Garber taught in Well's Memorial Institute in Boston in 1906 and 1907, then became the Secretary of Emerson College in 1907 and 1908. He returned to Timberville, Virginia, in 1908 and was employed as a bank cashier until 1924.
Rockingham County voters elected Garber and William Ruebush as their (part-time) representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1920, the pair defeating two other men that year, but losing their re-election bid to others in 1922.[2] In 1924, Garber was elected treasurer of Rockingham County, and served from 1924 to 1929. He was member of and was interested in various orchard and canning organizations.
After Congress, Garber served as chief of the field and processing-tax divisions at the Internal Revenue Office in Richmond, Virginia from 1931 to 1935. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1932, but lost another attempt to return to Congress in 1940.
1928; Garber was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 50.37% of the vote, defeating Democrat Thomas W. Harrison and Independents Dabney C. Harrison and H.B. McCormac.
^Cynthia Miller Leonard (ed), The General Assembly of Virginia 1619-1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members (Richmond, 1978) pp. 619 (typo as "Barber")