He joined the Treasury Department in 1917, serving as President Wilson's chief financial advisor at the Paris Peace Conference.

[1][2] He was born in Normandy, Bedford County, Tennessee[3] to successful businessman and distiller McClin H. Davis, who is credited with perfecting the recipe for Cascade Whisky, which is now known as George Dickel.

While working in the financial industry, he built close friendships with Henry Pomeroy Davison, an influential partner with J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chairman of the American Red Cross, and Richard M. Bissell, president of Hartford Fire Insurance and a member of the National Defense Commission.

Shortly after the Disarmament Conference resumed in the spring of 1933, he arrived in Geneva, and began serving as chairman of the American delegation with the rank of ambassador, having been appointed to that position by the incoming Roosevelt administration.

[8][9][10] In a May 22, 1933 address to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva Davis said, "We feel the ultimate objective should be to reduce armaments... through successive stages down to the level of a domestic police force.