Sen. Carter Glass dies at 88 (5-28-46)

[NormanStewart]

Congressional Record (May 28, 1946)

Mr. BYRD: Mr. President, it is with profound sorrow that I announce to the Senate the passing of the senior Senator from Virginia, my beloved colleague, Senator CARTER GLASS.

He was one of the outstanding Americans of this generation. This is not the occasion to recall in detail the great services that Senator GLASS has rendered Virginia and his country during a public life of nearly 50 years. I shall not attempt now to analyze or measure the value of his public service, the strength and brightness of his intellect, the aptness and assurance of his mind, the sharpness and brilliance of his wit. His character, carved out of unblemished granite, was composed of truth and loyalty and sincerity that hates deceit and detests a lie. In the soul and brain of his dynamic personality were forged at white heat the clear convictions on politics and life that Senator GLASS refused to compromise.

This businessman, who accepted public office after he was 40, served for years in the House of Representatives before he made a major speech. He then spoke without interruption for 5 hours on the Federal banking system, of which he was the father, and became one of the outstanding orators of America.

Beginning his public career as clerk of the City Council of Lynchburg, he was drafted to represent his district in the State Senate of Virginia; was a leader and a very notable figure in the Virginia State Constitutional Convention of 1901; was elected and reelected to the National House of Representatives; twice endorsed for the Presidency of the United States by the Virginia Democracy; elected and reelected to the Senate of the United States, of which he was one of the most beloved and respected Members.

His long career in the representation of Virginia has been interrupted only once in half a century, when he resigned from Congress to serve with great distinction as Secretary of the Treasury and as intimate adviser of his close friend, Woodrow Wilson.

A great educator, in awarding Mr. GLASS the highest honor of an ancient college not long ago, said: “You have reached a position of distinction and eminence which has placed you above the power of others either to add to your honor or to detract from your fame.”

For myself, I feel the deepest personal sorrow. Senator GLASS and I have been intimately associated for many years. I have been his close and devoted friend and he has been mine. I shall never cease to be eternally grateful for the privilege of being his colleague in the representation of Virginia in the Senate of the United States. Virginia, in her history, has contributed some great men to this body, but Senator GLASS was Virginia’s outstanding Senator and will remain so, I predict, for many generations to come.

My admiration for him was only exceeded by my love and devotion for him. Today I voice the sorrow of all Virginians and express in their behalf their gratitude for his great public service.

Mr. President, I submit a resolution, and ask that the clerk may read it and that it may be considered and agreed to.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore: The resolution will be read.

The Chief Clerk read the resolution (S. Res. 273) and, by unanimous consent, the Senate proceeded to its consideration, as follows:

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow and deep regret the announcement of the death of Hon. CARTER GLASS, late a Senator from the State of Virginia.

Resolved, That a committee of 12 Senators be appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate to take order for superintending the funeral of the deceased Senator.

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased.

Mr. BARKLEY: Mr. President, the Senator from Virginia has delivered so beautiful a tribute to Senator GLASS that I do not deem it necessary at this moment to add anything to what he has said. At a later time I shall take advantage of the opportunity to discuss the character and public service of Senator GLASS more in detail. l share the great regret and profound sorrow that not only Virginia but the country feels and the Senate especially at the death of Senator GLASS.

Mr. VANDENBERG: Mr. President, the late Senator from Virginia was one of the great men of this age. In rugged probity, in high honor, in deepest devotion to principle, in gallant loyalty to his country, in faithful service to his heavy public tasks, this GLASS was ever clear as crystal.

I speak for his country’s love of him, I speak for the sense of profound loss which is our common and universal tribute to his memory in this sad hour.

