Clarence Cleveland Dill (September 21, 1884 – January 14, 1978) was an American politician from the state of Washington. A Democrat, he was elected to two terms each in both houses of Congress.[5]
Dill became a lawyer in 1910, and soon entered politics.[3] He was elected to the U.S. House in 1914 and 1916 from the newly created fifth district. On April 5, 1917, Dill was one of 50 representatives who voted against declaring war on Germany.[7] His vote was controversial among his constituents, including members of his own party. The Spokane County Democratic Committee debated censuring Dill, but ultimately voted against doing so.[8] Dill was narrowly defeated for re-election in 1918 by state supreme court justice J. Stanley Webster.[9]
In June 1934, Congress amended the Watson-Parker Railway Labor Act so it explicitly included non-operating train personnel and sleeping car companies. Senator Dill sponsored the new act since he thought Pullman porters and maids should be black. A jurisdictional dispute between the Order of Sleeping Car Conductors and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters had to be first settled in the American Federation of Labor, but the effect was to quadruple membership in the Brotherhood. Black workers could now join the union without fear of losing their jobs.[14]
Dill ran for governor in 1940 but was narrowly defeated by RepublicanArthur B. Langlie. His last attempt at elective office was for the open seat in Congress from Spokane's fifth district in 1942, but was easily defeated by Walt Horan, the first Republican to win that district in twenty years.[15] Horan had lost to Charles Leavy by eleven points in the previous race in 1940.
Dill then served as a member of the Columbia Basin Commission from 1945 to 1948, and as a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General from 1946 to 1953. In between all of these jobs, he usually practiced law. He died in 1978 in Spokane at the age of 93, the last living U.S. senator elected before the Great Depression.[3]
Personal
After he left the Senate, Dill sought a divorce from his wife in 1936, the feministsuffragist and author Rosalie Gardiner Jones of New York. Dill claimed that Jones told his friends that he was "a political coward" for not seeking re-election in 1934, and that she buried dogs and garbage in the backyard.[16] Separated while he was still in office,[17] the well-publicized divorce proceedings began in late June 1936 in Spokane.[18][19][20] The court found in his favor:[2] he kept the house, she got the furniture.[21]