Arkansas’s own Elvis, Sen. John Elvis Miller

Years before Elvis Presley became the biggest name in music, there was another, quieter Elvis known across Arkansas. John Elvis Miller, a Searcy attorney, was a man known for his dedication and his fairness. He served as a congressman, U. S. Senator, and federal judge at some of the most critical periods in the history of the state.

Miller was born in Stoddard County in Southeast Missouri in May 1888. As a young man, he was a bright and conscientious student. He attended local schools and would enroll in Southeast Missouri Teachers College in Cape Girardeau and at Valparaiso University in Indiana. He eventually gained his law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1912.

After graduation, he settled in Searcy where he set up a law practice and began investing in local businesses. He became a popular figure in the community. In 1918, he was elected to serve as a delegate to the proposed constitutional convention, an attempt to update the state’s 1874 constitution. The effort failed, but voters nevertheless elected him to serve as prosecuting attorney for Central Arkansas’s First Judicial District. He declined to seek a second term in 1920 and returned to his private law practice.

In 1930, a vacancy came open in the state’s congressional delegation. Miller entered the race and won without opposition. He was re- elected in 1932, winning more than 90% of the vote against his Republican opponent. As a member of the House, Miller was a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s popular New Deal program to lift the nation out of the Great Depression. In 1933, he voted in favor of the Glass- Steagall Act, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, protecting the savings of depositors from bank failures. The law effectively stopped the closure of banks across the country. He also voted in favor of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which put young men to work on parks and forestry projects across the nation. Miller also voted to create the Securities and Exchange

Commission in 1934, protecting the stock market from fraud and price- fixing practices. In 1935, he voted in favor of creating Social Security, which provided a modest system of pensions to the elderly and also created a system of aid to the blind and the handicapped and to the dependent minor children of deceased parents. It also created a system of unemployment insurance. He also voted in favor of the Rural Electrification Act, allowing rural communities to form electrical coops to produce cheap and reliable electricity for their areas. For these popular acts, he was re- elected easily in 1934 and 1936.

In 1937, popular U. S. Senator Joseph T. Robinson suddenly died. A special election was held to fill the remainder of Robinson’s term, which would end in January 1943. Gov. Carl Bailey hoped to win the seat for himself and jumped into the race, engineering the state Democratic committee to give him the nomination instead of holding a primary. Miller hoped to claim the seat for himself and ran as an independent, pulling together Bailey’s opponents. In the end, Miller defeated Bailey convincingly, taking 60.6% of the vote, a margin of more than 23,000 votes. Miller quickly caucused with the Democrats upon entering the Senate. Bailey would go on to win re- election as governor in 1938.

Miller assumed his seat in November. In the Senate, he continued to support Roosevelt’s initiatives. In March 1938, he voted in favor of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which expanded the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to include investigating medical devices and cosmetics for safety. He also voted in favor of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a sweeping reform in American labor law. This legislation established a 40- hour work week as the standard in the workplace, mandating pay at time and a half for overtime and holidays. The law also banned child labor. It enacted the first federally- required minimum wage at 25 cents per hour, which immediately gave a raise to more than 700,000 workers.

He had accomplished a considerable amount by the time he was 50 years old, but he had many more important accomplishments laying ahead.