Mr. WAGNER: Mr. President, it is with a deep sense of personal loss that I rise to pay tribute to that noble son of Virginia, an outstanding American, who has just passed away. He lived a long, full life, complete in the just fame he achieved and the great national service he rendered during the long years a merciful Providence bestowed upon him. As a newspaper editor and publisher in the community where he was born and where his friends and neighbors lived, he showed at the outset of his career the flaming independence, integrity, and courage which later carried him to the highest position of national leadership.

As chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, he piloted the far-reaching Federal Reserve Banking Act through the House, and at all times thereafter he was the valiant defender of the Federal Reserve System, giving wise counsel and guidance to its administrators.

Immediately following the First World War; he rendered distinguished service as Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of Woodrow Wilson. As United States Senator since 1920, he became one of the foremost figures ever to serve in this great body.

Mr. President, these are the bare outlines of the career of one of America’s most distinguished public servants. But those who had the privilege of his friendship will remember those great qualities of CARTER GLASS for which we loved and respected him. His ability to pierce to the heart of the most complex problems, his steadfast adherence to principle, and his courage in fighting for the welfare of the American people distinguished him in all his years in the Senate. With his great abilities, he combined a deep courtesy and personal charm which endeared him to all who knew him.

The Banking and Currency Committee, of which I am chairman, owes a great debt to CARTER GLASS. During the years in which he served on that committee, his deep knowledge of banking and finance and his unusual ability to analyze the most complex problems were of immeasurable help to the committee.

In the death of CARTER GLASS, the Senate has lost one of its most beloved and distinguished Members, and the Nation has lost a great public servant. In this hour of grief, I extend my warmest sympathy to his widow and family.

Mr. MCKELLAR: Mr. President, I cannot let this occasion pass without saying a word.

Senator CARTER GLASS, of Virginia, was one of the finest and noblest characters with whom I have ever been associated during my life. He was the soul of truth and honor; very firm in his convictions, as we all know; determined in his actions; and animated by the highest sense of duty.

Senator GLASS and I did not always agree. Sometimes we were widely divided on issues, but he had my respect and admiration and esteem at all times, and I believe I enjoyed his.

I was associated with Senator GLASS for many years in the work of the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, and he always insisted upon doing what he deemed to be fair and just and right. In all that time I never knew CARTER GLASS to do a little or a small thing. He had a big heart and a great mind.

Mr. President, I was warmly devoted to Senator GLASS; I loved him personally; I honored and respected and esteemed him as the true, genuine, upstanding, courageous man that he was. I deeply deplore his passing, and I extend to his loved ones my deepest and heartfelt sympathy.

Mr. WHITE: Mr. President, the death of Senator GLASS brings to an end a colorful, dynamic, and distinguished public career. For more than half a century his mind, his political philosophy, and his character made definite impress upon the life of his State and upon the Nation.

As a publisher and editor, with clarity and forcefulness he made known to the people of Virginia his thoughts upon social, economic, and political problems. As a Member of the National House of Representatives, as a Senator of the United States, as Secretary of the Treasury, and as an intimate adviser of Presidents, his was never a doubting voice.

He was a positive character, sure of the rightness of his convictions, and loyal always to them.

His personal character, Mr. President, and his life were above reproach. He denounced fraud and sham with indignation and with vigor, and he fought always valiantly for the right.

Mr. President, a great public servant has gone to his rest and to his reward. With him goes the respect of the American people. We who have served with him in public life add the assurance of our affection. We extend to his widow and his family our tender and our enduring sympathy in their present great loss.

Mr. GEORGE: Mr. President, as the distinguished Senator from Virginia [Mr. BYRD] has said, this is neither the time nor the place to pay tribute to the life and character and public service of Senator GLASS. It is only a time of sorrow, and for acknowledgment of the deep loss that not only his State, but his Nation as well, must feel today.

Time passes very rapidly. Of all the men who were occupying seats in the Senate when I entered it there are only two left. CARTER GLASS was one of the Senators representing his State with great honor and distinction at that time, and my early associations with him were most cordial. Early I learned to entertain for him a deep and genuine respect, confidence, and esteem.

