 joseph hurst ball (november 3, 1905december 18, 1993) was an american journalist, politician and businessman. ball served as a republican senator from minnesota from 1940 to 1949. he was a conservative in domestic policy and a leading foe of labor unions. he helped draft the taft-hartley act of 1947. ball was best known for his internationalism and his support for a postwar world organization, that became the united nations. however, after 1945 he was an opponent of the marshall plan. eleonora w. schoenebaum, ed. political profiles: the truman years (1978), p. 22â23. == pre-senate career == ball was born in crookston, minneosta, on november 3, 1905, and graduated from high school in 1922. he financed his education at antioch college by planting corn on borrowed land and held jobs during his two years there as a telephone linesman, a construction worker, and a factory employee. in 1925, he transferred to eau claire normal, and then to the university of minnesota, but never earned a degree.current biography 1943, p. 20â23. in 1927, he got a reporting job at the minneapolis journal. when he sold a story to a pulp magazine for $50, he quit to become a free lance writer, and spent a year writing paperback fiction before returning to journalism, this time for the st. paul pioneer press. in 1934, he became the paper's state political reporter, and befriended assistant county attorney harold stassen, a fellow republican. as a columnist in the pioneer press, ball was critical of president franklin d. roosevelt and the democratic-majority in congress, but he also opposed isolationism in foreign policy. in the meantime, stassen was elected governor of minnesota. == united states senator == when senator ernest lundeen, an isolationist, was killed in a plane crash, stassen appointed ball to fill the remaining two years of lundeen's term. one of the youngest persons ever to become a u.s. senator, bal
1905_births 1993_deaths American_businesspeople American_journalists Antioch_College_alumni Appointed_United_States_Senators Minnesota_Republicans People_from_Chevy_Chase,_Maryland People_from_Polk_County,_Minnesota People_from_Saint_Paul,_Minnesota Republican_Party_United_States_Senators United_States_Senators_from_Minnesota University_of_Minnesota_alumni University_of_WisconsinaEau_Claire_alumni Writers_from_Minnesota