All the Presidents' Bankers (87 page)

65
. Robert M. Coen, “Labor Force and Unemployment in the 1920’s and 1930’s: A Re-Examination Based on Postwar Experience,”
The Review of Economics and Statistics
55, no. 1 (February 1973): 46–55.

66
. “T. W. Lamont Sees a ‘Capital Lockout,’”
New York Times,
January 18, 1938.

67
. Letter from Lamont, February 25, 1938, FDR Library.

68
. Ibid.

69
. Note from Lamont, September 28, 1938, PPF File 70, Folder: Lamont, Thomas W., FDR Library.

70
. “F.D.R. Says His Policies Not Changed,”
Evening Independent,
December 6, 1938.

71
. FDR Message to Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini, April 14, 1939, at
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15741
.

72
. “FDR,”
American Experience
(PBS), 1994.

73
. Hitler Speech to the Reichstag, April 28, 1939, WWII Archives, at
www.wwiiarchives.net/servlet/action/doc/bbb_21
.

74
. Letter from Lamont, April 28, 1939, PPF File 70, Folder: Lamont, Thomas W., FDR Library.

75
. Lamont,
Ambassador,
458.

76
. Ibid., 457.

77
. “Aldrich Analyzes New Deal Policies,”
New York Times,
May 24, 1939.

78
. Barton Biggs,
Wealth, War, Wisdom
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008).

79
. Chernow,
House of Morgan,
441.

80
. Letter from Leffingwell, September 2, 1939; Response to Leffingwell, September 5, 1939, FDR Library.

81
. Lamont,
Ambassador,
444.

82
. Arthur M. Johnson,
Winthrop W. Aldrich: Lawyer, Banker, Diplomat
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 257–259.

83
. “War and Peace: Businessmen,”
Time,
November 27, 1939.

84
. Letter from Lamont, December 27, 1939, PPF File 70, Folder: Lamont, Thomas W., FDR Library.

Chapter 8. The Early to Mid-1940s: World War II, Bankers, and War Bucks

1
. Letter from W. Randolph Burgess to Fed Reserve chairman Marriner Eccles, February 18, 1943, Marriner S. Eccles Document Collection, Federal Reserve Archives (FRASER). In response to request to report on the banks’ role with respect to Treasury financing related to the war effort.

2
. “Simplified Message of Redemption of War Bonds Effective October 2,”
New York Times,
August 30, 1944.

3
. “James H. Perkins, Banker, Is Dead,”
New York Times,
July 13, 1940.

4
. “Gordon S. Rentschler,” American Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century, Harvard Business School website, at
www.hbs.edu/leadership/database/leaders/gordon_s_rentschler.html
.

5
. Burgess later became undersecretary of the Treasury for the Eisenhower administration and a lead figure in NATO negotiations.

6
. In 1946, Burgess helped secure a job for his friend Henry Wriston’s son, Walter, who became Citibank chairman in 1970. Henry Wriston served as president of Brown University from 1937 to 1955, as president of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1951 to 1964, and in various advisory roles for Eisenhower.

7
. Morgenthau Box 41, Folder: Burgess, W. Randolph, 1940–1944, FDR Library.

8
. PPF 866, Folder: Leffingwell, Russell C., 1935–1944 and cross-references, FDR Library.

9
. December 18, 1940, PPF File 70, Folder: Lamont, Thomas W., FDR Library.

10
. Letter from Lamont, December 24, 1940, PSF Box 141, Lamont, FDR Library.

11
. “National City Bank Financing Defense,”
New York Times,
January 15, 1941.

12
. Ibid.

13
. Ibid.

14
. Rentschler remained in charge of National City Bank until 1948. His prominence earned him a spot on President Truman’s 1946 twelve-member committee of business leaders charged with restoring foreign trade in the postwar era. He died of a heart attack while vacationing with his wife in one of his key growth areas, Cuba. William Gage Brady Jr., who was in charge of domestic operations for the bank in 1938 and became president in 1940, succeeded him. Brady grew up in New York City, received his BA from Columbia University, and worked at Bankers Trust before joining National City Bank. He also served on the Council on Foreign Relations.

15
. “Beale Makes Plea to Retain Funds,”
New York Times,
January 21, 1941.

16
. John Donald Wilson,
The Chase
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School, 1986), 18.

17
. October 2, 1941, PPF 7591, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., FDR Library.

18
. Letter from Lamont, October 27, 1941, PSF Box 141 Lamont, FDR Library.

19
. Anthony Sampson,
The Money Lenders
(New York, NY: Penguin, 1983), 85.

20
. Joseph J. Thorndike, “Wartime Tax Legislation and the Politics of Policymaking,” Tax Analysts, October 15, 2001, at
http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/0/f9cb12c7ca3ccf9185256e22007840e7
.

21
. Letter from Davies, Hon. Joseph E., November 14, 1942, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

22
. “Federal Sales Tax Urged by Aldrich,”
New York Times,
January 22, 1943.

23
. Letter from Aldrich, February 27, 1943, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

24
. Letter from Aldrich, June 2, 1943, OF 1559, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

25
. Various places in the White House to which checks had come in, were deferred to Rentschler, beginning October 15, 1943, OF 1559, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

26
. Letter from W. Randolph Burgess to Marriner Eccles, February 18, 1943, The Marriner S. Eccles Document Collection, Federal Reserve Archives, at
http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/historical/eccles/042_03_0001.pdf
.

27
. Ronald F. King,
Money, Time and Politics: Investment Tax Subsidies and American Democracy
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 121–122. Cited in Joseph J.
Thorndike, “Soak the Rich Republicans?,” Tax History Projects, at Tax Analysts. Thorndike has used the term “class tax” in many articles.

