Peter F. Mack Jr.

Peter Francis Mack Jr.
Peter Francis Mack Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Illinois's 21st district
	In office; January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1963
Preceded by	George E. Howell
Succeeded by	Kenneth J. Gray
Personal details
Born	November 1, 1916; Carlinville, Illinois, U.S.
Died	July 4, 1986 (aged 69); Rockville, Maryland, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Political party	Democratic

Peter Francis Mack Jr. (November 1, 1916 – July 4, 1986) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.

Early life

Born in Carlinville, Illinois, Mack attended the public schools. At a young age he worked in coal mines in the area and in his family's business--the local Ford auto dealership. He attended Blackburn College in Carlinville and St. Louis (Missouri) University. Mack took special courses in aviation at Springfield Junior College and St. Louis University. He was engaged in his family's automotive sales and service business in Carlinville, Illinois. He was also a licensed commercial pilot.^[1] He enlisted in United States Navy in 1942 and served four years in naval air force and later served as a Naval Reserve officer with rank of commander. He was nicknamed Illinois's "Flying Congressman" after piloting the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza "Friendship Flame" on a circumnavigational solo flight in 1951 on a good will tour. He had flown 33,000 miles, visited 35 countries and 45 cities, logging 210 hours in the air.^[2]

Congressional career

Mack was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and to the six succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1963). In the 1961 deccennial reapportionment, Mack was drawn into Illinois's 20th congressional district with Republican Congressman Paul Findley. While Mack was widely viewed as the favorite, Findley defeated Mack in the 1962 general election.^[3] Mack was also an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1974 and in 1976 to the Ninety-fourth and Ninety-fifth Congresses.

While in Congress, Mack was a member of the House Commerce Committee and served as chairman of its Commerce and Finance Subcommittee. In 1958, after a series of lurid magazine articles and Hollywood films denouncing the switchblade knife as an accessory of youth gang culture,^[4] Mack sponsored legislation to make automatic-opening or switchblade knives illegal to purchase, sell, or import in interstate commerce, which was enacted into law as the Switchblade Knife Act of 1958.^[5] Mack and other congressmen supporting the legislation believed that by stopping the importation and interstate sales of automatic knives (effectively halting sales of new switchblades), the law would reduce youth gang violence by blocking access to what had become a symbolic weapon.^[5]^[6] However, while switchblade imports and sales to lawful owners soon ended, later legislative research demonstrated that youth gang violence rates had in fact rapidly increased, as gang members turned to firearms instead of knives.^[7]

Later career

Mack served as assistant to the president of Southern Railway from 1963 to 1975, and owned and operated the Peter Mack Company, a real estate and investment firm. In 1976, Mack attempted a political comeback running against Findley. Findley defeated Mack with 63.6% of the vote to Mack's 36.4% of the vote.^[8]^[9] He was a resident of Potomac, Maryland, until his death in Rockville, Maryland on July 4, 1986. Mack was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

Notes

^ "Ex-Rep. Peter Francis Mack Jr.; Illinois' 'Flying Congressman'". Los Angeles Times. 1986-07-08. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
^ AP (1986-07-07). "Peter Mack, 69, Dies; 'Flying Congressman'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
^ Findley, Paul (2011). Speaking Out: A Congressman's Lifelong Fight Against Bigotry, Famine, and War. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
^ Dick, Steven (1997), The Working Folding Knife, Stoeger Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0-88317-210-0
^ ^a ^b Switchblade Knives: Hearing, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Eighty-fifth Congress, Minutes of the Second Session, April 17, 1958
^ Knife World Magazine (August 1990): Representative Sidney R. Yates of Illinois proclaimed that "minus switchblade knives and the distorted feeling of power they beget...our delinquent adolescents would be shorn of one of their most potent means of incitement to crime."
^ Clark, Charles S., Youth Gangs Worsening Violence Prompts Crackdowns and Community Mobilization, Congressional Quarterly 1, 11 October 1991, pp. 753-776
^ Kelley, Wayne, ed. (2008). Electing Congress. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. p. 127. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
^ Day, William L. (ed.). "Illinois lineup for the U.S. House". Illinois Issues. 2 (10). Sangamon State University: 25. Retrieved June 1, 2021.

References

United States Congress. "Peter F. Mack Jr. (id: M000020)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
"Peter Mack, 69, Dies; 'Flying Congressman,'" New York Times. July 7, 1986.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by George E. Howell	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 21st congressional district 1949–1963	Succeeded by Kenneth J. Gray