Joseph M. McCormick was an American journalist and United States senator.
Background
Joseph Medill McCormick was born on May 16, 1877 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Robert Sanderson McCormick, diplomat, and Katharine Van Etta Medill, the daughter of the editor of the Chicago Daily Tribune, Joseph Medill. Brought up under the influence of his maternal grandfather, Medill McCormick imbibed at an early age an aggressive Americanism, though as a result of several years abroad he acquired a competent knowledge of foreign languages and learned to appreciate European points of view.
Education
After attending preparatory school at Groton, Massachussets, McCormick became a student at Yale, and upon his graduation in 1900 returned to Chicago where he entered upon his career as newspaper editor and publisher.
Career
Beginning as police reporter for the Tribune at a salary of three dollars a week, McCormick served in various capacities until by 1908 all departments of the paper were under his management. With the outbreak of revolt in the Philippines in 1901, he was sent to the seat of the disturbance as a special correspondent for the paper, and after participating in the Samar campaign he traveled about the Far East for several months. During this period he also became associated with Charles A. Otis in the ownership of the Cleveland Leader and the Cleveland News. Actively entering into politics in 1908, McCormick became an ardent follower of Theodore Roosevelt, and in the Progressive revolt of 1912, served as a member of the National Campaign Committee, having complete charge of the Western headquarters of the Progressive party and using all the resources of the Chicago Tribune. Much against his will, he was elected during the same campaign to the lower house of the Illinois state legislature and in 1914 was reelected.
At this time he led the remaining Progressive recalcitrants back into the Republican party, for in the face of threatening war in Europe he believed that party harmony should prevail. In 1916, he was elected congressman at large from Illinois and served in the Sixty-fifth Congress until 1919, when he took his seat in the Senate. In 1917, while still a member of the House of Representatives, he journeyed to the Western front, and again in 1920 and 1924 he was in Europe seeking additional knowledge on the foreign situation. He had definitely imperialistic leanings, although he rejected the extreme position of the Tribune, then under the control of his brother. Throughout his senatorial career he was a bitter opponent of the League of Nations and the Versailles Treaty. He stood squarely in his opposition to any entangling alliance, although in 1923 as a member of the committee on foreign relations he admitted the value of a World Court. In domestic affairs he sponsored the McCormick-Good bill, providing for the creation of the Bureau of the Budget, which was vetoed by President Wilson in June 1920, but passed in virtually the same form in the next session and became law in June 1921. He also encouraged the proposed "Great Lakes to Gulf waterway" and favored the child-labor amendment. One of his last acts in the Senate was his effort toward securing the ratification of the Isle of Pines treaty. In the Republican primary campaign of 1924, McCormick was defeated by Charles S. Deneen. He died in Washington, D. C. , on February 25, 1925, only a few days before his term of office was over.
Achievements
Membership
Member of the U. S. House of Representatives, Member of the Illinois House of Representatives
Personality
McCormick was a vivid person, ambitious and hard-working, and eager for a real knowledge of the matters with which he dealt.
Connections
McCormick married Ruth Hanna, the daughter of Marcus Alonzo Hanna, on June 10, 1903.