On July 20, 1930, Congressman Edgar R. Kiess died in office, and Robert Fleming Rich (1883-1968), general manager of his family’s firm, Woolrich Woolen Mills (which still exists today), ran and won the election to replace him. He had been active in Republican politics for quite some time and had been a delegate to the 1924 Republican National Convention. He was from the start committed to holding the line on spending.
Rich opposed nearly every New Deal law; the only significant law he supported that was liberal was the Revenue Act of 1935 as a way to raise revenue in the midst of all the spending. This means that he was in opposition to numerous New Deal reforms that stuck, such as Social Security and the federal minimum wage. If FDR was in agreement with Rich, it was mostly because he had taken a stand that to Rich was conservative. For example, he voted for the Economy Act in 1933, against overriding President Roosevelt’s 1935 and 1936 vetoes of veterans’ bonus legislation, and voted against the third Frazier-Lemke farm mortgage bill in 1936. Rich was most known for consistently asking “Where are we gonna get the money?” for various New Deal spending programs, and others would join in but humorously, as all knew the money printing press (Manion). His reputation as a “watchdog of the Treasury” was difficult to match in his day.
Rich was no more accommodating to the Roosevelt Administration on foreign policy; indeed he was if anything even more in opposition than on domestic issues. Regarding Lend-Lease, Rich stated, “I do not care what the people in my district think. If I received a telegram tomorrow from everybody in my district wanting me to vote for this bill, I would resign my job in Congress before I would vote for it” (Congressional Record). Part of his strong opposition was his uncompromising stand against communism. The considered the notion of the US allying with the USSR as the equivalent of getting “in bed with a rattlesnake and a skunk” (McMeekin, 350). As an eastern businessman, he was also fiercely against the tariff-lowering agenda of the Roosevelt Administration.
In 1942, Rich opted not to run for reelection as his home district was split in two with redistricting (Mallon). House Minority Leader Joe Martin (R-Mass.) praised him thusly, “We may have differed with him on occasion, but no one ever questioned his courage, integrity, or his zeal to work for what he believed was best for hist country” and added, “As a result of his tireless industry and his ceaseless watchfulness, he has saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. We regret to see him go, because we need more than one “watchdog of the Treasury” as we move toward the abyss of wild inflation and national bankruptcy” (Mansfield Advertiser). Not all were sorry to see him leave. The left-wing New Republic (1942) wrote, “A glance at The New Republic’s voting-record chart will show that Rich has a perfect minus score both on foreign and domestic issues. For twelve years he has been the loudest critic of all things decent in the whole big House. He is the owner of the company town of Woolrich, an open-shopper and a mean opponent of social progress. Getting rid of him means more than just getting rid of a reactionary Republican vote” (763). That year, he was also one of only four House Republicans to vote against banning the poll tax in federal elections. Rich would also oppose anti-poll tax legislation in 1945, 1947, and 1949. Not all was negative for him on civil rights, however; in 1937 and 1940 he voted for anti-lynching legislation and in 1946 he voted for the anti-segregation Powell amendment to the school lunch bill.
Rich was not satisfied with being out of Congress for long, and in 1944 he ran again and won. He proved no less opposed to the Truman Administration than he was to the Roosevelt Administration. In 1946, he led the successful push to kill the construction of a government-run phosphate fertilizer plant at or near Mobile, Alabama as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. That year, in a rare siding with the liberal position, he opposed the Tidelands bill. From 1947 to 1950, Rich was only in agreement with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action 2% of the time; the one vote he sided with them on was his vote to kill the Rankin pension bill in 1949, which was devised at least in part to hamstring President Truman’s push to expand Social Security. That means he opposed aid to Greece and Turkey and the Marshall Plan and supported all domestic priorities of the conservative 80th Congress. In 1950, Rich voted against admitting Hawaii and Alaska as states. That year, he opted to retire for good, wanting to focus on his business. His DW-Nominate score is a 0.664, being in the top 5 conservatives for almost his entire time in the House.
Rich vs. the Majority
Some examples of Rich taking stances against the overwhelming majority included:
On April 19, 1935, he paired against Social Security, which only 33 representatives voted against.
On May 23, 1940, he was one of 21 representatives to vote against a compromise work relief appropriations measure.
On December 18, 1945, he was one of 15 representatives to vote against US participation in the UN.
On April 18, 1946, he was one of 20 representatives to vote for a motion to kill extending price control legislation.
On May 23, 1946, he was one of 41 representatives to vote against membership and participation in UNESCO.
On February 9, 1949, he was one of 69 representatives to vote against extending the Reciprocal Trade Act.
On August 11, 1949, he was one of 35 representatives to vote against a compromise bill increasing the minimum wage.
On October 3, 1949, he was one of 42 representatives to vote against extending and increasing funding for hospital construction.
On August 26, 1950, he was on the only representative to vote against a supplemental appropriations bill.
On December 5, 1950, Rich was one of 20 representatives to vote against extending the excess corporate profits tax.
After Politics
Rich continued his business pursuits in retirement, and served as president of Woolrich Woolen Mills from 1959 to 1964, chairman of its Board of Directors from 1964 to 1966, and finally entered semi-retirement in 1966 by stepping down to honorary chairman. He died on April 29, 1968, at the age of 84.
References
87 Cong. Rec. (Bound) – Volume 87, Part 1 (January 3, 1941 to February 18, 1941), 561.
ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.
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Mallon, P. (1942, July 23). Washington Backstage. New Orleans States-Item, 10.
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/1322345144
Manion, C. (2011, December 7). A Debate That Will Live in Infamy. Crisis Magazine.
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A Debate That Will Live in Infamy
McMeekin, S. (2021). Stalin’s war: a new history of World War II. London, UK: Basic Books.
Rich, Robert Fleming. Voteview.
Retrieved from
https://voteview.com/person/7864/robert-fleming-rich
Tributes to Congressman Robert F. Rich. (1942, December 23). Mansfield Advertiser, 1.
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/354419369
Washington Notes. (1942, June 1). The New Republic, 763-764.
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Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 