John W. Kern
John Worth Kern ( born December 20 1849 in Alto, Howard County, Indiana; † August 17, 1917 in Asheville, North Carolina) was an American politician who represented the state of Indiana in the U.S. Senate. He was the Democratic Party candidate for vice-president on the side of William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election 1908.
Professional and political career
John attended the public schools of the core and the Indiana Normal College in Kokomo; after that he worked as a teacher. In 1869, he received his law degree from the University of Michigan, after which he was still recorded in the same year to the bar and commenced practice in Kokomo. From 1871 to 1884 he was a trial lawyer of this city; 1885-1889 he was employed as a clerk at the Supreme Court of Indiana.
Core first bid for political office was unsuccessful: in 1870 he missed election to the House of Representatives from Indiana. Between 1893 and 1897 he sat in the Senate of his State; at the same time he held the post of Deputy Federal Attorney for Indiana. From 1897 to 1901 he worked as an Agent of ( City Solicitor) for the city of Indianapolis. Two candidates as governor of Indiana failed in the years 1900 and 1904. After the second defeat core again worked as a lawyer, traveled to Europe and spent - in poor health - six months in a sanatorium in Asheville (North Carolina).
Candidate for the vice-presidency, and Senator
Prior to the presidential election of 1908 the Democratic Party agreed on as a compromise candidate John nucleus on the side of William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska, who competed for the third time to the presidency. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, he was in contrast to Bryan, ran against John Albert Johnson from Minnesota, all 1002 delegates' votes. In the election on 3 November, the Democrats, however, a significant defeat suffered. William Howard Taft and his running mate James S. Sherman received 321 electoral votes, and Bryan core only 162
Core had simultaneously applied for the Democratic nomination as a U.S. Senator, but was defeated Benjamin F. Shively. Two years later, the legislature of Indiana chose him but then in Congress, where he held his office from March 4, 1911. At the core Shively page count from then to progressive wing of the Democrats in the Senate and was active against the conservative party leadership. From 1912 he played in the efforts of the progressive Democrats to reform the party a significant role. After the victory of Woodrow Wilson in the presidential election this year and the simultaneous collection of other eleven progressive party colleagues in the Senate core was elected Majority Leader of the Democrats. He held this post from 1913 to 1917.
As majority leader came core a key role in the reform of the Senate and his party. He worked closely with President Wilson and visited this more often private. In the Senate, he took care that Wilson's legislative initiatives have been adopted, including a customs reform, a cartel law, the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission and the first survey of income tax, which was controlled by the 16th Amendment.
After six years, however, had to resign from the core to the Senate on March 3 in 1917. In the direct election in Indiana, for their introduction by the 17th Amendment to the Constitution he had previously used, it was inferior to the Republican Harry S. New. At the urging of William Jennings Bryan considered Wilson President to appoint Core in a high public office, but the former senator died five months after the end of his career in Congress Asheville. First buried at the country seat of his family near Hollins (Virginia), core body was buried twelve years later in the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis for a second time.