​NEWLANDS, FRANCIS GRIFFITH, American legislator; born at Natchez, Miss., in 1848. Studied at Yale and took a course in law at Columbian (now Washington) University; practiced law in San Francisco and then settled at Reno, where he studied irrigation and ​reclamation of land. Advocated the free coinage of silver; was elected a Democrat on the silver issue to the House of Representatives 1893-1903. Re-elected Senator 1909-1914. The Newlands' Act of 1913 provides means of mediation and arbitration in controversies on railway wages. In 1914 Senator Newlands took a leading part in framing the Interstate Trade Commerce Act. Died in 1917.