Reed Smoot (January 10, 1862February 9, 1941) was an American politician, businessman, and apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A Republican who was first elected to the U.S. Senate by the Utah State Legislature in 1902, he served from 1903 to 1933. Smoot is primarily remembered as the co-sponsor of the 1930 Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which increased almost 900 American import duties. Criticized at the time as having "intensified nationalism all over the world" by Thomas Lamont of J.P. Morgan & Co., Smoot–Hawley is widely regarded as one of the catalysts for the worsening Great Depression.
Smoot was a prominent leader of the LDS Church, called to serve as an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1900. His role in the church, together with rumors of a secret church policy continuing polygamy and a secret oath against the United States,
Smoot continued to be reelected to successive terms until he lost his seat in the 1932 elections. Smoot returned to Utah in 1933. Retiring from politics and business, he devoted himself to the church. At the time of his death, he was third in the line of succession to lead the church.
left|thumb|alt=Photograph of a family, with a father and mother and five children, standing behind a fence in front of a large house|Smoot and his family in front of their home in Provo around 1901
The family moved to Provo, Utah, when Abraham Smoot was called by Brigham Young as the stake president. Smoot attended the University of Utah and graduated from Brigham Young Academy, now Brigham Young University, in 1879. After completing his education, Smoot served as a missionary for the church in England. After returning to Utah, he married Alpha M. Eldredge of Salt Lake City on September 17, 1884. They were the parents of six children.
Smoot became a successful businessman in the Provo and Salt Lake City areas, with interests including dry goods stores, mining, banking, railroads, lumberyards, raising livestock, coal sales, and manufacturing woolens. Beginning in 1895, he became increasingly involved in the hierarchy of the LDS Church. On April 8, 1900, he was ordained an apostle and member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In February 1892, he was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for mayor of Provo. Beginning in 1892, he was a delegate to several Utah County Republican conventions. He began serving as a member of the state Republican executive committee in the mid-1890s.
After becoming an apostle in 1900, Smoot received the approval of LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith to run for office. In 1901, he ran for the U.S. Senate, and was defeated in the state legislative election by Thomas Kearns. When he took his oath of office, Kearns provided his formal introduction to the senate.
Controversy over religious affiliation
Smoot's election sparked a bitter four-year battle in the Senate on whether Smoot was eligible and should be allowed to serve. Many Americans were suspicious of the LDS Church because of its earlier polygamous practices. In addition, some senators thought Smoot's position as an apostle would disqualify him from representing all his constituents. Many were convinced that his association with the church disqualified him from serving in the United States Senate. Only a few years earlier, another prominent Utah Latter-day Saint, B. H. Roberts, had been elected to the House of Representatives. He was denied his seat on the basis that he practiced plural marriage (polygamy), which was illegal in Utah as well as all other states of the Union. Because of the controversy, the Senate began an investigation into Smoot's eligibility. The Smoot Hearings began on January 16, 1904. The hearings included exhaustive questioning into the continuation of plural marriage within the state of Utah and the LDS Church, and questions on church teachings, doctrines, and history. Although Smoot was not a polygamist, the charge by those opposed to his election to the Senate was that he could not swear to uphold the United States Constitution while serving in the highest echelons of an organization that sanctioned law breaking.]]
Some opponents claimed that temple-attending Latter-day Saints took an "oath of vengeance" against the United States for past grievances. As a leader of the LDS Church, Smoot was accused of taking this oath, which he denied. Although the majority of the investigative committee recommended that Smoot be removed from office, on February 20, 1907, the two-thirds majority required to expel Smoot failed, and he was allowed to keep his seat.
Time magazine in December 1926 described Charles Curtis and Smoot as the two leading senators, stating that the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee spoke "with a dry holy passion for financial soundness". Smoot led the committee from 1923 to 1933, and served on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He became active in the national Republican Party and served as a delegate to the Republican national convention every four years between 1908 and 1924. He was Chairman of the 1928 Resolutions Committee at the 1928 Republican National Convention and Chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.