[1] He was a graduate student at Union Theological Seminary and then served as pastor of a small Congregational church in Brooklyn before spending some months in the army.

[3][1] From 1922 to 1929 he was Industrial Editor for the union financed left wing news agency Federated Press,[1] which had close links to the Communist Party.

[1] In 1929 he became an economic adviser to the Community Councils of the City of New York,[1] a civic group that among other things campaigned for the reform of public utility regulation.

Olds was a deeply religious[5] and idealistic man, who after a long search for a worthy cause to give purpose to his life, had completely dedicated himself to the public power fight.

The relevant subcommittee, chaired by Lyndon Johnson, expressed concerns about both Olds's economic interventionism and his supposed past closeness to the Communist Party due to his writings for the Federated Press and by syndication the Daily Worker.

[6] There was strong opposition to his renomination from the oil and gas industry, who exerted pressure on Johnson and other subcommittee members to prevent Olds from serving a third term.

[7] When he died in 1960 John F Kennedy, then a presidential candidate, called him a "dedicated and tireless public servant" saying that the St. Lawrence Waterway would be "a permanent memorial to him".