Frederick Garland Lanham was born in Weatherford, Texas, the son of Samuel Willis Tucker Lanham and Sarah Beona Meng. His father was a district attorney, later U. S. congressman (1882-1892, 1896 - 1903), and governor of Texas (1903 - 1907). A relative nicknamed Lanham "Fritz, " and he used that name throughout his life.
He attended school in Washington, D. C. , and graduated from Weatherford College in 1897. After attending Vanderbilt University for a year, he entered the University of Texas, where he was the first editor of the Texan, the student newspaper. He received the B. A. in 1900. In 1903 he entered the University of Texas Law School .
Lanham served as his father's secretary in 1901-1902. Later he was the first editor of the Alcalde, the alumni magazine of the University of Texas (He remained active in alumni affairs, and was president of the Ex-Students Association in 1949-1950. )
During his father's last year as governor, Lanham again was his private secretary, and had to give up his formal law studies. He subsequently worked as an actor, reporter, and banker in Weatherford. Admitted to the bar in 1909 after passing the bar exam, he established a law practice in Weatherford with Ben G. Oneal.
In 1917 he moved to Fort Worth, where he became a district attorney. He ran successfully on the Democratic party ticket for Congress in 1919 after a vacancy occurred in the Twelfth District, and was reelected thirteen times, serving until 1947. Since Fort Worth had the only helium plant in the nation, Lanham lobbied hard in the 1920's for government support of production of the gas and for the dirigible industry. He cooperated with Chief Justice William Howard Taft on the plans for a new Supreme Court building as a member on the Public Buildings and Grounds Committee, and he established expertise in patent matters through his membership on the House Committee on Patents.
As his seniority increased, Lanham distinguished himself primarily through his set speeches. He was remembered as "a wizard with words, " and his annual speeches about Texas independence and the battle of San Jacinto became staples of House oratory. He found the New Deal increasingly unacceptable, and warned in 1938 that "the Government cannot afford to employ vast numbers of people indefinitely. " As World War II approached, he denounced the German-American Bund and criticized "the activities of un-American workers whose destructive schemes are planned by dictatorial direction from abroad. "
In 1939, Lanham became chairman of the Public Buildings and Grounds Committee, a post that gave him greater legislative importance. Several acts relating to domestic policy in wartime bore his name. The Lanham Defense Housing Act (1940) provided dwellings near military bases and defense plants as the nation's war machine expanded. The Lanham Community Facilities Act (1941) sought to ease the burdens that the expansion of defense installations imposed on local governments by providing for housing, water supplies, sewage, and welfare facilities. The law made available federal funds to support day-care centers for mothers working in defense industries. Although the law bore his name because he was chairman of the committee, Lanham did not approve of actual government construction of such centers in 1943, and attempted to block appropriations to build them. Lanham was similarly conservative in his opposition to appropriations for a fair employment practices committee. To him, its tendency to "promote centralized and bureaucratic regimentation" outweighed its contribution to racial justice.
As a member of the Patents Committee, Lanham devoted much of his energy to revision and reform of national policy on trademarks. The Lanham Act (1947) gave business substantive property rights in trademarks registered with the government. The measure pleased the business community. In 1946, Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace had called Lanham and another committee member, Frank Boykin of Alabama, "ignorant prostitutes" because of their deference to business. Lanham's friends argued that the law "brought order out of what had been chaos in trademark law and regulation. " Lanham did not seek reelection in 1946. It was time, he thought, to "let a new man tackle the postwar problems. "
In retirement he was a lobbyist for the Trinity Improvement Association of Texas (seeking federal floodway funds), the National Patent Council, and the American Fair Trade Council. In 1963, failing health brought him back to Austin, where he died.
Lanham served during a time when Texans were influential in the House of Representatives, but he does not belong with John Nance Garner and Sam Rayburn in the front rank of the Lone Star legislators of the 1920's and 1930's. He shaped patent legislation himself, but the interesting social legislation that bore his name arose from the initiatives of others. His most noteworthy wartime act was his defense of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's sons in 1943 against Republican charges that they were shirking their duty. The president sent him a letter of thanks.
On October 27, 1908, Lanham married Beaulah Rowe. After the death of his first wife in 1930, Lanham married Hazel Head on November 17, 1931. Both marriages were childless.
