Frank Henry Buck Jr. (September 23, 1887 – September 17, 1942) was an American heir, businessman and politician. He served as a U.S. representative from California from 1933 to 1942.
Early life Frank Buck, Jr. was born on a ranch near Vacaville, California, on September 23, 1887,United States Congress biography to Frank Henry Buck, Sr. (1859-1916) and the former Annie Elizabeth Stevenson (1862-1920).
His grandfather, Leonard W. Buck, born in 1834, founded the Buck Company, a fruit-growing company, and was elected to the California State Senate in 1882, serving until 1885 and dying a decade later. Frank Buck, Sr. played a notable role in Southern California history in 1900 when he joined with several prominent associates in the Amalgamated Oil Company to purchase Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, renaming it Morocco Junction.Marc Wanamaker, Early Beverly Hills, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005, pp. 17-18 After drilling for oil and only finding water, they reorganized their business into the Rodeo Land and Water Company to develop a new residential town later known as Beverly Hills.
Frank Buck, Jr. attended Vacaville High School. He was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1908 and from the law department of Harvard University in 1911. He was admitted to the bar the same year.'
Business After graduation from law school, Buck moved to Piedmont, California and opened a law practice, McNulty and Buck, in San Francisco. He was involved in business ventures including fruit growing, oil refining, and lumber, partly thanks to his inheritance. In 1916, Buck succeeded his father as the president of the Buck Company, overseeing the packing and shipping operations of the business.
He became the leader of the newly founded California Growers' and Shippers' Protective League, a lobbying organization to protect the rights of fruit and vegetable growers. In 1933, he sold the Buck Company, his grandfather's company, to the Pacific Fruit Exchange.
Politics Buck announced his first run for Congress in 1930, campaigning on a "pure wet" platform against prohibition. He ran as a write-in candidate in the general election after Republican incumbent Charles F. Curry died having secured both major-party nominations under California's cross-filing system of the time. Buck finished a poor third with 11% of the vote behind two other write-ins: Curry's son, Charles F. Curry, Jr. (who won with 53%), and State Senator Joseph M. Inman (33%).
In 1932, Buck announced his second run for Congress. In the Democratic primary campaign, he ran on a platform of improving unemployment, providing economic relief, reducing gangsterism and repealing the 18th Amendment. Buck won the primary by a 2 to 1 margin against Sacramento attorney Sheridan Downey (who would bounce back to be elected a U.S. Senator in 1938). In the general election against Charles Curry, Jr., Buck focused on his support of Franklin D. Roosevelt's promised New Deal, rehabilitation of Mather Field, development of Mare Island Naval Shipyard and various waterway projects in Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. Buck decisively defeated Curry, Jr. 57%-43%.
First term (73rd Congress) During Buck's first term, he served on the Agriculture Committee (the first Californian to serve on the committee in 42 years), where he worked to lower Cuban tariffs as part of the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act, a move credited with boosting the California agriculture industry by opening the door for exports of American produce. He worked to lower taxes on grape production and protect agricultural crops with federal rodent mitigation funds.
Buck's fight to lower taxes on wine and beer was anchored in the belief that prohibition was fueling lawlessness and bootlegging; his aim was to redirect consumers back toward legal alcohol and lower production costs for producers. Buck was a main player in the push to stimulate California's approximately 130 wineries that stayed open during prohibition. With the spending of $5 million, the state's wineries increased to 314 with a cumulative output of 30 million gallons of wine compared to the prior year's 12,000. It led to the creation of 12,000 winery jobs in one year. In the first quarter of 1933, Buck lobbied federal prohibition authorities to allow California wineries to operate medicinal dispensaries throughout the U.S. to fill wine prescriptions of up to 10 percent alcohol.
Buck also secured funding for a new, deeper channel in Stockton, and for improvements to Mare Island and additions to the fleet stationed there. He also secured funding for flood control in the Sacramento River Valley.
He also directed federal funding toward the rehabilitation of Mather Field, which had been abandoned and marked for possible demolition the year prior due to poor economic conditions and military spending shift toward naval efforts. Buck wanted the base kept open for flight training and defense readiness.