In his life and in his character he instinctively turned away from all false pretense and fraud. There was no sham in his soul, and he knew there was no honor in false pretense, but he was a true servant of the principles of the Government which he loved and of the institutions of the country to which he was so deeply and unswervingly devoted.

In his last active days, when this Nation shifted back to a strong, aggressive position in a world of confusion and of coming war, he seemed to regain some of his old fire.

In a very peculiar sense, I feel the loss of this great man who for so many years was a pillar of strength in this body. During his last illness he has been my next-door neighbor, and through these nearly 4 years I have had occasion to see how uncomplaining he was, and with what courage and fortitude he faced the inevitable summons, as he had faced all the problems of life, personal and official.

CARTER GLASS will be justly included among that large number of illustrious and distinguished names given this country by his beloved State.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore: The question is on agreeing to the resolution submitted by the Senator from Virginia.

The resolution was unanimously agreed to.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore: The Chair will state that the committee provided for in the resolution will be announced later.

Mr. BYRD: As a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased Senator from Virginia, I move that the Senate take a recess until 11 o’clock a.m. tomorrow.

The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 11 o’clock and 21 minutes a.m.) the Senate took a recess until tomorrow, Wednesday, May 29, 1946, at 11 o’clock a.m.

[NormanStewart]

The Evening Star (May 28, 1946)

Senate adjourns in respect to Carter Glass, dead at 88

Funeral to be held Thursday at home near Lynchburg

Sen. Carter Glass of Virginia, whom President Roosevelt affectionately called “the unreconstructed rebel” and who had been a member of Congress since 1902, except for 11 months as President Wilson’s secretary of the Treasury, died early today at his Mayflower Hotel apartment.

The Senate, meeting at 11 a.m., adjourned until tomorrow out of respect to the memory of its oldest member. His colleague, Sen. Byrd, announced the death. There were no formal eulogies at this time but Sen. Byrd outlined the career of Sen. Glass. Sens. Barkley of Kentucky, Democratic leader; Wagner of New York, McKellar of Tennessee, George of Georgia and White and Vandenberg, Republicans of Maine and Michigan, also spoke briefly in tribute.

The 88-year-old senator’s illness had prevented him from appearing in the Senate since June 1942. Death resulted at 1:50 a.m. today from “congestive heart failure,” his physician, Dr. Walter A. Bloedorn, announced.

The funeral will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday at his home, Montview, 16 miles from Lynchburg, Virginia. Burial will be in Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg.

With him when he died at his apartment here was his wife, the former Mrs. Mary Scott of Amherst, Virginia, whom he married in 1940. His first wife, Mrs. Amelia Glass, died June 9, 1937. A son, Carter Glass Jr., recently discharged from the Army, in which he served as a lieutenant colonel, is editor of the Lynchburg Advance. Another son, Powell Glass, a newspaper executive in that city, died last July.

A daughter, Mrs. John G. Boatwright of Danville, Virginia, and three sisters, Dr. Meta Glass, president of Sweet Briar College; Mrs. Blair Banister, assistant treasurer of the United States, and Mrs. Fontaine Johnson Jr. of Lexington, Virginia, also survive. Another daughter was the late Mrs. Isaac Digges of New York.

Was center of disputes

Frequently the center of controversy and differences with his Democratic associates – differences which nevertheless seldom caused him to vote against party candidates – Sen. Glass, even in his absence from the Senate in recent years, provoked a political fight in Virginia. Some Democratic newspapers and others suggested that he resign.

John Locke Green, a Republican and treasurer of Arlington County, tried unsuccessfully last July through mandamus proceedings in the State Supreme Court of Appeals to compel the governor to call a special election fill Sen. Glass’ seat. The court denied the petition after the Virginia attorney general declared that “so long as the Senate recognizes Sen. Glass as a member there is no vacancy.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused last January 2 to review the case.

