page_title: Samuel W. McCall
section_title: Governor of Massachusetts
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel W. McCall / Governor of Massachusetts
caption_attribution_description: English: Gov. en:Samuel W. McCall speaking in en:Vineyard Haven, MA in en:1918. He is presenting a plaque to the town of en:Gay Head for having the largest percentage of the population in the armed services of any other town in the commonwealth. Lieut. Gov. en:Calvin Coolidge is visible over the Governor's left shoulder.
context_page_description: Samuel Walker McCall was a Republican lawyer, politician, and writer from Massachusetts. He was for twenty years a member of the United States House of Representatives, and the 47th Governor of Massachusetts, serving three one-year terms. He was a moderately progressive Republican who sought to counteract the influence of money in politics.
  Born in Pennsylvania and educated at Dartmouth, he settled in Massachusetts, where he entered local politics on a progressive reform agenda. Elected to Congress, he continued his reform activities, and opposed annexation of The Philippines. He did not join the Progressive Party, but was insufficiently conservative for state party leaders, who denied him election to the United States Senate on two occasions. As governor, he directed the state's actions during World War I, and orchestrated early aid to Halifax, Nova Scotia following a devastating munitions ship explosion there in 1917.
context_section_description: McCall was chosen by the party in 1914 as its nominee for Governor of Massachusetts, as a unifying force between the more progressive and conservative wings of the party. Running against the popular Democratic incumbent David I. Walsh on a progressive platform, McCall was narrowly defeated, with the Republican votes split due to the presence of a Progressive Party candidate on the ballot. McCall was nominated again in 1915, with the Republicans deliberately courting the Progressive vote by calling for a state constitutional convention. In a rematch with Walsh, he was this time victorious. He served three consecutive terms, with future President Calvin Coolidge as his lieutenant governor. In each election, Coolidge won more votes than McCall did, and the Boston Transcript credited at least one of his victories to Coolidge's drawing power.
  The Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917–1918 was the major political event of McCall's tenure. The convention proposed a number of reforms, most of which were adopted by the voters. State commissions and agencies were streamlined, and initiative and referendum measures were added to the state constitution. Elections for statewide offices were changed from annual to biennial, beginning in 1920.  Legislative reforms proposed by McCall to the state legislature were only partially adopted; proposals reforming state insurance and the public pension program were left in the legislature, and his proposal to abolish capital punishment also failed.
  Anticipating American entry into World War I in early 1917, McCall formed the Massachusetts Public Safety Commission, an emergency response and relief organization that was the first of its type in the nation. Coordinating a wide array of public and charitable organizations and major businesses, the commission played a significant role in providing relief and other services until it was disbanded in 1918. One of its most important actions was coordinating the state's response to the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917. With only fragmentary reports received early after a blast devastated the Nova Scotia city of Halifax, McCall called the committee into action, and offered unlimited assistance to the stricken city.  The state organized a major relief train (even before the full extent of the disaster was known) that was among the first to reach Halifax, and the committee's representatives assisted in organizing relief activities on the ground.  Temporary housing built in Halifax was named in McCall's honor, and the state's relief efforts continue to be recognized today by Nova Scotia's annual gift of a Christmas tree to the city of Boston.
  In 1918, McCall decided not to run for reelection, and again stood for the United States Senate.  In a party nomination rematch with Weeks, he abandoned the campaign after it became clear the conservative Crane wing of the party was standing with Weeks.  The seat ended up being won by ex-Governor Walsh in a Democratic upset.  In the general election, McCall refused to campaign on Weeks' behalf, a move that contributed to the end of his political career.  In 1920, he was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson for a seat on the United States Tariff Commission; the nomination was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate.
caption: Governor McCall speaking in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, with Lt. Governor Calvin Coolidge in background (1918)
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