sentences:  Even though Howell was a lifelong Democrat, President Warren G. Harding placed him on a special mining commission in 1922 and ten years later President Hoover appointed him to a national transportation commission.He served as Georgia's state Democratic committeeman from 1896 to 1924 and again starting in June 1936 where he succeeded Governor Eugene Talmadge.The Constitution won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Howell's series exposing the Atlanta graft ring which led to six indictments and the downfall of Mayor I. N. Ragsdale's political career.