Education and Citizenship: Address of Postmaster General Cortelyou at the Thirty-Fourth Annual Commencement of the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, June 7, 1905 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Education and Citizenship: Address of Postma...)
Excerpt from Education and Citizenship: Address of Postmaster General Cortelyou at the Thirty-Fourth Annual Commencement of the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, June 7, 1905
In no direction has our national progress been more marked than in the wonderful development of the colleges and universities of the West, and this is, of course, coinci dent with development in the secondary schools, which are the feeders of our institutions of higher education. This university's growth has been typical of national growth. From small beginnings it has come, in a comparatively short time, to a position of power and influence; but even when small in numbers and in material equipment, it had, like the mighty nation to Whose moral and intellectual advancement it is contributing, the inspiration of loyalty to a great cause.
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Addresses Of Secretary Cortelyou, March 1904 - June 1904 (1904)
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Address of Postmaster-General Cortelyou at the annual banquet of the Lincoln Republican club and the
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George Bruce Cortelyou was an American cabinet officer and public utility executive.
Background
George Bruce Cortelyou was born on July 26, 1862 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the oldest in a family of five sons of Peter Crolius and Rose (Seary) Cortelyou. He grew up in a well-established middle-class urban family whose Dutch and Huguenot ancestors had settled on Manhattan Island before 1660. His father and grandfather (also Peter Crolius) were both substantial business men.
Education
After graduating from Hempstead Institute (Hempstead, Long Island) in 1879, young Cortelyou attended the Massachusetts State Normal School at Westfield, graduating in 1882, and then, while teaching in Cambridge, took courses at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
Cortelyou received LL. B. degree from Georgetown University (1895) and LL. M. from George Washington (then Columbian) University (1896).
Career
In 1883 he became a general law and verbatim reporter. Cortelyou soon decided to make use of his skill as an expert shorthand recorder by doing full-time secretarial work for public officials. He advanced rapidly, becoming private secretary to the Surveyor of the Port of New York, then going to Washington as secretary to the fourth assistant postmaster-general, and finally, in 1895, being appointed stenographer to President Cleveland.
Cleveland recommended Cortelyou to President McKinley, who in 1900 promoted him to the newly created post of secretary to the president. Theodore Roosevelt, who retained him, was greatly impressed by Cortelyou's abilities. He particularly appreciated the tact and good sense he showed in the negotiations between mine operators and union officials during the coal strike in the fall of 1902.
When Congress created the Department of Commerce and Labor in the following February, Roosevelt appointed Cortelyou as its head. As Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Cortelyou's initial and most time-consuming task was to organize the new department and set its broad policy. He was especially interested in expanding government services to business men, particularly in providing marketing information. The Secretary also advised the President on controversial domestic issues, including the prosecution of the Northern Securities case, the miners' strike in Colorado, and the union-shop issue in the Government Printing Office. Again impressed by Cortelyou's administrative ability and clear-headed political advice, Roosevelt, over the protest of many professional politicians, succeeded in having him elected chairman of the Republican National Committee at the convention in June 1904.
Cortelyou managed Roosevelt's campaign as effectively as his predecessor Mark Hanna had run the two previous ones, although he himself became a major issue. In October Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate, took up the charges already made by Democratic speakers and newspapers that Cortelyou was using information acquired in his cabinet post to blackmail corporations into making campaign contributions.
Although Cortelyou did succeed in raising substantial sums from corporations, neither at the time nor in later investigations was any evidence advanced to show that he employed either threats or promises. After the campaign Roosevelt appointed him Postmaster-General. In this office Cortelyou showed more concern with efficient administration than with party patronage. He advocated a more systematic method of appointment and promotion based on merit; he simplified and standardized regulations and procedures; and, most important, he carried out a major reorganization of the department by consolidating related activities into four major functional offices (personnel, transportation, finance, and rural delivery) and two service divisions (purchasing and inspection).
In March 1907 Cortelyou assumed his third cabinet post, that of Secretary of the Treasury. Here he had less use for his organizational talents, though his successful efforts to improve the personnel policies of the Revenue Cutter Service rank him as one of the founders of the modern Coast Guard. He also urged the regularizing and standardizing of government receipts and expenditures through the creation of a national budget.
In mid-November he made available large blocks of Panama Canal bonds and Treasury notes to banks as a basis for expanding note circulation. This action, which relieved the money shortage in New York, which provided funds to move the crops in the South and West, and which lessened the critical demand for gold in the European exchanges, did much to end the crisis. During the remainder of his term Cortelyou concentrated on framing legislation to provide an essential central banking system.
After leaving the cabinet in March 1909 Cortelyou became president of the New York Consolidated Gas Company (later the Consolidated Edison Company), one of the world's largest utility corporations.
Aside from expansion, Cortelyou concerned himself mainly with the development of new markets for gas and electric power, with the systematic and thorough training of employees, and with the provision of medical, legal, insurance, and pension benefits. These policies help to account for the continuing good relations his company enjoyed with its working force, customers, and regulatory commissions.
After retiring in 1935 Cortelyou lived quietly on his Huntington, Long Island, estate, and it was there that he died of a heart attack five years later.
As an administrator Cortelyou concentrated on improving organizational efficiency and system--he even described his program for employee benefits in terms of increased productivity.
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Personality
His personality seems to have reflected these concerns, for those who worked with this handsome, well-groomed man often spoke of him with high respect, but rarely with affection. Both in business and in public service he typified the twentieth-century era of managerial efficiency.
Connections
On September 15, 1888, he had married Lilly Morris Hinds, daughter of the president of Hempstead Institute. They had five children, George Bruce, William Winthrop, Grace, Helen, and Peter Crolius.