28
. Letter from Burgess to Morgenthau, September 27, 1943, Morgenthau Box 41, Folder: Burgess, W. Randolph, 1940–1944, FDR Library.

29
. PPF File 70, Folder: Lamont, Thomas, FDR Library.

30
. John H. Williams, “Currency Stabilization: The Keynes and White Plans,”
Foreign Affairs,
July 1943.

31
. John H. Williams, “Currency Stabilization: American and British Attitudes,”
Foreign Affairs,
January 1944.

32
. Luke Fletcher, “A More Perfect Adjustment: The Bretton Woods Agreement and the Beautiful World of Harry Dexter White,” draft chapter of PhD thesis (unpublished), Cambridge University, September 2013, Chapter 2, 2–11.

33
. Ibid., 9–21.

34
. Orin Kirshner and Edward M. Bernstein,
The Bretton Woods–GATT System: Retrospect and Prospect After Fifty Years
(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), 16.

35
. “Aldrich’s Proposed Currency Plan,”
New York Times,
September 16, 1944.

36
. Allan H. Meltzer,
A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 2, Book 1, 1951–1969
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 55.

37
. Sampson,
Money Lenders,
88.

38
. US Department of State Office of the Historian, “The Yalta Conference,” Milestones 1937–1945, at
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937–1945/YaltaConf
.

39
. Author conversation with Truman archivist Randy Sowell at the archives in Independence, Missouri, August 22, 2012.

40
. Robert H. Ferrell,
Harry S. Truman: A Life
(Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1996), 87.

41
. This point was underscored by returning to his modest Victorian home in small-town Independence, Missouri, after his presidency.

42
. Letters between Frank K. Houston and Truman, April 13, 1945, and May 18, 1945, PPF: Box 502, Folder 1275, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.

43
. PPF: Box 502, Folder 1275, Truman Library.

44
. Michael J. Sniffen, “Truman Is Remembered for Courage, Decisiveness,”
Free-Lance Star
(Fredericksburg, Virginia), December 26, 1972.

45
. Letter from Aldrich, June 29, 1945, Papers of Harry S. Truman, General Files, Box 24, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., Truman Library.

46
. Ibid.

47
. Letter from Aldrich, October 30, 1945, Papers of Harry S. Truman, General Files, Box 24, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., Truman Library.

48
. “Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech,” The History Guide: Lectures on Twentieth Century Europe, at
www.historyguide.org/europe/churchill.html
.

49
. September 14, 1951, Papers of John W. Snyder, 1946–1952, Congress, Box 8, Folder 2, Truman Library.

50
. Martin Mayer,
The Bankers
(New York, NY: Ballantine, 1976), 503.

51
. Hanson W. Baldwin, “America at War: Victory in Europe,”
Foreign Affairs,
July 1945.

52
. William G. Hyland, “John J. McCloy, 1895–1989,”
Foreign Affairs,
Spring 1989.

53
. Letter from Alan G. Weiner, American history major at Long Island University taking a course on World War II, February 12, 1965, PPGF: Box 444, Folder: General, Weinc–Weiq, Truman Library.

54
. “War Rate Ended by Reserve Banks,”
New York Times,
April 24, 1946.

55
. Aldrich address on “The Control of Inflation,” May 2, 1946, Papers of Harry S. Truman General Files, Box 24, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., Truman Library.

56
. Report C. 67, “Rating National Problems,” October 30, 1946, Confidential File, Box 6, Folder: Bureau of the Budget, Immigration, World Food Dist., Foreign Trade Relations, 1946, Truman Library.

Chapter 9. The Late 1940s: World Reconstruction and Private Bankers

1
. Winthrop W. Aldrich, “American Interest in European Reconstruction,” address before the seventy-third annual convention of the American Bankers Association, September 30, 1947.

2
. Letter to Aldrich, July 2, 1946, Papers of Harry S. Truman General Files, Box 24, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., Truman Library.

3
. June 17, 1946, General File, Box 886, Folder: Giannini, Truman Library.

4
. Ibid., Internal White House correspondence, September 26, 1946.

5
. Wilson,
The Chase,
32.

6
. Oral history interview with John W. Snyder, August, 13, 1969, by Jerry N. Hess, Truman Library, at
www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/snyder.htm
.

7
. “John Wesley Snyder (1895–1985),”
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture,
at
www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5095
.

8
. “The 50th Anniversary of the Treasury–Federal Reserve Accord 1951–2001: Biographies: John Wesley Snyder,” Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

9
. Oral history interview with John W. Snyder, June 18, 1969.

10
. Ibid.

11
. Ibid.

12
. Barry Eichengreen and Peter M. Garber, “Before the Accord: US Monetary-Financial Policy, 1945–1951,”
Financial Markets and Financial Crises
(January 1991), at
www.nber.org/chapters/c11485.pdf
.

13
. Paper from the Bank for International Settlements, Monetary and Economic Department, Basel, July 10, 1947, Papers of John W. Snyder, Truman Library.

14
. Marquis James and Bessie R. James,
The Story of Bank of America: Biography of a Bank
(Washington, DC: Beard Books, 2002), 478–479.

15
. “Aldrich Hopeful of Marshall Plan, Financier Back from Europe Says Proposal Is Vitally Important to World,”
New York Times,
July 1, 1947.

16
. Sampson,
The Money Lenders,
92.

17
. “Europe Submits Its Marshall Plan,”
Life,
October 6, 1947.

18
. Oral history interview with John W. Snyder, August 13, 1969.

19
. Kai Bird,
The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment
(New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 272.

20
. “Meyer Quits World Bank Helm, Saying He Was Only to Launch It,”
New York Times,
December 5, 1946.