Sen. Glass was seriously ill at the time of his election for the term ending in 1949. The Senate, for the second time in its history, authorized its secretary to administer the oath in January 1943 outside of the Senate chamber. This was done at the senator’s estate near Lynchburg. Later Mr. Glass was able to return to Washington, but never again went to the Capitol.

Many pay tribute

Expressions of sorrow and tribute came today from many Virginia public officials and colleagues in Congress. Gov. Tuck, attending the Governor’s Conference at Oklahoma City, declared that “probably no Virginian in the past 50 years had been so admired and revered.”

Former Gov. Colgate W. Darden Jr. said: “A long and distinguished career has come to an end and its ending marks the closing of an era in Virginia. Sen. Glass brought to the public service a mind of exceptional quality and a character that was unimpeachable. He was one of Virginia’s greatest sons.”

Sen. Byrd said the death of his colleagues was “not only a great personal loss to me, but a loss to the nation.” Announcing the death of Sen. Glass in the Senate, he described him as a man whose character “was carved out of unblemished granite.”

Others who joined in praising Sen. Glass were Reps. Burch, Drewry and Robertson, Democrats, of Virginia.

Expert on finance

Sen. Glass was noted for his work in governmental finance, his outspoken interventionist views when the late war broke out, and not least for his colorful personality and often caustic speech.

His relations with the late President Roosevelt remained cordial despite his reported refusal in 1933 to become secretary of the Treasury. Before the election of Mr. Roosevelt, Sen. Glass attacked Republicans who asserted the Democratic nominee planned to take the nation off the gold standard. But when he was unable to obtain from President Roosevelt a satisfactory assurance of a “sound money” policy, the Virginia senator refused to accept the Cabinet offer.

When the Roosevelt administration abandoned the gold standard he voiced great displeasure. He differed with the administration on NRA, crop reduction, various spending policies, and especially on the 1937 Supreme Court reorganization plan.

He and President Roosevelt, however, maintained friendly personal relations until, in 1939, he was reported to have made the most bitter break of all. This occurred when the president refused to follow his recommendation in appointing a federal judge for the western district of Virginia.

Helped draft Reserve law

One of Sen. Glass’ principal claims to national fame was in connection with his work in behalf of the Federal Reserve System. Although not the founder of the Federal Reserve, he had an important part in drafting the law which created it and was chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in 1913. On a wall of the Federal Reserve Building there is a bronze plaque commemorating Sen. Glass as the “Defender of the Federal Reserve.”

Despite his frequent and biting attacks on administration leaders and measures, Sen. Glass was staunchly a party man. Many of his differences on banking legislation during the early days of the New Deal were compromised.

He never wavered in his campaign support of President Roosevelt, notwithstanding his own dissatisfaction and the editorial stands which his Lynchburg newspapers took against such policies as the NRA Blue Eagle and dollar devaluation which he once termed “national repudiation, dishonorable, immoral.”

In the 1928 campaign, Sen. Glass opposed the nomination of Alfred E. Smith, but worked hard for him in the election. Virginia, however, went Republican for the first time since the Civil War.

Long a friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the senator was regarded, prior to 1932, as somewhat lukewarm toward the New Yorker’s presidential aspirations. But in the 1932 campaign, he did vigorous service for the Roosevelt-Garner ticket. In 1940 he opposed a third term for President Roosevelt and nominated former Postmaster General James A. Farley. He did not campaign against Mr. Roosevelt. During the 1944 fourth-term campaign, Mr. Glass was too ill to take part.

Age and illness prevented him from actively participating in the war effort after the United States entered the world conflict in 1941. He early warned against the Nazi menace and was one of the original sponsors of the “Fight for Freedom” Committee. He vigorously criticized the Neutrality Act.

Months before this country declared war on Germany, Sen. Glass declared he “would like to shoot hell out of the Nazis.” When a group of women, calling themselves a Peace Group of Mothers, visited his office he denounced the demonstration as a “noisy disorder of which any self-respecting fishwife would be ashamed.”

