Evening star., 1932-04-10

/ ICchDlCO AEHSDdPCI NOlh OL1 b1AC AoAJ
News, the morning paper now owned by
him. He eventually attracted State
wide attention by his caustic, belliger-
ent attitude on local and State issues.
Entered Politics in 1899.
A few years later, when the paper
was offered for sale, he borrowed the
money with which to make a down
| payment for its purchase, and by hard
work and rigid economy paid out his
! Indebtedness until the paper was his.
! Still later he bought the towns other
| paper and for many years has been
! owner and publisher OF both the
morning and evening papers Of Lynch
burg.
AS an editor Glass followed the same
policies which he has followed in public
life. He stood out boldly for his convic-
tions, fought for them, sought to force
| others to accept them by the strength
| of his exposition of his cause.
1t was not until 1899 that he entered
politics. In reality he did not enter:
he was drafted. While away from home,
recuperating from an illness and un-
aware of what was going on, he was
nominated to the Virginia Senate
| Strangely enough, every political posi-
tlon he ever held has been thrust upon
him. He never sought one of the posts
which he has occupied. In 1902 he was
| nominated for Congress without his
knowledge. He was drafted again
without any previous knowledge or idea
OF his own when President Wilson, in
1918, appointed him Secretary of the
Treasury. A little more than a year
later the veteran Tom" Martin, Sena-
tor from Virginia, died, and once more
an elevation to political position came
to Glass unsought; the Governor of
Virginia appointed him to fill the
vacancy. Since then he has been
elected three times.
During his long. active life Carter
Glass has evolved a scale of values to
which he vigorously adheres and which
he maintains with the same determined
vigor that he displays in legislative
battle. He has little love for many
things to which convention attaches
great value. One of his chief sversionS
is the social climber. Erudite and
scholarly himself, from a lifetime of
self-education; cultured and kindly in
his instincts, from his rearing in a home
and neighborhood of cultured relatives
and friends, he knows and observes the
ordinary social amenities, but abhors
what to him is the spectacle of the man
or woman striving desperately for social
position and distinction. Many of them,
from his home State, write to him,
asking him to get them invitations to
White House social functions. He fatty
refuses.
Dislikes Speechmaking.
What" he exclaims. "ask a gentle
man to invite stranger to his home?
Never! I'd as soon think of asking him
to let me pick out his wife"
One important Virginia woman in
duced an intimate friend of Glass in
Lynchburg to ask him to help get her
daughter presented at the Court of st.
James. Glass wrote back TO him:
Il have a disrelish for social COM
mendations. In my view a person is
just what that person is and should
advance IN social esteem only so far as
he is entitled to advance on his own
account
Another institution to which Glass
has an aversion is speechmaking. He
never speaks himself except on some
thing that he is especially qualified to
explain. He has no political organiza-
ton whatever-no manager, no lieu
tenants, no publicity. He had no head
quarters" in 1880, when he was last
reelected. He made not single speech.
1mportuned to do something, he replied:
The people of Virginia know me- They
know what I've been doing. If they like
1t they'll vote for me; if they don't,
they won't. I don't propose to try to
influence them one way or the other"
His attitude toward his fellow Sena-
tors is much the same. He won't trade.
He won't appeal to individual Senators
to support him. He won't log-roll
There's no You vote for my bill and
I'll vote for yours" about him He
makes his fight directly and openly.
He sometimes hammers members of the
Senate and burns them with sarcasm.
They don't like it. They like Glass. He
has as many friends on the Repub-
lican side as on the Democratic side.
He is not leader; he is not manipu-
lator. He is a driver.
He has been one of the outstanding
drys, but never zealot. In this, as
in his other political activities, he has
expressed himself vigorously, fought
hard. driven home his arguments with
cutting sarcasm and relentless deter
mination. But his contempt for and
scorn of the "wet-drinking, dry-voting"
legislator is as strong as his hatred of
men who make profession" of being
dry and are moral chiefly for pecu-
mary reasons. He has never taken
drink of any kind of liquor in his life
and he has never smoked. Yet Bishop
Cannon has no more bitter enemy than
Garter Glass, his fellow dry.
Bars Special Pleading.
Carter Glass will not allow a special
pleader inside his office door If he
knows it. If an old friend gets in and
then starts special pleading COM
mon practice on Capitol Hill-he may
even be requested to leave Glass
idea of the proprieties is that the
pleaders should appear at public hear
ings held for that purpose.
For example, when the newspaper
publishers of the country came to Wash
ington a few years ago to tell their
desires to Congress concerning the duty
on wood pulp. the first man they went
to see was Glass. He'll help u.s." they
said. Hes q newspaper publisher him
self"
A committee called upon Glass. He
knew every one of them Intimately
They were his friends; in the same
trade And he turned them down cold.
He wouldn't even let them talk to him
about wood pulp. and when the wood
pup schedule came to vote on the
floor of the Senate he asked to be ex-
cused from voting.
Il cannot vote on a schedule in
which I have a personal interest" he
said
Like his constituents. however, and
like his fellow members of Congress, the
visiting editors thought none the less
of him for such radical disagreement
with them.
During the pendency of a recent
emergency finance bill an old and inti-
mate Democratic friend of Glass called
to see him. He was solicitious for Glass
health (Which has never been robust)
and for the health of Mrs. Glass.
Finally he got down to the purpose of
his visit, which was to try to influence
Glass on an important point in the bill
under debate. Glass had read in the
newspapers few days before that his
old friend had been to the White House
TO breakfast, so he drawled;
Go hack and tell the President I'm