Forest Harness
Forest Arthur Harness was an American lawyer, World War I veteran, and politician who served five terms as a United States [House of Representatives|U.S. representative] from Indiana from 1939 to 1949.
Biography
Born in Kokomo, Indiana, Harness attended public schools and graduated in 1917 from the law department of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. where he was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity.Military career
He served overseas during World War I as a first lieutenant, Three Hundred and Nineteenth Infantry from 1917 to 1919, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart. He served as captain in the Infantry Reserve, United States Army from 1920 to 1949.Legal career
He was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1917, as well as to the Indiana bar in 1919, and commenced practice in Kokomo, Indiana. He was serving as prosecuting attorney of Howard County, Indiana from 1920 to 1924, and as special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States from 1931 to 1935, when he resigned to resume private practice.Congress
Harness was elected as a Republican to the 76th [United States Congress|Seventy-sixth] and to the four succeeding Congresses.In September 1944, Harness claimed on the House floor that the Australian government warned Washington that a Japanese aircraft carrier was bound for Hawaii and that this information was withheld from the commanders at Pearl Harbor. Rumors of this sort had been around for a while, but Harness's charges put them in the public record.
He served as chairman of the Select Committee on the Federal Communications Commission. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1948 to the Eighty-first Congress, at which point he resumed the practice of law.