Background
Henry Clarence Dworshak was born on August 29, 1894, in Duluth, Minnesota. He was the son of Henry Dworshak, a printer, and of Julia Ohotto.
Henry Clarence Dworshak was born on August 29, 1894, in Duluth, Minnesota. He was the son of Henry Dworshak, a printer, and of Julia Ohotto.
Henry Clarence Dworshak was educated in the Duluth public schools and began learning the printer's trade at age fifteen.
During World War I he served in France as a sergeant in the Fourth Antiaircraft Machine Gun Battalion. He managed the Northwest Printers' Supply Company in Duluth from 1920 to 1924 and also worked on several local newspapers. He moved to Burley, Idaho, in 1924 and became owner and publisher of the Burley Bulletin, which over the next twenty years gave him wide political coverage and influence. In 1938 Dworshak was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives as a Republican. He served four terms (1939-1947), during which he became known as a champion of conservation, reclamation, and government economy.
Dworshak was elected to the Senate in 1946 to fill the unexpired term of the late John Thomas, but was defeated for reelection in 1948 by Idaho Supreme Court Justice Bert H. Miller. Miller died a year later, and Dworshak, appointed to fill the vacancy, won the 1950 election to complete Miller's term. In 1954 he defeated Glen H. Taylor, who had the support of the liberals, for a full term, and was reelected in 1960. After the war Dworshak continued to be isolationist and economy-minded, and became a leader of the conservative bloc in the Senate. In the early 1950's Dworshak was frequently linked with Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. In 1953 both voted against confirmation of Charles E. Bohlen as ambassador to the Soviet Union, although Bohlen was a career diplomat and a leading authority on that country.
In 1954, when Senator McCarthy stepped down from chairmanship of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee during the Army-McCarthy hearings, he appointed Dworshak to take his place. Dworshak usually favored McCarthy in the hearings, and with three other Republican members of the subcommittee signed the majority report clearing McCarthy of charges that he had exerted personal pressure on the army in order to secure favors for Private G. David Schine.
Dworshak died in office of a heart attack on July 23, 1962, in Washington, D. C. and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was succeeded by former Governor Len B. Jordan, who served until January 1973.
Like most conservative Republicans Dworshak was a staunch isolationist. In 1939 Dworshak supported a bill to "take the profits out of war" by imposing a 75 to 90 percent tax on certain incomes in excess of $50, 000 a year; he voted for the mandatory arms embargo in the Neutrality Act of 1939; and he voted against the Selective Service Act in 1940, against passage of the Lend-Lease Act in 1941, and against extending the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act. On domestic issues Dworshak's voting record was anti-New Deal. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, he voted against adding $100 million to the work relief programs in 1939 and against increasing the Civilian Conservation Corps's budget by $50 million in 1940. He opposed farm parity payments, federal regulation of prices, and increased funds for rural electrification.
He opposed passage of the Greek-Turkish aid bill (1947) and the Marshall Plan (1948). On the Senate Appropriations Committee, he staunchly opposed what he called "Socialist spending, " working to trim and limit government expenditures. He backed Republican efforts in 1947 to reduce income taxes and suggested slicing $100 million from the War Department civil functions bill.
When the Senate subsequently voted, 67-22, to censure McCarthy, Dworshak voted with the minority. In the Senate Dworshak spoke out on regional issues, backing the appointment of a westerner as secretary of the interior in 1948 and becoming embroiled in the controversial Hell's Canyon project during the 1950's. Idaho Democrats chose to make the Hell's Canyon project a major issue in the 1954 election, endorsing a plan to use federal funds to build a 600-foot concrete dam on the Snake River near the Oregon border. Dworshak and other Idaho Republicans opposed a federally financed high dam but favored the use of private capital for power development. They supported the Idaho Power Company plan to build three low-level dams on the river. Nevertheless, Dworshak generally advocated close cooperation between the states and the federal government in developing and managing the nation's natural resources.
Dworshak was a member of the Elks and a freemason.
Dworshak won respect from friend and foe alike for his integrity and kindness. A political opponent once stated, "His was a friendly, humble, homey manner, yet always dignified, courteous and always businesslike. "
On December 31, 1917, Dworshak married Georgia Belle Lowe; they had four sons.
