Frederick G. Payne

Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Infobox officeholder Frederick George Payne (July 24, 1904 – June 15, 1978) was an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. senator from Maine from 1953 to 1959. He previously served as the 60th governor of Maine from 1949 to 1952.

Early life and education

Frederick Payne was born in Lewiston, Maine, to Frederick and Nellie (née Smart) Payne.<ref name=yearbook>Template:Cite book</ref> He received his early education at public schools in his native city, graduating from Jordan High School.<ref name=congress>Template:Cite news</ref> As a child, he worked as a newsboy, grocery clerk, theater usher, and dishwasher.<ref name=nytimes>Template:Cite news</ref> He studied at the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating in 1925.<ref name=congress/>

Early business and political career

Payne then worked as a financial manager and chief disbursing officer for the Maine & New Hampshire Theaters Company, which operated 132 movie theaters in New England.<ref name=nytimes/> He began his political career as mayor of Augusta, serving from 1935 to 1941.<ref name=yearbook/> In 1940, he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for Governor of Maine, losing to state senator Sumner Sewall.<ref name=nytimes/> After Sewall was elected governor, he named Payne as the state finance commissioner and budget director.<ref name=congress/> He resigned in 1942 in order to serve with the U.S. Air Force during World War II, reaching the rank of a lieutenant colonel.<ref name=yearbook/> Following his military service, he worked as manager of Waldoboro Garage Company from 1945 to 1949.<ref name=congress/>

Governor of Maine

In 1948, Payne was elected the 60th governor of Maine after defeating his Democratic opponent, Biddeford mayor Louis Lausier, by a margin of 66%-34%. He was later re-elected in 1950, defeating Democrat Earl Grant by 61%-39%. During his tenure, he created a two-percent sales tax, expanded the Maine Development Commission, and began a long-range highway modernization program financed by a $27 million bond issue.<ref name=nytimes/>

During Payne's second term as governor, he was accused of accepting a bribe involving the state liquor industry. A wine bottler claimed he paid $12,000 to a Boston promotion man for the latter's supposed influence with Payne and the state liquor chairman.<ref name=nytimes/> However, after testifying before a special investigating committee, Payne was cleared of all charges.

United States Senator

In 1952, Payne was elected to the U.S. Senate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He defeated incumbent senator Owen Brewster in the Republican primary, and went on to defeat Democrat Roger P. Dube in the general election.

During the late 1950s, after a series of lurid magazine articles and Hollywood films helped to sensationalize youth gangs and violence, Payne supported legislation to ban automatic-opening or switchblade knives.<ref name="LEV">Levine, Bernard R., The Switchblade Menace, OKCA Newsletter (1993)</ref><ref>Knife World (August 1990)</ref><ref name="CON">Switchblade Knives: Hearing, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Eighty-fifth Congress, Minutes of the Second Session, April 17, 1958</ref> During congressional hearings, Payne suggested that he believed immigrants to be the source of gang violence: "Isn't it true that this type of knife, switchblade knife, in its several different forms, was developed, actually, abroad, and was developed by the so-called scum, if you want to call it, or the group who are always involved in crime?"<ref name="LEV"/> The ban on switchblade knives was eventually enacted into law as the Switchblade Knife Act of 1958.<ref name="CON"/> Senator Payne and other congressmen supporting the Switchblade Knife Act believed that by stopping the importation and interstate sales of automatic knives (effectively halting sales of new switchblades), the law would reduce youth gang violence by blocking access to what had become a symbolic weapon.<ref name="LEV"/><ref name="CON"/><ref>Knife World Magazine (August 1990)</ref> However, while switchblade imports, domestic production, and sales to lawful owners soon ended, later legislative research demonstrated that youth gang violence rates had in fact rapidly increased, as gang members turned to firearms instead of knives.<ref>Clark, Charles S., Youth Gangs Worsening Violence Prompts Crackdowns and Community Mobilization, Congressional Quarterly 1, 11 October 1991, pp. 753-776</ref> Payne did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1957.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Payne Lost re-election in 1958 to Democratic Governor Ed Muskie. by 61,182 votes [1]

Death

He died in 1978 in Waldoboro, Maine, aged 73. He is buried in Waldoboro's German Lutheran Cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of mayors of Augusta, Maine

External links

• Template:Congbio
• Political Graveyard