Michael Pertschuk interviews of Warren G. Magnuson's Commerce Committee staff, 2011-2017
Born in 1905 and adopted by a Swedish family in Moorehead, Minnesota, Warren Magnuson moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. He began practicing law soon after he graduated from the University of Washington Law School in 1929. His early positions included Executive Secretary of the Seattle Municipal League, Special Prosecuting Attorney for King County, Assistant U.S. District Attorney and attorney to the Washington Emergency Relief Administration. Magnuson, a Democrat, began his political career in the Washington State House of Representatives during the 1933 legislative session. In 1934 he was elected King County Prosecuting Attorney, an office he held until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives from the First District in 1936. During his tenure in the House, Congressman Magnuson served on the Naval Affairs Committee and the Alaska International Highway Commission. A naval reservist before World War II, Magnuson spent several months on active duty in 1942.
In 1944 Magnuson was a successful candidate, for the Senate. He assumed his Senate seat early when his predecessor, Homer T. Bone, resigned shortly before the end of his term, thereby giving Magnuson seniority over other newly elected Senators.
Warren Magnuson was best known throughout his long Congressional career for his championship of consumer and health legislation. Appointed to the Commerce Committee in 1945, he became chair of that committee in 1955 after the Democrats took control of the Senate. Consumer protection legislation was an important part of the Commerce Committee's agenda throughout Magnuson's 23 years as chairman. In 1966 a separate Consumer Subcommittee was created and Magnuson served as its chairman also. His accomplishments were recognized by the National Consumer's League when, in 1977, they presented Magnuson with their Trumpeter Award for outstanding achievements in consumer protection. Magnuson co-authored a 1968 book,
Magnuson was also an advocate of government support for scientific research in the years following World War II. In 1945 he introduced a bill which, when finally signed into law in 1950, created the National Science Foundation. As a freshman Congressman Magnuson sponsored legislation in the House which created the country's first tax-supported research center, The National Cancer Institute. This bill marked the beginning of a career-long dedication to governmental support of biomedical research and education, which he continued through his 1948 sponsorship of a bill to create the National Institutes of Health, and expanded in the 91st Congress, when he assumed the chairmanship of the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding health, labor and education programs. In 1973 Magnuson was the recipient of the Albert Lasker Public Service in Health award.
A member of the Appropriations Committee since 1945, Magnuson assumed its chairmanship in 1978 and resigned as chair of the Commerce Committee. In 1979 he was elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate, reflecting his status as most senior member of the Senate.
Other issues which concerned Magnuson throughout his career were civil rights, particularly through his authorship of the public accommodations section of the 1964 civil rights act; environmental protection, including ports and waterways safety and supertanker regulation; and improvement of public power and irrigation systems in the Northwest.
Warren Magnuson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936, to the seat from the First District left vacant by the death of Marion Zioncheck. Magnuson took office January 3, 1937 and was re-elected by increasing majorities in 1938, 1940, and 1942. In 1944 he was a successful candidate for the U.S. Senate after Homer T. Bone decided not to seek re-election.
As a Congressman Magnuson served on the Naval Affairs Committee and chaired several of its subcommittees. His responsibilities in Naval matters grew quickly. Magnuson fought for the expansion of the Navy before Pearl Harbor and was instrumental in the building of the Bremerton Naval Shipyards, and in bringing most of West Coast ship building to Puget Sound. He also chaired a Naval Affairs Aviation subcommittee and the Guadalcanal Investigation subcommittee, which investigated the merchant marines' refusal to work.
Magnuson's other committee assignments included the Select Committee on Post War Military Policy and the Special Committee to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission. He was also a member of the Alaska Highway Commission and its chairman from 1938-1944.
Magnuson's first bill as a freshman Congressman was the Bone-Magnuson Cancer Control Act of 1937, which created the National Cancer Institute. He also lent his support to public power projects, sponsored the General Welfare Act and introduced legislation which successfully repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Magnuson was a naval reservist before his election to Congress and after the Pearl Harbor attack immediately volunteered for active duty. Within a few weeks he was aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise in the Pacific with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After six months active duty, Magnuson was ordered back to Congress by the President and the Secretary of the Navy.
Warren G. Magnuson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1944 to fill the seat being vacated by Homer T. Bone. Bone then resigned his seat in December 1944. Magnuson was appointed by Governor Langlie to serve out the remaining days of Bone's term; this gave Magnuson seniority over other freshman senators.
