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DOUGLAS, Paul Howard (1892-1976)
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Senate Years of Service: 1949-1967

DOUGLAS, PAUL HOWARD, (husband of Emily Taft Douglas), a Senator from Illinois; born in Salem, Essex County, Mass., March 26, 1892; attended the public schools of Newport, Maine; graduated from Bowdoin College in 1913, Columbia University in 1915; studied at Harvard University in 1915 and 1916; economist, author and college professor; taught economics at University of Illinois 1916-1917, Reed College, Portland, Oreg., 1917-1918; engaged in industrial relations work with Emergency Fleet Corporation 1918-1919; resumed teaching at University of Washington 1919-1920; professor of industrial relations, University of Chicago 1920-1949; between 1930 and 1939 served on many state and national commissions and committees; alderman, Chicago city council 1939-1942; unsuccessful candidate for nomination in 1942 to the United States Senate; during the Second World War served in the United States Marine Corps 1942-1945; enlisted as a private and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1948; reelected in 1954 and again in 1960, serving from January 3, 1949, to January 3, 1967; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1966; chairman, Joint Committee on the Economic Report (Eighty-fourth Congress), Joint Economic Committee (Eighty-sixth and Eighty-eighth Congresses); chairman of the President's Committee on Urban Affairs 1967-1968; chairman, Committee on Tax Reform 1969; resided in Washington, D.C., until his death there September 24, 1976; cremated; ashes scattered in the wooded area in Jackson Park, Chicago, Ill.

Broadcast Pioneers Library
University of Maryland Hornbake Library
College Park, MD
Papers: 2 audiotapes (1961, 1972) in Westinghouse Broadcasting Company collection, 1945-1981.
Chicago Historical Society
Chicago, IL
Papers: 1949-1968. Ca. 900 feet. Senate records, including press releases, correspondence, clippings, memoranda, campaign materials, scrapbooks, phonograph recordings, audio and video tapes, films, and photographs; material from the National Commission on Urban Problems (1968); and documentation from Douglas' years as a Chicago alderman and professor at the University of Chicago. Topics include labor, unemployment, social security, preservation of natural resources, congressional ethics, government contracts, Truth in Lending bill, and foreign policy. Finding aid. Additional miscellaneous items in various collections.
Columbia University
Oral History Project
New York, NY
Oral History: 1957. 23 leaves. Reminiscences, part of Herbert H. Lehman project. Permission required to cite, quote, or reproduce.
Oral History: 1975. 52 leaves; 4 reels. Topics include relationships with Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson; Chicago alderman, 1939-1942, investigation of corruption; federal patronage, government appointments for Democrats in Illinois; and the Great Depression, economic cycles, and proposed methods of stabilization. Permission needed to cite, quote, or reproduce. Also discussed in interview with Lawrence Irvin.
Columbia University
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
New York, NY
Papers: In Albert Gailord Hart papers, 1925-1980; Luther Harris Evans papers, 1952-1970; and Political Science Quarterly records, 1886-1961.
Cornell University
Labor Management Documentation
Ithaca, NY
Papers: Correspondence in American Association for Labor Legislation correspondence, 1925-1930, available on 12 microfilm reels; and Paul Abelson subject files, 1903-1953.
Indiana University
Lilly Library
Bloomington, IN
Papers: Correspondence in John Donald Barnhart papers, 1813-1962. Finding aid.
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
Austin, TX
Oral History: November 1, 1974. 20 pages.
John F. Kennedy Library
Boston, MA
Oral History: 1964. 33 pages.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Papers: In Joseph L. Rauh papers, 1913-1986 (bulk 1950-1984); Hugo L. Black papers, 1883-1976; Harold L. Ickes papers, 1906-1952; and Records of the National Consumers League, 1882-1973. Finding aid.
Mississippi State University
Mitchell Memorial Library
Mississippi State, MS
Papers: 1950-1955. 3 miscellaneous items.
Radcliffe College
Schlesinger Library
Cambridge, MA
Papers: In Sue Shelton White papers, 1898-1963 (bulk 1909-1963); Esther Eggertsen Peterson papers, 1910-1984; and Ruth Jarvis MacKay-Scott papers, 1928-1941.
Stanford University Libraries
Special Collections
Stanford, CA
Papers: In Bruce Bliven papers, 1906-1985; and Bernard Augustine De Voto papers, 1918-1955 (bulk 1944-1951).
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division
Madison, WI
Papers: Correspondence in Alexander Wiley papers, 1913-1967; William Morris Leiserson papers, 1901-1959; Edwin Emil Witte papers, 1905-ca. 1967; Howard K. Smith papers, 1941-1963; Merlyn S. Pitzele papers, 1932-1968; John B. Oakes papers, 1932-1969, on 6 microfilm reels; Clark R. Mollenhoff, 1936-1990; Chester Graham papers, 1929-1979, on 2 microfilm reels; Melvyn Douglas papers, 1892-1983; Robert Bendiner papers, 1934-1984, on 17 microfilm reels; Thomas Amlie papers, 1888-1966; Wilbur J. Cohen papers, 1930-1987; and a recorded interview in the Gunnar Back broadcasts, 1930-1979.
U.S. Senate
Historical Office
Washington, DC
Oral History: Discussed in interview (July 22-October 22, 1987) with Howard E. Shuman, administrative assistant to Senators Paul Douglas and William Proxmire, 631 pages.
University of Chicago Library
Special Collections Research Center
Chicago, IL
Papers: 1938-1946. .25 linear foot. Letters from Douglas to H. Gregg Lewis and Julia Lewis.
University of Michigan
Bentley Historical Library
Ann Arbor, MI
Papers: Correspondence in Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg papers, 1884-1974; Stella Brunt Osborn papers, 1916-1983; Margaret Bayne Price papers, 1918-1969; Isaiah Leo Sharfman papers, 1914-1962; Blair Moody papers, 1928-1954; Paul Blanshard papers, 1912-1974; Marston Bates papers, 1913-1974; Z. Clark papers, 1920-1959; Read Bain papers, 1893-1972; Zenas Clark Dickinson papers, 1920-1959; and Wilbur M. Brucker papers, 1877-1968. Finding aid.
University of Minnesota
Social Welfare History Archives
Minneapolis, MN
Papers: Correspondence in Helen Hall papers, 1898-1982.
University of Virginia
Alderman Library
Charlottesville, VA
Papers: Correspondence in Francis Pickens Miller papers, 1885-1971. Finding aid.
University of Washington Libraries
Manuscripts and University Archives
Seattle, WA
Papers: Correspondence in Theresa Schmid McMahon papers, 1889-1960. Finding aid.
Wayne State University
Walter P. Reuther Library
Detroit, MI
Papers: Correspondence in International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America legislative department records, 1943-1962; and in Brendan Sexton papers, 1938-1988. Finding aid.
Western Reserve Historical Society
Cleveland, OH
Papers: In Consumers League of Ohio records, 1900-1967. Finding aid.
Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives
New Haven, CT
Papers: In Max Lerner papers, 1927-1980; Chester Bowles papers, 1924-1973; Ogden Rogers Reid papers, 1925-1982; Jerome New Frank papers, 1918-1972 (bulk 1929-1957); R. C. Leffingwell papers, 1883-1979; Alfred Mitchell Bingham and the Common Sense collection, 1920-1975; Dean Acheson papers, 1898-1986; George Howard Edward Smith papers, 1917-1962; and Hanson Weightman Baldwin papers, 1929-1988. Finding aid.
Research Libraries Information Network In addition to the institutions listed above, items are also cataloged in collections at: University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, IA; Johns Hopkins University, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Baltimore, MD; Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, IL; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and State Historical Society of Wisconsin, River Falls, WI.

