Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-06
CARTER GLASS, EDITOR
AND FINANCE EXPERT
Currency Bill Brought Gen.
tleman From Virginia Into
Limelight in 1913
New York, Dec. 6.

New York, Dec. 6.
Back in the days when President
Wilson had been living in the White
House for a very short time the new
Administration found itself in the first
throes of formulating a currency pro-
gram. The expert chroniclers whose
business It Is to comb the capital in
search OF signs of human life happened
to pause one day on the Democra ic
side of the House close to a desk occu-
pied by printer-newspaper from
Virginia
Since 1902, or for more than eleven
years, Newspaper Man Carter Glass had
held down that particular desk, or one
close to It, as the Representative from
the Sixth Congressional district of Vir-
ginia, although no one in for y-seven
States of the Union, and perhaps not
every one Of the forty-eighth State
was aware of the fact.
When the writing gentlemen Of the
capital had thoroughly studied The
gentleman from Virginia they all gath
cred around the doyen Of the correspond
ents' corps, Sam Blythe, and applauded
as Dean Blythe sat down to his used
typewriter and batted out n piece about
financial legislators.
He Garter Glass) is the one finan-
cial expert" wrote Sam Blythe in 1918,
''in a legislative way, who has not
climbed trees and chartered from the
branches"
Glass Classified
Things" now began to happen to Mr..
Glass with great rapidity. Scarcely had
Washington begun to learn that one
rtA 1aa lt.h, 1N1I Il
been a congressional resident of Capt.
tol Hill for almost a dozen years when
the nation awoke to the fact that. still
in 1918, he had succeeded Representative
Arsene Pujo to the charmanship Of the
House Committee on Banking and Cur
rency.
Next It was learned that Representa-
tive Glass when in his home town Of
Lynchburg, Va. was a newspaper owner.
He owned and still owns the Lynchburg
Daily News, the city's morning news
paper, and the Lynchburg Daily Ad-
vance, an evening paper. Thus 1t was
seen at glance Representative Glass
had" the home folks going and COM
ing
With a sigh of relief Washington and
the country learned that the new House
chairman Of the Committee on Banking
! and Currency could lay claim to a right
to the Job other than the time hon
ored custom of boosting a man to a
committee craftsmanship because he hap
pened to hold a seniority membership
in given committee.
Had Already Arrived
He wasn't a coming man, it was
learned. He already was there. Be-
fore the year 1913 was far spent one
might have seen his small. slight figure
standing erect and telling the nation
what was what in the countrys finance.
And he says his say in a delightful Va
ginyah drawl.
William Jennings Bryan was Secre-
tary of State and therefore a power In
Mr.. Giass's party; and Chairman Glass
whose ideas Of currency and finance
were, fortunately, wholly at variance
with Dollar Bills, had his troubles In
fathering and putting through the Fed.
eral Reserve act. but he succeeded.
BY this time almost everybody was
asking al! about Mr.. Glass--where he
/ was born. what colleges and univer.
stiles he had attended how old he was
and other personal questions. The
truth came forth.
1t was learned. for instance. that
Carter Glass was born, bred and lived
at Lynchburg, Va, the date Of his birth
being January 4, 1858.
Graduate Of a Printing Shop
The colleges and universities in which
he learned scientific legie'ativ" f-'~ 90
! were the public and private schools ir
and around Lynchburg We
! the home schools to printing shop, and
he stayed there eight years, graduating
himself from the job Of expert printer tc
the business end of publishing and post
graduated himself into owner of the
morning and evening newspapers OF
| his town.
He was elected to the Virginia State
Senate in 1892 and made so good &
record that Virginia sent him as a dele
gate to its State Constitutional Conven.
tion of 1901-02. In the latter year his
home congressional district decided thai
| he should go to the National House OF
Representatives to fill out the unexpiret
! term of Representative J. J. Otey de.
ceased, in the Forty-seventh Congress
And he has been a member Of Congress
ever since, climbing to heights as hi.
studies of financial legislation resulted
in greater capabilities.
He had and has the confidence OF
Democrats and Republicans" so it has
been written, in the matter of handling
financial subjects and has been one OF
the most outspoken defenders Of the
present Administration. The new choice
Of the President for cabinet member,
ship, it might be added, Is a Democrat
|