Francis G. Newlands
Nevada author of the Reclamation Act that settled the arid West under federal irrigation.
Overview
Newlands represented Nevada in the House from 1885 to 1903 and the Senate from 1903 to 1917. His Reclamation Act of 1902, passed while he chaired the House irrigation committee, created the Reclamation Service, funded by western land sales, that built Hoover, Shasta, and the great dam systems opening deserts to farms and cities, and homestead law was modified around his work. He also wrote the 1898 resolution annexing Hawaii. In the Senate he pressed river regulation and flood control, His 1912 advocacy of repealing the Fifteenth Amendment darkened his legacy. He died in office in 1917.
Related Topics
Henry Cabot Lodge
A Harvard-trained historian and close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Lodge served in the House from 1887 to 1893 and the Senate fro...
Robert M. La Follette
After reforming Wisconsin's government as governor from 1901 to 1906 with direct primaries, railroad regulation, and expert commis...
Joseph G. Cannon
Cannon represented Illinois from 1873 to 1923 and held the speakership from 1903 to 1911, combining the chair, the Rules Committee...
George W. Norris
A Republican district judge, Norris entered the House in 1903 and wrote the 1910 resolution that removed the Speaker from the Rule...