Magnuson was perhaps best known throughout his long legislative career for his championship of consumer and health affairs legislation. Appointed to the Commerce Committee in 1945, he became chair of that committee in 1954 when the Democrats gained the majority of the Senate. The Committee had responsibility for legislation pertaining to the regulation of interstate commerce and transportation, communications and consumer protection. Under Magnuson's leadership numerous landmark consumer bills were passed in this period including the Flammable Fabrics Act (1953, 1967), the Hazardous Substances Act (1960), the Child Protection Act (1966), the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966), the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (1966) and the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (1966). Magnuson chaired the Commerce Committee for 23 years, until 1978 when he became chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Magnuson lost his seat in the Senate to Slade Gorton in the 1980 general election. At the beginning of the period covered in these papers, Magnuson became chair of the Labor-Health, Education and Welfare Subcommittee (later: Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee) of the Appropriations Committee. He continued as chair of the Commerce Committee until 1978 when he relinquished that role in order to chair the full Appropriations Committee.
His positions on these two powerful committees enabled Magnuson to exert considerable influence in the areas of health care and consumer protection, major interests throughout his career. Examples of legislative accomplishments from this period include the National Health Service Corps, Children's Catastrophic Health Care Act, the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act, Poison Prevention Packaging Act, Consumer Product Safety Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act.
The long years of dedicated service in these legislative areas became formally recognized during this period. In 1979 Warren G. Magnuson was elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The position marked his status as the most senior member of the United States Senate. In 1973 he was awarded the prestigious Albert D. Lasker Public Service Award for leadership in health, and in 1977 he received the National Consumers League Trumpeter Award for outstanding achievements in consumer protection. In November 1978 the University of Washington's Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Center was named for the man whose strong legislative support had made the Center's facilities and programs possible.
Magnuson, a long-time advocate of free trade with the Peoples' Republic of China, led the first congressional delegation to that country in 1973 following President Nixon's historic visit the previous year.
In the latter part of 1970, Magnuson vigorously promoted funding for the SST program. The proposal was eventually defeated.
Edward W. Sheets holds a BA from Brown University (political science) and a master's degree from the University of Washington (energy and environmental policy). Sheets served as a special assistant and legislative assistant for Senator Warren G. Magnuson for many years, and was the staff person responsible for energy and environmental issues, as well as legislative and appropraitions projects. He represented Magnuson in negotions on the Northwest Power Act and passed legislation to prohibit an oil super port in Puget Sound.
Organized into 22 accessions.
The papers document Magnuson's career from his student days through the end of his Senate career in 1980.
For papers generated while Magnuson was in office, Magnuson's staff established the major correspondence categories: Legislative, General, Departmental, and Personal/Political. Legislative correspondence consists of bills and constituent mail on pending or proposed legislation and is arranged by subject or title of the legislation. Departmental correspondence consists of correspondence with federal agencies on behalf of constituents and is arranged by agency. Constituent case files, including military, social security, civil service and immigration cases, have been removed from the papers and accessioned separately. Some individual case files scattered throughout the papers may have been overlooked and are subject to special restrictions regarding their use. General correspondence is arranged alphabetically by subject or constituent names. Magnuson's correspondence with friends and political associates were arranged with his campaign files to form Personal/political papers. Background files on specific topics were routinely kept by all of Senator Magnuson's offices. These are identified as subject series and may be found throughout the accessions.
Open to all users; however portions of the papers are subject to restrictions. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, for more information.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Warren Grant Magnuson papers. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.
The majority of Senator Magnuson's papers were transferred to the University of Washington Libraries following his reelection defeat in 1980.
Accessions 3181-001 to 3181-011 were processed between 1981 and 1987. Additional accessions have been received over time.
The original arrangement of the Magnuson papers reflected the fact that substantial portions of the papers were received from federal storage where the Senator's staff had periodically retired inactive files. During processing, these installments were brought together with the files received from Magnuson's Washington D.C. offices. Similar records were identified and consolidated in each chronological segment. For the most part, the contents of folders were left in their original order. It was the practice of Magnuson's staff to begin new files each year and this pattern was adhered to in processing.
Photographs were relocated to the Warren Grant Magnuson Photograph Collection, PH Coll 683, Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries.
Duplicated and non-essential material was discarded during processing of the papers. The latter includes tear sheets from the
Magnuson's committee work is not fully documented in these papers. The bulk of the files generated by his work as committee chairman are in Washington D.C. The Legislative Archives Division of the National Archives is responsible for administering inactive, official committee records of both houses of Congress. Most Senate records in the Archives are available for public inspection twenty years after their creation; those records relating to personal privacy are restricted for fifty years. Unpublished House committee records are restricted (as of 1987) for fifty years. Committee files in the National Archives which may contain security-classified documents must be screened before use, resulting in delayed access. The Legislative Archives Division strongly recommends that researchers correspond with them in advance of a visit. Researchers should contact the Legislative Archives Division of the National Archives or the Senate Historical Office for more information about these records.
