Background
Thomas was born on a farm in Putnam County, Indiana, in 1876. He was the son of William Thomas, a small farmer, and of Elizabeth Ewing.
( The senator’s own account of his service to Oklahoma an...)
The senator’s own account of his service to Oklahoma and the nation through depression and war Elmer Thomas (1876–1965) represented the people of Oklahoma in the state’s first legislature and in Congress. This memoir, written shortly after he left the U.S. Senate in 1951 but never before published, chronicles his long career and offers a wealth of information on people and events that helped shape the development of the state and the course of American history. Thomas became one of Oklahoma’s first state senators in 1907 and was involved with financing the construction of public works. As a member of the U.S. Congress, he made it his business to understand the Federal Reserve System, and as the farm crisis of the 1920s worsened during the Great Depression, he consistently argued for inflating the currency to stimulate the economy―a struggle that became central to his career and that he eventually won. Thomas’s panoramic look at the issues of his time includes a behind-the-scenes view of the Nürnberg War Crimes Trial and also tells how he helped push funding for the atomic bomb project through Congress without disclosing its true nature. Thomas dedicated his career to improving the lot of rural residents, Native Americans, and working people. Forty Years a Legislator is a rich source of insight for all concerned with twentieth-century politics or the early years of Oklahoma statehood.
https://www.amazon.com/Forty-Years-Legislator-Elmer-Thomas/dp/0806138092?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0806138092
Businessman politician statesman
Thomas was born on a farm in Putnam County, Indiana, in 1876. He was the son of William Thomas, a small farmer, and of Elizabeth Ewing.
After receiving his elementary and secondary education in the public schools, Thomas enrolled in Central Normal College (Danville, Ind. ) in 1892 to prepare for teaching. At the normal school he studied law, and to pay his expenses he taught school and worked on various public construction projects. He graduated in 1897 with a teaching certificate. He was admitted to the Indiana bar. But instead of practicing law he attended DePauw University, where he received his Ph. B. in 1900.
William Jennings Bryan's spellbinding orations, rural populist appeal, and especially his plea for the free coinage of silver during the 1896 presidential election profoundly influenced Thomas. There were few economic and political opportunities in rural Indiana in 1900; consequently Thomas moved to the Oklahoma Territory. He first settled in Oklahoma City, where he taught English. He was admitted to the Oklahoma bar in 1901. In that year he moved to Lawton to practice law and work for a real estate company.
Thomas engaged in land speculation and soon accumulated a sizable amount of property. He developed a profitable resort at Medicine Park, a lake area near Lawton. In 1907 Thomas, a Democrat, was elected senator to Oklahoma's first legislature. He served four consecutive terms in the senate. After he became chairman of the Appropriations Committee in 1910, his fiscal conservatism, except on the silver question, became evident. He strongly supported financing Oklahoma's infrastructure and educational program on a "pay as you go basis. "
By the time he resigned from the senate in 1920 to run unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives, Thomas had become a leader in the state Democratic party. In 1922 he won the normally Republican rural and agrarian Sixth District House seat.
He spent two undistinguished terms on the Public Lands and Indian Affairs committees, sponsoring several bills on rural electrification and veterans' bonuses. During these years Thomas' monetary theories matured. He saw currency inflation as a panacea for the depressed economic conditions of his farm constitutents. He believed the government should expand the amount of currency in circulation through veterans' bonuses and increased silver purchases. This would stimulate the purchasing of farm surpluses, thereby raising agricultural prices to a competitive level with industry and diminishing the threat of a depression.
Thomas received the support of Oklahoma's powerful Farmer's Union and the Ku Klux Klan in 1926 when he successfully unseated Republican incumbent John William Harreld for the United States Senate. In the Senate he was placed in the Agriculture, Finance, and Indian Affairs committees. He continued to support the interests of farmers and became aligned with southern Democrats and other farm and silver bloc senators who criticized the Calvin Coolidge and Herbert C. Hoover administrations for favoring corporations at the expense of farmers.
He easily won a second Senate term in 1932. Thomas enthusiastically backed most of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal measures. Through a controversial amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933, Thomas hoped to attack what he felt had caused the Great Depression--deflation--by authorizing the president to inflate the currency by several means, notably the remonetization of silver. Most New Dealers rejected the amendment and it never became law. Thomas' loyalty to the Roosevelt administration was rewarded in 1938 when the president campaigned for him in a particularly bitter senatorial primary against Gomer Smith. Thomas won that close contest and had no trouble winning another term in 1944. He replaced Ed "Cotton" Smith of South Carolina as Agricultural Committee chairman in 1945.
Throughout World War II Thomas supported Roosevelt's wartime programs except domestic price controls. He felt that price regulations benefited industries at the expense of the farmer. Originally Thomas advocated American participation in the United Nations. But by 1948 he had become disillusioned with the organization and felt it was an ineffective agent to prevent war.
He also viewed with alarm Russia's probes into Europe and supported hard-line measures against Communist expansion. Oklahoma politics had changed by the time of the 1950 Democratic senatorial primary. A. S. ("Mike") Monroney, U. S. representative from Oklahoma City, narrowly defeated Thomas by appealing to rising urban-labor sentiments.
After the election Thomas remained in Washington as a lawyer representing various Oklahoma interests, especially oil companies. In 1957 he returned to Lawton, where he devoted considerable time to writing on the money question. He died in Lawton.
( The senator’s own account of his service to Oklahoma an...)
Throughout Thomas' senatorial career no major legislation bore his name. In general he attempted to promote his financial ideas and worked within the Senate and Democratic party structure to protect the interests of farmers and his state. Internationally, Thomas supported cooperation with other nations, especially in commodity exchanges. But isolationist sentiment in Oklahoma throughout most of the 1930's led him to vote reluctantly for various Neutrality Laws. However, he abruptly changed his position in 1939 when he advocated military preparedness. Ultimately he supported lend-lease.
On September 24, 1902, he married Edith Smith, daughter of an influential territorial judge. They had one son.
