Sumner, Jessie (1898–1994)

views updated

Sumner, Jessie (1898–1994)

U.S. Republican congressional representative whose eight years in Congress were marked by her fiscal conservatism, her opposition to U.S. involvement in World War II, and her conviction that the Soviet Union would politically influence the countries it liberated. Born in Milford, Illinois, on July 17, 1898; died in Watseka, Illinois, on August 10, 1994; daughter of A.T. Sumner and Elizabeth (Gillan) Sumner; graduated from Girton School in Winnetka, Illinois, 1916; Smith College, degree in economics, 1920; studied law at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Oxford University, and the University of Wisconsin, and studied at the School of Commerce at New York University.

Jessie Sumner was born in 1898, the daughter of Elizabeth Gillan Sumner and A.T. Sumner, an Illinois banker, and the granddaughter of a pioneer with extensive land holdings numbering into the thousands of acres. Growing up in Milford, Illinois, about 88 miles south of Chicago, she went to area schools, including the private Girton School in Winnetka from which she graduated in 1916. Although she attended the University of Chicago in the course of her study of law, Sumner spent most of her college years at various institutions out of state, beginning with Smith College, from which she graduated in 1920. Deciding upon a law career, she took classes at Columbia University and Oxford University in England, as well as the University of Wisconsin and the School of Commerce at New York University. Admitted to the bar in 1923, she entered practice in Chicago that year and became a member of several law and political organizations, among them the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois Women's Bar Association, the National Women Lawyer's Association, the Business and Professional Women's Club, the National Women's Republican Club, and the National Federation of Women's Clubs. After briefly working in the New York banking district prior to the economic crash that precipitated the Great Depression, she returned to her hometown of Milford to continue her law practice in 1932.

A catalytic event in Sumner's life was the kidnaping of her brother by bank robbers, and her role in the subsequent prosecution of those responsible. The conviction inspired in Sumner thoughts of becoming a state's attorney, but her campaign for the post was unsuccessful. However, she was elected to finish the rest of her uncle's term as judge of Iroquois County in 1937, after his unexpected death earlier that year. The election made her the first female judge in the state of Illinois, and she capitalized on the publicity in her 1938 bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a Republican in the predominantly Republican 18th District, she overcame her Democratic opponent, James A. Meeks, on an anti-New Deal platform.

Sumner's eight years in Congress were marked by her fiscal conservatism and her vigorous opposition to U.S. involvement in World War II. Although a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency by virtue of her banking experience, she devoted much of her time to a losing battle to halt military and diplomatic initiatives that would increase the United States' role in world affairs. She entered office a year after the passage of the Neutrality Act, which was considered the peak of popularity for isolationist sentiment, but found herself increasingly alone in her non-interventionist stance as the years progressed. Prior to America's entrance into the war, she voted with the minority against the expansion of the Navy, the lifting of the arms embargo, and the creation of reciprocal trade agreements with other nations. She argued against the Burke-Wadsworth Selective Service bill for military training by pointing out that the German war machine had an advantage of several years' build-up which the United States could not hope to equal. She was highly critical of President Franklin Roosevelt, referring to him disparagingly as "Papa Roosevelt"; she felt that he conducted much of his foreign policy in secret, and she also accused him of mismanaging funds earmarked for national defense.

With the U.S. entrance into the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Sumner became equally vocal regarding her distrust of American allies Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The latter was a special target of Sumner's cynicism, as she saw little difference between Hitler and Stalin. In fact, she opposed the invasion of the western coast of Europe because she did not want to relieve the Soviet Union—under pressure from Germany on the eastern front—by engaging

Germany in a two-front war. She was convinced that the war was not worth the million American lives she predicted such an invasion would cost. As the war progressed, she became increasingly concerned that the Soviet Union would politically influence the countries it liberated. Neither did Great Britain escape her critical notice as she felt that British leaders tried to contain the authority of American military leaders George C. Marshall and General Douglas MacArthur. Sumner's lack of confidence in the European powers inspired her attempts to limit the U.S. government's participation in the international organizations which arose as the end of the war neared. She argued against endorsing U.S. involvement in the formation and funding of international relief organizations such as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In June 1945, she declared the U.S. entry into the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to be the worst fraud in American history. The United Nations was another target, as leading the way to what Sumner termed a "world super-state."

Increasingly marginalized in Congress because of her unpopular isolationist stance, Sumner still managed a few legislative victories, most of them related to her conservative fiscal policies. She secured an amendment to a $20 billion naval appropriations bill which prohibited the use of parties, champagne, or gifts during the launching of new ships in 1942. She also found unexpected allies in Democrats and liberal Republicans when the women legislators joined together in a rare inter-party stand to demand that the Appropriations Committee ease the childcare burden of women war workers in factories; Sumner later reversed her support of child-care services in favor of cost-cutting initiatives. One of her female colleagues, Clare Boothe Luce , teamed with Sumner to defeat the Ruml-Carlson plan to revise the tax system in order to ease the financial burden on American taxpayers in 1943. She likewise opposed a demobilization bill which sought to secure unemployment compensation for war-time workers in 1944.

Even though she garnered little support for her war-related policies in Congress, Sumner had the backing of her constituents and of the anti-Roosevelt, isolationist Chicago Tribune. She was re-elected to her fourth term in November 1944, but decided against seeking renomination in 1946. Upon her retirement from Congress, Sumner once again returned to Milford to resume her position as vice-president of the bank her father had founded, the Sumner National Bank. In 1966, she became president of the bank, holding that position until her death on August 10, 1994, in Watseka, Illinois.