Advisory Democratic ballots and American Newspaper Guild front page with election results.
Legislative correspondence consists of bills and constituent mail regarding pending or proposed legislation. Pressure mail was selectively sampled by the Special Collections staff.
Departmental correspondence is primarily case files comprised of correspondence with federal agencies and with constituents. It is arranged according to agency.
General correspondence is the least clearly defined category, but includes colleagues, friends, and constituents. To some extent it overlaps legislative and departmental correspondence, but the constituent mail in general correspondence concerns issues, not necessarily legislation. General correspondence also contains correspondence with political associates in Washington State and with some individuals in the Personal / Political Papers series.
Magnuson's correspondence with friends and close political associates is in the Personal / Political Papers series. The distinction between personal and political correspondence was not readily apparent so no attempt was made to separate them. The name folders in this series occasionally contain material about, as well as from, the individual or organization named. Campaign material is also included in the Personal / Political series.
Northwest Airlines was a client of Magnuson's law firm. The Northwest Airlines series contains material relating to Magnuson's work on their behalf.
Since the original foldering of the papers was retained and since some individuals have correspondence in more than one series or year.
United States Army, see United States War Department
The arrangement of the records generally conforms to that of the Magnuson House papers. The correspondence series, legislation, speeches, press files and campaign materials have been organized year by year within each series. Legislative correspondence contains constituent mail on pending issues or bills, such as civil rights or universal military training. There is no Legislative correspondence for 1947 or for the period 1951-54. WGM Sponsored Legislation includes bills and related material. Departmental correspondence consists of communications of Magnuson with constituents and federal departments. General correspondence includes a mixture of letters from constituents, colleagues, friends, and political associates regarding a variety of political, business and economic issues. The project files are exclusively about United States Army Corp of Engineers projects located in the Northwest and have been arranged alphabetically. Similar project material can also be found in the subject series. The subject series were drawn primarily from personal papers are not specifically correspondence or legislation. The chronological order of the news releases has been retained, though the specific dates (day and month) are not listed in the inventory. Speeches and writings have been arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year.
Personal/political papers is a designation applied by Magnuson's office staff to a set of files which include personal correspondence, financial records and campaign material. The personal correspondence is with friends and associates and occasionally contains material about individuals and organizations. Sixteen boxes of campaign files include extensive material on Magnuson's 1950 and 1956 Senatorial campaigns, as well as general political material from this period. A number of files about Henry M. Jackson's successful 1952 Senatorial campaign against Harry P. Cain are included here. Magnuson's administrative assistant Irvin A. Hoff served as Jackson's unofficial campaign manager for the 1952 election.
Also included are records from the Senate committees Magnuson served on -- Naval Affairs, Judiciary, Territories and Insular Affairs, Appropriations and Commerce; he became chairman of the latter in 1955. Though not extensive, committee records include correspondence, hearing transcripts, legislation and meeting agendas. Very little exists in the way of committee staff memos and correspondence between committee members. The papers of Irvin A. Hoff, Magnuson's administrative assistant in this period are also included.
The personal / political papers series (boxes 167-199) are closed.
Researchers who wish to use the Departmental Correspondence series (boxes 49-114) must sign a release form "agreeing (1) not to reveal the name of any individual named in a case file; and (2) to hold harmless and indemnify the University and Senator Magnuson's heirs or any loss or damages arising from the use of these files."
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
Includes material on MacArthur firing
Signatures of Republic of China Legislators (1953), photograph album, and replica of Japanese surrender
Additional materials in oversize folder 1
Additional materials in oversize folder 1
General correspondence and publications
General correspondence and memoranda (regulations comprising the Loyalty Board Program)
General correspondence and news releases
General correspondence and news releases
General correspondence, news releases, publications, and clippings
General correspondence, speeches and writings, and clippings
See also main series of news releases
Hearings -- S. 1814 (Bermuda Air Agreement) hearings (1946) and miscellaneous
Includes speeches and writings from James M. Landis
For news releases, newsletters, publications, speeches and writings, clippings, and miscellany, see U.S. Senate. Comerce Committee subgroup.
General correspondence, legislation, speeches and writings, and miscellany
Bainbridge Island, WA and Moorehead, MN
Arranged by topic chronologically by year.
Includes congratulations
Includes King County Democratic Club and Peace Letter Mailings
Includes King County Democratic Club and The Nation Associates
Includes contributions, donations, insurance policies, Wallace McKay Advertising Company, and other records.
