Mr. O’Connell. 1931.
Mr. Tavenner. Where did you receive your A. B. degree?
Mr. O’Connell. Mount St. Charles College, now known as Carroll College, in Helena, Mont., in 1931.
Through the late Senator Thomas J. Walsh, of Montana, I obtained employment here in the District with the Democratic National Committee, later in 1931, and attended law school at Columbus Law School here in the District.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you receive a degree?
Mr. O’Connell. No; I did not. I was elected to the Legislature of the State of Montana in 1931, when I was only 21 years of age and while a senior at Mount St. Charles College. I came back here and went to law school and then in 1932 during the summer vacation I went back and sought renomination and reelection to the State legislature and was successful.
I served in the 1933 session of the State legislature. Also in a special session of the legislature in the latter part of 1933 and the early part of 1934.
In between I came back and continued taking law courses in between the legislative sessions and so on, and later studied law privately at home and in a law office at Butte, Mont., and then in 1934 I was elected to the State Railroad and Public Service Commission of Montana, which is a statewide elective office in the State, and then in 1936 I was elected to the 75th Congress of the United States from the First Western District of the State of Montana.
I served one term, from 1937 to 1939, and was defeated in the 1938 general elections. I won the Democratic nomination.
In 1940 I again won the Democratic nomination and was defeated in the 1940 election by Jeannette Rankin.