Wheeler, Burton Kendall

(1882-1975)

   Born in Massachusetts, Burton K. Wheeler worked as a stenographer in Boston before earning his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1905. He then moved to Montana, where he was admitted to the bar. A Democrat, Wheeler was elected to the state legislature in 1910 and served for three years before being appointed U. S. attorney for Montana by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1922, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served four terms.

   In 1924, Wheeler ran as Robert M. La Follette Sr.’s vice presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, but he returned to the Democratic fold and was a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal for much of the 1930s. In 1934, he was cosponsor of the Indian Reorganization Act linked to the “Indian New Deal.” However, he was opposed to the president’s “court packing” plan and increasingly critical of the administration. As conflict in Europe mounted, Wheeler became an outspoken isolationist. In 1940, he wanted a plank in the Democratic Party platform promising not to send U.S. troops overseas unless attacked. He resisted passage of the Selective Service Act in 1940 and tried to prevent revision of the Neutrality Acts. Wheeler was one of the leading members of the America First Committee, the leading isolationist group in the country. These views cost him renomination in 1946, and he retired from politics to practice law.