| Henry Morgenthau, Jr. served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from January 1, 1934 to July 22, 1945.
Morgenthau was born on May 11, 1891, in New York, New York. He attended private schools including Exeter Academy and studied architecture and agriculture for two years at Cornell University.
In 1913, he purchased a large farm in Dutchess County, New York. During World War I, he worked with Herbert Hoover's Farm Administration on a plan to send tractors to France. From 1922 to 1933, he served as Publisher of "American Agriculturalist."
In 1929, the Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, appointed Morgenthau as Chairman of the New York State Agricultural Advisory Commission. In 1930, he was appointed State Commissioner of Conservation, and directed a million-acre reforestation program. He also was appointed to the Taconic State Park Commission. Upon Roosevelt's election to the Presidency, Morgenthau was appointed Chairman of the Federal Farm Board and Governor of the Farm Credit Administration in 1933. On November 17, 1933, he was appointed Acting and Under Secretary of the Treasury, when Secretary of the Treasury William H. Woodin's ill health forced his resignation after the first year of Roosevelt's "New Deal" Administration.
Morgenthau served as Roosevelt's advisor, Cabinet member, and Secretary of the Treasury for 11 years, in peace and war. During his term, Morgenthau is credited with exercising a stabilizing effect on administation monetary policies.
From 1934 through December 7, 1941, Morgenthau defended the dollar against devaluation by other competitive nations. This was accomplished by intervening in the world financial markets through buying and selling foreign currencies, gold and dollars. Protecting the dollar against the depredations of Nazi Germany which was using blocked currencies to produce anarchy in the foreign exchange markets, Morgenthau succeeded until after the Munich Pact of 1938, when a stabilization agreement was reached. As a result, the United States dollar became the strongest currency in the world.
In 1939, with Poland overtaken by Germany, Morgenthau established a procurement service in the Treasury Department to facilitate the purchase of American munitions by Britain and France, and he geared the American economy to meet the enormously expanded requirements that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Morgenthau's major effort was financing the war effort, and he achieved remarkable success with his program for the sale of defense bonds (later known as war bonds). In 1942 alone, sale of these savings bonds amounted to a $1 billion distribution, which not only supported the war needs, but also prevented a serious inflationary threat by syphoning off excess funds.
In 1944, he proposed the Morgenthau Plan, under which post-war Germany would be stripped of its industry and converted into an agricultural nation. At the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, Morgenthau assumed a leading role in establishing post-war economic policies and currency stabilization. That had been one of his prime goals since depression days.
In July 1945, three months after the death of President Roosevelt, Morgenthau resigned as Secretary, but remained in office until President Harry S Truman's return from the Big Three Conference in Berlin.
From 1947 until 1950, Morgenthau was Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, which raised $465 million during that time, and from 1951 to 1954, he served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the American Financial and Development Corporation for Israel, which handled a $500 million bond issue for the new nation. Links: |
