1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Weeks, John Wingate

From Wikisource
Jump to: navigation, search

WEEKS, JOHN WINGATE (1860- ), American public official, was born at Lancaster, N.H., April 11 1860. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1881, served two years as midshipman, then resigned from the navy and became a civil engineer. From 1886 he was assistant land commissioner of the Florida Southern Railroad. In the latter year he helped to organize the banking and brokerage firm of Hornblower & Weeks, Boston, Mass., of which he was a member until 1912. His interest in the navy meanwhile continued. In 1890 he joined the Mass. naval brigade, was made captain, and during the Spanish-American War commanded the second division of the auxiliary U.S. naval force on the Atlantic coast. From 1894 to 1900 he was a member of the Mass. military advisory board and of the military board of examiners; in 1896 he was a member of the board of visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy. He was elected alderman of Newton, Mass., in 1900, was reëlected for two terms, and then elected mayor (1903-4). In 1905 he was chairman of the Mass. Republican State Convention. During 1905-13 he was a member of the national House of Representatives and as a member of the committee on banking and currency took an active part in framing the Aldrich-Vreeland Currency bill. In 1913 he entered the U.S. Senate, succeeding Winthrop Murray Crane, but was defeated for reëlection in 1919. As a member of the Senate committee on military affairs during the World War he took part in investigations which resulted in a reorganization of the ordnance and quartermaster departments as well as the aircraft production board. In 1921 he entered the Cabinet of President Harding as Secretary of War.