Carroll Reece | |
|---|---|
 Reece c. 1924 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's1st district | |
| In office January 3, 1951 – March 19, 1961 | |
| Preceded by | Dayton E. Phillips |
| Succeeded by | Louise Goff Reece |
| In office March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1947 | |
| Preceded by | Oscar Lovette |
| Succeeded by | Dayton E. Phillips |
| In office March 4, 1921 – March 3, 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Sam R. Sells |
| Succeeded by | Oscar Lovette |
| Chair of theRepublican National Committee | |
| In office April 1, 1946 – June 27, 1948 | |
| Preceded by | Herbert Brownell Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Scott |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Brazilla Carroll Reece (1889-12-22)December 22, 1889 Butler, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | March 19, 1961(1961-03-19) (aged 71) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Louise Goff |
| Education | Appalachian State University Carson-Newman University (BA) New York University (MA) London School of Economics |
Brazilla Carroll Reece (December 22, 1889 – March 19, 1961) was an AmericanRepublican Party politician fromTennessee. He represented eastern Tennessee in theUnited States House of Representatives for all but six years from 1921 to 1961 and served as the Chair of theRepublican National Committee from 1946 to 1948. A conservative, he led the party'sOld Right wing alongsideRobert A. Taft in crusading against interventionism, communism, and the Progressive policies pursued by the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.
From 1953 to 1954, as chairman of theHouse Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, often called the Reece Committee, he led an investigation of Communist activities by non-profit organizations, particularly educational institutions and charitable foundations. The Reece Committee concluded that foundations were actively embroiled in efforts to promote socialist and collectivist ideologies.
Reece was born on a farm nearButler, Tennessee, as one of thirteen children of John Isaac and Sarah Maples Reece. He was named for Brazilla Carroll McBride, an ancestor who served in theWar of 1812, but never used his first name.[1] His brother, Raleigh Valentine Reece, was a reporter for theNashville Tennessean and the teacher who replacedJohn Thomas Scopes at Rhea County High School in Dayton, Tennessee following the infamous "Monkey Trial."
Reece attended Watauga Academy in Butler, Tennessee andCarson-Newman College inJefferson City, Tennessee.[2] At Carson-Newman he playedbasketball andfootball. After graduating from Carson-Newman in 1914 as classvaledictorian, he worked as a high school principal for one year, then enrolled inNew York University, where he earned amaster's degree in economics and finance in 1916.[1] He also studied at theUniversity of London.
He was an assistant secretary and instructor at New York University in 1916 and 1917.
In April, 1917 Reece enlisted forWorld War I and attended officer training inPlattsburgh, New York. During the war he served initially with the 166th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the42nd Infantry Division.[3] He later transferred to 102nd Infantry Regiment,26th Infantry Division. He commanded a company, then commanded the regiment's 3rd Battalion, and attained the rank of captain.[4][5] He was discharged in 1919, and was decorated with theDistinguished Service Cross,Distinguished Service Medal,Purple Heart, andFrenchCroix de Guerre with Palm.[6][7]
He was director of the School of Business Administration ofNew York University in 1919 and 1920, and also studied law there.
He then passed the bar exam and opened a successful law practice inJohnson City, where he was also a banker and publisher.
Reece was married toLouise Goff, daughter ofUnited States SenatorGuy Despard Goff ofWest Virginia.
Reece served as a delegate to theRepublican National Conventions in1928,1932,1936,1940,1944, and1948. He was a member of the Board of Regents of theSmithsonian Institution in 1945 and 1946.
