Harry Pulliam Cain was born on January 10, 1906 in Nashville, Tennessee, United States; one of two children of George William Cain, a lumber businessman, and Grace Pulliam. The family moved to Tacoma, Washington, in 1911 where George Cain became publisher of the journal West Coast Lumberman. Cain's mother died when he was eleven and the loss affected him deeply.
Before attending college he was a reporter for the Portland Telegram. He graduated with a B. A. in 1929 from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, with a major in classical literature and languages.
After graduating from the university Cain returned to Tacoma to work for the Bank of California in the trust department and later established the bank's business department.
In 1939 he resigned from the bank and entered the Tacoma mayoralty race. After placing third in the Republican primary he decided to drop out. Four days before the election, however, one of the two leading candidates died. Cain reentered the race and won and was reelected in 1942.
As mayor, Cain earned praise for his efforts to improve health and moral conditions. Tacoma became the first northwestern city to close its houses of prostitution. Cain also cracked down on gambling. Following the outbreak of World War II, Cain was one of the few public officials to go on record as opposing the internment of Japanese-Americans. In May 1943, Cain took a leave of absence and accepted a commission as a major in the army's Military Government Corps. In August he went overseas to North Africa and later saw service in Italy. Called from the field in October, Cain headed the civil administration and public relations departments of the Allied Control Commission in Naples. In March 1944 he was transferred to a public relations position in Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces, under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Following his promotion to lieutenant colonel in August 1944, Cain returned to combat duty with the Eighteenth Corps. That same year he ran in absentia for the United States Senate but lost to Warren Magnuson. During the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-1945 he was promoted to full colonel Cain returned to Tacoma a highly decorated veteran to finish his term as mayor, which expired in June 1946. Rather than seek reelection, Cain ran as a Republican for the Senate seat occupied by Democrat Hugh B. Mitchell. Using the slogan "Raising Cain, " he campaigned against the federal government's food and housing programs and won the election. Mitchell resigned before his term ended and Governor Mon Wallgren appointed Cain to fill Mitchell's term. U. S. News predicted that year that the young senator would be part of the liberal pro-labor Republican bloc. The first area Cain worked on was housing. He proposed a 15 percent rent increase for tenants in federal housing and encountered stiff opposition when he proposed a bill to dispose of wartime housing by making it available to veterans at low cost. The idea met with opposition in Seattle and Spokane, where it was feared low-priority families already living in the units would be dispossessed, but was favored by the real estate industry. He later failed to halt the extension of rent controls despite a twelve-hour and eight-minute filibuster. Although Cain said he never resented being known as the "number one real estate lobbyist in the country, " he tempered his support, perhaps out of fear that it would hurt his reelection chances. In foreign and military affairs, he supported the withdrawal of Allied forces from Germany and an end to the denazification program. Cain was also one of only two senators to vote against expanding the United States Air Force to seventy groups. In 1947 he reluctantly voted for American aid to Greece and Turkey, even though he believed it set a poor precedent. During the Korean War, Cain supported General Douglas MacArthur's plan to cross the Yalu River into China. Cain simultaneously introduced a resolution for Congress to declare war on China and another for the withdrawal of all American forces. Cain explained: "There is not now, nor will there ever be, any middle ground. " MacArthur's plan was not put into effect and the resolutions were never passed. On domestic matters, Cain supported the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which imposed various restrictions on labor unions, despite the endorsements he earlier received from labor. In 1949, Cain made national headlines with a filibuster against President Harry S. Truman's nomination of Mon Wallgren as chairman of the National Security Resources Board. Cain did not think his fellow Washingtonian was qualified and said he was "soft on communism. " On March 8 he filibustered for six and three-quarter hours against the nomination. The Armed Services Committee later tabled the nomination. Shortly before the filibuster Cain called an unusual press conference to announce his divorce but by summer the papers had been withdrawn. In 1950, with two more years remaining in his term, Cain proposed resigning to go head-to-head with Senator Magnuson in the 1950 election. If he won, Cain reasoned, Republican Governor Arthur Langlie could appoint another Republican to the vacant seat. Cain decided not to go through with the plan. That same year Time magazine described Cain as one of the Senate's "most expendable members. " Cain attacked the writer of the story on the floor of the Senate calling him "smug, arrogant, self-centered, vain, and frustrated. " The Chicago Tribune, however, included Cain on a list of senators "every patriot should vote for. " During the presidential campaign of 1952 Cain's name came up as a possible replacement for Richard Nixon as Eisenhower's running mate. That same year Cain ran for reelection with the slogan "Retain Cain. " His opponent, Representative Henry M. Jackson, called Cain the "talkingest man in the state. " Cain's votes on labor issues and his opposition to public electrical power cooperatives had alienated many Washingtonians and he lost the election. In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed Cain to a three-year term on the Subversive Activities Control Board because the former senator had earned a reputation as a supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1955, however, Cain delivered a speech sharply criticizing the administration's personnel security program, which was designed to rid the federal payroll of Communists. In another speech he called for the liquidation of the attorney general's list of subversive organizations. In both cases Cain said he wanted to "better protect individuals from unintended oppression. " His shift in position openly angered administration officials. Cain subsequently broke with McCarthy over the Communist hunter's disrespect for civil rights and the use of smear tactics. Cain's shift in position came about after learning of the detrimental effects Communist-hunting tactics were having on the lives of ordinary people caught in webs of allegations. After leaving the board in 1956, Cain briefly taught at Yale University before moving to Florida, where he hosted a thirty-minute talk show, became associated with a real estate firm, and later joined Miami's First Federal Savings and Loan.
In 1963, Cain indicated he was interested in running for the Senate from Florida but did not do so. In a partisan shift, Cain headed Democrat Lyndon Johnson's presidential campaign in Florida in 1964 and later chaired Dade County's War on Poverty program. In 1972 he was elected to the Dade County Commission after serving a two-year appointment to fill a vacancy on the commission. He sponsored a resolution declaring the county bilingual, and, as a former smoker, led the campaign to ban smoking in public buildings. He served on the commission until 1976, when he was defeated in the primaries. Cain remained active in a variety of civic activities, and in his later years he worked to secure equal rights for homosexuals in Dade County. Cain died at Miami Lakes, Florida.
Prior to his term in the Senate, he had served as the progressive, even liberal, Mayor of Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington. Following his Senate term he was widely recognized as a defender of the civil liberties of individuals accused of being security risks during the Eisenhower Administration and as a community activist and moderate Republican until his death in 1979.
Cain was an orator and a writer of exceptional ability noted for his colorful, if often convoluted, style of speaking.
He married Marjorie Dils of Seattle in 1934. The couple had two children. In 1958 he divorced Marjorie and married La Vonne Bonnie Strachan Kneisly.
