Background
Arthur Besse was born on April 13, 1887, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States, the son of Lyman Waterman and Henrietta Segee Besse.
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Arthur Lyman Besse
Edit ProfileEducation
After attending Springfield High School in Massachusetts and Lawrenceville Academy in New Jersey, Arthur entered Harvard University, graduating cum laude three years later, in 1909, with the B. A.
Career
Arthur entered business with his father, who was a partner in a chain of retail clothing stores. Except for the period from 1918 to 1920, Besse worked for the company until 1926. In 1923 the firm was incorporated as the Besse System Company. Besse served as assistant manager of stores in Springfield, Massachussets, Kansas City, Missouri, and Syracuse, New York, from 1909 to 1911 and from 1913 to 1918. He was involved in the firm's management from 1911 to 1913. In 1920 he became treasurer of the Sherman Welton Company, a clothing manufacturer in Boston, and remained in that position for two years. After the parent company was incorporated, he served as treasurer from 1923 to 1926. Besse was in the Gas Defense Division of the Chemical Warfare Service of the United States Army from 1918 to 1920; he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war ended, he was engaged in the adjustment of wartime contracts entered into by the service.
From 1926 to 1931 Besse was a partner in an investment securities company in New York City. In September 1933 Besse became president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers and held this post until his death. As president he succeeded many able leaders, beginning with Erastus Bigelow in 1864. Besse began his work at a time when the association, which was the oldest trade association in the United States in continuous existence, was entering a new phase of its history. The National Industrial Recovery Act, a depression measure that became law in June 1933, allowed various industries to propose codes of fair competition. To qualify as the code maker and administrator for the wool manufacture, the association had to increase its membership. Representing about 50 percent of the industry, as measured by workers, payroll, and machinery when the act was passed, within eight months the association had expanded to include more than 90 percent.
At the beginning of 1934 Besse was elected chairman of the code authority for the industry. During his first twenty months in office much of his work was related to the industry's code and to the subcodes of its branches. When the Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Relations Act unconstitutional in 1935, Besse's efforts were directed at securing voluntary compliance with the code. Membership in the association was well maintained. From its inception the association had sought "insurance against legislation hostile to the wool manufacture of the country. " During Besse's presidency federal activities bearing on the wool manufacture required more attention than ever before. Although his office was in New York City, he was a familiar figure in Washington, D. C. , where he was the chief spokesman for the industry.
The association considered President Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of reciprocal trade agreements (which would result in the lowering of tariff duties on goods imported into the United States) a major threat to domestic manufacturers of wool; repeatedly Besse objected to the theory and practice of reciprocity. He also devoted his attention to proposed or enacted legislation that involved fair-labor standards, organization of labor, raw materials, and labeling of goods. As the association's chief representative Besse worked as well with the United States Bureau of Standards to secure satisfactory labeling regulations. During and after World War II the wool industry was confronted with new challenges. In 1939 Besse was a member of a commission appointed to negotiate with the British for the release of Australian wool for the use of the American wool manufacturer. He served during the war and afterward on a number of committees advising the government on defense problems related to the wool textile industry (in 1951 he was a member of four such committees).
After World War II, competition from abroad, which during the war had posed no threat to the American wool manufacture, once more appeared serious, particularly because of the government's continued interest in international cooperation in the removal of trade barriers. In 1951 the association filed a brief in opposition to the adherence by the United States to the proposed International Trade Organization. In March 1951, shortly before the end of his active participation in the association, Besse appeared before the Senate Finance Committee with a brief against the extension of the Trade Agreements Act. Articles by Besse on the state of the wool manufacture appeared in the New York Journal of Commerce, American Wool and Cotton Reporter, and elsewhere. Besse died in New York City in 1951.
Achievements
Personality
A slender, attractive man with a pleasant personality, Besse was a skilled executive both in the office and in the forum. He approached problems objectively, listened to all points of view, and reached conclusions based on facts. Able to handle masses of figures and to predict trends, he was a fast and intense worker, capable of covering many different subjects in a single day.
Interests
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Besse's chief avocations were yachting and singing. He was treasurer of the North American Yacht Racing Union and secretary of the Southern Massachusetts Yacht Racing Association, and often spent his summers on Martha's Vineyard. Possessed of a good baritone, he sang with the University Glee Club in New York City.
Connections
On February 23, 1919, Besse married Eleanor Pass of Syracuse, New York, daughter of James Pass, president of the Onondaga Pottery Company. They had three sons.
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Born
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Died
January 24, 1951 (aged 63) -
Resting place
Oak Grove Cemetery, Springfield, Massachusetts, United States -
Nationality
American