Up for auction a RARE! "Secretary of War" James Good Hand Signed Album Page. 

ES-2938C

James

William Good (September 24,

1866 – November 18, 1929) was an American politician from the state of Iowa,

who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Cabinet of

President Herbert Hoover as Secretary of War.

He was a member of the Republican Party.

James William Good was born near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to

Henry and Margaret Combs Good. He studied at Coe College, graduating in 1892. He later studied at University of Michigan Law

School, graduating in 1893. He was admitted to

the bar in 1893 and commenced practice in Indianapolis, Indiana, the

same year. He married Lucy Deacon on October 4, 1894. They had two sons, James

William, Jr. and Robert Edmund Good. In 1896, Good returned to Cedar Rapids,

where he continued to practice law. Good served as the Cedar Rapids City

Attorney from 1906 to 1908. Good was a member of the United

States House of Representatives from 1909 to 1921, where he

represented Iowa's 5th congressional

district (then made up of Linn, Grundy, Benton, Marshall, Tama,

Jones, and Cedar counties). He became chairman of the House Appropriations

Committee in 1919, and continued to serve in that position

until the end of his service. He was re-elected seven times, and never

defeated. But soon after his fellow Republican, Warren G. Harding, was elected president in November 1920,

Good disclosed that he would likely resign his seat in Congress and join

a Chicago, Illinois law

firm, once Good's plan to reorganize the budgetary process was adopted.[1] Good resigned on June 10, 1921.[2] Republican Cyrenus Cole of Cedar Rapids won a special election to

fill his vacancy, and was sworn in August 1, 1921. In 1928 Good worked to

elect Herbert Hoover, a fellow

Iowa Republican, as President of the United States. When Hoover took office in

March 1929, he appointed Good to be the United States Secretary of

War and Good was soon confirmed by the United States Senate. He

served in that position for eight months until his sudden death from peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. He died in Washington, D.C. on November 18, 1929, shortly after

the Wall Street Crash of 1929,

at the beginning of the Great Depression. He was succeeded by the Under Secretary of

War Patrick J. Hurley.