James Wolfenden

On May 26, 1928, Congressman Thomas S. Butler of West Chester, Pennsylvania, died at age seventy-three, after having represented the Delaware/Chester County 8th congressional district for an unprecedented thirty-one years.

McClure, himself a candidate for the state senate district, which encompassed all of Delaware County, offered a resolution recognizing Butler's passing as the "loss of a great statesman and national leader."

Having also won the special election to fill the remainder of Butler's term, several weeks earlier, against token opposition, Wolfenden was able to take his seat in the House of Representatives on November 6, 1928.

As the Great Depression was gaining momentum and Republicans nationally fell out of favor with the public, Wolfenden, bucking the trend, was easily reelected in 1930, beating his Democratic opponent, Harry Wescott by 64,000 votes, 84,521 to 20,443.

Widespread discontent, brought on by untold economic suffering and misery, caused the Democrats to make a net gain of 53 House and eight Senate seats.

The Republicans clung to a one-vote lead in the Senate, 48 to 47, and two votes in the House, 218 to 216, although the deaths of several GOP members gave the Democrats a majority by the time Congress reorganized several months later.

By 1932, as Hoover's sincere, but insufficient efforts to ease the widespread economic crisis could not arrest the continuing downturn, it was clear that voters were turning to the Democratic nominee, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Governor Arthur James, himself not up for election, vigorously defended the Hoover record, comparing the latter to Abraham Lincoln, in whom "people had faith and reelected" against great odds during the Civil War.

In 1933, President Roosevelt, in order to try to relieve the widespread misery due to a now unthinkable unemployment rate of 25% that he inherited from the previous Republican administration, began submitting his New Deal legislation to Congress, which had a top-heavy Democratic majority.

He also voted for isolationist neutrality legislation and opposed earlier efforts to build up defenses, which also reflected the view of the majority of his party and a large segment of the public.

During this period, Wolfenden served on the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission and also introduced HR164, which was aimed towards "discouraging, preventing, punishing the crime of lynching", one of the most vile manifestations of racial hatred still occurring in the Deep South.

Finally, following another two years of fighting tooth-and-nail against most New Deal legislation, the Republican Party had what it thought was a chance to recapture the presidency with the nomination of Governor Alf Landon of Kansas.

Nationally, the FDR juggernaut swept Landon aside with 60.7% of the vote and the Democrats took an additional eleven House seats from the GOP and now held a whopping 333 to 89 majority, with thirteen third party members.

As the international crisis worsened, with a full-scale war in Europe in September 1939, President Roosevelt asked Congress to strengthen the military in order to deter aggression.

In the Pennsylvania Republican primary of April 23, New York City District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, a young (only 38 years old), attractive major contender for the nomination, who gained a national reputation as a racket-buster, had won with over 66% of the vote.

Voters, in keeping with tradition and not wishing to change national leadership in the midst of a crisis, reelected Roosevelt to an unprecedented third term, with a decisive 54% majority.

In December 1941, both houses of Congress voted without dissension, except for Republican Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin of Montana, to declare war on Germany and Japan.

Further, he stated that the congressman never cast a vote without "ulterior motives" and served "special interests and sinister influences", such as big business and international cartels.

In charges that smacked of the McCarthyism that would develop in a few years, Hunt seemed to be attempting to impugn Wolfenden's loyalty by stating that the Japanese, prior to the war, had not possessed the resources to build a military machine, until they were supplied by the so-called "sinister influences".

Further, he elaborated that the Republicans were the party of "Hoover, Landon and Heart; McCormick, Taft and Nye; Martin, Barton and Fish", referring to isolationist members of Congress, as well as former candidates.

Next on the attack was Congressman Francis J. Myers, candidate for U.S. Senate, who painted Dewey as anti-labor and decried the latter's use of "innuendoes" towards certain critics by referring to them as "Russian" or "foreign born".

With unemployment virtually erased in the United States, the U.S. Employment Service reported that there were 7,594 immediate job openings in Delaware County, with 3,415 of those needing unskilled workers.

Charges of "who-really-got-us-into-this-war" continued to fly, as Republican Congressman Hugh Scott, later to become senator, accused President Roosevelt of "criminal negligence" regarding the positioning of the Pacific fleet immediately prior to Pearl Harbor.

Republican loyalists in Chester and Delaware counties, as well as across the Commonwealth, called for a "Day for Dewey", during which volunteers would be asked to donate eight hours to enlist their friends and neighbors to support the cause.

As the train slowed at the Baltimore and Ohio station at 12th Street and Providence Avenue in Chester, Roosevelt waved from the window and flashed his famous smile, causing the crowd to surge forward in excitement.

Although knowledge of his deteriorating health was kept from the public, FDR regained some of his old form and returned the fire of Dewey, accusing the Republicans of placing "party over patriotism".

Although organized labor, which never had it so good with the wartime boom, was pushing hard for Roosevelt and O'Rourke, county GOP leaders predicted that there would be very little ticket-splitting, due to difficulties with the voting machines.

As it had done before, the Chester Times opposed Roosevelt's reelection, citing, in a front-page editorial, his "inefficiency" regarding domestic affairs, an "improvised" foreign policy, the possible "dictatorship" of another term, and his choice of Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman, as a "person of no outstanding ability".

The Evening Bulletin reported that Wolfenden was aboard the Ram, 28-foot cabin cruiser, as a guest of assistant county coroner, Charles H. Drewes, when an engine backfire caused seventy gallons of gasoline that had just been loaded to explode.

All in all, his service was neither distinguished or inspired, but did attempt to balance the interests of a district that was undergoing a rapid transition from primarily sleepy rural to a growing, bustling bedroom community.