According to a 1981 pamphlet byStephen Alan Sampson ofAnti-Communist Crusade, republished byLiberty University, Reece was a conservative derided by intraparty moderates as an "Old Guard reactionary".[8]
Reece first successfully ran for the House of Representatives in 1920, challenging incumbent Republican Sam R. Sells. Although supporters of Sells initially dismissed Reece's candidacy as a joke,[9] the political newcomer ran on his military service as Sells campaigned on his personality rather than his congressional voting record. During the campaign, Reece, who went to all counties in the district,[10] promised to serve only up to ten years, a vow he eventually broke.[9] He also attacked the incumbent Sells, a lumber businessman, for alleged conflicts of interest in voting to "exempt excess profit taxes on corporations," furthermore stating:[9]
Why don’t your congressman and mine in explaining how much he made in 1917 and 1918, tell our people how much he made in 1919, and why he voted to exempt these excess profits from taxes?
Reece ultimately defeated Sells in an upset to win the GOP nomination and cruise to victory in the general election.[11] He would later recount his first interaction with his predecessor:[9]
OldGoliath showed that same spirit when he came face to face withDavid. What his attitude implied was, do you think that you can oppose me for this office? He knew who I was. Well might he have recalled the days when my father and mother lived in a log cabin which sat within the shadow of his mother’s stately mansion, and when I came to the back door of his house peddling butter and eggs. He thought he could break my spirit and that I would sneak away like a whipped cur. ‘You haven’t a chance to win the nomination,’ he said. ‘I’m in better shape than ever financially to fight competition, and when I get ready to retire I am going to name my successor.’ There was just one thing my friend overlooked and that is you can’t disregard the wishes of a great people in things like this.
The region had voted not to secede at the state convention in 1861. This region was heavily Republican—in fact, Republicans had represented this district for all but four years since 1859, and was one of the few regions in the formerConfederacy where Republicans won on a regular basis.
Once in office, Reece placed heavy emphasis on helping constituents with problems both large and small, a precedent continued by later elected Republicans from Eastern Tennessee.[9] In 1922, Reece joined the majority of his House Republican colleagues in voting for theDyer Anti-Lynching Bill.[12]
Following his first election, Reece was re-elected four consecutive times.[13][14][15][16] He lost in the 1930 midterms to Independent RepublicanOscar Lovette[17] following backlash from constituents over theGeorge W. Norris Muscle Shoals bill (the Senate version, which is considered a forerunner to theTennessee Valley Authority) being vetoed by PresidentHerbert Hoover as well as having failed to ensure the Cove Creek Dam being built.[18] Many of Reece's constituents turned against him due to his siding with private enterprise in his support of Muscle Shoals development over the government initiative to provide nitrates for farmers,[19] which Lovette emphasized his support for.[20] The incumbent congressman, who President Hoover offered to help in his sinking re-election bid, claimed that the Muscle Shoals bill introduced by Norris which emphasized a larger size and scope of the federal government "originated in Red Russia."[20]
Reece ran for his old seat in 1932, campaigning in part against the refusal of Lovette to maintain consistent affiliation as a Republican (Lovette ran as an "Independent Republican" in the general election, again).[21] During this period, although he was out of office during the time, his favorability among President Hoover ensured that patronage and significant influence went through his hands rather than Lovette's.[22] Reece narrowly re-emerged successfully and defeated Lovette,[23] who in turn claimedvoter fraud. An investigation by a House subcommittee uncovered some "questionable" election procedures practices, though Reece was ultimately seated.[24]
However, the landslide defeats the GOP suffered nationally that year would mark the start of solid Democratic control in the federal government as theGreat Depression continued.[22] Reece continued being re-elected consecutively until unsuccessfully running for an open Senate seat in 1948; afterwards he returned to the House yet again and continued serving until his death. According to Tennessee historian Ray Hill, a historian who writes forThe Knoxville Focus:[25]
Reece never forgot why he had lost to Oscar B. Lovette in 1930; following his return to the House of Representatives, Carroll Reece became a supporter of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Reece frequently voted against the majority of his fellow Republicans, many of whom disliked the very notion of the TVA, to support the Tennessee Valley Authority. When asked why he didn’t go along with his party, Carroll Reece candidly replied no politician in Tennessee could survive politically by opposing the TVA. Reece had fought the bill sponsored by SenatorGeorge W. Norris of Nebraska, while Second District CongressmanJ. Will Taylor had supported it. Reece had lost his seat in Congress because of his opposition while the controversial Taylor had continued to hang on to his seat.
