Western Lakes & Mountains
52
Lewiston’s Senator Wallace White “All that the voters can ask” by Charles Francis
W
hen George Mitchell was chosen Senate Majority Leader in 1989, it was a proud day for Maine. Countless newspaper articles extolled the Senator’s virtues, placing him in a continuing line of Maine’s great national political leaders. Most often mentioned were Hannibal Hamlin, James G. Blaine, and Thomas B. Reed. Seldom, however, did the name Wallace White appear anywhere. Yet White also served as Senate Majority Leader. In fact, he held that vaunted position in the memory of many Maine citizens, as he was the Majority Leader from 1947 to 1949.
Wallace White served thirty-two years in Congress. Fourteen of those years were in the House of Representatives and eighteen years were in the Senate. He introduced important legislation. It was said that his “colleagues considered him one of the kindest, gentlest, and most fair-minded men to grace the institution [of Congress].” His is an outstanding record. Yet his name is not known in nearly the same way that other twentieth-century Maine Congressional leaders, such as Senators Margaret Chase Smith and Edmund Muskie are. One of the reasons Wallace White
is not remembered is that he was a less-than-dynamic speaker. He never made a “Declaration of Conscience” speech the way Margaret Chase Smith did. Nor was he involved with any great cause the way Edmund Muskie was in his fight to clean up the environment. Nevertheless, White was a morethan effective legislator, especially in the House of Representatives, where he drafted pivotal legislation regarding our country’s merchant marines during the all-important years between the world wars and in the area of mass communication. He was in the Senate when Robert Taft, the man who was
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