He was the principal of Waverly Graded School in Columbia, South Carolina from 1901 to 1902. He was elected superintendent of education of Florence County in 1902 and served by reelection until 1923. He served as President of the county superintendents' association of the State in 1911 and 1912 and of the State teachers' association in 1914 and 1915.
He served as member of the Democratic State executive committee from 1912 to 1920. He served as chairman of the Democratic county committee from 1919 to 1923. He was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1923, until his death in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1938. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Pensions (Seventy-second through Seventy-fifth Congresses).