James Wheaton Mott was educated at the University of Oregon, Stanford University, and the Law School at Willamette University. He started practicing law in Astoria, Oregon in 1917. He served in WWI in the U.S. Navy. He was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives and served from 1922-1928 and in 1930-1932. He was then elected as a Republican to the U.S. Congress, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. Mott wrote a version of the Federal-Aid Highway Act bill (1944) that first used the word "interstate" to refer to the new highway plan, instead of interregional, and he also worked on legislation regarding the Tongue Point Naval base.
Source: US Department of Transportation website: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/naming.cfm
From the guide to the James Wheaton Mott papers, 1918-1945, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries)
