Joseph F. Guffey

Joseph F. Guffey

Joseph Finch "Joe" Guffey (born December 29, 1870 in Westmoreland County , Pennsylvania , †  March 6, 1959 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician . Between 1935 and 1947 he represented the state of Pennsylvania in the US Senate .

Career

Joseph Guffey attended public schools in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and later studied at Princeton University . There he met the future President Woodrow Wilson , who was then a professor at Princeton. Professionally, he worked for the American Federal Post Office in Pittsburgh between 1894 and 1899 . From 1899 to 1918 he worked for a private service company, the manager of which he had been since 1901. At the same time he got into the coal and oil business. He ran an oil company with two sisters. During the First World War , Guffey was a member of the War Industries Board , where he worked in the fuel affairs department. In the meantime, he came under suspicion of misappropriating funds. But he was later acquitted.

Politically, Joseph Guffey belonged to the Democratic Party . Between 1920 and 1932 he sat on the federal executive committee of his party. In the elections of 1934 he was elected as his party's candidate to the US Senate, where he succeeded David A. Reed on January 3, 1935 , whom he had defeated in the election. After re-election in 1940, he was able to complete two six-year terms in Congress until January 3, 1947 . In 1935 the provisions of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution were applied for the first time , according to which the legislative period of the Congress ends or begins on January 3rd. Accordingly, the beginning of the President's term of office was brought forward to January 20. Previously, the legislative terms of Congress and the term of office of the President began on March 4th. During Guffey's time in Congress, most of the federal government's New Deal laws were passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Since 1941, the work of Congress has also been overshadowed by the events of World War II . Between 1939 and 1947, Guffey headed the Mining Committee. In 1946 he was not re-elected.

Joseph Guffey stayed in the federal capital Washington, DC even after leaving the Senate. He died there on March 6, 1959.

Web links

• Joseph Guffey in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)