Robert Baker (New York politician)

Robert Baker ( * April 1862 in Bury St Edmunds, United Kingdom, † June 15, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York) was an American lawyer and politician. Between 1903 and 1905 he represented the State of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Robert Baker was born during the Victorian era in Bury St Edmunds. He attended public schools. 1882 immigrated to the United States and settled in Albany. He then moved in 1889 in the then independent city of Brooklyn. In 1894 he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the New York State Assembly. Then he was in 1902 working as an auditor in New York City. Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party.

In the congressional elections of 1902, Baker was the sixth electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of George H. Lindsay on March 4, 1903. In 1904 he suffered in his re-election bid a defeat and retired after the March 3, 1905 from the Congress of. His candidacy in 1906 was also unsuccessful. During his time as a congressman, he was perceived as a passionate reformer and was given the nickname "No- Pass Bob " because of his attitude towards free train travel for MPs. He was a convinced supporter of the single tax theory of Henry George. In this context, he taught in April 1893, the first meeting of the "Citizen 's Union " in his house at the 89 St. Marks Avenue in Brooklyn from. The Citizen 's Union still exists today as a powerful, independent monitoring organization in New York that deals with municipal affairs, although it has long since abandoned their binding to Henry George. As a pacifist he refused to appoint any cadet for the United States Military Academy at West Point. As an opponent of militarism, he offered a setting of American manufacture of warships. He also condemned the Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg (Russian Empire ). He led the opposition to a pay rise of the President of $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 per year on the grounds that it would not notwenidig in a republic. He was derided as a comedian, the other opinion is better to have as a right.

After his conference time he was in 1906 working as a Secretary in the New York City Department of Docks and Ferries. He was, until his death on June 15, 1943 in Brooklyn in stone paving business operates and in general real estate transactions. His body was interred in the Evergreen Cemetery.