Frank Wheeler Mondell (November 6, 1860August 6, 1939) was an American politician, businessman, and lawyer. A Republican, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Wyoming. He also served as the House Majority leader.
Born in St. Louis, Mondell was orphaned as a child and grew up in Iowa. He moved to the Western United States, where he worked construction jobs. The discoverer of a large coal deposit in Wyoming, he became a noted figure in the state, serving in its state senate. He represented the state's at-large district in the House for 13 terms, from 1895 to 1897, and again from 1899 to 1923.
A conservative, Mondell was prominent among standpatter Republicans. He primarily developed legislation regarding land management. He was chairman of the Committees on Irrigation and Arid Lands, as which he pushed for large irrigation projects in the Western United States. After serving in Congressm he remained in Washington, D.C., becoming a lawyer there.
Early life and early career
Mondell was born on November 6, 1860, in St. Louis, the son of Ephraim Wheeler Mondell and Nancy Brown Mondell. He was orphaned at some point between the ages of five and seven;
Mondell then moved to Iowa with distant family, later being adopted by a Congregational minister and pioneer named Upton. He lived in Monona for two years before the family moved in Excelsior Township, Dickinson County, Iowa. At age 15, he began working as a trapper.
At age 18, Mondell moved to Chicago, working odd jobs there for a year. For the eight years that followed, he relocated throughout the Western United States. He also developed oilfields.
During the early Wyoming legislatures, Crook and Weston Counties were consolidated into one Senate district, which led to fears that Republicans would be under-represented in the Legislature. To counteract this, Mondell agreed to run for the State Senate. He won, serving in the first and second Wyoming legislature, He served as its president during the second legislature, He won, and became a member of the House representing Wyoming's at-large district.
Mondell declined to run in the following election, instead running for the United States Senate, losing to Democrat incumbent John B. Kendrick. At some previous point, he anticipated to run for Senator, but dropped out to let Francis E. Warren run again.
Policy and views
Ideologically conservative, Mondell was a standpatter Republican. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1892, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1924; He stated that he went along with the Republican Party, so long as it benefitted the Western United States. He supported individualism and states' rights.
Economy
Economically, Mondell was a protectionist who supported tariffs. He opposed the federal government giving funding to states. While Representatives questioned if a tariff on Puerto Rican sugar was constitutional, he argued that the Constitution did not extend to United States territories, so a tariff on Puerto Rico was allowed.
In 1906, Republican Representatives introduced a bill to make a more relaxed tariff on sugar beet imports from the Philippines. Mondell was a staunch opponent of the bill, a rare instance of him opposing Republican economic policy. He argued against it, as it would have endangered American industry. He opposed the Revenue Act of 1913.
Land management
As a politician, Mondell used his powers primarily to push land development legislation. He authored the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909,
In his first term in the House, Mondell opposed the General Revision Act due to the land that it declared public area was uninspected, with the declarative Bighorn Mountains being vastly unforested. On Wyoming's Indian reservations, he wished the tribes respected the state's hunting laws.
In Congress, Mondell focused on legislation to build irrigation systems. In 1904 and 1905, he proposed that 1.5 million acres be taken from the Wind River Indian Reservation in order to create the Wind River Irrigation Project. The proposal was negotiated by James McLaughlin, and the price of the land was set at $2,200,000. The land was sold to the United States government in early 1904. As President Theodore Roosevelt expanded his conservation policy, Mondell became a critic of his administration.
Mondell did not assist in the fight against the Teapot Dome scandal, despite it taking place in Wyoming. In his autobiography, he stated that he did not know of it before it became public knowledge. In 1922, he proposed a bill to pay a royalty of 37.5% to the Wyoming government for the Teapot Dome leasing. However, the royalty was lowered to 5% by Senator Kendrick. During his 1922 Senate campaign, Wyoming Republican Party chairman P. C. Spencer suggested to Mondell that he use the scandal to smear Kendrick, as Kendrick had voted for the bill allowing the scandal to happen; Mondell refused. As a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, Mondell helped shape American military policy. He also influenced military policy as a member of the Committee on Appropriations, which gave him deciding power over the federal budget.
Beginning in the early 1910s, Mondell began to oppose naval spending, as he believed European countries would refuse to war with each other in fear of bankrupting themselves over naval defeats. In early 1913, he supported ceasing Naval spending for one year. As World War I began and continued on, he remained opposed. In 1915, he expressed supporting naval expansion while still not pushing it legislatively, and in 1916, supported the building of more submarines. He supported arming merchant ships, voting in favor of a bill requiring such in 1917, though later stated he felt it to be unnecessary. Mondell opposed the Selective Service Act of 1917. On February 23, 1920, he proposed consolidating all bill discussions to the Committee on Ways and Means in order to veteran benefit bills at a quicker pace. On May 15, Franklin Knight Lane agreed to expedite the bill. On April 19, he introduced the Mondell Soldier Settlement Bill, which was met with mixed reception among Republican Representatives.
On foreign policy, Mondell supported American expansionism for economic reasons. He pushed for expansion into the Far East, the Middle East, and South America. In 1898, he supported the annexation of the Philippines. In 1912, he opposed allowing for universal passage through the Panama Canal. On April 11, 1914, in a speech given before the American Academy of Political and Social Science, he stated it was the United States' duty to guide Mexican politics by means of the Monroe Doctrine. He also requested that President Wilson recognize the presidency of Victoriano Huerta. Early into World War I, Mondell supported neutrality.
Miscellaneous policy and positions
Mondell opposed Republican Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon, calling for his powers stripped from him.
Mondell was an early supporter of women's suffrage in Congress, having come from a state which supported it. In 1904, he introduced the first resolution to give women voting rights.
Mondell supported Prohibition. He voted in favor of the Volstead Act and Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He studied at the National University School of Law, though never graduated. had five children together. He was a member of the Lions Clubs International, with the club having endorsed him form Congress. He died on August 6, 1939, aged 78, in Washington, D.C., from leukemia,