[Gilbert Monell]. American politician, born at Omaha, NE, on the 18th of September 1859. His father, Phineas W. Hitchcock, was U.S. senator from Nebraska 1871–77. He was educated at Omaha, Baden-Baden (Germany), and the law school of the university of Michigan (LL.B. 1881). He was admitted to the bar in 1881 and practised law in Omaha for four years. In 1885 he founded the Omaha Evening World and four years later bought the Omaha Morning Herald, combining the two papers into the World-Herald. He was representative in Congress 1903–5 and 1907–11. He was elected U.S. senator for the term 1911–7 and re-elected to serve through 1923. Soon after the outbreak of the World War in 1914 he introduced an unsuccessful bill to prevent war loans to the warring countries as well as the buying and selling of their securities. The same year he introduced another unsuccessful bill to embargo the shipment of ammunition and arms for use against countries with which America was at peace. After the sinking of the “Lusitania” in 1915 he believed that action on the part of America should be limited to a demand for reparation. In 1917, however, he urged support of the resolution for a declaration of war against Germany and in 1918 became chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. When the President submitted to the Senate the Treaty of Versailles, Senator Hitchcock not only led the administration forces by virtue of his office, but also gave strong support to the League of Nations, arguing that it threatened neither the Monroe Doctrine nor U.S. sovereignty.
