Louis C. Rabaut
Encyclopedia
Louis Charles Rabaut was politician from the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. He was a Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 congressman representing Michigan's 14th congressional district
Michigan's 14th congressional district
Michigan's 14th congressional district is a congressional district in Wayne County, Michigan, encompassing the northwest side of Detroit, the suburbs located immediately west of the city, the Downriver suburbs adjacent to the Detroit River and the enclaves of Highland Park and Hamtramck. It has...

 from 1935 to 1947, and from 1949 to 1961. He is best known for introducing legislation that added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance
Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942...

.

Family and early life

Louis Charles Rabaut, the grandson of immigrants from West Flanders, was born in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

 to Louis Aloysius and Clara Lenau Reid Rabaut, who operated a wholesale toy and fireworks store. In 1911, he married Stella Marie Petz, with whom he had nine children. In 1912, Rabaut graduated from Detroit College in 1909 and from the Detroit College of Law in 1912. He was admitted to the bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...

 in 1912 and commenced practice in Detroit.

Political career

In 1934, Rabaut defeated incumbent Carl M. Weideman
Carl M. Weideman
Carl May Weideman was a naval officer, politician and jurist from the U.S. state of Michigan....

 in the Democratic primary elections for the Michigan's 14th district to the U.S. House of Representatives. He went on to be elected to the 74th Congress
74th United States Congress
-House:Also 2 Delegates, 3 Resident Commissioners-Senate:*President of the Senate: John N. Garner *President pro tempore: Key Pittman -Majority leadership:*Majority leader: Joseph T. Robinson...

 and to the five succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1935 to January 3, 1947. In 1946, he was defeated by Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 Harold F. Youngblood
Harold F. Youngblood
Harold Francis Youngblood was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.Youngblood was born in Detroit, Michigan, attended the public schools, and graduated from St. Joseph’s Commercial College in 1927. He was employed in Detroit office of the Secretary of State of Michigan in 1927 and 1928...

. He successfully regained his seat from Youngblood in 1948 to be elected to the 81st Congress
81st United States Congress
The Eighty-first United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives...

 and the six succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1949 until his death on November 12, 1961.

In 1951, he argued for price controls
Price controls
Price controls are governmental impositions on the prices charged for goods and services in a market, usually intended to maintain the affordability of staple foods and goods, and to prevent price gouging during shortages, or, alternatively, to insure an income for providers of certain goods...

, stating:


"This Eighty-second Congress stands at the threshold of immortality. We have an opportunity that few Congresses have to insure our place in history. If we deny to the Government the authority to roll back prices and maintain firm economic controls, we are sure to be remembered. We will be remembered by the American people as 'the horse-meat Congress' -- the Congress that put the old gray mare on the family dinner table." http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=13836

Amending the Pledge of Allegiance

On April 20, 1953, prompted by a letter from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 resident H. Joseph Mahoney, Rabaut submitted a resolution to amend the Pledge of Allegiance
Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942...

 with the words "under God". The practice had been adopted several years earlier by the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....

. Rabaut's bill was the first of many similar efforts, culminating in Representative Charles Oakman and Senator Homer Ferguson's joint resolution
Joint resolution
In the United States Congress, a joint resolution is a legislative measure that requires approval by the Senate and the House and is presented to the President for his/her approval or disapproval, in exactly the same case as a bill....

 in 1954. Speaking in support of the bill, Rabaut said:


You may argue from dawn to dusk about differing political, economic, and social systems, but the fundamental issue which is the unbridgeable gap between America and Communist Russia is a belief in Almighty God. From the root of atheism stems the evil weed of communism and its branches of materialism and political dictatorship. Unless we are willing to affirm our belief in the existence of God and His creator-creature relation to man, we drop man himself to the significance of a grain of sand and open the floodgates to tyranny and oppression.http://www.undergodprocon.org/pdf/ab_ChurchofFreethought.pdf


The bill passed and was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

 on June 14, Flag Day
Flag Day in the United States
In the United States Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777...

.

Final years

Reflecting on his time in Congress, Rabaut told an interviewer in 1959:


Why, we're the guinea pigs of the country. We have to go back to the country every two years and face the people. The senators can stay down here and do what they want for four years, and then get awful nice the last two years and rely on the short memory of the people. http://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/special-collections/oral-history/fenno/rabaut.html


Rabaut died in Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck is a city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 22,423. Hamtramck is surrounded by the city of Detroit except for a small portion of the western border that touches the similarly surrounded city of Highland Park...

 and in interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery
Mount Olivet Cemetery (Detroit)
Mt. Olivet Cemetery is a cemetery at 17100 Van Dyke Avenue in the city of Detroit in Wayne County, Michigan. It opened in 1888 and is owned and operated by the Mount Elliott Cemetery Association, a not-for-profit Catholic organization. At , it is the largest cemetery in Detroit.Notable people...

 in Detroit. He was succeeded in office by Democrat Harold M. Ryan
Harold M. Ryan
Harold Martin Ryan was a politician and judge from the U.S. state of Michigan.Ryan was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from St. Joseph’s High School in 1929...

, who was elected in a special election on February 13, 1962.
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