Franklin Potts Glass, Sr.

Franklin Potts Glass, Sr. (June 7, 1858 January 10, 1934)[1][2] was an American Democratic politician, newspaper publisher and editor, and United States Senator-Designate from Alabama.

Background

Born in Centreville, Alabama, Glass graduated from Princeton University in 1877. Returning to Alabama, he founded the newspaper the Bibb Blade in Bibb County, Alabama, in 1880. In 1881, Glass bought the Selma Daily News in Selma, Alabama. He bought a share of the Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, Alabama and became the editor and publisher. Glass eventually moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he was the editor and publisher of the Birmingham News.[3][4]

Appointment to the United States Senate

In 1913, United States Senator Joseph F. Johnston died in office. The Governor of Alabama Emmet O'Neal appointed Glass to the United States Senate. Glass was a Democrat.[5] However, on February 4, 1914, the United States Senate voted 32-31 to uphold the Committee of Elections and Privileges recommendation to deny Glass a seat, because the recent ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution supported Alabama state law that the Governor of Alabama had to call a special election to fill the vacancy.[6]

Railroad Labor Mediation Board

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Glass to the Railroad Labor Mediation Board. While traveling from Washington D.C. to Memphis, Tennessee to hear railroad mediation cases, Glass caught a cold. He died in Birmingham, Alabama on January 10, 1934 as a result of the cold.[7]

Notes

  1. 'Alabama Biographical Dictionary,' Jan Onofrio: Book Digit LCC: 1998, biographical sketch of Franklin Potts Glass, pg.124-127
  2. The 1930s Media:Deaths
  3. 'History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biographies,' vol. 3, Thomas McAdry Owen and Maria Bankhead Owen, S.J. Clements Publishing Company: 1921, biographical sketch of Franklin Potts Glass, Sr., pg. 663
  4. 'Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography,' Thomas William Herringshaw, American Publishers Association: 1909, Biographical Sketch of Franklin Potts Glass, pg. 590
  5. 'Glass Named A Senator; Alabama Governor Appoints Editor In Johnston's Place,' The New York Times, November 17, 1913
  6. 'Bars Glass From Senate, Elect Committee Sustained by Majority of Only One Vote,' The New York Times, February 4, 1914
  7. 'Princeton Alumni Weekly,' volume XXXIV, No. 20, Obituary-Franklin Potts Glass, Sr., class of 1877, pg. 458
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