Curtis Guild, Jr.

Curtis Guild, Jr.
43rd Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 4, 1906 – January 7, 1909
Lieutenant	Eben Sumner Draper
Preceded by	William L. Douglas
Succeeded by	Eben Sumner Draper
39th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 8, 1903 – January 4, 1906
Governor	John L. Bates William Lewis Douglas
Preceded by	John L. Bates
Succeeded by	Eben Sumner Draper
Member of the Massachusetts Senate
In office 1881
Personal details
Born	February 2, 1860 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	April 6, 1915 (aged 55) Boston, Massachusetts
Political party	Republican

Curtis Guild, Jr. (February 2, 1860 – April 6, 1915) was the 43rd Governor of Massachusetts in the United States, serving from 1906 to 1909. Prior to his election as governor, Guild served in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, seeing active duty in Cuba during the Spanish–American War. He was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he attended Harvard University.

Early life and education

Curtis Guild, Jr., was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 2, 1860 to a prominent family involved in the journalism business. The Guild family was descended from John Guild and Elizabeth Crooke, 17th-century immigrants to the Boston area. His father, Curtis Guild, Sr., published the Commercial Bulletin, was a supporter of the arts, and served as president of the Bostonian Society.^[1]

Guild was educated at Chauncy Hall, a private day school in Boston, and then attended Harvard University. At both schools he was involved in military organizations, rising to become a lieutenant in Harvard's rifle corps in 1879. He was also a good fencer, twice winning the university fencing championship, and worked as a writer on both The Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Lampoon. He graduated from Harvard in 1881 with high honors, and was the orator of his class. During his years at Harvard he became friends with Theodore Roosevelt.^[2]

Early career

After graduation from college, Guild worked for his father's newspaper,^[1] a business he would take over in 1902.^[2] He also became politically active, serving as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1881.^[1] He became a member of the state Republican Party Committee in 1894 and became nationally prominent when he served as vice-president of the 1896 Republican National Convention. In 1900 he worked on Roosevelt's vice presidential campaign, and toured with Roosevelt after President William McKinley's assassination elevated Roosevelt to the presidency.

Guild also continued the military activities he had begun during his school years. In 1891, Guild joined the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, earning the rank of brigadier general by 1898.^[1] During these years of service he researched the latest techniques in the use and handling of rifles, and was appointed the militia's Inspector General of Rifle Practice by Governor Roger Wolcott. Following the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898, Guild immediately volunteered for service in the Spanish–American War that followed and was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel and inspector general in May. He served as Inspector General of Havana during the American occupation.^[1] He was mustered out of the Army in May 1899. He officially retired from the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in 1909 with the rank of major general.^[2]

Political career

Guild was, along with Roger Wolcott, one of the organizers of the "Young Republican Club" (later just the "Republican Club"), founded in 1891 to inject new life into the Republican Party in Massachusetts. It was established to counter a similar organization founded by Democrats, and to promote the career of Henry Cabot Lodge.^[3] The club was instrumental in gaining the 1891 party nomination for Charles H. Allen as Governor of Massachusetts; he ended up losing to incumbent William Russell.^[4]

Lieutenant governor

In 1899, Guild was put forward as the party leadership's (in particular Lodge's) choice as the next Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. In the state convention, he was somewhat unexpectedly upset in this bid by John L. Bates, who won the nomination without significant party leadership support. The party closed ranks and supported Bates,^[5] who served as lieutenant governor 1900-03 and then governor 1903-05. Given the party's escalator-style management of potential officeholders,^[6] Guild was not again tapped for the lieutenant governor's nomination until the 1902 election. In that election, he garnered more votes for his office than Bates did for the governorship, although both were victorious.^[7] In 1904 Bates was defeated for reelection by Democrat William L. Douglas, while Guild was reelected to the second chair.^[8]

Governor

Following the party process, Guild received the nomination for governor in 1905. The major issue within the party that year was reciprocity, or tariff reform equalizing trade with neighboring Canada. Guild stood in favor of reciprocity, but much of the more conservative party leadership did not, and the lieutenant governor nomination went to Eben Sumner Draper, a wealthy businessman and strong protectionist.^[9] The Republicans won a comfortable victory against a disorganized Democratic opposition.^[10] Guild served three one-year terms,^[2] before stepping back in favor of Draper.^[11]

As governor, Guild was one of the most progressive of period, seeing enaction of a significant body of reform legislation. The state introduced an inheritance tax, required medical inspections of school children, and passed a corrupt practices bill banning corporate contributions to political campaigns. Night work for women and children was banned, a state-run employment service was started, and regulations governing inspection of factories for health and labor violations were strengthened. Communications companies and natural gas distributors were also placed under state regulation.^[12] One issue that continued to divide Guild from the more conservative elements of his party was his opposition to attempts by the railroad executives to bypass state law banning the merger of the Boston and Maine Railroad with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad; this was effected de facto through the use of holding companies, and then legislatively approved, after the fact, during the Draper administration.^[13]

In 1907, an escaped asylum patient entered the Massachusetts State House with a handgun. Upon seeing a group of men entering the State House, the patient fired, aiming at a man named Edward Cohen, a union leader from Lynn, mistakenly believing him to be the governor.^[1]

During much of 1908, Guild was seriously ill (with pneumonia and appendicitis), and was unable to carry out his office. During these periods, Lieutenant Governor Draper acted as governor. In another act highlighting the divisions within the party, Draper vetoed one of Guild's choices for commissioner of the state's board of labor statistics, for his pro-labor stance.^[14]

Later years

After his tenure as governor ended, Guild unsuccessfully ran for Republican nomination for Vice-President. In 1910 President William Howard Taft appointed Guild as a special ambassador to the Mexican independence centennial. Taft then appointed him to be a Special Ambassador to Russia, a position he held from 1911 until 1913.

Guild died on April 6, 1915. He is interred at Boston's Forest Hills Cemetery.

Legacy

After Guild's death, a memorial tablet, paid for by private subscription, was installed in the Massachusetts State House in 1916. The Curtis Guild Elementary School in East Boston is named for the former governor, and the Massachusetts National Guard Base Camp Curtis Guild is named in Guild's memory. The Camp Curtis Guild Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol Massachusetts Wing also bears his name.

References

1. Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Biography of Curtis Guild Retrieved July 19, 2012.
2. The Historical Register (Guild biography, pages 30-33)
3. Abrams, p. 40
4. Abrams, p. 41
5. Abrams, p. 95
6. Abrams, p. 117
7. Abrams, p. 96
8. Abrams, p. 107
9. Abrams, pp. 116-117
10. Abrams, pp. 121-123
11. Abrams, pp. 176-177
12. Abrams, pp. 131-132
13. Abrams, pp. 188, 198-199, 205-207
14. Abrams, p. 188

Sources

• Abrams, Richard (1964). Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.