US Senator. He was born one of five children (he also had three brothers and one sister) in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to Protestant Minister Elia Willets Shortridge and his wife Telitha Harwood Shortridge on August 3, 1861. He later moved with his family while still a child from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to the State of Oregon, and then to San Jose, California, where they eventually settled. He was educated locally and in common public schools. Following his education, he worked as a blacksmiths helper, a street lamplighter, a school janitor, and a teacher. He later attended and studied law at the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, California, was admitted to the bar in 1884, and commenced his practice of law in that city. He married Laura Leigh Gashwiler Shortridge in San Francisco, California, on August 2, 1897, and the couple would have two children together, both boys. He then entered politics and served as Presidential Elector for the State of California in 1888, 1900, and again in 1908. In 1908, he served as a special counsel to Abraham Ruef during the San Francisco, California, graft trials. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Senate but lost the seat to United States Representative Joseph Russell Knowland in 1914. He then returned to his practice of law in San Francisco, California, for a time. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Senate again and this time using then-President of the United States Warren Gamaliel Harding's "Return To Normalcy" Campaign from World War I he defeated former United States Senator and former Mayor of San Francisco, California, James Duval Phelan and other strong Candidates from the Prohibition Party and Socialist Party of America with 49 percent of the vote in 1920. He was reelected to that post with 63 percent of the vote beating out Democrat Party Member John B. Elliott in 1926. A Member of the Republican Party, he served two full terms as United States Senator from the State of California from March 4, 1921, to March 4, 1933. While serving in the United States Senate he became a strong voice for racist anti-Japanese forces in the State of California and this earned him the nickname of 'The Silver Tongued Orator Of The Pacific.' In 1924, he said that a child of Japanese immigrants would regard "himself or herself as a native of Japan. His heart, his affections go out to the native land of the parent." These claims were also remarkably familiar to some of the jurisdictions made for Japanese internment during World War II. His speech later came under fire from other United State Senators who wanted to favor northern and western European immigrants and found his anti-Japanese position unnecessary. He also advocated high tariffs and opposed the entrance of the United States into the League of Nations. His other famous sayings include, "Russia has never been our enemy but our close ally, without whom Hitler would have been victorious...Russian mothers and fathers don't want to see their sons slaughtered on a battlefield any more than the American mothers and fathers do..."I believe that we must avoid at all times entrance into the war, but once in it we must fight to win." He also described himself as "Last of the 100 percent Abraham Lincoln Republicans." He was an unsuccessful Candidate for renomination after losing in a primary to California Legislator Tallant Tubbs in 1932. After his term in the United States Senate expired he was succeeded in office by United States Senator and former United States Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo on March 4, 1933. He lastly served as a Special Attorney for the Justice Department in Washington, D, C., from 1939 to 1943. He then continued with his practice of law and as co-owner of the San Jose Mercury-Herald Newspaper which he founded with his brother. He passed away in his sleep in Atherton, California, on January 17, 1952, at the age of 90, and was buried in Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose, California. His wife Laura passed away in Menlo Park, California, on May 25, 1938, at the age of 61, but she was laid to rest in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California. He was a lifelong member of such organizations as the Freemasons, the Elks, and the Redmen. He was also a member of the Bohemian Club. His sister Clara Margaret Shortridge Foltz became the first female lawyer in the State of California in 1878, and the first female Deputy District Attorney in the United States in 1910. She also helped her brother campaign for the United States Senate. She passed away in Los Angeles, California, on September 2, 1934, at the age of 85, and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.