Robert Latham Owen
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Robert Latham Owen (born February 2, 1856 in Lynchburg , Virginia , † July 19, 1947 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . He was one of the first two US Senators from Oklahoma after the state was founded .
Robert Owen attended private schools in his hometown of Lynchburg and in Baltimore ( Maryland ). In 1877 he graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington . Owen, whose mother belonged to the Cherokee people , moved to Salina in the Oklahoma Territory and worked there as a teacher at a Cherokee school. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1880. From 1885 to 1889 he represented the interests of the federal government in the " Five Civilized Tribes " as an Indian agent . In 1890 he co-founded the First National Bank of Muskogee and served as its president for ten years.
From 1892 to 1896 Owen was a member of the Democratic National Committee . After Oklahoma was accepted as a state in the Union, he and Thomas Gore were elected as its first representatives in the US Senate in Washington; previously he attended the swearing-in ceremony of first governor Charles N. Haskell in Oklahoma City . His term of office began on December 11, 1907 and ended after two re-elections on March 3, 1925.
During his time as Senator, he chaired the Committee on Banking and Currency , among other things , and in this function was one of the main initiators of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created the US central banking system. The law was also known as the Glass-Owen Bill known, named after Robert Owen and Carter Glass , a congressman from Virginia who in 1918 then US Treasury Secretary under President Woodrow Wilson was. Owen later distanced himself from the system he created, which did not have the effect he wanted. In his view, it should have resulted in government control of the central bank; instead, the influence of the big banks on the Federal Reserve System had a decisive influence on the Great Depression . Despite this critical attitude, Owen is today recognized as a co-founder of the central banking system; Robert Latham Owen Park commemorates the Senator on the grounds of the Eccles Building of the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington .
In 1920 Owen accompanied Oklahomas Governor Haskell, with whom he was friends, to the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco . There Haskell tried to persuade him to run for the presidency; Ultimately, however, the delegates decided on James M. Cox , the governor of Ohio . In 1924, Owen did not stand for re-election as senator. He then worked as a lawyer in Washington, where he died in July 1947. The burial took place in his birthplace Lynchburg.
Web links
- Robert Latham Owen in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
- Robert Latham Owen in the database of Find a Grave (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Owen, Robert Latham |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Democratic Party politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 2, 1856 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lynchburg , Virginia |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 19, 1947 |
| Place of death | Washington, DC |