Harry F. Byrd

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Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. (June 10, 1887–October 20, 1966) of Berryville in Clarke County, Virginia was an American politician. He was a dominant figure in Virginia Democratic Party politics for much of the first half of the 20th century. He represented Virginia as a United States Senator from 1933 until 1965.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Note 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Harry Flood Byrd was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia and moved with his parents to Winchester, Virginia the same year, Byrd belonged to one of Virginia's oldest families. A wealthy apple grower in the Shenandoah Valley, he took over his father's newspaper, the Winchester Star, in 1903. The paper had slipped into debt under his father's ownership. The paper owed its newsprint supplier $2,500 and the company refused to ship more newsprint on credit. Byrd cut a deal to make daily cash payments in return for paper. This experience gave him a lifelong aversion to borrowing money and to debt of any kind. "I stand for strict economy in governmental affairs," he proclaimed. "The State of Virginia is similar to a great business corporation . . . and should be conducted with the same efficiency and economy as any private business." In a fifty-year political career, no statement of Byrd's ever more succinctly spelled out his view of government. (Heinemann)

[edit] Career

He was a progressive with an early interest in road improvements. In 1908, he became president of The Valley Turnpike Company, a 93-mile toll road between Winchester and Staunton. He served there until 1915, when he was elected to the state senate. He first came to prominence in 1922, when he led a fight against using bonds to pay for new roads. He feared the state would sacrifice future flexibility by committing too many resources to paying off construction debt. The publicity from this drive allowed him to be elected governor in 1925.

As governor, Byrd pushed through constitutional amendments that streamlined the state government and allowed for more efficient use of tax dollars. He also made property taxes solely a county responsibility. When it was obvious that increased spending on road construction wasn't enough to "get Virginia out of the mud," he pushed through a secondary roads bill that gave the state responsibility for maintaining county roads. These measures made Byrd seem like a New South progressive at first. However, many of his measures were more to the benefit of rural areas more interested in low taxes than better services. He instituted a "pay as you go" approach to spending, in which no state money was spent until enough taxes and fees came in to pay for it. Highways and tourism were his primary pursuits, says his biographer. "He advocated building roads to state shrines such as Jamestown and Monticello and called for historical markers along roadways, the first of which appeared in Fredericksburg in November. He held regional meetings to bring about closer cooperation between state and county road officials, prophesying that the road system could be completed within ten years through such cooperation . . . . A tour of the highway system convinced him of the progress being made in extending the arterial network. Indeed, over 2,000 miles would be added to the system during Byrd's governorship, 1,787 of these miles in 1928. Road building was one way to keep the voters happy and prove the efficacy of pay-as-you-go." (Heineman)

Education was not on his agenda and spending for schools remained very low until the 1960s. His secondary roads bill didn't apply to cities.

In 1928 he supported Al Smith, who lost the state. He was a favorite son for the 1932 presidential nomination but switched to Franklin D. Roosevelt at the right moment and became a campaign official. In 1933 Byrd was appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate; he won reelection as a Democrat in 1933, 1934, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1958, and 1964. He broke with Roosevelt and became an opponent of the New Deal, but he was an internationalist and strongly supported Roosevelt's foreign policy. As war loomed in 1941 Congress approved his proposal for a joint House-Senate committee to look into ways of eliminating nonessential expenditures. By late September, the Joint Committee on Reduction of Non-essential Federal Expenditures was in operation with Senator Byrd as Chairman; it built his national reputation as an economizer.

While he was governor, Byrd built up contacts with the "courthouse cliques" in most of Virginia's counties. He curried support from the five constitutional officers in those counties (sheriff, Commonwealth's attorney, clerk of the court, county treasurer, and commissioner of revenue). This formed the basis of the Byrd Organization, which dominated Virginia politics well into the 1960s. They carefully vetted candidates for statewide office, and Byrd only made an endorsement, or "nod," after consulting with them. Without his "nod," no one could win statewide office in Virginia. While he was governor, he shortened the ballot so that only three officials ran statewide--the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. This limited opportunities to challenge the candidates that he wanted to run.

By the 1950s Byrd was one of the most influential senators, serving on the Armed Services Committee, and later as chairman of the Finance Committee. He often broke with the Democratic Party line, going so far as to refuse to endorse Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman in 1948. He also refused to endorse Adlai Stevenson in 1952. He voted against public works bills, including the Interstate Highway System, and became one of the most vocal proponents of maintaining policies of racial segregation. His call for "massive resistance" against desegregation of schools led to many Virginia schools closing rather than be forced to integrate. Byrd authored and signed the "Southern Manifesto" condemning the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Although Byrd was never a candidate in a presidential election, he nevertheless received 134,157 votes in the 1956 election. In the 1960 election, also as a non-candidate, he received 15 votes from unpledged electors: all 8 from Mississippi, 6 of Alabama's 11 (the rest going to John F. Kennedy), and 1 from Oklahoma (the rest going to Richard Nixon).

Byrd retired from the Senate for health reasons in November 1965. His son, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., was appointed his successor. Byrd Sr. died in 1966.

[edit] Note

Byrd was the brother of famed aviator Richard Evelyn Byrd; he is not a relation to Robert Byrd, a U.S. Senator from West Virginia.

[edit] References

• Hatch, Alden, The Byrds of Virginia: An American Dynasty, 1670 to the Present 1969
• Heinemann, Ronald L. Harry Byrd of Virginia (1966)
• Wilkinson, J. Harvie. Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics 1945-1966 (1984) ISBN 0-8139-1043-9

Preceded by: Elbert Lee Trinkle	Governor of Virginia 1926–1930	Succeeded by: John Garland Pollard
Preceded by: Claude A. Swanson	United States Senator (Class 1) from Virginia 1933–1965 Served alongside: Carter Glass, Thomas G. Burch, Absalom W. Robertson	Succeeded by: Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
Preceded by: Eugene D. Millikin	Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance 1955–1965	Succeeded by: Russell B. Long

Governors of Virginia <td style="vertical-align: middle; width: 1px" rowspan="2"> Image:Flag of Virginia.svg </td>

Henry • Jefferson • Fleming • Nelson • Harrison • Henry • E Randolph • B Randolph • H Lee • Brooke • Wood • Monroe • Page • Cabell • Tyler Sr • G Smith • Monroe • G Smith • P Randolph • Barbour • Nicholas • Preston • T Randolph • Pleasants • J Tyler • Giles • J Floyd • Tazewell • Robertson • Campbell • Gilmer • Patton • Rutherford • Gregory • McDowell • W "EB" Smith • JB Floyd • Johnson • Wise • Letcher • W "EB" Smith • Pierpont • Wells • Walker • Kemper • Holliday • Cameron • F Lee • McKinney • Ferrall • JH Tyler • Montague • Swanson • Mann • Stuart • Davis • Trinkle • Byrd • Pollard • Peery • Price • Darden • Tuck • Battle • Stanley • Almond • A Harrison • Godwin • Holton • Godwin • Dalton • Robb • Baliles • Wilder • Allen • Gilmore • Warner • Kaine

[edit] External links

• Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, article on Harry F. Byrd Sr.
• Library of Virginia, Harry F. Byrd webpage
• Federal Highway Administration Byrd webpage