Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-10-21
Log Cabin to Congress
Is Brilliant Record of
Tennessee War Hero
BY A, w. OGDEN

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-Born in a
log cabin, under the shadow of
Stump Knob" December 49,, 1888.
Carroll Recess successful struggle
to reach congress has been not I'M
like that of the immortal Kentucky
wood-splitter who went to the White
House.
Carroll Reece will be the next con-
gresham from the First congress
sional district of Tennessee, having
defeated Congressman Sam r. Sells,
a ten-year incumbent, by majority
OF 1924 for the Republican nominal
ton He has no opposition for cleo
ton in November.
The little log cabin where Mr..
Reece first saw the peep O. dawn
OVER the mountains of east Tennes-
see still stands at Butler, on the
banks of the Watauga. He is the
teen, eleven boys and three girls.
His parents o-:ned only a few acres
of mountain land, but managed by
hard work, good management and
scant living to give their children all
the benefits of the country free
three to four months, and was To-
Gated five miles ave.
He completed the free school
course and entered Watauga acad-
envy in .90G, working during sum-
mer months to pay lenses there;
eighty-fve cents per day, twenty
cents of which daily went for board.
In 1908 he graduated at the head of
his class.
Newman college, Jefferson City, in
1909. He taught school during the
fall and went to the college during
the spring term. While in college
he waited on tables to ZIP pay ex-
penses: In 1914 he graduated and
where he studied and taught some
classes the first year. The second
year he was appointed assistant sec
rotary of the School of Commerce,
and was elected secretary Of the
School Of Commerce just before 60
burg, when the call to arms was
sounded by Uncle Sam. "
He enlisted in the army in April,
1917. only a few days after war
missioned as a second lieutenant Of
infantry and went across with the
Forty-second (Rainbow) division. He
was in the army two years and five
months and was on foreign soil
nearly two yea. years soo He was sa at the
over the top" more than twenty
times. The American government
decorated him with the Distinguish
ed Service Medal and Distinguished
| Service Cross for valor. France gave
him a Croix de Guerre with palm.
commanders, of American armies
mentioned him in their reports. When
he came home he started to cam
paign and in the primary election,
| Lieutenant Reece won the nomina-
ton, which is equivalent to election.
General Pershing in an official or
| der said of him:
"He (Lieutenant Reece) showed
energy, initiative and military abil-
ity of high order while serving as
dredth and Second infantry, in COM
mand Of a company and later a bat
talon. He led his company brill
liantly in the attack upon st. Mihiel
salient and during the onerations of
the Twenty-siXth division north Of
Verdpn. Confronted later by task
| Of great difficulty when placed in
| command of a battalion, which suf-
fered heavy casualties and became
badly disorganized, he displayed
reorganizing Mis- command and mould
ing it into a good fighting unit, able
under his leadership to achieve valu!
able results"
Carroll Reece is thirty-one years
old, which some have argued is too
young. But history records that
many of the laading figures in Amer
lean politics attained prominence at
an early age. Daniel Webster en-
tered congress at the age of thirty
one; John c. Calhoun at twenty-nine;
Henry Clay at twenty-nine; President
Garfield at thirty; Andrew Johnson
at thirty-one, and Abraham Lincoln
in his early thirties. Alexander
Hamilton was member of Wash
ington's cabinet and established the
financial system of the. United States
| before he was thirty.