Smoot, Reed
Smoot, Reed
(smo͞ot), 1862–1941, U.S. senator (1903–33), b. Salt Lake City, Utah. He became successful as a banker and was prominent in the affairs of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day SaintsLatter-day Saints, Church of Jesus Christ of,name of the church founded (1830) at Fayette, N.Y., by Joseph Smith. The headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its members, now numbering about 5.
..... Click the link for more information. . He was the first Mormon to be elected (1902) to the U.S. Senate. Efforts were made to bar him from his seat because he was a Mormon, but he was seated after a Senate investigation. Smoot, a conservative Republican, joined the "irreconcilables" in opposing the League of NationsLeague of Nations,
former international organization, established by the peace treaties that ended World War I. Like its successor, the United Nations, its purpose was the promotion of international peace and security.
..... Click the link for more information. and was one of the group that worked for Warren G. HardingHarding, Warren Gamaliel
, 1865–1923, 29th President of the United States (1921–23), b. Blooming Grove (now Corsica), Ohio. After study (1879–82) at Ohio Central College, he moved with his family to Marion, Ohio, where he devoted himself to journalism.
..... Click the link for more information. 's nomination (1920). In his later years in the Senate he was chairman of the finance committee; he helped write the Hawley-Smoot Tariff ActHawley-Smoot Tariff Act,
1930, passed by the U.S. Congress; it brought the U.S. tariff to the highest protective level yet in the history of the United States. President Hoover desired a limited upward revision of tariff rates with general increases on farm products and
..... Click the link for more information. (1930), which he cosponsored with Oregon Representative Willis C. Hawley.