Warren, of Washington, N.C., was a lawyer, legislator, active Democrat, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 1st District, 1925-1940, and comptroller general of the United States, 1940-1945. Papers, primarily 1924-1954, include Warren's correspondence with constituents, friends, and associates in Beaufort County and other parts of northeastern North Carolina, and in Congress, and with federal officials on affairs of his district. Many earlier papers were destroyed by fire. There are papers pertaining to Warren's special interests in agricultural legislation, particularly pertaining to potatoes and peanuts; the United States Coast Guard; river and harbor legislation, waterways, and the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; hunting, fishing, and game conservation and regulation; the Cape Hatteras National Seashore; highway development; congressional and governmental reorganizations; and government accounting, as chairman of the House Committee on Accounts. Also included are papers relating to his membership on the North Carolina constitutional commission of 1931-1932. Papers after 1940 are mostly personal. Scattered items relating to the position of comptroller general, and reports, testimony, speeches, and clippings, 1940-1954, are mounted in scrapbooks and other volumes. Prominent correspondents included are Josiah Bailey, William B. Bankhead, G. A. Barden, W. J. Boyd, John Cochran, C. W. Darden, J. C. B. Ehringhaus, Bruce Etheridge, E. G. Flanagan, Oliver Max Gardner, John Nance Garner, Clyde R. Hoey, W. E. Hooks, John H. Kerr, John McDuffie, Harry McMullan, Lee S. Overman, J. B. Pierce, W. O. Saunders, Furnifold Simmons, and Ford Worthy. Early papers of Herbert Bonner, Warren's secretary and successor as United States representative, are also present.