  • Anderson, Jerry Maynard. "Paul H. Douglas: Insurgent Senate Spokesman for Humane Causes, 1949-1963.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1964.
  • Biles, Roger. Crusading Liberal: Paul H. Douglas of Illinois. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002.
  • ___. "Paul H. Douglas, McCarthyism, and the Senatorial Election of 1954." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 95:1 (2002): 52-67.
  • Cordier, Hubert Victor. "Campaigning with Television: The Speaking of Senator Paul H. Douglas in the 1954 Campaign.'' Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1955.
  • Davidson, Roger H. "The Power of the Rules: The Tangled History of the Depressed-Areas Question." In On Capitol Hill: Studies in the Legislative Process, by John F. Bibby and Roger H. Davidson, pp. 207-24. 1967. 2d ed. Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press, 1972.
  • Douglas, Paul H. American Apprenticeship and Industrial Education. 1921. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1968. Douglas's doctoral dissertation (Columbia University).
  • ___. The Coming of a New Party. New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1932.
  • ___. Economy in the National Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952.
  • ___. Ethics in Government. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952.
  • ___. In the Fullness of Time: The Memoirs of Paul H. Douglas. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.
  • ___. In Our Time. New York: Harcourt, Brace World, 1968.
  • ___. "The 1960 Voting Rights Bill: the Struggle, the Final Results, and the Reasons.'' Journal of Intergroup Relations 1 (Summer 1960): 82-86.
  • ___. Social Security in the United States: An Analysis and Appraisal of the Federal Social Security Act. 1936. Reprint. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.
  • Douglas, Paul H., and J. Enoch Powell. How Big Should Government Be? Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1968.
  • Schapsmeier, Edward L. "Dirksen and Douglas of Illinois: The Pragmatist and the Professor as Contemporaries in the United States Senate.'' Illinois Historical Journal 83 (Summer 1990): 75-84.
  • Schapsmeier, Edward L., and Frederick H. Schapsmeier. "Paul H. Douglas: From Pacifist to Soldier-Statesman.'' Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 67 (June 1974): 307-23.