Archives West Finding Aid

Eddie Jarrett was secretary to Senator Burton K. Wheeler during the latter part of Wheeler's senate career. Burton Kendall Wheeler was a U.S. Senator from Montana from 1922-1947. In 1924, Wheeler ran unsuccessfully for vice-president on the Progressive Party presidential ticket. During his time in the Senate, Wheeler served as chairman of the Interstate Commerce Committee and of the Indian Affairs Committee. In 1937, he successfully led the opposition to President Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court with justices of his own political persuasion. Throughout his years in the Senate, Wheeler consistently opposed war and so supported neutrality legislation in the 1930s, spoke out against peacetime conscription in 1940, and fought against the Lend-Lease aid to Britain in 1941. After the United States decided to enter World War II, however, Wheeler gave his full support to the effort. He was defeated for reelection in 1946 and practiced law in Washington D.C. until his death in 1975. Although Jarrett collected materials on Wheeler, it appears that he saved none of his own work or reminiscences.