Early Career
Ives worked as a bank clerk for Guaranty Trust Company in New York City from 1920 to 1923, earning $25 per week. In 1920, he married Elizabeth Minette Skinner, to whom he remained married until her death in 1947; the couple had one son, George. Joining Manufacturers Trust Company in 1923, he was placed in charge of the bank's business activity in Upstate New York and subsequently moved to Norwich. He remained with Manufacturers Trust until 1930, when he entered the general insurance business in Norwich.
In 1930, Ives was elected as a Republican to the New York State Assembly, where he represented Chenango County until 1946. He had been elected in a special election on February 18, 1930 to succeed Bert Lord, who had been elected to the State Senate. He was chosen as Minority Leader in 1935 and, after the Republican Party won control of the Assembly, became Speaker in 1936. His re-election as Speaker was opposed by his fellow liberal Republicans, who disagreed with his opposition to Governor Herbert H. Lehman's proposed social welfare program. Ives stepped aside in favor of Oswald D. Heck, who subsequently named Ives as Majority Leader. He served in that position from 1937 to 1946.
From 1938 to 1946, Ives was chairman of the State Joint Legislative Committee on Industrial and Labor Conditions. In this position, he earned nationwide attention for sponsoring the Ives-Quinn Act of 1945, which was the first state law to prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. He also introduced legislation to create the state Department of Commerce and to establish the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, of which he was dean from 1945 to 1947. He also served as a member of the New York State War Council (1942 – 1946), chairman of New York State Temporary Commission Against Discrimination (1944 – 1945), and chairman of the New York State Temporary Commission on Agriculture (1945 – 1946).
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