Name Noah Mason Education Illinois State University | Role U.S. representative | |
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Died March 29, 1965, Joliet, Illinois, United States | ||
Noah Morgan Mason (July 19, 1882 - March 29, 1965) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
Mason was a representative conservative Republican in Congress who represented a rural downstate district. Not nearly as flamboyant or well known as his colleague Everett McKinley Dirksen, He ardently supported states' rights in order to minimize the federal role, for he feared federal regulation of business. He distrusted Roosevelt, and gave many speeches against high federal spending. He called out New Dealers, such as Eveline Burns, Henry A. Wallace, Adolph A. Berle, Jr., and Paul Porter, as socialists, and suggested their policies resembled fascism. He fought Communism as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (1938–43), and in 1950 he championed Joe McCarthy's exposes.
Career
Born in Glamorganshire, Wales, Mason immigrated to the United States in 1888 with his parents, who settled in La Salle, Illinois. He attended the public schools and Dixon (Illinois) College. He was graduated from the Illinois State Normal University at Normal. He was a teacher and principal of schools at Oglesby, Illinois from 1902 to 1905 and was superintendent of schools 1908-1936. City commissioner of Oglesby 1918-1926. He served as member of the Illinois State Normal School Board 1926-1930. He served in the State senate 1930-1936.
Mason was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fifth and to the twelve succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1963). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1962 for the Eighty-eighth Congress. He retired and lived in Plainfield, Illinois. He died in Joliet, Illinois, March 29, 1965. He was interred in Plainfield Cemetery, Plainfield, Illinois.