Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

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Image:Henry Morgenthau, Jr..jpgHenry Morgenthau, Jr. (May 11, 1891–February 6, 1967) was Secretary of the Treasury of the United States during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was also the father of Robert M. Morgenthau, the current District Attorney of New York County.

Morgenthau was born to Jewish parents in New York City, the son of Henry Morgenthau Sr., a realtor and diplomat. He attended what is now The Dwight School. Later he studied architecture and agriculture at Cornell University. In 1913, he met and became friends with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. During World War I, he worked for the U.S. Farm Administration. In 1929 Roosevelt, as Governor of New York, appointed him chair of the New York State Agricultural Advisory Committee and to the state Conservation Commission.

Contents 1 New Deal 2 Fiscal conservative 3 Jews 4 Morgenthau Plan 5 References 5.1 Primary sources

New Deal

In 1933 Roosevelt became President and appointed Morgenthau governor of the Federal Farm Board. In 1934, when William H. Woodin resigned through ill-health, Roosevelt appointed Morgenthau Secretary of the Treasury. Morgenthau was an orthodox economist who opposed Keynesian economics and disapproved of some elements of Roosevelt's New Deal, but he was a Roosevelt loyalist and retained his office until 1945.

Fiscal conservative

Image:Henry Morgenthau Jr sig.jpgMorgenthau shifted left and right with FDR, but at all times tried to inject fiscal responsibility. He deeply believed in balanced budgets, stable currency, reduction of the national debt, and the need for more private investment. The Wagner Act reharding labor unions met Morgenthau’s requirement because it strengthened the party’s political base and involved no new spending. Morgenthau accepted Roosevelt’s double budget as legitimate–that is a balanced regular budget, and an “emergency” budget for agencies, like the WPA, PWA and CCC, that would be temporary until full recovery was at hand. He fought against the veterans’ bonus until Congress finally overrode Roosevelt’s veto and gave out $2.2 billion in 1936. His biggest success was the new Social Security program; he managed to reverse the proposals to fund it from general revenue and insisted it be funded by new taxes on employees. It was Morgenthau who insisted on excluding farm workers and domestic servants from Social Security because workers outside industry would not be paying their way.

Jews

As the only Jewish member of Roosevelt's Cabinet, Morgenthau took a leading role in trying to persuade Roosevelt to allow more Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to enter the United States, but his efforts were largely thwarted by obstruction from the State Department. In January 1944, however, Morgenthau succeeded in persuading Roosevelt to allow the creation of a War Refugee Board in the Treasury Department. This allowed an increasing number of Jews to enter the U.S. in 1944 and 1945 - as many as 200,000 Jews were saved in this way.

Morgenthau Plan

In 1944 Morgenthau proposed the Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany, calling for Germany to be dismembered, partitioned into separate independent states, stripped of all heavy industry and forced to return to an agrarian economy[1]. Although the plan was tentatively approved by both Roosevelt and Churchill [2], it was abandoned due to strong opposition from the cabinet and negative public reaction. It never took effect. Morgenthau was a leading participant in the Bretton Woods Conference that established the Bretton Woods system, under which the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the precursor to the World Bank) were created. He resigned in mid 1945 when Truman became President and no longer sought his advice.

He devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy, and also became a financial advisor to Israel. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1967.

References

• Beschloss, Michael The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945. Simon & Schuster. 2002. ISBN 0684810271. Much attention to Morgenthau Plan
• Julian E. Zelizer; "The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal: Fiscal Conservatism and the Roosevelt Administration, 1933-1938." Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 30. Issue: 2. 2000. pp 331+.

Primary sources

• Blum, John Morton, ed. From the Morganthau Diaries 3 vol

a narrative of Morganthau's New Deal years (1928-45) based very closely on his diary.; abridged edition: Roosevelt and Morgenthau: A Revision and Condensation of From the Morgenthau Diaries (1972) Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:End box Template:USSecTreasde:Henry Morgenthau es:Henry Morgenthau (hijo) he:הנרי מורגנטאו (הבן) ja:ヘンリー・モーゲンソウ (政治家) sv:Henry Morgenthau