The blend of strict party allegiance and independence which characterized so much of Sen. Glass’ public career became evident at the start of his political career. In addition to this was a lifelong interest in fiscal problems and financial reform which made him a recognized expert and one of the most influential men of his time in the House and Senate.

Sen. Glass had an especially friendly interest in affairs of the District of Columbia. He became one of the hardest-working members of the District Committee and at the time of his death was still a member. He ranked next to Sen. Bilbo in seniority for the chairmanship. His membership on the Senate Appropriations Committee gave him an equally good opportunity to help the district by working for funds he believed necessary for district operations and programs.

His interest in monetary affairs was developed during his early years in the House while he was a minority member of the Banking and Currency Committee. He read and studied, as he said, “everything on the subject.”

Although lacking a college degree, Mr. Glass became so thoroughly versed in fiscal affairs that he was well known by 1907 and so prominent in 1918 that President Wilson chose him to succeed Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo.

Besides his service in helping to draft the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, he also took an outstanding part in putting through the federal farm loan banking system in 1917. One of his major moves as secretary of the Treasury was to float the 1919 “Victory Loan” of more than five billion dollars. While Secretary Glass was head of the Treasury in 1919 the World War gold embargo was abrogated, making the United States the only nation on the gold standard at that time.

Appointed to Senate in 1920

He resigned as secretary in February 1920 to accept a gubernatorial appointment to the Senate. He was elected for the full term several months later and re-elected continuously since then. During his first years in the Senate, he emerged as a strong supporter of President Wilson’s foreign policies, notably the League of Nations and the Versailles Treaty.

Sen. Glass was born in Lynchburg January 4, 1858, the son of Robert Henry and Augusta Christian Glass. His father was postmaster at Lynchburg and one of the leading newspaper editors of the state, but suffered reverses during the Civil War and Carter Glass had only primary schooling. He said of himself that he was “educated in private and public schools and in the newspaper business.”

He entered that business at the age of 14 in the office of the Lynchburg Daily Republican and later worked for the Petersburg Post, his father being editor of both papers. In 1880, he became a reporter for the Lynchburg News, eight years later bought the paper with borrowed capital and thereafter gravitated into politics, although always maintaining his newspaper interests. Ultimately, he owned both the morning and evening papers in Lynchburg.

He first was elected to Congress in 1902, was re-elected nine times, served in the Cabinet and then won three elections to the Senate.

Named president pro tem

In July 1941, a new honor came to Sen. Glass when he was elected president pro tempore of the Senate, succeeding the late Sen. “Pat” Harrison of Mississippi. Sen. Glass, a small, rather frail man, was a doughty fighter in or out of the political arena and was at his best in a give and take debate when odds were strongest against him. Friends said that trait was inborn. And as evidence pointed to his boyhood nickname of “Pluck” Glass.

The name followed him from the time when he was a member of a boy’s sandlot baseball team in Lynchburg. In the midst of a game with a nine from a nearby town, a free-for-all fight followed a decision by the umpire. The visitors were getting the better of the fisticuffs until a little red-haired, freckle-faced home player grabbed the only bat on the diamond, waded into the visitors and put them to flight. That was “Pluck” Glass.

Sen. Glass’ mother died when he was only two years old and after the boy had finished the grades his father, partly to keep an eye on him, had him apprenticed as a printer. After working in the composing rooms at Lynchburg and Petersburg, the younger Glass for three years was a clerk in the office of the auditor of the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad at Lynchburg. But when he was 22, he went back to newspaper work as reporter and editorial writer on the Lynchburg News.

Bought newspaper on shoestring

In 1888, he bought the paper for $13,000, although his own “bank roll” totaled only $60. A relative and a business friend supplied most of the cash. The paper prospered and grew in influence under his management and the debts were wiped out by prompt and regular payments.

