Frederick G. Payne - U.S. Senator

U.S. Senator

In 1952, Payne was elected to the U.S. Senate. He defeated incumbent Senator Owen Brewster in the Republican primary, and went on to defeat Democrat Roger P. Dube in the general election.

During the late 1950s, after a series of lurid magazine articles and Hollywood films helped to sensationalize youth gangs and violence, Payne supported legislation to ban automatic-opening or switchblade knives. During congressional hearings, Payne suggested that he believed immigrants to be the source of gang violence: "Isn't it true that this type of knife, switchblade knife, in its several different forms, was developed, actually, abroad, and was developed by the so-called scum, if you want to call it, or the group who are always involved in crime?" The ban on switchblade knives was eventually enacted into law as the Switchblade Knife Act of 1958. Senator Payne and other congressmen supporting the Switchblade Knife Act 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 by to what had become a symbolic weapon. However, while switchblade imports, domestic production, 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.

Payne was soundly defeated for reelection in 1958 by the Democrat, Ed Muskie. He died in 1978 in Waldoboro, Maine, aged 73.