Dawson, Hon. Albert Foster

DAWSON

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 6/27/2007 at 17:39:03

Maquoketa Record, October 17, 1906:
DAWSON'S GREAT RECORD.
In First Session of Fifty-Ninth Congress.
(Hon. Albert Foster Dawson, United States Congressman, Second District of Iowa, Resident of Preston, Jackson County, Iowa.)
Seemed to have the special friendship of President (Theodore) Roosevelt.
Appointed by Speaker on the important committee on Naval Affairs and Pacific Railroads.
Called by Speaker Cannon to preside over the House on a number of occasions.
Appointed on the special committee to investigate hazing at the Annapolis Naval academy, which committee secured the passage of a law suppressing the practice of hazing. For this work he received the special thanks of President Roosevelt in a personal letter.
Was accorded the unusual honor for a new member of election as the Iowa member of the Republican National Congressional Committee. Declined the tender of the position of secretary to that committee.
Record as a legislator.
Took a prominent part in writing the anti-hazing bill, which finally became a law.
Secured passage of the bill transferring Clinton County from the Northern to the Southern Judicial District.
Secured an amendment to the Naval Militia bill, protecting the interests of the National Guard(Naval Militia bill as originally prepared sought to participate in the $1,000,000 appropriated for the National Guard). This was prevented by the Dawson Amendment.
Secured a favorable report from the committee on Claims on the bill to pay the claims of the workmen who sustained damages in the fire at the Rock Island Arsenal.
Received thanks of union labor by resolution for his efforts in behalf of the workingmen.
Secured passage of a large number of special pension bills for soldiers in his district.
Secured passage of Senate bill 1649 relating to retirement of men in the navy. For this service he has received the thanks by resolution of a large number of patriotic orders throughout the country and was made an honorary member of the Army and Navy Union of the United States.
He aided in securing the passage of the bill to promote the efficiency of the Ordinance Department, which will be of material assistance to the Rock Island Arsenal.
Voted for the railroad rate law, the pure food law, and the law for free denaturized alcohol.
Appropriations secured.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for the reconstruction of the government bridge between Davenport and Rock Island.
Seventy-five thousand dollars for the erection of a public building at Muscatine. Seven thousand dollars for the purchase of additional ground for the extension of the public building at Davenport.
Through his assistance the appropriations for the Rock Island Arsenal was considerably increased over those last year, among the new items which were allowed being $9,000 for a stable; $10,000 for emergency hospital quarters; for increased fire protection, $18,000. In addition to this sum for the manufacture of field guns and carriages was materially increased.
He secured an appropriation of $10,000 for the publication by the government of a new edition of charters and constitutions; one of joint compilers of this document will be a professor of the State University of Iowa, and that institution will be heralded from one end of the country to the other on the title-page of this publication.
Other results from the district.
Secured complete county-rural free delivery service for every county in this district, thus serving with a daily mail more than 3,000 families who did not have it before. When he came into office not one county in the district had complete county service.
Secured from President Roosevelt an executive order granting Saturday hal holiday during July, August and September for the employees at the Rock Island and other arsenals. This went into effect July 7, 1906.
Assisted in securing the continuance and completion of the Hennepin Canal, work on which was suspended last spring through the efforts of private interests.
Hundreds of reference books have been provided for each of the many public libraries in the district.
Has secured favorable consideration and action by the Pension Bureau in more than 250 pension claims.
Honored in university circles by being chosen as a judge in the Inter-Society debate of George Washington University, and being selected as the presiding officer prize debate of that institution.
Record as a speaker.
Has acquired an enviable reputation as a forceful speaker during his first term.
January 15-Addressed National Rivers and Harbors Congress of the United States.
April 25th-Speech on American agriculture which immortalized the American hen, and which one metropolitan newspaper characterized as the most talked of and written of speech of the session.
April 28th-Speech at the banquet at the Iowa Society of New York at the Waldorf Astoria.
He participated actively in the debate in the house on four other occasions during the session when the following bills were under consideration: the ant-hazing bill, the naval appropriations bill, the Washington gun factory bill, the naturalization bill.
May 28th-One of the two principal speakers in the exercises of Memorial Sunday at Arlington National Cemetery.
May 30th-Orator of the day at Congressional Cemetery, Washington.

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