic former House Speaker and a candidate for the 1912 presidential nomination. Short was elected again to Congress in 1934, this time from district 7 and held the seat for eleven terms. At the 1940 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], Short received 108 delegate votes in second place for the party's vice-presidential nomination, which went instead to U.S. Senator [[Charles McNary]] of [[Oregon]]. [[Wendell Willkie]] led the party to its third consecutive national defeat.<ref>Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, ''Convention Decisions and Voting Records'' (1973), pp. 254-256.</ref>
Short was the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee., when his party held the majority from 1953 to 1955. On April 30, 1955, Representative Short was presented with an "Honorary Ozark Hillbilly Medallion" by the [[Chamber of Commerce]] in Springfield, Missouri, during a broadcast of the 1955-1961 [[ABC]] [[television]] series, ''Ozark Jubilee, starring Clyde Julian "Red" Foley (1910-1968) and popularizing [[Country music]]. The series was produced in om Springfield.
Short did not join his southern House colleagues in support of the 1956 [[Southern Manifesto]],introduced by House Rules Committee chairman [[Howard W. Smith]] of [[Virginia]], which sought to defend [[segregation]], especially in public education.<ref> The Southern Manifesto of 1956 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, accessed November 15, 2021.</ref>He had already left the House prior to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
In the 1956 House election, Short was unseated by the Democrat Charles Harrison Brown (1920-2003) even though President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] won a second presidential term but lost Missouri to [[Adlai Stevenson]], which Eisenhower had carried in 1952. Short polled 89,926 votes; Brown, 90,986.
In 1945, Short served as a congressional delegate to inspect [[concentration camps]] in [[Germany]]. From 1957 to 1961, Short served as Assistant Secretary of the Army under President Eisenhower. He was later president-emeritus of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress.
Short died at the age of eighty-one in Washington, D.C. and is interred at Galena Cemetery. It is unclear if Mrs. Short is also buried there.<ref name=mrsshort/> In his book, ''In the Arena,'' [[Richard Nixon]] cited Short as perhaps the finest orator he had ever seen. In 1985, Robert S. Wiley published, ''Dewey Short: Orator of the Ozarks.''<ref>Robert S. Wiley, ''Dewey Short, Orator of the Ozarks'' (Cassville, [[Mississippi]]: Litho Printers and Bindery, 1985).</ref>
==Short's rhetoric==
On January 23, 1935, Short spoke to the House chamber. He claimed that the lawmakers had "degenerated into a supine, subservient, soporific, superfluous, supercilious, pusillanimous body of nitwits, the greatest ever gathered beneath the dome of our National Capitol, who cowardly abdicate their powers and, in violation of their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution against all of the Nation's enemies, both foreign and domestic, turn over these constitutional prerogatives, not only granted but imposed upon them, to a group of tax-eating, conceited autocratic bureaucrats, a bunch of theoretical, intellectual, professorial nincompoops out of [[Columbia University]], at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who were never elected by the American people to any office and who are responsible to no constituency. These 'brain trusters' and 'new dealers' are the ones who wrote this resolution, instead of the Members of this House whose duty it is, and whose sole duty it is, to draft legislation."<ref>''Congressional Record,'' January 23, 1935.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Dewey}}
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Kansas]]
[[Category:Former United States Representatives]]
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:Methodists]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:Orators]]
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]