In 1893, he bought a rival paper and combined it with the News and in 1896 acquired the Evening Advance.

Sen. Glass’ first public office was as clerk of the Lynchburg City Council, a position which paid $300 a year and which he held from 1881 to 1901. He attracted statewide attention at the Democratic State Convention of 1897 when he nominated J. Hoge Tyler for governor. Two years later, against his own wishes, he was nominated for the State Senate.

In such poor health at the time that his family scarcely expected him ever to be anything more than a semi-invalid, he made no campaign for the office, but was elected. In 1901 he was re-elected and in the same year was chosen a delegate to a state constitutional convention where he was instrumental in putting through a section providing an educational test for voters and also an employers’ liability law.

Made monetary analysis

In 1912, when Mr. Glass had become chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, his party was opposed to a currency bill prepared by a national monetary commission and he took the lead in framing a substitute. The result was the Federal Reserve Act, and the Virginian wrote most of it himself. It was introduced September 10, 1913, and went through the House on the strength of Mr. Glass’ support, his speech on it being described as a masterly analysis of the whole intricate subject.

In the Senate several vital amendments were tacked on, but in conference between the two houses Mr. Glass knocked out all except a few minor changes and the bill was adopted December 13 in virtually the same form in which he had written it. It went into full operation December 1, 1914, and stood the test of the disturbed conditions resulting from the World War.

Sen. Glass stood high in the national councils of his party. He was a delegate to every Democratic national convention from 1892 on and in 1920 was chairman of the Platform Committee of the San Francisco convention.

Sen. Glass’ pet hobby was the breeding of fine cattle and he had a notable herd of Jerseys on a farm near Lynchburg to which he went frequently to recuperate from the stress of politics and national legislation.

Was student of Shakespeare

His unusually active years in Congress, in Virginia politics and in the newspaper business did not keep him from other pursuits. A student of Shakespeare, he once championed Francis Bacon as the author of the bard’s plays. As a young man, too, he wrote in support of William E. Gladstone, the English statesman, against Robert Ingersoll’s attacks on religion.

Mr. Glass attracted attention as a public speaker in 1897 when, at the age of 40, he formally entered politics on behalf of J. Hoge Tyler, candidate for governor of Virginia. He did not attribute his political debut to the influence of William Jennings Bryan, whose “Cross of Gold” speech he had heard the previous year at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was reported to have told friends that though he did not escape the “intoxication” of the Great Commoner’s eloquence he quickly recovered from it.

Although not an alumnus of the University of Virginia, he served on its Board of Visitors for eight years. He held honorary degrees from Washington and Lee University, Lafayette College, North Carolina University, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, William and Mary College, Wesleyan, Tufts, Columbia University, Hamilton, New York University and Lynchburg College. He was a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason.

[NormanStewart]

Tuck, in Oklahoma, to name successor to Glass on return

RICHMOND (AP) – Gov. Tuck said today by telephone from Oklahoma City that he would appoint a successor to Sen. Carter Glass on his return to Richmond, probably Monday.

Gov. Tuck, who is attending the Conference of Governors in the Oklahoma capital, declined to discuss possible choices for the appointment, which will run until the general election in November. Under Virginia laws, there must be an election in November to name a successor for the unexpired term which runs until 1949.

The governor said he did not know whether transportation facilities would permit him to attend the funeral of Sen. Glass, for which arrangements have not been completed. If unable to attend, he said he would name a representative.

Will call for state convention

The death of Sen. Glass also will call for a state Democratic convention for the nomination of a candidate for the office, party officials said.

Provisions of section 69 of the Virginia election laws require the governor to issue a writ of election to fill such a vacancy at the next succeeding November election, but leave the temporary appointment to the discretion of the governor.

A Democratic primary will be held August 6 for the nomination of representatives and a party candidate for the other Virginia Senate seat, now held by Harry F. Byrd, but Horance H. Edwards, state Democratic chairman, said there was no provision in the law for a special primary to make a nomination to fill the vacancy.

