Joseph B. Ely

Joseph Buell Ely ( born February 22, 1881 in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, † June 13, 1956 ) was an American politician and from 1931 to 1935 Governor of Massachusetts.

Early years and political rise

Joseph Ely attended to the 1902 Williams College and then studied until 1905 at the Harvard University law. He then worked as a lawyer with his father in the firm Ely & Ely in Westfield. In 1926, Joseph Ely was also active in Boston as a lawyer. Between 1915 and 1920 he was United States Attorney for the Western District of Massachusetts. As a member of the Democrats he was a delegate to the national conventions of 1924 and 1928. In 1930 he was elected against incumbent Frank G. Allen as the new governor of his state.

Governor of Massachusetts

Joseph Ely took up his new post on January 8, 1931, and could exercise after a few elections to January 3, 1935. These years were marked by the consequences of the world economic crisis. To combat unemployment, the governor put on an employment program. These included the expansion of the road system. In a Boston Police Academy was established to better prepare officers for their work. Governor Ely advocated a pay cut in the public sector. But He came across the resistance of the legislature. In 1934, Ely gave up another candidacy.

Further CV

Even after the end of his governorship Ely remained politically active. Within his party, he was an opponent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1936 he assisted in the presidential primaries other Democratic candidates; as Roosevelt had still won the nomination, he sat down one in the presidential election for his Republican opponent Alf Landon. In 1944 he competed in the primaries of his party even to the presidential nomination. But He had no chance against Roosevelt, who was elected this year for the fourth and final time as president. Joseph Ely died in 1956., With his wife Harriet Dyson he had a child.