Preceded by Edward W. Pou Preceded by Anthony Michalek Resigned January 3, 1949 Party Democratic Party | Preceded by Thomas Leonard Owens Name Adolph Sabath Succeeded by Robert L. Doughton Succeeded by Martin Gorski | |
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Role Former U.S. Representative Died November 6, 1952, Bethesda, Maryland, United States Previous office Representative (IL 5th District) 1907–1949 Education Chicago-Kent College of Law, Lake Forest College | ||
Succeeded by James Bernard Bowler Member of congress start date March 4, 1907 | ||
Adolph Joachim Sabath (April 4, 1866 – November 6, 1952) was a United States politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Chicago, Illinois, from 1907 until his death in Bethesda, Maryland on November 6, 1952.
Life and career
Born in Záboří, (now Czech Republic), he immigrated to America at age 15, became active in real estate, and received his LL.B. degree in 1892 from Lake Forest University. He served in local offices until election to Congress from the Jewish West Side in 1907. He was active in state and national Democratic party affairs, attending many conventions. In 1911, he received much positive attention in the Czech community in Chicago for his fundraising efforts in the search for Elsie Paroubek, and paid for the child's funeral when her body was discovered.
He was a leading opponent of prohibition in the 1920s. He denounced the prohibition factions, the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) “and their allied forces and co-workers, the Ku Klux Klan fanatics.” Every year from 1925 to 1933, he consistently submitted bills in the House of Representatives, to amend the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act to allow commerce in beer and wine. In 1929, he came to the defense of his large immigrant constituency by countering claims that they were responsible for the surge in criminal activity during the 1920s. "The bootlegging and gang killings...are not the by-product but the direct product of the Volstead Act, and the supporters of this crime breeding legislation must claim the new cult of American criminals entirely as their own".
As a leading Democrat he chaired the powerful Rules Committee after 1937. He was an ineffective chairman, with a small weak staff, who proved unable to lead his committee, was frequently at odds with the House leadership, and was inclined to write the President little letters "informing" on House Speakers William B. Bankhead and Sam Rayburn. [Robinson, p. 81]
Beginning on April 1, 1934, he was the Dean (longest-serving member) of the House and he served as Dean for 18 years, 7 months, and 5 days: the longest time any person had served as Dean until John Dingell passed him on August 8, 2013.
Sabath was an avid New Dealer and an interventionist who strongly supported war against Germany. It was Sabath who nominated a teenage (later Admiral) Hyman G. Rickover to the United States Naval Academy.
He died of liver disease on November 6, 1952 and was buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, near Chicago.