Includes Democratic organizations and Democratic Party National Committee
Includes clippings about Cain, Harry P. (Jackson (Henry M.) Senate campaign, election returns, and republican candidates
Includes Democratic Party National Committee and Adlai Stevenson
Includes public power and U.S. State Department
Includes Democratic Party National Committee and "The Public Power Issue in 1954"
Includes Joseph McCarthy Hearings (U.S. Senate. Government Operations Committee. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI)), Tom Pelly, Public Power, and others.
Includes Democratic Party lists
Includes Lyndon B. Johnson
Public Power and miscellaneous
Includes William Beeks (campaign finance committee chairman), budget, contributions, and miscellaneous.
Restricted.
Includes campaign workers, Democratic organizations, Washington State Central Committee (Democratic Party), Motor Carriers, prospective donations, Speakers Committee, Stevenson-Sparkman Fund donors, veterans, volunteers, and miscellaneous.
Includes Aeromechanics, Bremerton Navy Yard (U.S. Navy. Puget Sound Naval Yard), Convention, Walla Walla Farms, Fish, Hell's Canyon, and miscellaneous.
Includes Eagle (magazine), "The Magnuson Story", and miscellaneous
Includes Arthur B. Langlie
Administrative assistant to Magnuson
The arrangement of these records is closely patterned after previous segments of Magnuson papers. There are four major correspondence series including "Personal," "General," "Departmental," and " Legislative."Legislative matters are covered both in the legislative correspondence and the WGM sponsored legislation, which consists of copies of bills and related material. Records generated through Senator Magnuson's committee work and board memberships and the papers of his press secretary, Carl Downing, and administrative assistant, Gerald Grinstein, are also included.
Personal correspondence consists of correspondence of Magnuson with friends and associates, as well as birthday greetings, Christmas cards and invitations. Each correspondent for 1963 was listed individually on the inventory in order to pick up names during the indexing process. Researchers should note that many of these same correspondents appear in other years, though they may be filed in the alphabetical "Miscellaneous" folders.
General correspondence includes correspondence with constituents and interested parties on the broader issues of the day, such as the United Nations, Communism and American Foreign Policy. Important events, such as John F. Kennedy's assassination and the Seattle World's Fair, are also covered. The arrangement of general correspondence is a mixture of subject files, such as those listed above, and constituent correspondence organized alphabetically by the name of the correspondent.
Legislation-related materials are scattered throughout several series. Legislative correspondence includes constituent mail on pending issues or bills such as public power and social security, and in some cases overlaps the WGM sponsored legislation series. Although Magnuson played a major part in the creation of such legislation as the Cigarette Labeling Bill (1965) and the Truth-in-Lending Act (1968), there is little evidence of his actions on these particular bills in the WGM sponsored legislation series. The researcher should check the legislative correspondence, subject series and speeches for information about these bills. Gerald Grinstein's papers also include subject files on a variety of topics, especially those considered during the 1965-1966session.
Departmental correspondence includes correspondence of Magnuson with federal departments, primarily on behalf of constituents appealing to him for assistance in dealing with the federal bureaucracy. These files are arranged alphabetically by the name of the agency or department. These departmental files reflect the rapid growth of the Federal Government in the mid-1960s. Growing out of the Johnson administration's Great Society Program, new organizations such as the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Housing and Urban Development Department became increasingly evident in these records. Folders for existing programs, such as Social Security and Public Health, also greatly increase in number over the previous accession.
Information on public works projects in the region can be found in several series. Material about the North Cascades National Park, the Columbia Basin Project and highway construction is filed under the appropriate agencies(Interior, Reclamation, National Park Service, Public Roads Bureau, etc.) in the departmental correspondence. Army Corps of Engineers dam and harbor improvement projects are filed in the project files. Washington state matters also include materials about in-state projects, agencies and legislative concerns. The unusual volume of these series clearly reflects the depth of Magnuson's involvement in such regional concerns as water resource development and the nuclear power industry at Hanford, WA.
The subject series also includes several files on Northwest dam, harbor improvement and public power projects. Many of these files include materials from the late 1940s and early 1950s that continued to be used for reference purposes. The same is true of subject files on labor issues such as the Taft-Hartley Act.
One of Magnuson's special interests during the early 1960s was the Seattle World's Fair (the 1962 Century 21 Exposition). Magnuson was one of its early proponents and helped secure Federal funds and cooperation for the fair. Magnuson's continuing interest in the Seattle Center is documented in the Pacific Science Center Foundation subgroup.
