Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America

by Shelby Scates

Warren G. Magnuson served as U.S. senator from the state of Washington for six terms. The sheer sweep of his accomplishments is astonishing: authoring the Civil Rights Act, protecting Puget Sound, saving Boeing for Seattle, championing consumer protection legislation, reorganizing the railroads, and godfathering the electrification of the Pacific Northwest by pressing for Columbia and Snake River dams. He pushed federal aid to education, while holding down Pentagon budgets, and established the National Institutes of Health (and kept research funds flowing liberally) while arguing throughout the McCarthy era against U.S. isolation from China. He did much more. But he was also a boon whiskey-and-poker companion to Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. Shelby Scates traces Magnuson's life from his early years in the Fargo/Moorhead region of the upper Midwest to his death in Seattle in 1989 at age eighty-four.

Genres: Biography, History, Politics

360 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Bruce]

Outside of the Pacific Northwest there will not be many who know the name of Warren G. Magnuson
United States Senator from Washington State from 1944 until 1981. But this book by Shelby Scates is
a great example of the story of a man who got things done in the US Senate.

Magnuson is also a great example of the kind of people the Democratic party used to attract and run
for office. He was born in Moorhead, Minnesota and was a foundling kid adopted by the Magnuson
family. Abraham Lincoln didn't have humbler beginnings. He had good grades in school and worked
all kinds of jobs to support himself. There's a picture of him in the book as a juvenile working as a
Western Union messenger. In a living Horatio Alger like story, young Magnuson came to the attention of a wealthy man who urged him Horace Greeley like to go west and get an education there
because there were more opportunities. He went west, settled in Seattle and became a lawyer. Magnuson worked on the Seattle docks to put himself through school. He also entered Democratic
party politics and by 1936 got elected to represent Seattle in Congress. Four terms there and he
was elected to the Senate in 1944.

Magnuson had married and divorced early. Today he would be a regular on the gossip page of any
tabloid, usually page 6. Maggie as everyone called him was linked to not a few Hollywood starlets
and models. It's possible in my humble opinion he was the model for the Lafe Smith character that
Peter Lawford played in Advise And Consent.

But he was also a damned effective advocate for his state and region. Especially after a long time
friend and colleague Henry M. Jackson won the other Washington Senate seat. They were very
effective as a team. Their tandem pulling for their region resulted in among other things saving
of Boeing aircraft for the Northwest region. They both advocated and sadly lost out in the creation
of a Columbia Valley Authority to do the same thing that Tennessee Valley Authority did for its
region. The right wing killed that one off on the grounds of it being a Communist idea. Still a good idea though.

Legislatively as chair of the Commerce Committee Magnuson put together the legislation that reorganzied the country's railroad system. Every time you ride an AMTRAK train you ride it courtesy of Maggie. Before this happened a lot of local railroads were on life support.

Magnuson was a vital part of Lyndon Johnson's legislative leadership in the Senate. He and Scoop
Jackson split on the 1960 presidential election, Maggie for LBJ and Scoop for JFK. Unlike Scoop who supported the Vietnam War to the end, Magnuson's support ended the day his friend LBJ was
no longer president. He and Johnson had too much history for Maggie to break with him.

Magnuson was the kind of guy who probably should have died with his boots on as Scoop Jackson
did while still a Senator. He lost however in the Reagan landslide and by all accounts was a bit
bitter by the rebuke. He died in 1989 a beloved figure in his region and deservedly so.

Shelby Scates book is a fascinating account about a man who should not be forgotten. It's a primer
on how to be an effective legislator.

[Earl Ecklund III]

Warren Magnuson is one of the most underrated U.S. Senators of the 20th Century.  Magnuson was responsible for the creation of the National Cancer Institute in 1937, the National Institute of Health in 1941, Public Television,  and NOAA, the last of which Magnuson was particularly proud of.

In this meticulously researched biography Scates traces Magnuson's life and career from his youth in Minnesota to his early career in Seattle as a lawyer & county prosecutor before beginning his lengthy Congressional career.  Magnuson was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936 and to the U.S. Senate in 1944. For the first half of his career Magnuson focused on funding for Washington state industries such as Boeing, development of Hydroelectric dams in Central Washington, and contracts for the Bremerton Naval Shipyard.

Following a near loss in the 1962 election Magnuson turned his attention to the environment, where he worked alongside Washington's junior Senator Scoop Jackson,  and consumer protection.  Among the many laws he pushed through were the Flammable Fabrics Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, Fair Credit Advertising Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Door to Door Sales Act, and laws that required warnings on cigarettes, regulated automobile safety, required manufacturers to live up to the promises in their warranties, and set standards for children's toys. Magnuson also was responsible for the drafting and passage of the Public Accommodations section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the section that was the most opposed by the Southern Senators of the time.

At the end of Magnuson's career he was the senior most Senator and served as President Pro Tempe. Scoop Jackson was 5th in seniority at the same time making "Scoop and Maggie" the most powerful pairing from a single state. Magnuson lost his bid for a seventh term in the 1980 Reagan landslide that swept many Democratic Senators out of office.

Scates focuses primarily on Magnuson's career but does not neglect his many relationships with women for which he gained a playboy image before he finally married in 1964. Magnuson was often called the most loved Senator during his time and seems to have made few real enemies.

Overall a great read on this powerful yet largely forgotten Senator. I highly recommend this!!

[Andy Miller]

I first read this book when it was first published in 1997, not that long after Senator Magnuson had passed away in 1989. I decided to read it again for a fresh perspective. One thing that immediately struck me was his age, he was only 75 when he was defeated for re-election in 1980, I worked on his campaign and saw him a few times then and my memory was that he was very old. His age and health were key reasons he was defeated along with running during the Reagan landslide. But now, 75 does not seem that old to be running for re-election. But it was his health and not simply his age. And re-reading this biography made me think I glossed over Magnuson's hard drinking lifestyle in my first reading. To a certain extent he paid for that lifestyle.
But the main thing is that today we do not have Senators like Warren Magnuson. He developed friendships within the party and across the aisle. And while he enjoyed the perks and power of being a Senator his main satisfaction of being a Senator was getting things done, making the country, and Washington State, a better place to leave.
The book recounts his legislative accomplishments, both in bringing federal money to Washington state but more so the many consumer protection laws, medical research programs, programs to bring doctors to rural areas and inner cities, making electric power available and affordable to all, well the list goes on.
The biography is also a good history of most of the 20th century, because Magnuson was in the middle of it. And it was good for all of us that he was

[Peter]

A giant of twentieth century politics, Magnuson touched so many bills that became law in health care, environmental protection, and consumer protection. Scates well explains how this was accomplished.