Eugene Noble Foss was an American politician and manufacturer from Massachusetts.
40 Facts About Eugene Foss
2.
Eugene Foss was a member of the United States House of Representatives and served as a three-term governor of Massachusetts.
3.
Eugene Foss's parents were George Edmund and Marcia Foss.
4.
Eugene Foss's father was a politically active manager at the St Albans Manufacturing Company.
5.
Eugene Foss was educated in public schools, and then attended Franklin County Academy in St Albans, Vermont.
6.
Eugene Foss first worked as a traveling salesman, selling a lumber-drying device for the company his father managed.
7.
Eugene Foss became the company president after Sturtevant died in April 1890.
8.
Eugene Foss was president of the Bridgewater Water Company and director of the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company, Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, Chicago Junction Railways, the Hyde Park National Bank, Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company of New York, and the Union Stockyard Company.
9.
Eugene Foss was a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Massachusetts Electric Company.
10.
Eugene Foss expanded its production facilities to include the American Napier automobile.
11.
In 1902, Eugene Foss ran for US Congress as a progressive Republican.
12.
Eugene Foss's main issue was a tariff reform platform, calling for "free wool, free coal, free iron, and free hides" and reciprocity with Canada.
13.
Eugene Foss's campaign was held while there were high coal prices that had badly hurt Massachusetts.
14.
Eugene Foss narrowly carried the Republican nomination in a September 24,1902 caucus and started his campaign for control of the state party by submitting his revisionist plank at the October state party convention.
15.
Eugene Foss's motion was defeated following a speech by Henry Cabot Lodge, urging national party unity in defense of the protective tariff.
16.
Eugene Foss ran for Congress again in 1904, with an even more embarrassing defeat.
17.
Eugene Foss next failed in a bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 1906.
18.
The party's position on tariffs led Eugene Foss to leave the party.
19.
In March 1910, Foss won a special election for United States House of Representatives, filling a vacancy caused by the death of William C Lovering.
20.
Eugene Foss served until January 4,1911, when he resigned to become governor of Massachusetts.
21.
Eugene Foss then announced his intention to contend for the Democratic nomination for governor.
22.
Labor agitators criticized Eugene Foss for opposing bills that reduced maximum working hours, and supporting pro-business bills such as that authorizing the merger of the Boston and Maine Railroad with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
23.
At this point, Eugene Foss announced that he intended to run regardless, and essentially demanded the party ratify his nomination.
24.
Eugene Foss won the election for Governor by 32,000 votes on November 8,1910.
25.
Eugene Foss signed measures covering employer liability and workmen's compensation, but vetoed bills authorizing the tenure of school teachers and the right to picket.
26.
Eugene Foss signed an election reform bill changing primaries to direct elections, a bill setting a minimum wage for women and children, and a bill allowing jury trials for cases involving the violation of strike injunctions.
27.
Eugene Foss promoted and signed bills that benefited his businesses.
28.
Eugene Foss's tenure included the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, which was stimulated by the passage of a law limiting the working hours of women and children.
29.
Incidents of violence in the strike prompted Eugene Foss to call out the state militia, and he applied pressure on the mill owners to settle the action by threatening to withdraw them.
30.
Eugene Foss denied clemency for Clarence Richeson for the sensationalized murder of Avis Linell.
31.
Eugene Foss's case prompted calls for reforms in the state's handling and treatment of mental patients.
32.
Eugene Foss eventually took out papers for the Republican nomination but failed to qualify for the primary ballot.
33.
Eugene Foss ran in the general election as an Independent.
34.
Eugene Foss married his employer's daughter, Lilla Sturtevant, on June 12,1884.
35.
Eugene Foss was as active in the Home Market Club of Boston and was chair of the Republican Party in ward 23 of Boston.
36.
Eugene Foss was a trustee of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association, Colby University, the Hebron Academy, the Newton Theological Seminary and the Vermont Academy.
37.
Eugene Foss was a member of the First Baptist Church in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.
38.
Eugene Foss was a member of the Algonquin Club, the Boston Art Club, the Eliot Club, the Exchange Club, the Jamaica Club, and the Country Club.
39.
Eugene Foss died in Jamaica Plain on September 13,1939.
40.
Eugene Foss was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.