{{Short description|American politician (1873–1950)}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2010}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Louis Leon Ludlow | image = LouisLudlow.jpg | office = Member of the<br>U.S. House of Representatives<br>from Indiana | constituency = {{ushr|IN|7|C}} (1929–1933)<br>{{ushr|IN|12|C}} (1933–1943)<br>{{ushr|IN|11|C}} (1943–1949) | term_start = March 4, 1929 | term_end = January 3, 1949 | predecessor = Ralph E. Updike | successor = Andrew Jacobs | birth_date = {{birth date|1873|6|24|mf=y}} | birth_place = Connersville, Indiana, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1950|11|28|1873|6|24}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | resting_place = Rock Creek Cemetery<br />Washington, D.C., U.S. | spouse = Katherine Huber | party = Democrat | occupation = | profession = Newspaper reporter }}

'''Louis Leon Ludlow''' (June 24, 1873 &ndash; November 28, 1950) was a Democratic Indiana congressman. He proposed the Ludlow Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1938 requiring a national referendum on any U.S. declaration of war except in cases of direct attack. The amendment was rejected by Congress by a narrow margin and after an appeal from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

==Early and personal life== Ludlow was born on a farm near Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana, on June 24, 1873,<ref name=":0">{{CongBio|L000501}}</ref> as one of eight children of Henry Louis and Isabelle (Smiley) Ludlow. He was married on September 17, 1896, to Katherine Huber of Irvington, Indiana, the society editor on the Sentinel in Washington.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

==Career== He moved to Indianapolis in 1892, where he became a reporter<ref name=":0" /> (for the ''Indianapolis Sun'' and then the ''Indianapolis Sentinel'' and the ''Indianapolis Press'') and later a political writer. Ludlow was a Washington correspondent for Indiana and Ohio newspapers (the ''Indianapolis Star'', the ''Star League of Indiana'', the ''Columbus Dispatch'', and the ''Ohio State Journal'') and a member of the Congressional Press Galleries from 1901 to 1929.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-first and the nine succeeding Congresses from 1929 to 1949.<ref name=":0" />

He proposed the Ludlow Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1938 requiring a national referendum on any U.S. declaration of war except in cases of direct attack. The amendment was rejected by Congress by a vote of 209 to 188.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Benjamin D. |title=United States Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918–1941: The Golden Age of American Diplomatic and Military Complacency |publisher=Praeger/Greenwood |year=2001 |isbn=0-275-94825-0 |page=151}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=Dec 15, 1937 |title=WAR REFERENDUM RECALLED TO HOUSE; Petition to Relieve the Rules Committee Signed by 218 Members, One Now Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/12/15/archives/war-referendum-recalled-to-house-petition-to-relieve-the-rules.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

After his political career, Ludlow returned to working as a newspaper correspondent.<ref name=":0" />

== Death == Ludlow died in Washington, D.C. on November 28, 1950.<ref name=":0" /> He was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery.<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} {{CongBio|L000501}} *{{commons-inline}} * {{Find a Grave|8487365}}

{{S-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box| state=Indiana |district=7 | before=Ralph E. Updike | after=Arthur H. Greenwood | years=1929-1933}} {{US House succession box| state=Indiana |district=12| before=David Hogg | reason=District abolished | years=1933-1943}} {{US House succession box| state=Indiana |district=11| before=William H. Larrabee | after=Andrew Jacobs | years=1943-1949}} {{S-end}} {{IndianaUSRepresentatives}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ludlow, Louis}} Category:1873 births Category:1950 deaths Category:Politicians from Connersville, Indiana Category:The Indianapolis Star people Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Indiana Category:Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery Category:20th-century United States representatives