GOP may offer nominee

Where a vacancy occurs more than 45 days before a general election, he said the party plan provided for nomination by a state convention, which will be called at a date to be determined. If the vacancy had occurred within 45 days of the general election, a candidate would have been chosen by the Democratic State Central Committee.

It appeared probable that Republicans, who have a candidate in the field for Virginia’s other Senate post, also would put a nominee in the race for Sen. Glass’ place.

Speculation has been running for months on the probable appointee to succeed Sen. Glass, in the event he had resigned because of his illness. Those mentioned included former Gov. Darden, who left the governorship January 16 and recently became general manager of Sen. Byrd’s campaign for renomination and re-election, and several present or former legislators.

This group includes Rep. Burch of Martinsville, who is not seeking re-election to Congress; Rep. Smith of Alexandria, Rep. Robertson of Lexington; former Rep. Woodrum of Roanoke and Thomas B. Stanley, retiring speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

[NormanStewart]

Rixey Smith recalls interesting events in Carter Glass’ career

By J. W. Rixey Smith

J. W. Rixey Smith for 25 years was secretary to the late Sen. Carter Glass. He has written for the Associated Press the following article recalling incidents in Sen. Glass’ career.

A great, good and just man and one of the few American statesmen of his time, Carter Glass will in due time take his proper place in the nation’s history.

Always a picturesque and colorful character, wherever he went – in the Virginia Legislature, in the Virginia State Constitutional Convention, in the House of Representatives, in the Treasury Department and in the Senate – he left a veritable trail of interesting incidents and anecdotes behind him.

No one who attended the Democratic caucus on the Federal Reserve bill will ever forget how, in the midst of his magnificent speech defending its provisions, he turned back the attack of Bob Henry of Texas and the “corn-tassel money” Democrats with withering scorn and sarcasm. His supporters cried, “Give ‘em hell, Carter, give ‘em hell,” to which the red-headed dynamo from Lynchburg replied, “Why use dynamite when insect powder will do the work?”

No peanut politician

And many of the late President Wilson’s associates still remember what he said about Sen. Glass’ memorable fight for the Federal Reserve Act: “Carter Glass talked the Federal Reserve Act through Congress with one side of his mouth. Just think what he could do if he used both sides.”

Once in the midst of a tariff bill fight, one of Senator Glass’ oldest friends came to his office to try to get him to vote for a high protective tariff duty on peanuts, pointing out to him that peanuts were one of Virginia’s largest crops. A few minutes later, the friend in question left in great haste and embarrassment, followed to the door by the senator, who was shouting: “What do you take me for anyway – a peanut politician?”

On the stump he was always a forceful and contending speaker. Without oratorical pretense of verbal pyrotechnics, he nonetheless held his audience so you could hear a pin drop. He was one of the few men in the United States who ever got the best of William Jennings Bryan in an open convention argument, and that was on the subject of the soldiers’ bonus in the Democratic convention of 1920. Mr. Bryan was so frustrated and defeated on this subject by Sen. Glass as chairman of the Resolutions Committee that afterward he actually sat down and wept.

Rarely made speeches

His speeches in both the House and the Senate were rare – and to the point. He was in the House 12 years before he made a speech and then it was reporting and defending his Federal Reserve bill.

In the Senate, his speeches were years apart, but whenever the word got around that Carter Glass was going to speak every seat on the Senate floor was taken. Attaches and members of Congress stood in the rear and the galleries quickly filled.

He wrote every word of his own speeches, generally in long hand, and added and revamped them up until the last minute. Two of his most famous speeches were not delivered in the halls of Congress but over nationwide hookups on the radio. One was his famous speech cauterizing the Hoover administration in November 1932, and his speech on what he termed packing the Supreme Court, which he called “constitutional immorality.”