Second term (74th Congress) In the 1934 general election, State Senator Joseph M. Inman was Buck's opponent (they had both been defeated as write-ins in 1930). Both cross-filed in the Republican and Democratic primaries but Inman handily won the Republican primary and almost won the Democratic primary. Inman opposed a new reciprocal trade agreement, arguing that other nations’ products would undercut U.S. produce markets. Other opponents of the bill in Congress also argued produce imports (in weight) far exceeded the exports. However, Buck argued the dollar value of exports was much closer to the import comparison and the bill was intended to help industries hurt by the tariffs placed on exports between 1929 and 1934. Analysis of produce prices several years after the bill was passed showed price increases for many produce sectors, including but not limited to fresh, dried and canned fruit, and other canned produce. Buck won overall by around 10,000 votes (53%-46%) and carried every county except Sacramento.
During his second term, Buck became a close ally of President Roosevelt, supporting much of his Social Security agenda and New Deal policies. These policies gained popularity with Buck's constituents after the economic hardships of the Depression. He was an advocate for permanently implementing “a broad, progressive program of social reform and social legislation.” Buck became the first California Democrat elected to the House Ways and Means Committee (with 281 out of 304 Democratic votes), dealing with taxes and tariffs. Some notable second-term bills he supported were the Banking Act of 1935, the Social Security Act and the public utilities regulation bill. The Social Security legislation allotted $15 per month for households needing relief. However, Buck also believed that California should not be responsible for the poor, jobless transients who had made their way westward following the Depression. He supported policies that would instead task the federal government with providing welfare.
He also supported a bill that would reduce federal taxes on beer and wine by fifty percent (HR 9185), resulting in a tax revenue decrease of $2.5M. He also drafted legislation bolstering agricultural quarantine laws to protect crops from infected plant imports. He ran his campaign on his lobbying efforts for federal dollars that ultimately funded improvements to the San Joaquin River channel (deepening it), the Sacramento River channel, post offices in his district, projects at Mare Island Navy Yard (Buck had worked to allocate the construction of three naval heavy cruisers there) and improvements to Mather Field, where employment was at 5,000—an all-time high for peacetime. He was credited with aiding the Vinson Adjusted Compensation Law and Railway Retirement Pension Act.
Water projects were especially important to Buck's constituents as all navigable rivers in California, except the upper Sacramento River, were in the third district. Buck was also credited with legislation like the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act (1933) which allowed irrigation and reclamation districts to refinance and H.R. 9484 which allowed those districts to more easily borrow for rehabilitation of infrastructure. Both bills were aimed at financial recovery of the districts Buck represented and resembled Roosevelt's administrative agenda. Buck's second term was often spoken by his supporters to be for the purpose of supporting Roosevelt's policies. This mirroring of Roosevelt's strategy sometimes negatively impacted moderate perception. As was the case when Buck announced his opposition to the Townsend Bill, a piece of legislation that was advertised as being the method of solving national debt brought on by expanded unemployment aid. By the end of his second term, Buck reported to President Roosevelt, “The depression definitely is over in California... Building booms are in progress in Sacramento, Stockton and several other valley cities, while in a number of counties nobody is on relief any more.”
Third term (75th Congress) During the election, Buck ran on a platform touting his record as supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal policies, Central Valley Water project, tax reductions on the grape industry, funding for the Ben Ali Air Repair Depot ($7,000,000), Mather Field and Vallejo Naval Yard. During the campaign, Buck was also said to have written speeches that were used by the Democratic National Committee. Sheridan Downey opposed buck during the primary election. One of Downey's campaign points, his support of the Townsend plan, was challenged by Buck, claiming the plan promised monetary handouts that were not possible. Buck also charged that Downey's destructive attitude would not have allowed for the social programs that Buck had supported during his first two terms to succeed. Downey largely focused on discrediting Buck for recent legislation (i.e. Wine bill, Sacramento air depot). Buck also had the support of many labor groups and trade unions. Buck largely promised to continue where he left off if elected. Bumper stickers and windshield stickers advertising his re-election was exhausted in supply during the first day. In the primary election, Buck filed on both Democratic and Republican tickets. He won the primary 34,155 to 23,001 in the Democratic Primary and 14,912 to 13,472 in the Republican Primary. Following Buck's election to the third district, there was speculation that he would run for governor after he said he was “on the fence” – he ultimately decided not to enter the race.