View source for Arthur L. Bates

{{Short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Arthur Laban Bates
| image name = Arthur Laban Bates - Bell.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1859|06|06}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1934|08|26|1859|06|06}}
| birth_place = [[Meadville, Pennsylvania|Meadville]], [[Pennsylvania]]
| state = [[Pennsylvania]]
| constituency = [[Pennsylvania's 26th congressional district|26th district]] {{nowrap|(1901–1903)}}<br />[[Pennsylvania's 25th congressional district|25th district]] {{nowrap|(1903–1913)}}
| term_start = March 4, 1901
| term_end = March 3, 1913
| preceded = [[Athelston Gaston]]
| succeeded = [[Milton W. Shreve]]
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse = Josephine Rusling
| children = Arthur Rusling Bates
| father = [[Samuel Penniman Bates]]
| mother = Sarah Josephine Bates
}}

'''Arthur Laban Bates''' (June 6, 1859 – August 26, 1934) was a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] politician, lawyer, and businessman from the [[U.S. state|state]] of [[Pennsylvania]]. Born in [[Meadville, Pennsylvania]], he was the nephew of [[John Milton Thayer]], a U.S. Senator and Governor of Nebraska. Bates received his early education through tutors before graduating from [[Allegheny College]] in 1880. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1882, later attending [[Oxford University]] in England from 1882 to 1883.

Bates began practicing law in Meadville in 1884 and also ventured into newspaper publishing in 1899. He served as the city solicitor of Meadville from 1889 to 1896. His political career took off when he was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] as a Republican to the [[57th United States Congress|Fifty-seventh]] and to the five succeeding Congresses. During his time in Congress, he represented Pennsylvania's 26th district and was involved in international diplomacy, attending the International Peace Conference in Brussels in 1905 and Rome in 1911.

After leaving Congress in 1913, having declined to run for another term, Bates returned to law and publishing. He was also involved in the banking sector and continued to serve his party as a delegate to the [[Republican National Convention]] in [[1924 Republican National Convention|1924]]. He died in Meadville in 1934 and was interred at Greendale Cemetery.

==Sources==
{{CongBio|B000230|Arthur L. Bates}}
*[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/bates.html The Political Graveyard]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
| state=Pennsylvania
| district=26
| before=[[Athelston Gaston]]
| after=[[Joseph H. Shull]]
| years=1901&ndash;1903
}}
{{US House succession box
| state=Pennsylvania
| district=25
| before=[[Joseph B. Showalter]]
| after=[[Milton W. Shreve]]
| years=1903&ndash;1913
}}
{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Arthur L.}}
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1934 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Meadville, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Baptists from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Allegheny College alumni]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania lawyers]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Burials at Greendale Cemetery]]