Campaign records are included among the political papers. Magnuson worked as Lyndon B. Johnson's Washington state Campaign Chairman for the 1964election. Included in these papers are itineraries of Vice Presidential candidate Hubert H. Humphrey's visit to the Northwest.
The speeches and writings series have been arranged alphabetically by year. The speeches and writings document Magnuson's work on legislation not fully covered in the sponsored legislation series.
The Senate committee files in this accession: Appropriations, Commerce, Aeronautical and Space Sciences, and Water Resources, are relatively thin. The majority of the files generated by Magnuson's work as Commerce Committee chairman are in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The Commerce Committee records in this accession include a galley proof of the unpublished "Campaign "64" report, which includes all of the speeches and public statements of Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Barry Goldwater and William Miller during the campaign, as well as a record of the media coverage of the campaign.
The Personal Correspondence, Political Papers, and the Personal Papers series (Boxes 50-72, 187A-192, 201A-202A) are closed indefinitely.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
Punch Board Excise Tax and firearms regulation
Audio tapes of speeches are with the media materials.
Telegraphic releases are filed among the Press Office releases.
See also Atomic Energy Commission and Tri-Cities Nuclear Council.
The types of correspondence series in this group of records varies slightly from previous segments. The major groups of correspondence and their contents include:
Background files on specific topics were routinely kept by all of Senator Magnuson's offices. These are identified as Subject Series in the inventory of the papers. Besides the main Subject Series, extensive subject files may be found in the Press Office series and in the papers of the various aides.
There is a noticeable gap in the Magnuson Sponsored Bills series between the years 1974-1979. The University did not receive these materials.
Also included are papers of a number of the Senator's Legislative and Administrative aides. The files of the administrative assistants were clearly identified; these include W. F. Reid, Norm Dicks, Stan Barer and Mike Steward. Files of the many other Legislative aides were less clearly separated. They were identified from correspondence, memos and transmittal notes found within the files, and by the similarity and proximity of files. The arrangement, therefore, provides a clue to the originator of each file, but should not be viewed as definitive.
The Personal Correspondence series and the Campaign Materials series (boxes 45-53/14, 150/5-151/18, 171/17-178/9. 341/20-344/27) are closed indefinitely.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
See also Briefing Book in box 356
See also box 356 folders 17-22
Includes Thank-yous
Folder 34 not used
General correspondence and reports
Reports and miscellaneous
General correspondence (1979-1980) and reports (1975)
General correspondence
General correspondence
General correspondence, reports, and miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
General correspondence (1974-1980), reports (1972-1976), and miscellaneous (1975)
These individual appeals and requests are the case files of this accession. Although usually not unique in their content -- many dealt with such issues as social security payments, pension benefits, military discharges, and immigration problems -- Magnuson's staff attempted to respond to most of the mail that came into the office. Many of these responses were similar, due to the similarity of the requests. The volume of mail received, the availability of staff to answer it and the availability of word processing technology to produce standard replies to typical letters, all influenced the way in which the office dealt with the mail.
Between 1976 and 1980, Magnuson's office staff employed two sophisticated word processing systems to respond to constituent correspondence. Correspondence Management System (CMS) was a method for producing many individualized letters by merging similar text with constituent names and addresses. A printout for this system, arranged alphabetically by constituent name and topic, was produced annually. None of these printouts still exist in the case files of this accession. System 6, which the office began using in November 1979, was comparable to CMS, although apparently no annual printout of constituents and topics was produced. The original incoming correspondence was discarded after 90 days.
Although it is known that both these systems were used, it is not evident from looking at the files where one system begins and the other leave off. For further information researchers can read Tony Medina's December 2,1980 memorandum regarding CMS, System 6 and the filing practices of the office. Medina handled casework in Senator Magnuson's Washington, D.C. office between March 1979 and early 1981.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
Cases, which were filed by agency, were assessed for their content. Their informational value about a historical epoch or event (such as World War II), their typicality or uniqueness and the volume of files of a particular agency, were all factors which determined how much of each agency's case records were retained. For some agencies, all of the cases were kept; for others only 10%25 or 50%25. Although not frequent, some cases of a particular agency were simply retained because of their "non-typicality" while all the other files of the agency were completely removed. A slip of paper in the first folder of the folders for each agency, indicates what percentage of material was retained. Researchers may also consult the attached list to determine how the files for each agency were reduced.
Researchers should note that cases in the Magnuson Congressional Papers (1937-1944), Accession #3181-002 have been retained in their entirety as part of the Departmental Correspondence series.
University of Washington faculty from various disciplines were consulted during this sampling process.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice is required for use.
Campaign ephemera, including archival copies and duplicates.