Irvine Luther Lenroot was an American statesman. He served in the House of Representatives from 1909 to 1918 and in the United States Senate from 1918 to 1927. He was a judge for 15 years on the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
Background
Irvine Luther Lenroot was born in Superior, Wisconsin, the third son and fourth of six children of Swedish immigrant parents, Lars and Fredrika Regina (Larsdotter or Larson) Lenroot. His father, who had simplified his original name of Linderoth after coming to America in the 1850's, was a blacksmith. He later achieved some prosperity in timber and real estate ventures. From his family, from a dedicated Yankee schoolmaster, and from his frontier community, young Lenroot early acquired high standards of private and public morality, respect for democracy and enterprise, the habits of hard work, and Republican political views. He joined his teacher's Presbyterian church, but later became a Congregationalist.
Education
Lenroot attended public schools and completed what was the equivalent of a high school education in 1884. In 1887 he enrolled at Parsons Business College in nearby Duluth, Minnesota.
Career
Over the next three years after school education Lenroot held several jobs and shared in the logging operations of one of his brothers. Becoming an expert shorthand stenographer, he worked during the 1890's for a Superior law firm and then (1893 - 1906) as court reporter for the superior court of Douglas County. Meanwhile he studied law on his own and was admitted to the bar in 1898.
Lenroot became active in local politics as a reform Republican. When Robert M. La Follette championed reform on the state level, Lenroot joined his faction, and in 1900, when La Follette first won election as governor, Lenroot was elected to the state assembly. In the ensuing battles for a primary election law, heavier taxation of railroads, and other reforms, Lenroot's superior analytical intelligence, adroitness in drafting legislation, parliamentary and debating skill, and high integrity made him one of La Follette's principal lieutenants. He was twice reelected, and from 1903 to 1907 he served as speaker of the assembly. La Follette, now a United States senator, chose Lenroot to oppose Gov. James O. Davidson in the Republican primary of 1906; but Davidson, himself a moderate Progressive, easily withstood the challenge.
Two years later Lenroot won election to the House of Representatives, where he served until 1918. He joined George W. Norris and the Republican insurgents in curbing the powers of Speaker Joseph G. Cannon and the Rules Committee and led a prolonged campaign against "gag rule" and caucus domination. A foe of special interests, he opposed his party's commitment to a high tariff and supported progressive railroad regulatory laws.
World War I proved a turning point in Lenroot's career. He reluctantly supported American entry as the only honorable course open and helped pass the draft law; La Follette argued and voted against both measures. In 1918 Lenroot ran for the Senate in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Paul Husting. In his campaign he further demonstrated his opposition to La Follette's position on America's entry into the war and his own loyalty to the American cause. La Follette backed Lenroot's opponent in the Republican primary. Lenroot won, and with the support of the "loyalty" element, both progressive and conservative, he went on to win the general election, thus marking a new configuration in Wisconsin politics. He was reelected for a full term in 1920. Earlier that year, at the Republican national convention, he was picked by party leaders to run as the vice-presidential candidate with Warren G. Harding, but the convention, balking at further dictation and conservative in mood, chose Calvin Coolidge instead. Lenroot disapproved both the radical and reactionary forces that swelled after the war and tried to steer a middle course. Increasingly, however, his radical enemies drove him closer to his new conservative friends.
A close friend of Gifford Pinchot and a longtime champion of regulated development of public resources, Lenroot contributed importantly to the Federal Water Power Act (1920), which established a commission to authorize and license navigation improvements and hydroelectric plants on public land; and to the Mineral Leasing Act (1920), which empowered the secretary of the interior to grant private leases to oil and mineral deposits on federal land on terms favorable to the public interest. He was chiefly responsible for the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923, which set up twelve intermediate credit banks to provide loans to farmers. As a member of the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Survey (he became chairman in January 1924), Lenroot participated in the Teapot Dome hearings, but because of his closeness to the administration, many Progressives questioned his willingness to press the investigation. Newspaper and other criticism became so severe that Lenroot's health broke down, and he resigned the chairmanship in March 1924. Lenroot was defeated for renomination in 1926 by John J. Blaine, and after the expiration of his Senate term he entered law practice in Washington. In 1929
President Hoover appointed Lenroot a judge of the federal Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in New York City a post he held until his retirement in 1944. He died of cancer in Washington a few days before his eightieth birthday and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Superior. Lenroot failed to gain wide recognition either from his contemporaries or from history. Though a fine public speaker, he did not capture the popular imagination. Hardworking and quiet in his friendliness, he was not hail-fellow-well-met. Balanced in view, with an eye toward the complexity of things, he increasingly preferred achieving reasonable progress through compromise to generating sharp issues. And when forces polarized and positions solidified, even his skillful mediating efforts often yielded meager results and little glory. This was true of his adroit work for United States participation in the League of Nations, and later, under President Coolidge, for United States membership in the World Court. For years Lenroot labored in the shadow of the charismatic La Follette; then he suffered from La Follette's enmity. Lacking a strong political base in Wisconsin, he never won the attention reserved for presidential prospects.
Achievements
During his tenure as a senator, Lenroot opposed United States joining the League of Nations, favored American adherence to the World Court, supported the adjusted compensation bill for World War I veterans. He made positive contributions in the areas of conservation and agriculture. He was known for successfully lobbying for the Federal Water Power Act (1920), the Mineral Leasing Act (1920), and Agricultural Credits Act (1923).
Politics
He was a member of the Republican Party.
Connections
On January 22, 1890, Lenroot married Clara Pamelia (Clough) McCoy, the widowed daughter of a local judge. They had two children, Katharine Fredrica and Dorothy. After the death of his first wife in 1942, Lenroot married Eleonore von Eltz of New Rochelle, New York, on February 9, 1943.
