John R. McCarl
John Raymond McCarl (November 27, 1879 – August 2, 1940) was an American lawyer and executive secretary of the national Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. He was the first Comptroller General of the United States, serving from 1921 to 1936. During his time in office, he was one of the most powerful and controversial officials in the U.S. federal government. Early life and career McCarl was born in a log cabin on November 27, 1879, near Des Moines, Iowa. His father was a veteran of the Union Army who fought in the American Civil War. John attended local public schools. McCarl's father died in 1893 at the age of 53. After her husband's death, Sara McCarl moved John and his five siblings to McCook, Nebraska. John held part-time jobs during the school year, and in the summers worked for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and local lawyer Webster Morlan. He was a halfback on the first football team fielded by McCook High School, and sang in a local vocal quartet. McCarl graduated from McCook High School in 1897 and entered the University of Nebraska. He received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1903. McCarl returned to McCook, where he took up the practice of law. On November 26, 1905, he married Ethel Barnett, daughter of Albert Barnett (a McCook lumber yard owner and one of the wealthiest men in the state). Government career Congressional aide and GOP activism McCarl was a Progressive Republican and active in party politics. In 1914, Fletcher Merwin resigned as private secretary to progressive Republican Senator George W. Norris (also from the town of McCook). On Merwin's recommendation, McCarl applied for and won the position. In 1917, Norris opposed American entry into World War I. Worried that Norris would be denied renomination to the United States Senate in 1918, McCarl resigned. Norris was deeply disappointed in McCarl's decision. Senator Simeon D. Fess subsequently appointed McCarl to be secretary of the national Republican Congressional Campaign Committee (which Fess chaired). McCarl was highly active during the 1918 congressional elections, and made numerous political contacts during this time. He continued to work with the committee in the 1920 presidential election, leaving him well-positioned to seek a job with the incoming administration of Warren G. Harding. Comptroller General Since the final year of the Taft administration (1912), pressure had been building within the Republican Party for legislation which would impose modern financial accounting and budgeting procedures on the federal government. Worsening national debt due to expenditures required by World War I and a greatly enlarged federal government led to passage of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. This legislation, which President Harding signed into law on June 10, 1921, created the Government Accounting Office (GAO), an independent agency answerable solely to Congress. The head of the GAO was the Comptroller General of the United States, a non-partisan position which could only be filled by the President of the United States with