James Michael Mead was born on December 27, 1885 in Mount Morris, New York. He was the son of Thomas Mead and Mary Jane Kelly. His father was a section boss for the Lackawanna Railroad, and their home was a shack provided by his employer. In 1890 the family moved to Buffalo.
Mead attended grammar school in Buffalo. He left school at twelve and went to work for the railroad as a water boy.
By the time Mead was twenty, Mead had worked as a lamplighter, spike mauler, track walker, shopman, and switcher. Meanwhile, he attended evening classes at the Caton School of Engineering (1904) and the Buffalo Institute of Technology (1905). He subsequently was employed briefly by the Erie Railroad and later by the Pullman Company in Buffalo and in Florida. Always a regular Democrat, Mead received a patronage appointment as a memberof the Capitol Police Force in Washington, D. C. , in 1911. He spent his free time studying law privately and listening to congressional debates. He returned to Buffalo in 1912 and resumed work for the Erie Railroad as a yard switchman. Mead became increasingly active in local Democratic politics, and in 1913 he was elected to the Erie County Board of Supervisors. The following year he won election to the New York State Assembly and to the presidency of his union local. In 1918 Mead was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, where he served ten consecutive terms. As a member of the House Post Office and Post Roads Committee, he supported legislation for shorter hours and higher pay for postal workers. He drafted the Mead Air Mail Act and the Forty-Four Hour Week Act for postal employees.
In 1938 Mead was elected to fill the vacancy resulting from the death of Senator Royal S. Copeland. He was reelected to a full term in 1940. In the Senate, too, Mead was a consistent New Dealer. He defended the National Labor Relations Board and opposed cuts in relief appropriations and any legislation aimed at restricting labor. He also supported Roosevelt's foreign policy, including the Neutrality Act, Lend-Lease, and the Selective Service Act. In 1942, with the support of President Roosevelt, Mead sought the New York Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He was defeated by New York Attorney General John J. Bennett, Jr. (the candidate of New York Democratic partychairman James Farley). During World War II, Mead captured media attention as chairman of the Senate War Investigating Committee, which in 1945 looked into irregularities in the disposal of war surplus and the waste of manpower at defense projects. In 1946 Mead again ran for governor of New York. He secured the Democratic nomination, but lost the election to Thomas E. Dewey. In November 1949 President Harry S. Truman appointed Mead to the Federal Trade Commission. The following year he was chosen chairman of the commission; he served until 1955, when he resigned. Mead was then named director of the Washington office of the New York State Commerce Department by New York GovernorAverell Harriman. It was widely believed that Mead was to promote Harriman's bid for the 1956 Democratic presidential nomination. When Harriman did not receive the nomination, Mead resigned. He purchased an orange grove in Clermont, Fla. , which he operated for the rest of his life. His vote-getting ability is emphasized by the fact that when he moved up to the Senate after ten terms in the House, his district chose a Republican to succeed him. Mead died in Lakeland, Florida.
Always sensitive to the needs of labor, Mead supported enlarging the scope of the Locomotive Inspection Act, helped defeat the antistrike provisions of the Cummins-Esch bill, opposed President Herbert Hoover's general sales tax scheme, supported numerous workmen's compensation proposals, called for federal relief aid for the unemployed, and campaigned in support of public works programs. In the 1930's he was a staunch supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Mead played semiprofessional baseball and football in his youth. He sponsored a softball team in Angola, New York, and was a part owner of the Buffalo professional baseball club. Reportedly shocked by the deaths of many congressional colleagues, Mead provided the impetus for the construction of the congressional gymnasium. He was reportedly considered for the post of commissioner of the All-American Football Conference in 1948. Gregarious and affable, Mead was popular with his peers.
On August 25, 1915, Mead married Alice Mary Dillon; they had one son.
