![]() Bacon, et al., The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, vol. (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc., 2013) The Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. Stathis, Landmark Legislation 1774–2012, 2nd ed. ![]() Sources: Congressional Record, House, 72nd Cong., 2nd sess. Owen facetiously bequeathed the next Congress the bustle and tumult on Capitol Hill that she and her colleagues had experienced in the early days of the Great Depression: the passage of the 21st Amendment (ending Prohibition), the passage of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), Glass-Steagall, and Revenue Acts-which, respectively, provided businesses secure loans, authorized Federal Reserve banks to use government bonds and securities as collateral for issued notes, and levied the largest peacetime tax percentage increase to date-the Bonus March, and a gunman in the House gallery.Īnd Owen certainly found her “happy days” outside of Congress’ early Depression commotion: she had a successful career as a diplomat. Her colleague Florence Kahn of California (who would, herself, become a lame duck four years later) read the poem into the Congressional Record later that day: As the 72nd Congress (1931–1933) drew closer to ending, she composed a comic poem, entitled “The Last Will and Testament of a Lame Duck,” and read it before a luncheon at the National Women's Press Club, on January 31, 1933. In the meantime, Owen heeded her constituents-voting in favor of repealing the 18th Amendment-and faced nine months as a lame duck with characteristic good humor. Garner of Texas convinced her to stay on. Owen wished to resign rather than remain a lame duck, but Speaker John N. Her stance on Prohibition-she failed to “turn ‘wet’ fast enough”-had proven unpopular among her constituents. Self-described as “the first Bryan who ran for anything and got it” (a glib reference to her father William Jennings Bryan's three failed attempts at winning the presidency), Owen lost the Republican nomination to her eastern Florida seat in June 1932. Just one week after this so-called “Lame Duck Amendment” was ratified, Representative Ruth Bryan Owen of Florida poked fun at her own predicament. From left to right they are: (front row) Pearl Oldfield of Arkansas, Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, Ruth Baker Pratt of New York, and Ruth Hanna McCormick of Illinois (back row) Ruth Bryan Owen of Florida, Mary Norton of New Jersey, and Florence Kahn of California. House of RepresentativesĪbout this object The women of the 71st Congress (1929–1931) pose on the Capitol steps. tiles/non-collection/1/11-17-WomenMembers71st-hc.xml Collection of the U.S. ![]() ![]() Complaints about long “lame duck sessions,” which took place in the months between the election and the end of the term, led to the ratification of the 20th Amendment on January 23, 1933, which backed the new Congress’ start date up to January 3. Respecting the travel difficulties to and from Congress’ meeting place in New York, the Continental Congress had set the start date for congressional sessions in the Constitution on March 4-several months after the traditional fall elections. The phrase came into usage in the United States to describe defeated politicians as early as the 1830s-replacing a somewhat harsher term, “dead duck”-and now generally encompasses all departing Members. The term “lame duck” is British in origin, used as early as the late 18th-century to describe bankrupt businessmen. It can be an awkward position, but one in which at least one woman Member found creative inspiration. It’s a phrase often bandied about after an election: the “lame duck,” or departing politician who returns to office for the remainder of his or her term after the November elections. Nor is it a cooking experiment gone wrong. tiles/non-collection/1/12-15-lame_duck_berryman_1915_nara.xml Image courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration Cartoonist Clifford Berryman highlights the large number of “lame ducks” who left office at the end of the 63rd Congress (1913–1915).
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