Lynn Haines

April 12, 1876 (age 52)

Waseca, Minnesota, United States

In 1900 Lynn Haines was appointed a reporter for a leading St. Paul newspaper and was assigned to cover the political news at the state Capitol. Two years later he was appointed political writer for a syndicate distributing news to the Minnesota newspapers. While writing for the syndicate he made extensive studies of Minnesota state governmental history and procedure and in 1909 he organized the Minnesota Voters’ League. Toward the close of 1911 Haines removed to Washington, District of Columbia, to assume his new duties as press correspondent for a St. Paul newspaper. Here he now closely followed the activities of the United States Congress and in 1912 he published Law Making in America, an interesting narrative of the 1911-1912 session of the Sixty-second Congress, which described the machinery and methods of national legislation. He also wrote and published The Senate from 1907 to 1912 (1912), which narrated the part which thirty senators had played during those years, when the tariff, Canadian reciprocity, and railroad regulation were under discussion. At the same time he published as a pamphlet “The Story of the Democratic House of Representatives, ” a chapter from his Lazo Making in America, in which he proposed remedies to the conditions in the House retarding the legislative machinery. In 1914 Haines was elected executive secretary of the newly created National Voters’ League, the object and purpose of which was to relate the legislative history of bills, record the attitude of senators and representatives upon pending legislation, and disseminate information directed to improve the personnel of Congress and its procedure. In 1915 he published Your Congress, an interpretation of the political and parliamentary influences dominating law-making in the United States, and in February 1916 he became editor of the Searchlight on Congress, the monthly publication of the League containing information of general interest concerning Congress. To it he contributed numerous political articles, essays, and reviews, outstanding among which were “How to reform the nominating machinery” (1924), and “Who’s Who on Woman Suffrage” (1919). The Searchlight ceased publication in 1927. During the last three years of his life Haines was in failing health, and on October 9, 1929, passed away, following an operation for appendicitis.

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book

Law Making in America: The Story of the 1911-12 Session of the Sixty-Second Congress - Primary Source Edition

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Your Congress an Interpretation of the Political, and Parliamentary Influences, That Dominate Law Making (Classic Reprint)

The Minnesota Legislature of 1911

(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Your Servants In The Senate: The Story Of Their Stewardship And That Of The Harding-Coolidge Regime

(Book by Haines, Lynn)

Lynn Haines

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journalist writer

Background

Lynn Haines was born on April 12, 1876, in Waseca, Minnesota, United States, the son of Caleb and Alice (Nelson) Haines.

Education

His early education was obtained in the elementary schools of his native town and St. Paul. In 1899 Lynn entered Hamline University in St. Paul but left to become a reporter for one of the Appleton (Minnesota) newspapers.

Career

In 1900 Lynn Haines was appointed a reporter for a leading St. Paul newspaper and was assigned to cover the political news at the state Capitol. Two years later he was appointed political writer for a syndicate distributing news to the Minnesota newspapers. While writing for the syndicate he made extensive studies of Minnesota state governmental history and procedure and in 1909 he organized the Minnesota Voters’ League.

Toward the close of 1911 Haines removed to Washington, District of Columbia, to assume his new duties as press correspondent for a St. Paul newspaper. Here he now closely followed the activities of the United States Congress and in 1912 he published Law Making in America, an interesting narrative of the 1911-1912 session of the Sixty-second Congress, which described the machinery and methods of national legislation.

He also wrote and published The Senate from 1907 to 1912 (1912), which narrated the part which thirty senators had played during those years, when the tariff, Canadian reciprocity, and railroad regulation were under discussion. At the same time he published as a pamphlet “The Story of the Democratic House of Representatives, ” a chapter from his Lazo Making in America, in which he proposed remedies to the conditions in the House retarding the legislative machinery.

In 1914 Haines was elected executive secretary of the newly created National Voters’ League, the object and purpose of which was to relate the legislative history of bills, record the attitude of senators and representatives upon pending legislation, and disseminate information directed to improve the personnel of Congress and its procedure.

In 1915 he published Your Congress, an interpretation of the political and parliamentary influences dominating law-making in the United States, and in February 1916 he became editor of the Searchlight on Congress, the monthly publication of the League containing information of general interest concerning Congress. To it he contributed numerous political articles, essays, and reviews, outstanding among which were “How to reform the nominating machinery” (1924), and “Who’s Who on Woman Suffrage” (1919). The Searchlight ceased publication in 1927.

During the last three years of his life Haines was in failing health, and on October 9, 1929, passed away, following an operation for appendicitis.

Achievements

Lynn Haines was a prolific writer and showed a natural aptitude for journalism. He was writing a lot about United States Congress. Your Servants in the Senate, a narrative of the Senate during the Harding-Coolidge regime was his most popular book.