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Senate Years of Service: 1934-1961 Party: Democrat
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MURRAY, James Edward, a Senator from Montana; born on a farm near St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, May
3, 1876; attended the public schools of Canada; graduated from St. Jeromes College, Berlin,
Canada, in 1897; came to the United States in 1897, settled in Butte, Mont., and was naturalized in
1900; graduated from the law department of New York University in 1900; admitted to the bar in
1901 and commenced practice in Butte, Mont.; also engaged in banking; county attorney of Silver
Bow County, Mont., 1906-1908; chairman of the State advisory board f the Public Works
Administration 1933-1934; elected on November 6, 1934, as a Democrat to the United States Senate
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas J. Walsh; reelected in 1936, 1942, 1948 and 1954
and served from November 7, 1934, to January 3, 1961; was not a candidate for renomination in
1960; chairman, Committee on Education and Labor (Seventy-ninth Congress), co-chairman, Joint
Committee on Labor-Management Relations (Eighty-first Congress), chairman, Committee on Labor
and Public Welfare (Eighty-second Congress), Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs
(Eighty-fourth through Eighty-sixth Congresses); died in Butte, Mont., March 23, 1961; interment in
Holy Cross Cemetery.
Bibliography American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Evans, William B. Senator James E. Murray: A Voice
of the People in Foreign Affairs. Montana 32 (Winter 1982): 24-35; Spritzer, Donald
E. Senator James E. Murray and the Limits of Post-War Liberalism. New York:
Garland Press, 1985.
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