Joseph I. France

Joseph Irwin France (October 11, 1873 – January 26, 1939) was a Republican member of the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland from 1917 to 1923.

Joseph I. France
United States Senator from Maryland
In office March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1923
Preceded by	Blair Lee I
Succeeded by	William Cabell Bruce
Member of the Maryland State Senate
In office 1907–1909
Personal details
Born	Joseph Irwin France October 11, 1873 Cameron, Missouri
Died	January 26, 1939 (aged 65) Port Deposit, Maryland
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Evalyn S. Tome (1903–1927) Tatiana Vladimirovna Dechtereva (1927–1939)
Alma mater	Hamilton College University of Leipzig Clark University

Early life

France was born in Cameron, Missouri, the son of Hanna Fletcher (James) and Joseph Henry France. He attended the common schools in the area and the Canandaigua Academy in Canandaigua, New York. In 1895, he graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York,[1] where he was a brother of Theta Delta Chi. He also attended the University of Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany and finally, in 1897, graduated from the medical department of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

France began to teach natural science at the Jacob Tome Institute of Port Deposit, Maryland in 1897, but resigned later to enter the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland. He commenced the practice of medicine in Baltimore after graduation in 1903.

Career

France was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1906, serving until 1908. He left the Senate in 1908 to engage in the field of finance. He served as the secretary to the medical and surgical faculty of Maryland from 1916–1917.

After a short time out of politics, France re-entered the political arena in 1916 and was elected to the United States Senate. During the 65th Congress, he served in the Senate as the chairman of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine. France attempted to introduce an amendment to the Sedition Act of 1918 that would have ensured limited free speech protections, but the amendment was defeated, and France would remark that the legislation was criminal, repressive, and characteristic of the Dark Ages.[2]

France warned in March 1920 that "Republican liberals" would split off the Republican Party to form the "Anti-Prohibition Party".[3] France introduced a joint resolution in the same month asking that dissenters imprisoned during World War I be pardoned.[4] He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1922, losing his seat to Democratic rival William Cabell Bruce.

Following his defeat, France became President of the Republic International Corporation and also resumed the practice of medicine in Port Deposit. France also joined the Freemasons during this time.[5]

France opposed Herbert Hoover in Republican primaries during the Presidential campaign of 1932. He was giving a speech at the Republican Convention in Chicago when the microphone malfunctioned, leaving France continuing his speech while the sound system was repaired.[6] Although he won some contests, few delegates were selected in the primaries and France was heavily defeated at the convention.

When Senator Phillips Lee Goldsborough announced his retirement from the Senate in 1934, France attempted to win his seat. He was unsuccessful in the election of 1934, losing to Democratic rival George L. P. Radcliffe. He died in Port Deposit five years later, and is buried in Hopewell Cemetery, near the city.

Relations with Russia

France was the first U.S. Senator to visit Russia after the Russian Revolution, and consistently advocated cordial relations with the Soviet Union.[7] In 1921 after having been sent to Russia to study economic conditions there, he met with Russian officials, including Lenin, to assist in the release of Marguerite Harrison, an American journalist and convicted spy.[8] Lenin wrote in a letter to Georgy Chicherin:

I have just finished a conference with Senator France. ... He told me how he came out for Soviet Russia at large public meetings together with Comrade Martens [an unofficial Soviet representative in the United States]. He is what they call a "liberal", for an alliance of the United States plus Russia, plus Germany, in order to save the world from Japan, England, and so on, and so on.[9]

The letter went on to relate that Marguerite Harrison was the sister-in-law of the Governor of Maryland and that Senator France's re-election was put in jeopardy by her incarceration. France attracted controversy in the United States by accusing Colonel Edward W. Ryan of the American Red Cross of fomenting the Kronstadt rebellion.[10]

Civil rights

France spoke at a 1920 meeting of the NAACP to support the enactment of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill.[11] France fought against voter disenfranchisement, and proposed an amendment to a railroad bill so that black train passengers paying a first-class fare could get first-class accommodations.[12]

Personal life

In 1903 France married Evalyn Smith Tome, widow of millionaire Jacob Tome. Evalyn France was the first woman to be president of a national bank.[13] Three months after her death in 1927, France married a Russian woman named Tatiana Vladimirovna Dechtereva in Paris.[7][14]

See also

• Evalyn France
• U.S.-Soviet relations
• Marguerite Harrison

References

1. Clark University (Worcester, Mass.) (1899). Decennial celebration, 1889-1899. Clark. p. 494. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
2. Revolutionary sparks: freedom of expression in modern America, Margaret A. Blanchard, 1992
3. WARNS OF REPUBLICAN SPLIT; Senator France Declares "Liberals" May Form Anti-Prohibition Party, New York Times, March 23, 1920
4. War powers of the executive in the United States, pg. 151, Clarence Arthur Berdahl, 1921
5. 10,000 Famous Freemasons, 1957, William R. Denslow
6. JOSEPH IRWIN FRANCE, M.D. The Professor & Senator Who Would Be President, Erika Quesenbery, Curator, Paw Paw Museum, Port Deposit, MD
7. POLITICAL NOTES: France-for-President, April 20, 1931
8. Marooned in Moscow: the Story of an American Woman Imprisoned in Russia, 1921, Marguerite E. Harrison,
9. Herbert Hoover and famine relief to Soviet Russia, 1921–1923, pg. 9, Benjamin M. Weissman, 1974
10. WASHINGTON LAUGHS AT FRANCE CHARGES, New York Times, August 4, 1921
11. "Senator France, Representative Dyer to Urge Federal Anti-Lynching [Law]", Press Service of the NAACP, November 29, 1920
12. THE FIRST COLORED Professional, Clerical and Business DIRECTORY OF BALTIMORE CITY 10th Annual Edition, 1922–1923, Volume 502, Preface 2
13. Milestones, Time Magazine, May 2, 1927
14. The Political Graveyard: Index of Politicians

External links

• Media related to Joseph I. France at Wikimedia Commons
• Joseph Irwin France papers at the University of Maryland Libraries

• United States Congress. "Joseph I. France (id: F000333)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.