All the Presidents' Bankers

by Prins, Nomi

  65. “Chase Dropping Affiliate,” New York Times, March 9, 1933.

  66. Ibid.

  67. Ferguson, “From Normalcy to the New Deal.”

  68. Chernow, House of Morgan, 362.

  69. Letter to James H. Perkins, Letter to Winthrop W. Aldrich, March 9, 1933, PPF 54, Perkins, James H., FDR Library.

  70. Letter from Winthrop W. Aldrich, March 12, 1933, PPF 54, Perkins, James H., FDR Library.

  71. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat on Banking, March 12, 1933, American Presidency Project, at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14540#axzz2gP1iPE3o.

  72. Ibid.

  73. Letter to Mr. McIntyre from A. P. Giannini, March 16, 1933, PPF File 1135, Folder Giannini, A. P. 1933–1936, FDR Library.

  74. The Pecora Investigation: Stock Exchange Practices and the Causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash (New York, NY: Cosimo, 2010), 181–182.

  75. “Mitchell Cleared, Weeps at Verdict, Ovation in Court,” New York Times, June 23, 1933.

  76. Galbraith, The Great Crash, 1929, 154.

  77. Letter to E. S. Greenbaum, March 9, 1938, OF 3169, Folder: Mitchell, Charles E., 1933–1938, FDR Library.

  78. Letter to Aldrich from M. A. Le Hand, March 27, 1933, FDR Library.

  79. “Aldrich Hits at Private Bankers in Sweeping Plan for Reforms,” New York Times, March 9, 1933.

  80. Internal White House Memo from Daniel C. Roper, March 28, 1933, PPF 7591, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., FDR Library.

  81. Internal White House Memo from Huston Thompson, March 29, 1933, PPF 7591, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., FDR Library.

  82. Memo for the President. April 11, 1933, PPF File 70, Folder: Lamont, Thomas W., FDR Library.

  83. United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, “Stock Exchange Practices: Report of the Committee on Banking and Currency,” 321–322.

  84. Statement of J. P. Morgan & Company submitted to Senate Committee on Banking and Currency at Its Hearings in Washington, May 23 to June 9, 1933, PPF, File/Folder 143: Morgan, Junius P. [J. P.], FDR Library.

  85. Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, “Stock Exchange Practices: Hearings Before the Committee on Banking and Currency United States Senate, Part I: May 23, 24, and 25, 1933” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1934), 3.

  86. Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, “Stock Exchange Practices: Hearings Before the Committee on Banking and Currency United States Senate, Part II: May 26, 31, June 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, 1933” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1934), 558.

  87. Chernow, House of Morgan, 373–374.

  88. “Let the Banking Inquiry Go On!” The Nation, June 14, 1933.

  89. “Glorifying the House of Morgan,” The Nation, June 21, 1933.

  90. Final Statement of J. P. Morgan & Company submitted to Senate Committee on Banking and Currency.

  91. Galbraith, The Great Crash, 1929, 150.

  92. “Aldrich Criticizes Bank Act ‘Fallacy,’” New York Times, December 7, 1933.

  93. May 22, 1933, PPF 7591, Folder: Aldrich, Winthrop W., FDR Library.

  94. “Bank Deposit Bill Approved by House,” New York Times, May 24, 1933.

  95. PPF File 866, Leffingwell, Russell C. 1933–1934, FDR Library.

  96. Telegram to Aldrich: M. H. McIntyre, Assistant Sec to the President, December 26, 1933, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

  Chapter 7. The Mid- to Late 1930s: Policing Wall Street, World War II

  1. Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Acceptance Speech for the Renomination for the Presidency, Philadelphia, Pa.,” June 27, 1936. Posted online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, American Presidency Project, at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15314#axzz2gP1iPE3o.

  2. Economic History Association, “US Banking History: Civil War to World War II,” Compiled by Richard S. Grossman, Wesleyan University, at http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/grossman.banking.history.us.civil.war.wwii.

  3. “Public Control,” The Nation, February 21, 1934.

  4. “House Members Invited to Floor of Exchange,” New York Times, February 24, 1934.

  5. “Fletcher’s Statement on Stock ‘Propaganda,’” New York Times, February 22, 1934.

  6. “Roosevelt Wants ‘Teeth’ in Stock Exchange Bill; Seeks Speculation Limit,” New York Times, March 26, 1934.

  7. “New Leeway Put in Exchange Bill,” New York Times, April 11, 1934.

  8. Letter from Leffingwell, January 4, 1934, PPF File 866, Leffingwell, Russell C., 1933–1934, FDR Library.

  9. Letter from Leffingwell, February 20, 1934, PPF File 866, Leffingwell, Russell C., 1933–1934, FDR Library.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Telegram to Winthrop Aldrich from McIntyre, February 14, 1934, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

  12. Letter to Leffingwell from McIntyre, March 1, 1934, PPF File 866, Leffingwell, Russell C., 1933–1934, FDR Library.

  13. Letter from Leffingwell, March 4, 1934, PPF File 866, Leffingwell, Russell C., 1933–1934, FDR Library.

  14. Telegram to Aldrich from McIntyre, April 16, 1934, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

  15. Memo for FDR f/McIntyre, April 30, 1934, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

  16. “Chase Bank to Cut Ties with 2 Units,” New York Times, May 11, 1934.

  17. “City Bank Drops Its Security Unit,” New York Times, June 5, 1934.

