Senator Thomas J Walsh Independent Democrat In The Wilson Years

Thomas J. Walsh, Democratic senator from Montana from 1913 to 1933, fought throughout his long career against corruption and monopoly power. His most celebrated coup was breaking open the Teapot Dome scandal of 1923 -- 24, revealing that the secretary of the interior had accepted "loans" from oil men in return for leases of U.S. naval oil reserves.

During the years 1919-1920, President Woodrow Wilson unsuccessfully struggled to persuade the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and thereby bring the United States into the newly created League of Nations. In considering the defeat of the treaty in the Senate, historical attention is usually directed toward Wilson and his ardent opposition, Republican Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge and the irreconcilables. Such studies tend to neglect the mild reservationists, ten Republican senators who played a prominent part during this decisive period.