Sabath, Adolph Joachim, 1866-1952

<p><b>RACES</b>
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<li>11/04/1952 IL District 7 Won 69.99% (+39.98%)</li>
<li>...</li>
<li>11/06/1906 IL District 5 Won 46.05% (+4.39%)</li>
<li>11/08/1904 Cook County Recorder of Deeds Lost 31.03% (-24.89%)</li>
</ul>
</p>

SABATH, Adolph Joachim, a Representative from Illinois; born in Zabori, Czechoslovakia, April 4, 1866; attended the schools of his native town; immigrated to the United States in 1881 and settled in Chicago, Ill.; was graduated from the Chicago College of Law in 1891; was admitted to the bar in 1892 and commenced practice in Chicago, Ill.; ward committeeman and district leader in Chicago 1892-1944; appointed justice of the peace for the city of Chicago in 1895; police magistrate 1897-1906; member of the central and executive committees of the Democratic Party from 1909 to 1920; delegate to all the Democratic State conventions 1890-1952; delegate to all Democratic National Conventions 1896-1944; elected as a Democrat to the Sixtieth and to the twenty-three succeeding Congresses, but died before the convening of the Eighty-third Congress; served from March 4, 1907, until his death in Bethesda, Md., November 6, 1952; chairman, Committee on Alcohol Liquor Traffic (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Rules (Seventy-sixth through Seventy-ninth and Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses); interment in Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Ill.

<p>Adolph Joachim Sabath (April 4, 1866 – November 6, 1952) was a Czech-born American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Chicago, Illinois, from 1907 until his death in Bethesda, Maryland on November 6, 1952.</p>

<p>Born in Záboří, Austrian Empire (now Czech Republic) into a Jewish family, he immigrated to America at age 15, became active in real estate, and received his LL.B. degree in 1891 from the Chicago College of Law (now Chicago-Kent College of Law). He served in local offices including justice of the peace (1895-1897) and police magistrate (1897-1906) until election to Congress from the Jewish and Czech West Side in 1907. He was active in state and national Democratic party affairs, attending many conventions. In 1911, he received much positive attention in the Czech community in Chicago for his fundraising efforts in the search for Elsie Paroubek, and paid for the child's funeral when her body was discovered.</p>

<p>He was a leading opponent of immigration restrictions and prohibition. In the 1920s he denounced the prohibition factions, the Anti-Saloon League "and their allied forces and co-workers, the Ku Klux Klan fanatics." Every year from 1925 to 1933, he consistently submitted bills in the House of Representatives, to amend the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act to allow commerce in beer and wine. In 1929, he came to the defense of his large immigrant constituency by countering claims that they were responsible for the surge in criminal activity during the 1920s. "The bootlegging and gang killings...are not the by-product but the direct product of the Volstead Act, and the supporters of this crime breeding legislation must claim the new cult of American criminals entirely as their own."</p>