Robinson, Joseph Taylor

Robinson, Joseph Taylor, 1872–1937, U.S. legislator, b. Lonoke co., Ark. He was admitted (1895) to the bar and served (1903–13) in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1913 he became governor of Arkansas but resigned from this post within the year on being elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1928 he ran for Vice President on the Democratic ticket along with Alfred E. Smith. As majority leader (1933–37) in the Senate, Robinson steered many New Deal measures through the Senate and assumed (1937) leadership of the unsuccessful fight for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Supreme Court reorganization bill. He was cosponsor of the Robinson-Patman Act (1936) against price discrimination.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies