Frank R. Reid

Frank R. Reid (right) with Billy Mitchell (1925)

Frank R. Reid (born April 18, 1879 in Aurora , Illinois , †  January 25, 1945 there ) was an American politician . Between 1923 and 1935 he represented the state of Illinois in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Frank Reid attended public schools in his home country and then studied at the University of Chicago . After studying law at the Chicago College of Law and his admission to the bar in 1901, he began working in this profession in Aurora. Between 1904 and 1908 he worked as a public prosecutor. From 1908 to 1910 he was assistant federal attorney for Chicago . At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Republican Party . In 1911 and 1912 Reid was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives ; from 1914 to 1916 he served as district chairman of the Republicans in Kane County . He then served as Secretary of the Illinois City Council in 1916 and 1917.

In the 1922 congressional election , Reid was elected to the 11th constituency of Illinois in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he succeeded Ira Clifton Copley on March 4, 1923 . After five re-elections, he was able to complete six legislative terms in Congress by January 3, 1935 . From 1925 to 1931 he was chairman of the committee for flood protection. Since 1933, the first of the Federal Government's New Deal laws were passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , which Reid's party was rather hostile to. In 1934 he renounced another candidacy.

In 1925 he took over the defense of General Billy Mitchell in his court martial . In the 1955 film Damned Silent , which is based on this method, Reid is played by Ralph Bellamy .

After his tenure in the US House of Representatives, Frank Reid practiced as a lawyer in Aurora and Chicago. He died in Aurora on January 25, 1945.

Web links

• Frank R. Reid in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)