19 Facts About Elmer Thomas

John William Elmer Thomas was a native of Indiana who moved to Oklahoma Territory in 1901, where he practiced law in Lawton.

Elmer Thomas studied law, was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1897 and to the Oklahoma bar in 1900, and commenced practice in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; moved to Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1901 and continued the practice of law.

Elmer Thomas was elected a member of the first state senate in 1907, where he served until 1920.

Elmer Thomas was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress.

Elmer Thomas served on the House Committee on Public Lands and Claims.

Elmer Thomas was not a candidate for renomination in 1926, having become a candidate for United States Senator; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1926, defeating former governor Jack Walton.

Elmer Thomas attacked the Coolidge administration as insensitive to farmers, then reluctantly backed Hoover's Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, and supported paying the Veteran's Bonus.

Elmer Thomas was reelected in 1932, he actively supported Franklin D Roosevelt and the New Deal.

Specifically, Senator Elmer Thomas proposed an amendment known as the Elmer Thomas Amendment, to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, intended to help farmers financially by empowering the president to reduce the gold backing for dollars and to print bills backed by silver alone when cash became depressively tight.

Elmer Thomas was a reliable friend to Indians and served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs between 1935 and 1944.

Elmer Thomas was very interested in international affairs, having supported the League of Nations, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, and the World Court.

Elmer Thomas voted for neutrality in 1935 and 1937, but said his main concern was American military preparedness.

Elmer Thomas had served in the Army as a lieutenant colonel assigned to military intelligence and retained that rank as a member of the Reserves.

Elmer Thomas was one of just seven lawmakers who were enlisted in 1944 by top Roosevelt officials including the War Secretary, Henry L Stimson, to help conceal around $800 million in the military spending bill passing through Congress.

Senator Elmer Thomas was reelected in 1944, becoming the third-ranking senator in seniority.

Elmer Thomas chaired the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry from 1944 to 1946 and 1949 to 1950.

Elmer Thomas attended food conferences in Quebec and Copenhagen in 1945 and 1946 and toured Europe in 1949 as part of an audit of Marshall Plan funds.

Elmer Thomas was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1932.

Senator Elmer Thomas was behind the creation of Medicine Park, situated in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma.