The year is 1940. Although the American public reelects President Roosevelt, he has gotten increased opposition in the Midwest, and a big reason for this is that the Midwest is the heartland of opposition to the US getting involved in World War II. Although Republicans lose a net of seven House seats, they gain six seats in Illinois. Although President Roosevelt wins the state of Illinois by over two points, non-interventionist sentiment is strong in the state, and Chicago is regarded as the isolationist capital of the US. C.W. “Runt” Bishop (1890-1971) of southern Illinois is one of the beneficiaries, defeating staunch New Dealer Kent Keller, who had been in office ten years. Keller would four times try to win his seat back, with his last effort being in 1950 when he was 83 years old, but Bishop always held on against him.

Although his birth name was Cecil William Bishop, no one knew him by that name, rather they knew him by his nickname he gained when as a youth he was a football quarterback who was 5’5” and weighed only 98 pounds, “Runt”. By the time he was in Congress, however, he was 185   pounds, but he had fully embraced the nickname and would not accept being called by any other name. His name had appeared on the Illinois ballot as “Runt Bishop” and he was certified elected by the clerk of the House as “Runt Bishop” (The Evansville Press). This insistence resulted in some difficulty, but not insurmountable. He insisted that the name “Runt” be put on his Congressional office door much to the chagrin of Capitol Hill architect David Lynn, who regarded as undignified, to which he responded, “I do not care whether it is dignified or not. I am ‘Runt’ to everybody back in Carterville, Illinois, and I am going to be ‘Runt’ here”, and he did get his way, the first time that such a thing happened in Congress (Dixon). This applied outside of politics too. Bishop insisted on be listed in the telephone book as “Runt Bishop” and it was done but only after his secretary presented the phone company with an affidavit authorizing the use of the name, and the gas company also didn’t want to send him bills under the name “Runt Bishop” but they eventually backed down (Dixon). If he had been elected president, he would have undoubtedly been sworn in as “Runt Bishop”, much like Jimmy Carter was sworn in not as James Earl Carter, but “Jimmy”. 

Bishop was a tailor who had multiple shops in Illinois and ran one out of his Congressional office. Thus, when anyone had some sewing that needed to be done in Congress, they would turn to Bishop. Bishop consistently wore the finest suits, and they were so because he made them for himself. He also made dresses for his wife and his friends’ wives (Othman). His sewing helped make him personally popular among his colleagues, as they could count on him if something happened like a button fell off their suit. As Bishop himself said, “You’d be surprised how many friends you can make by sewing on a button or mending a shirt tail here and there. It pays to keep a sewing kit in your bag” (Nichols). One fellow he differed with, however, was Clare Hoffman (R-Mich.). He didn’t like that Bishop wouldn’t sew him a suit and pants that had no pockets save for the left hip, a quirk he adopted after misplacing a manuscript for a speech (Nichols). Bishop was also known as a skilled golfer and was an occasional golfing buddy of President Eisenhower despite him not being of the president’s “modern Republican” wing of the party.

The Ideology of a Runt

Bishop’s political stances are a rather interesting matter; indeed, they are why I have covered him. He was strongly opposed to extensive executive power. On June 6, 1941, he wrote that Roosevelt could potentially increase the army at will, suspend the Wagner Labor Relations Act, fix the gold content of the dollar, and set prices (Bishop). Bishop opposed all such powers. He was in many respects an extremist; he was for tariffs to the absolute hilt, save for Lend Lease appropriations during World War II, there wasn’t a foreign aid measure he approved of. Aid to Greece and Turkey and the Marshall Plan were easy nays for him. In 1947, Bishop was part of a Congressional delegation in Europe that visited the Pope. He pointedly asked him although did not get an answer, “If we vote money for relief goods to be sent here to Europe, how do we know the goods will ever get to the people who need them?” (Pearson) Thus, Bishop’s opposition to foreign aid seems to have based on skepticism that the money was being put to good use. The left-wing publication The New Republic (1942) regarded Bishop as a “colorless isolationist and reactionary”. Bishop was also a constant foe of price and rent controls as well as public housing. Indeed, most aspects of the New Deal met with his opposition. He was also one of the few Illinois politicians to oppose the St. Lawrence Seaway, the construction of which served to benefit the Midwest.

