Howard Worth SMITH, Congress, VA (1883-1976)

SMITH, Howard Worth, a Representative from Virginia; born in Broad Run, Fauquier County Va., February 2, 1883; attended the public schools; was graduated from Bethel Military Academy, Warrenton, Va., in 1901 and from the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1903; was admitted to the bar in 1904 and commenced practice in Alexandria, Va.; assistant general counsel, Alien Property Custodian, in 1917 and 1918; served as Commonwealth attorney of Alexandria, Va., 1918-1922; judge of the corporation court of Alexandria 1922-1928; judge of the sixteenth judicial circuit of Virginia 1928-1930; also engaged in banking, farming, and dairying; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second and to the seventeen succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1931-January 3, 1967); chairman, Committee on Rules (Eighty-fourth through Eighty-ninth Congresses); sponsor of the Smith Act of 1940; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1966 to the Ninetieth Congress; resumed the practice of law in Alexandria, Va., where he died October 3, 1976; interment in Georgetown Cemetery, Broad Run, Va.

Bibliography

Dierenfield, Bruce J. Keeper of the Rules; Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va.: The University Press of Virginia, 1987; Jones, Charles O. “Joseph G. Cannon and Howard W. Smith: An Essay on the Limits of Leadership in the House of Representatives.” Journal of Politics 30 (August 1968): 617-46.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present