Lewis B. Schwellenbach Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Lewis Baxter Schwellenbach (1894-1948) a Seattle lawyer with close ties to the labor movement was elected to the US Senate as Democrat in 1934. A staunch supporter of the New Deal, he was appointed a federal district judge by FDR in 1940. Earlier that year, he had been one of the few nationally prominent Democrats to campaign for Harry Truman in a tough primary fight for re-nomination to the Senate. When Truman became President, he picked Schwellenbach for Secretary of Labor, a tough job in an era when pent-up wage demands after World War II triggered a wave of strikes, and when the Republican Congress passed the Taft-Hartley labor legislation over President Truman's veto. Schwellenbach served until his death.