On labor issues, however, he consistently voted with organized labor and was a supporter of the Wagner Act. This support included being one of 11 House Republicans to vote against overriding President Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. Within Bishop’s district there were coal fields and he had been a coal miner in his youth, thus it was good politics and/or personal convictions that had him back organized labor. He also opposed a successful Conservative Coalition effort to limit the impact of a 1949 minimum wage increase and the following year supported a mandatory Fair Employment Practices Committee to combat racial discrimination in employment. Speaking of, he consistently supported civil rights measures, voting five times for anti-poll tax legislation. Despite his differences on organized labor, his DW-Nominate score was a 0.609, among the highest in Congress. He agreed with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) 18% of the time from 1947 to 1954. This was primarily due to his stances on labor, but he also supported lessening the obstruction of the Rules Committee in 1950 and 1951 after supporting the status quo in 1949, as well as voted against legislation removing price regulation of natural gas from the Federal Power Commission’s jurisdiction in 1949 and 1950.

In the 83^rd Congress, Bishop was chairman of the Special Committee on Campaign Expenditures, and chairman of the Subcommittee on Accounts, the latter a committee that other committees had to go to in order to get investigations approved. Unlike in the last Congress in which he had voted against the creation of the Cox Committee to investigate tax-exempt institutions, he voted for the Reece Committee to do so. Bishop also served as an assistant whip, thus being part of efforts to line up Republicans for critical votes. However, he himself could not be counted on to support the Eisenhower Administration’s priorities down the line. While Bishop supported Hawaii statehood, the Tidelands bill, and the Eisenhower Administration’s policies on taxes and privatization of atomic power, he continued his opposition to foreign aid and opposed bipartisan legislation admitting additional refugees from Europe.

The 1954 Election

Republicans faced headwinds in the 1954 midterms, as parties with incumbents usually do in midterms. These headwinds cost them both the House and the Senate, and in Illinois Bishop was one of three House Republicans to lose reelection, losing to 30-year-old auto dealer Kenneth Gray. On a side note, this was not a good election year for either of the Congressional baseball teams. While the Republicans had lost their manager in Bishop, the Democrats lost their star pitcher in Georgia’s Don Wheeler as he had been defeated for renomination. Bishop would not run for office again, and Gray would have a long career in Washington, serving from 1955 to 1974, and again from 1985 to 1989. Bishop would serve in multiple government positions afterwards, serving as the Post Office’s liaison to Congress from 1955 to 1957,  the last being conciliator for the Illinois State Labor Department from 1959 until he retired in February 1961. Bishop remained impressive in his golf game even into old age, having played in southern Illinois golf tournaments until the age of 80, when he received national recognition for having shot a hole-in-one (Southern Illinoisan). He died after a long illness on September 22, 1971.

Bishop stands as an interesting fellow to me because of his multiple talents, being a sportsman in golf and baseball as well as being a master tailor, as well as his political record. He stood as extremely conservative on most issues, but made a few important exceptions, most notably on organized labor. This combination worked well for his district, which was usually a good place for Democrats, for 14 years.

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

https://adaction.org/ada-voting-records/

Bishop, Cecil William (Runt). Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://www.voteview.com/person/731/cecil-william-runt-bishop

Bishop, C.W. (1941, June 6). Congressional Trends. The Daily Independent, p. 10.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/11775853/

Call to the Colors. (1942, October 5). The New Republic, p. 48.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/1144117658/

Dixon, G. (1944, September 2). ‘Runt’ Sews Up Congressmen. The San Francisco Examiner, p. 15.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/458478831/

New Illinois Congressman Is Proud of Being a Runt. (1941, February 3). Evansville Press, p. 7.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/763363496/

Nichols, H.W. (1948, July 29). Runt Bishop Is Popular Fellow On Capitol Hill. The Saginaw News, p. 4.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/1107765974/

Othman, F.C. (1945, July 19). Navy Man, Now In Congress, Loses Naval Post To Tailor. Tucson Daily Citizen, p. 3.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/10592153/

Pearson, D. (1947, November 3). Long Beach Independent, p. 8.

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https://www.newspapers.com/image/717778798/