  18. “J. M. Landis Slated for Stock Market Chief by Recess Appointment to Avoid Battle,” New York Times, May 26, 1934.

  19. Letter from Jack Morgan, June 8, 1934, FDR Library.

  20. Letter to Jack Morgan, June 13, 1934, FDR Library.

  21. “Kennedy Is Reported Chosen by President,” New York Times, June 30, 1934.

  22. Stock Exchange Practices: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Banking and Currency, US Senate, Seventy-third Congress, Second Session, on S. Res. 84 (72nd Congress) Resolutions to Thoroughly Investigate Practices of Stock Exchanges with Respect to the Buying and Selling and the Borrowing and Lending of Listed Securities and S.Res. 56 and S.Res. 97 (73rd Congress) Resolutions to Investigate the Matter of Banking Operations and Practices, February 21 to February 26, 73rd Cong. 6222 (1934) (Part 14 Alcohol Pools).

  23. “J.P. Kennedy Has Excelled in Various Endeavors,” New York Times, July 4, 1934.

  24. “Kennedy Started as a Candy Vendor,” New York Times, July 3, 1934.

  25. “Four Men & One,” Time, July 9, 1934.

  26. Letter to Joe Kennedy, May 11, 1933, PPF File 207, Folder: Kennedy, Joseph P., 1933–1938, FDR Library.

  27. “No Venom,” Time, August 6, 1934.

  28. “Whitney, Exchange Head, Approves Stand of Kennedy of Securities Commission,” New York Times, July 27, 1934.

  29. Letter from Giannini to McIntyre, September 2, 1934, PPF File 1135, Folder: Giannini, A.P., 1933–1936, FDR Library.

  30. Notes from a New York dinner with bankers from Tom Lamont to FDR, October 1, 1934, PSF Box 141 Lamont, FDR Library.

  31. “Reform & Realism,” Time, July 22, 1935.

  32. Richard Whalen, The Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1993), 138–144.

  33. October 10, 1936, PPF File 207, Folder: Kennedy, Joseph P., 1933–1938, FDR Library.

  34. Address at the dinner of the Democrat Business Men’s League of Massachusetts at the Hotel Copley-Plaza, Boston, October 24, 1936, PPF File 207, Folder: Kennedy, Joseph P., 1933–1938, FDR Library.

  35. Sasoon G. Ward, “Giannini Fights Morgan,” The Nation, June 26, 1935.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Frederick A. Bradford, “The Banking Act of 1935,” The American Economic Review 25, no. 4 (December 1935): 661–672.

  38. “Bank Bill Assailed by Guaranty Trust,” New York Times, May 13, 1935.

  39. “Menace to Nation Is Seen by Aldrich in Banking Bill,” New York Times, May 15, 1935.

  40. “Congress Exte
nds Deposit Insurance,” New York Times, June 28, 1935.

  41. “New Bill Will Let Banks Underwrite Securities Again,” New York Times, June 29, 1935.

  42. “Glass Is Incensed by Bank Bill News,” New York Times, June 30, 1935.

  43. “Wall Street Bankers Split on Glass Bill,” New York Times, July 6, 1935.

  44. “Bank Bill Revision Out,” New York Times, July 2, 1935.

  45. July 11, 1935, OF 1599, Folder: Chase National Bank, 1933–1943, FDR Library.

  46. President’s Personal File, July 1935, Folder 1358, Roosevelt Papers, FDR Library.

  47. “Cup & Lip,” Time, September 2, 1935.

  48. “House Divided,” Time, September 16, 1935.

  49. “Morgan Stanley & Co. Launched at 2 Wall Street, Taking over Underwriting of Morgan & Co.,” New York Times, September 17, 1935.

  50. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The Economy 1934–1936,” at www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/1934–36.pdf.

  51. “Son’s Scheme,” Time, October 19, 1936.

  52. “Fadeout,” Time, February 10, 1936.

  53. US Senate, “An Era of Investigations: 1921–1940: Merchants of Death,” at www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm.

  54. Franklin Delano Roosevelt to William E. Dodd, March 16, 1936, FDR Library, at http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/PSF/BOX32/t300d01.html.

  55. Letter to Giannini, May 7, 1936, PPF File 1135, Folder: Giannini, A. P., 1933–1936, FDR Library.

  56. Assortment of newspaper clippings from mid-1936 to the beginning of 1937, PPF File 1135, Folder: Giannini, A. P., 1933–1936, FDR Library.

  57. Letter from Leffingwell, September 8, 1936, PPF 866, Folder: Leffingwell, Russell C., 1935–1944 and cross-references, FDR Library.

  58. “Franklin Roosevelt’s Address Announcing the Second New Deal,” October 31, 1936, at http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od2ndst.html.

  59. William E. Leuchtenburg, “When Franklin Roosevelt Clashed with the Supreme Court and Lost,” Smithsonian, May 2005, at www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/showdown.html.

  60. Ibid.

  61. “Mussolini Will Receive Lamont,” New York Times, April 18, 1937.

  62. “1937 Erratic Year on Stock Exchange,” New York Times, January 3, 1938.

  63. James H. Perkins, “The Economic Situation: Extract from the Report to Shareholders,” January 11, 1938, PPF 54, Perkins, James H., FDR Library.

  64. “National Economic Accounts: Gross Domestic Product,” US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, at www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp.

  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_00
01.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.