Edward W. Pou Explained

Edward William Pou
Image Name:POU, E.W. HONORABLE LCCN2016860371 (resized).jpg
State1:North Carolina
Party:Democratic
Term Start1:March 4, 1931
Term End1:April 1, 1934
Term Start2:March 4, 1917
Term End2:March 4, 1919
Predecessor2:Robert L. Henry
Successor2:Philip P. Campbell
Birth Date:9 September 1863
Birth Place:Tuskegee, Alabama
Death Place:Washington, D.C.
Alma Mater:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Office:Dean of the United States House of Representatives
Office1:Chairman of the House Rules Committee
Term Start:March 3, 1933
Term End:April 1, 1934
Predecessor:Gilbert N. Haugen
Predecessor1:Bertrand Snell
Successor:Adolph J. Sabath
Successor1:William B. Bankhead
Order:34th
1Blankname1:Speaker
1Namedata1:John Nance Garner
Henry Thomas Rainey
Term Start3:March 4, 1901
Term End3:April 1, 1934
Successor3:Harold D. Cooley
Predecessor3:John W. Atwater
Office3:Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 4th district
1Blankname2:Speaker
1Namedata2:Champ Clark

Edward William Pou (; September 9, 1863 – April 1, 1934) was an American politician, serving in the United States Congress as a representative from 1901 until his death in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 1934. From March 1933 to April 1934, he was the longest-serving current member of Congress and was the Dean of the United States House of Representatives.

Biography

Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on September 9, 1863, he moved to North Carolina with his parents in 1867, where he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and studied law. His fraternity was Alpha Tau Omega. After practicing law in Smithfield, North Carolina for a number of years, he served as a Democratic U.S. Representative from North Carolina's 4th district, 1901–1934, and served as chairman of the Committee on Claims (abolished in 1946) and then of the House Rules Committee. He died in Washington, April 1, 1934, while still in office.

Pou is notable for his support of Louis F. Post, United States Secretary of Labor and head of the Bureau of Immigration, who had, in the era of the Palmer Raids, reversed many of the decisions of the Attorney General and his aide J. Edgar Hoover as to deportations. On April 15, 1920, Kansas Congressman Homer Hoch accused Post of having abused his power and called for his impeachment. The House Committee on Rules planned to ask the President to remove Post instead of impeaching him, so Post requested and was granted a chance to testify. He successfully defended his actions on May 7–8, attacking Attorney General Palmer and others. In a dramatic exchange, Congressman Pou, a Democratic supporter of the anti-radical campaign, praised Post's actions, saying, "I believe you have followed your sense of duty absolutely," and walked out of the room, leaving it in stunned silence. The Rules Committee took no further action.

Name

Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "Though my name is spelled Pou, it is pronounced as though it were spelled pew or pugh." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)

See also

Sources