Junius Marion Futrell

Junius Marion Futrell ( born August 14, 1870 Greene County ( Arkansas), † June 20, 1955 in Little Rock, Arkansas ) was an American politician and 1913 and between 1933 and 1937 Governor of Arkansas.

Early years

Junius Futrell attended 1892-1893 University of Arkansas, after which he studied law. In 1913 he was admitted to the bar. Before he politically active, he was working as a teacher, farmer and lumber business.

Political rise

Futrell was a member of the Democratic Party and was elected in 1896 in the House of Representatives from Arkansas. In the years 1900 and 1902 he made the jump again in this body. Between 1906 and 1910 he was bailiff of a district court. From 1913 to 1917 he was in the State Senate and in 1913 became its president. In this capacity, he briefly fell to the Office of the Governor of Arkansas. For the legislative period 1913-1915 Joseph Taylor Robinson was elected governor originally. This already resigned in March 1913 and the previous Senate president William Kavanaugh Oldham represented him for a few days until his term of office had expired as Senate President. He was succeeded on March 13, Junius Futrell, thus the Senate President and Acting Governor was. Futrell held that post until July 23, 1913. In the meantime, Governor elections had taken place and with George Washington Hays, a new governor was elected. Futrell remained in the state Senate. In the years 1917 to 1918 Futrell member of the Defence Committee of Arkansas. Then he worked as a lawyer. In 1922 he was appointed judge in the second judicial district of the country. Between 1923 and 1933 he was head ( Chancellor ) of the Twelfth District Court. On 8 November 1932 he was elected as a candidate of the Democratic Party as the new governor of Arkansas.

Governor of Arkansas

Junius Futrell took up his new post on January 10, 1933. After a successful re-election in 1934 he was able to govern for four years. The main problem of his time was to overcome the consequences of the Great Depression. In order to relieve the budget, stopped or shortened the governor some government programs. Of the schools were affected. The unemployment he wanted to eliminate the abolition of machines. A utopian plan was not feasible. Also in the field of health care has been saved. All these measures were unsuccessful and Futrell drew the criticism of the federal government. Meanwhile, Arkansas was close to bankruptcy. There were riots and protests of the population. At the same time, he benefited from the federal policy under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The federal programs also helped Arkansas out of the crisis, even if Futrell agree measures opposed temporarily. Finally, Futrell increased some taxes in Arkansas to come out of the crisis. Despite these problems, he managed to get elected again in 1934. At that time the Prohibition Act was repealed nationwide. In addition, a Ministry of Social Affairs ( Department of Public Welfare ), in the first steps have been taken to social arose. In those years, the Police Department ( Department of Police) was created.

Further CV

After the end of his term Futrell was working as a lawyer again. He died in 1955. Junius Futrell was married to Tera Ann Smith, with whom he had six children.