Reece thus returned to Congress, serving until 1947, when he stepped down to devote his full energies to serving as chairman of theRepublican National Committee, a position he had held since 1946.
An adamant conservative, Reece generally opposed theNew Deal during the presidency ofFranklin D. Roosevelt along with Progressive initiatives such as Federal wage and price controls.[1] He was also anisolationist, according to Sampson,[8] and anon-interventionist[26] prior toWorld War II and voted against theLend-Lease Act.[27] A supporter of civil rights, he advocated the passage of federal anti-lynching legislation and anti-poll tax measures.[1]
A member of the conservative "Old Guard" faction of the Republican Party, Reece was a strong supporter of Ohio SenatorRobert A. Taft, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing.[28] In 1948 and 1952 Reece was a leading supporter of Taft's candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination; however, Taft lost the nomination both times to moderate Republicans from New York.
Reece was the Republican nominee for an openSenate seat in1948, but lost toDemocratic CongressmanEstes Kefauver, who had unseated incumbent DemocratTom Stewart in the party primary. Kefauver carried the support of the influential editorEdward J. Meeman of the now-defunctMemphis Press-Scimitar, who had for years fought to topple theEdward "Boss" Crumppolitical machine inMemphis. Crump supported Stewart.[29]
Allied withOhio senator Taft,[28] who he joined in opposing PresidentHarry S. Truman's anti-inflation plan,[30] Reece succeededHerbert Brownell, Jr. (laterUnited States Attorney General under presidentDwight D. Eisenhower), as the chair of theRepublican National Committee in early April 1946[31] and presided overGOP victories in the 1946 midterms. Due to his independent wealth inherited from his father-in-law,[25] Reece did not accept a salary.[1]
During his tenure in leading the GOP on the national stage, Reece was a part of the conservative faction opposed byMinnesota liberal RepublicanHarold Stassen[1] andVermont moderate RepublicanGeorge Aiken.[32][33] In February 1948, Reece called for purgingcommunists from theUnited States, asserting:[34]
...the spread of Communist power throughout the world constitutes the greatest menace to our nation.
Reece also opposed President Truman's use of "public funds" for his Western trip, calling it a "pre-nomination campaign tour."[35]
In 1950, Reece ran against the man who succeeded him in the House,Dayton Phillips, and defeated him in the Republicanprimary. This all but assured him of a return to Congress in the heavily Republican district. He was reelected five more times. When the Republicans gained control of the House after the1952 elections, Reece served as chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, losing this post after the Democrats regained control in1955.
In the1952 United States presidential election, Reece threw support toRobert A. Taft, who he predicted the GOP delegations in Southern and border states would support.[36] Taft ultimately lost in the Republican primaries to the more moderateDwight D. Eisenhower, aninternationalist.
During his time in Congress, he was a social and fiscal conservative who supportedisolationism andcivil rights legislation, being one of the few Southern Congressmen who declined to sign the 1956 anti-desegregationSouthern Manifesto and voted in favor of theCivil Rights Acts of 1957 and1960.[37][38] He was a rarity in politics at the time—a truly senior Republican congressman from a former Confederate state.
During theCold War, Reece's statement that "The citizens ofDanzig areGerman as they always had been" caused a reply fromJędrzej Giertych, a leading Polish emigrant in London and writer, publicist, and publisher ofNational Democratic background.[39] Danzig was separated from Germany and had been established as theFree City of Danzig in accordance with theTreaty of Versailles followingWorld War I. It was annexed byNazi Germany in 1939 and subsequently grouped withPoland in thePotsdam Agreement.
