Short was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1956 to the Eighty-fifth Congress. He was defeated by Charles H. Brown, the vote being 90,986 for Brown to 89,926 for Short. In 1945, he had served as a congressional delegate to inspect concentration camps in Germany. Short served as Assistant Secretary of the Army from March 15, 1957, to January 20, 1961 and was later President Emeritus of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress. Short died in Washington, D.C. on November 19, 1979 and was interred in Galena Cemetery, Galena, Missouri.