DAVID I. WALSH
Brief letter on stationery of the Senate's Naval Affairs Committee
Typed Letter signed: "David I. Walsh" as US Senator, 1 page, 8x½, affixed to an 8½x11 page which also bears a transmittal envelope on verso with Walsh's stamped frank, and a newspaper photo of with Navy Secretary James Forrestal and Admiral Chester Nimitz. Washington, D.C., 1945 August 3. On letterhead of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee to Captain Ralph E. Ward, Jr., Washington, D.C.. In full: "I am complying with your request and am, with pleasure, attaching my autograph to this letter. Sincerely yours". DAVID IGNATIUS WALSH (1872-1947) was Massachusetts's first Irish-Catholic Governor (1914-1916), as well as that state's first Irish-Catholic Senator (1919-1925 and 1926-1947). A Democrat, he also served in the state legislature and as Lieutenant Governor (1913-1914). As Governor, Walsh was part of an unsuccessful attempt to institute women's suffrage. He also pushed for stricter film censorship after protests against D. W. Griffith's controversial Birth of a Nation (1915). He was a vocal opponent of the Ku Klux Klan. Until Pearl Harbor, he opposed measures which might involve the US in World War II. Walsh had strained relations with President Roosevelt, twice supporting rivals for the Democratic Presidential nomination (Al Smith in 1932 and James Farley in 1940). From the collection of Ralph Errington Ward (1926-2009) a fighter pilot and squadron commander in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II. Ward went on to become President and CEO of Cheseborough-Ponds, Inc., transforming the cosmetics firm into a major home product conglomerate. Creased and toned. Multiple mailing folds. Lightly worn. Otherwise, fine condition.