General Correspondence: O, P (1954-1956)
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OBEAR, i,egare H, b. See correspondence file LIBRARY uF COiiuKESS Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OVERMAN, Lee S. Library July 21, 1954 Bear Mr. Petton: Thank you for your very helpful letter of July 19th* ¥e are much interested in the collection of Senator Overmen's papers in your library, end Miss A&&M&, Research Director, for the above Committee, •who is at present on a trip to Reserve Banks in the Middle Vest, will get in touch vita you upon her re- turn to the Mev Tork Reserve Bank at the end of this isonth. I think it is very likely that she vill •wish to follow your suggestion about engaging a grad- uate student to make an inventory of the papers be&r- ing on Reserve System matters, as she has done at the University of Virginia in connection vith the Carter Glass papers. Before doing so, however, she asay wish either to visit your library personally or to consult Professor Calvin Hoover or Professor Don Huaphrey regarding her present research program. Sincerely yours, Research Assistant Mr» James W« P&tton Director Southern Historical Collection The University of Morth Carolina Library Braver 870 Chapel Hill, Hortfa Caroline Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OVERMAN, Lee S, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY CHARLES E. RUSH, DIRECTOR CHAPEL HILL SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION July 19, 1954- JAMES W. PATTON. DIRECTOR Miss Katherine HcKinstry Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System 33 Liberty Street New York 45, New York Dear Miss McKinstry: This is in rep3y to your letter of July 13, addressed to the Librarian and referred to this division. We have here a portion of the correspondence of Senator Lee S. Overman, consisting of about 40,000 items and covering the years 1920-1930. The follow- ing is a description of this collection: "The bulk of the letters are from Overman's constituents, asking for information, relief, and assistance of every sort. The thousands of letters bearing on tobacco and cotton culture, the eradi- cation of the boll weevil, farm legislation, Negro suffrage, appointments to office, the bolt of Senator F. M. Simmons from the Democratic Party in 1928, and state and local politics constitute a valuable source for the economic and political history of North Carolina in the 1920fs. #The collection is also rich in correspondence bearing on national problems including prohibition, immigration restriction, the payment of World War pensions, adjusted compensation certificates, and war risk insurance, radio control, the proposed lease of Muscle Shoals to the Alabama Power Company, war debts, the Federal .RgfifiZ&SJSig&S* the Washington Arms Conference, the London Naval Treaty, andTNeaFEast Relief.#Among the correspond- ents are Bernard M. Baruch, T. W. Bickett, Locke Craig, Josephus Daniels, H. M, Daugherty, R. L, Doughton, C. R, Forbes, 0. Max Gardner, Carter Glass, Clyde R. Hoey, Herbert Hoover, Charles E, Hughes, W. G, McAdoo, Mrs, W, G. (Eleanor Wilson) McAdoo, Angus W, McLean, Harry S. New, Robert Owen, Lucy Patterson, F. M. Simmons, William S, Sims, James Sprunt, Charles M, Stedman, Mark Sullivan, Henry Wallace, Jr., and L. A, Williams." You will note that correspondence regarding the Federal Reserve Banks is included, but with our limited staff we shall be unable to search this large group of papers for particular letters. If you will make specific requests for inform- ation, giving dates of letters desired or events covered, we shall be glad to look a little further, although we cannot promise to do any very extensive searching. If you think it worthwhile and so desire, we can secure the services of a competent graduate student to search the entire collection and report to you on such items as relate to the Federal Reserve system. This would have to be done on a hourly basis, the charge for which usually runs somewhere between one and two dollars per hour. Still further we should be pleased to have you or some member of your staff come here at any time and examine the papers in person. Our collection is open 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Mondays through Fridays, and from 8:30 to 12:30 noon on Saturdays. Very sincerely you f James W. Patton JWP:A ^S Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OVERMAN, Lee S. QPapers) July 13, 1954 Mr. Charles E. Rush Director The University of Horth Carolina Chapel Hill, Hortfo Carolina Dear Mr Rash: At the suggestion of Kiss Katharine S Brand, Head of the Recent Manuscripts Section of the Library of Congress, I as sending you this note to inquire whether you may have available for our use a list or possibly some descriptive leaflet covering the contents of the late Senator Lee S. Overman*8 collection of papers which we understand are on deposit with your Library. We are anxious to know whether among these papers there may be correspondence and unpublished memoranda, addresses, etc. which would be relevant in connection with the research which is now going forward on the history of the Federal Reserve System Sincerely yours, Research Assistant to Miss Mildred Adams Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PARRY, Carl E. February 23, 1955 Dear Mr, Parry: It is very good to hear from you egain, and particularly in view of the cheerful news tliat you have found a subject vhich interests you and hare gone to work at it. Almost you sake me believe that leisure is a stimulant and that if one has enough of it, the effects are sure to be good. Some day I expect to try that out, rather fearfully, on my own account. Meanwhile, I am grateful to you for letting me know about this new study. Bit by bit the list of monographs does grov, ftfid it is highly impor- tant that I know who is interested in what. On the other hand, I will certainly keep this information to myself until you would like it to be more generally known. You have wy complete sympathy in your desire not to 'thunder in the preface.11 Once or twice in my life I have accepted retainers in expectation of work to be done, End in- evitably they acted as & weight upon the neck. In one instance, I went so far as to turn one back because it w&s interfering with the progress of the work I wanted to do. I cite this only to indicate that I do know the pssy- chological pressures which pl&y on en author in the early stages* The very best of luck to you, and vhen I come to Washington, I shall take edvantage of your invitation and ask to hear more about the study you have in hand. Cordially yours, Mildred Mr. Garl E» Parry 4000 Cathedral Avenue H. W. Washington 16, D. C« Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PARRY, Ctrl E. Washington, D.C., February 21, Miss Mildred Adams, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, N. Y. W dear Miss Adams, At long last, I have managed to get really started on a piece of work which interests and delights me, which I believe to be within my competence, and which may finally turn out to be of some use — "in the galaxy" — to you and to the HFRS project. It involves research as well as thinking and writing and for some time now I've been spending several hours on it every day, I*m calling it at present Speculation and the Federal Reserve. As now planned, this study differs materially in conception both from my Selective Instruments of National Credit Policy (mostly written in 19UU) and from my (unpublished) Short History of Regulations T and U (19h9)* From the foimer it differs in its starting point which is about 1835 (or perhaps 1790) instead of about 1913, in its approach which is broader and more historical, and in its field which does not include consumer credit* From the latter, on which I plan to draw (sometimes textually) to a considerable extent, the present study differs in being directed more to outsiders and less to the Board and its staff, in covering a longer period and being also more broadly historical, and in being far less concerned with administrative detail. Some of my important sources are right at hand, since I have sets (almost complete) of the Board's Annual Reports and the Federal Reserve Bulletin. Most of the others I shall need I can find, I think, in the Board's Library. You should know about this project of mine yourself, because it may make a little difference in some way to some of your own plans and arrangements* But — for the present and until I have much more actual manuscript — I am telling no one else about it, and I hope that you will not do so either. For one thing, I have a horror of "thundering in the preface." For another, I may be forced to change the plans. For still another, I'm sure I'll work better if I remain "uncommitted.11 ...If in your dealings with your committee or with others you should have need to refer to my participation in the HFRS project, please do so only in the most general terms* But if you should happen to be in Washington I should be glad to talk with you and to show you something of what I'm doing.