Reece was opposed to theOder-Neisse line, advocating the return to Germany of itsformer Eastern territories.[40]
Reece was a member of the 1952Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, established by the House in April that year to probe major foundations for subversive activities.[41] It was known during the congressional session as theCox Committee, named after its chairEugene "Goober" Cox, a Democratic segregationist from Georgia.
Due to family illnesses, Reece was absent for most of the hearings the Cox Committee conducted.[citation needed] Cox suddenly died in December 1952, and the final report which was soon released cleared the investigated foundations of any wrongdoing.[42] Reece asserted the following, as listed in the Cox Committee report:[43]
As pointed out and stressed in this report, the select committee has had insufficient time for the magnitude of its task. Although I was unable to attend the full hearing I feel compelled to observe that, if a more comprehensive study is desired, the inquiry might be continued by the Eighty-third Congress with profit in view of the importance of the subject, the fact that tax-exempt funds in very large amounts are spent without public accountability or official supervision of any sort, and that, admittedly, considerable question able expenditures have been made.
Among the remaining committee members, only Reece sought a do-over, believing that the scope of the investigations were insufficient. He in addition stated in a long, detailed House speech:
Some of these activities and some of these institutions support efforts to overthrow our Government and to undermine our American way of life.
These activities urgently require investigation. Here lies the story of how communism and socialism are financed in the United States, where they get their money. It is the story of who pays the bill.
There is evidence to show that there is a diabolical conspiracy back of all this. Its aim is the furtherance of socialism in the United States.
The method by which this is done seems fantastic to reasonable men, for these Communists and Socialists seize control of fortunes left behind by Capitalists when they die, and turn these fortunes around to finance the destruction of Capitalism.[citation needed]
The Cox Committee report recommended a possible investigation of whether major foundations used their privileges for the purpose oftax evasion, as stated in page 12 of the report:[44]
The committee regards questions 11 and 12 as matters for the consideration of the Committee on Ways and Means. It therefore has made no attempt to find the answers to these questions. We feel the questions are of sufficient importance to warrant inquiry.
...
We respectfully suggest that the [Committee on Ways and Means] reexamine pertinent tax laws, to the end that they may be so drawn as to encourage the free-enterprise system with its rewards from which private individuals may make gifts to these meritorious institutions.
Reece ignored this aspect and only focused on subversive activities.[citation needed] Texas liberal populist DemocratWright Patman later took up the report's particular suggestion in the 1960s as chairman of the Select Committee on Small Business, also known as the Patman Committee.[45]
Reece led theHouse Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations which investigated the use of funds by tax-exempt non-profit organizations, and in particularfoundations, to determine if they were using their funds to support communism in educational institutions.[46] Reece selected attorneyNorman Dodd to lead the investigation, which lasted eighteen months. Reece would later declare that "The evidence that has been gathered by the staff pointed to one simple underlying situation, namely that the major foundations, by subsidizing collectivistic-minded educators, had financed a socialist trend in American government."[47]
Reece died of lung cancer on March 19, 1961, inBethesda, Maryland, just two months after being sworn in for his 18th term.[48] He served in the House longer than anyone else in Tennessee history (thoughJimmy Quillen, who eventually succeeded him as the 1st District's congressman, holds the record for the longest unbroken tenure in the House for a Tennessee congressman), and onlyKenneth McKellar served in both houses longer. Reece's wife,Louise, was elected to serve the remainder of his unexpired term in Congress. Both are buried at Monte Vista Memorial Park inJohnson City, Tennessee.
He received severalhonorary degrees, includingLL.D.s fromCumberland University andTusculum College, and anL.H.D. fromLincoln Memorial University.[49]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 1st congressional district 1921–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 1st congressional district 1933–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 1st congressional district 1951–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Wayne Hays Acting | Chair of theHouse Tax-Exempt Investigation Committee 1953–1954 | Position abolished |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of theRepublican National Committee 1946–1948 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromTennessee (Class 3) 1948 | Succeeded by |
