BIOGRAPHY: Reed Smoot; Provo, Utah co., Utah

Transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for The USGenWeb Archives Project
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History of Utah
The Storied Domain
A Documentary History of Utah's Eventual Career
by J. Cecil Alter
Vol. 2, published 1932 (expired copyright)
The American Historical Society, Inc.

Hon. Reed Smoot, senior United States senator from Utah, now serving his fifth
consecutive term, has been distinguished at Washington by his great ability in
handling questions of national and international finance, and hasparticipated
in the framing andpassage of three national tariffs and has been a close
friend and advisor of eveyr president with one exception since he took his
seat in the Senate.

Senator Smoot was born in Salt Lake City, January 10, 1862, son of Abraham
Owen and Anne Kristine (Morrison) Smoot. His father was born in Kentucky and
came to Utah in pioneer times, was a high priest of the church of Latter Day
Saints and served ten years as mayor of Salt Lake City and fourteen years as
head of the city government at Provo.

Reed Smoot was educated in the public schools of Salt Lake City, in Deseret
University and in Brigham Young Academy, and after graduating in 1879 devoted
nearly a quarter of a century to business as a banker, wool manufacturer and
in mining enterprises. He has been a loyal churchman and in 1895 was appointed
to the presidency of the Utah Stake, and in 1900 became an apostle.

When in 1903 he was elected by the Republican Legislature to his seat in the
United States Senate his appearance at Washington at once involved the Senate
in a long controversy over his credentials. He was allowed to take his seat,
but for a year or more the press of the country was filled with the discussion
of the issue as to whether a high offical of a church which had formerly
permitted polygamy could represent that state in Congress. On the score of
personal character, business ability and political fitness Senator Smoot's
qualifications were unfailable, and it was the good fortune of Utah and the
nation that after an extended investigation the Senate relegated this
religious issue probably for all time. In 1908 he was reelected, and has been
three times elected by popular vote, in 1914, 1920 and 1926.

On entering the Senate, Senator Smoot distinguished himself by his ability as
a debater, and his high sense of official responsibility and extraordinary
capacity for hard work. The most important lines of his service have been in
finance, the tariff and the administration of public affairs. In 1903 he was
chosen a member of the public lands committee, and was chairman of that
committee from 1919 to 1923. Since 1911 he has been a member of the
appropriations committee, and of the finance committee since 1909, and has
been chairman of the finance committee since 1924. He was chairman of the
committee on printing in 1909, and since 1918 chairman of the public buildings
commission of the District of Columbia, and in that capacity has been largely
responsible for the public building program involving millions of dollars, as
a result of which the City of Washington is being rapidly transformed into one
of the most beautiful cities of the wold. He participated in the framing and
passage of the tariff act of 1909, the tariff of 1913, the emergency tariff of
1921, and the 1922 tariff, and led the forces ofprotection in the tariff
battle of 1929. Hehas helped frame and pass every tax reduction law following
the World war. He was appointed a member of the United States Debt Funding
Commission when it was crated in 1922, and rendered valuable service in the
funding of the British debt to the United States. He has always been a
prominent figure in promoting the upbuilding and extension of the National
Park system. He is a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and in the
Republic National Convention of 1928 was chairman of the resolutions
committee. He was a member of the Republican National Committee from 1912 to
1916, and from 1916 to 1920.

Senator Smoot is president of the Provo Commerical and Savings Bank, is a
director of the Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution. As a young man he
was an ardent ballplayer and laid out the first baseball diamond at Provo. In
recent years he has been interested in golf.

He married, September 17, 1884, Alpha N. Eldredge, daughter of Gen. Horace S.
Eldredge. They have six children: Harold R.; Chloe, wife of A. F. Cardon;
Harlow E.; Anna K., wife of Grover Rebentische; Zella E., wife of Carlyle
Nibley; and Ernest W. Smoot. The mother of these children passed away November
7, 1928.