biography
| name: |
U'Ren, William Simon
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1859–1949)
|
| biography:
| Lawyer and reformer, born in Lancaster, Wisconsin, USA. Raised in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Colorado, he worked as a miner and blacksmith before reading law. He was admitted to the Colorado bar (1881), but gave up his legal practice after a few years because of poor health. After several years of various jobs in different states and Hawaii, he settled in Oregon and opened a law office in Portland. As a leader of powerful citizen lobbies, he pressed successfully for such political reforms as initiative and referendum, direct primaries, and direct election of US senators - innovations that soon spread to other states. His favourite innovation, however, the single tax advocated by Henry George, was never accepted; and after his failed 1914 run for governor of Oregon on this platform, he withdrew from active politics. He kept up a modest law practice until shortly before his death. |
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