James Malone

HON. JAMES MALONE. In the district of Western Kansas around Herndon James Malone has been known for a number of years as a plain and effective business man and farmer, but his reputation is now practically state wide, due to his vigorous leadership and work as a member of the State Legislature in both houses for ten years. Mr. Malone is now in his second term as senator from the Thirty-Ninth District.

He was born in Tecumseh, Nebraska, November 22, 1874. His father, John Malone, who is living at Herndon at the venerable age of eighty-seven was born at Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, grew up and married there, and became recognized as an expert in all matters pertaining to the raising and training of horses. In 1859 he came to the United States, settled at Jerseyville, Illinois, where he was a farmer, moved out to Johnson County, Nebraska, in 1870, and in 1885 established his pioneer homestead of 160 acres in Rawlins County, Kansas. That homestead is still in the family. Since 1910 he has been retired from active responsibilities and has lived at Herndon. He is a democrat and a Catholic. John Malone married Mary Ann Delaney. She was born in Dublin in 1835. This good old couple have eight children: John, a retired farmer at Herndon; Patrick, a farmer at Vesta, Nebraska; Ella, who lives at Herndon with her parents, the widow of William Cudahy, who was a merchant; William P., a farmer at Herndon; Jerry, a plumber and windmill specialist at Herndon; Thomas, a farmer at Tully, Kansas; Mary, wife of Tony Mentlick, a farmer at Tully, Kansas.

Hon. James Malone was eleven years old when his parents moved to Rawlins County, and he grew up on the homestead, attending some of the first country schools established in the county. He lived on his father's farm to the age of twenty-four. After that for five years he farmed on his own account. He then bought an elevator in Herndon and still owns that enterprise, which has been successfully managed by him for fifteen years. Mr. Malone still keeps in close touch with the agricultural interests of Kansas, being owner of 1,640 acres, 1,000 acres in Rawlins County and 640 acres in Thomas County. He uses these extensive holdings for the raising of grain and livestock. He is also vice president of the Herndon State Bank and owns a modern home in that city, built in 1905.

Senator Malone is a democrat. He was first drawn into politics on a larger scale when he was nominated and elected in 1908 to represent Rawlins County. He was re-elected to the Lower House in 1910, serving in the sessions of 1909 and 1911. In 1912 he was elected by the Thirty-Ninth District to the Senate and was re-elected for his present term in 1916. While in the House he was chairman of the federal and state affairs committee, a member of the ways and means and other important committees. During his first term in the Senate he was also chairman of the federal and state affairs committee and a member of the ways and means and educational committees. In his present term he is chairman of the federal and state affairs committee and member of the committees and rules, congressional and legislative apportionment, judiciary, labor, livestock, mines and mining, ways and means committees.

Some idea of his real service and activity may he gained from the brief outline of measures with which he has been identified. He introduced the bill creating the State Board of Administration for Educational Institutions; the law protecting school funds and preventing appropriation of estates of persons dying without heir or will; a bill for the relief of the county school land purchasers, and extension of their payment during the years when it was difficult to make those payments; author of the White Slave Law; author of the bill appropriating $78,000 annually for normal training and $60,000 annually for agricultural and domestic science in the high schools; a bill providing for the election of United States senators by the people in case of vacancy; one accepting the Fort Hays Military Reservation from the United States; one authorizing the confederation of co-operative associations and Farmers' Union; a bill establishing the Western Branch of the State Agricultural and Demonstration Department at Colby; and a number of laws benefiting cities and high schools in different counties. Senator Malone also championed and assisted in the enactment of some of the most important laws now on the Kansas statute books, including the State Bank Guarantee Law, the State Publication of School Text Books, State Aid for School Districts, Registration and Tax on automobiles, establishing the Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Norton, appropriating $50,000 for agricultural high school at the Hays City State Normal, again appropriating $100,000 for Sheridan Hall State Normal at Hays City, a bill providing for the Mass Ballot Law, a minimum wage and maximum hours of labor law for women, providing for the child welfare commission, a corporate tax law, and one raising labor and industry to the dignity of a department of state. During the 1913 session Senator Malone was one of the administration leaders. He was chosen by the Senate to deliver the presentation address to the president at the end of the 1917 session.

Senator Malone is a prominent Catholic and member of the Knights of Columbus, being affiliated with Heradon Council No. 1845, and is a third degree knight. He is district deputy of the Tenth District of Kansas, and was a delegate from Kansas to the Supreme Council of Knights of Columbus at New York City in August, 1918.

On September 12, 1918, Senator Malone not only complied with the routine registration requirements, but, though nearly forty-five years of age and a man of family, he claimed no exemption, and thus indicated his willingness to he inducted into the army at any time and for any service that his country might require. That was one of the darkest periods of the war, and no one would have hazarded the prophecy the armistice would be signed a little more than two months later.

At Tully, Kansas, Senator Malone married Miss Mary Mentlick, daughter of Joseph and Anna (Kupka) Mentlick. Her parents are both now deceased. Her father was a blacksmith and farmer at Tully, and located there as early as 1845, home-steading 160 acres. Both he and his wife died on the old homestead. Mr. Malone has two sons, of whom he is very proud. Ernest James, born March 16, 1899, graduated from the Catholic College at Hays City, and on August 13, 1917, at the age of eighteen, enlisted and after a brief period of preliminary training went overseas as a member of the One Hundred and Sixth Aerial Squadron. Later he was transferred to the Eight Hundredth Aerial Squadron, and was a member of that organization when the war closed. The younger son, Clarence Joseph, born March 18, 1910, is a student in the Herndon parochial school.

Pages 2297-2298.