Background
Allan was born on March 9, 1896 in San Francisco, California, United States, the second son of Robert Sproul, a Scottish immigrant employed as a freight auditor by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and Sarah Elizabeth Moore.
(Allan Sproul was the third chief executive officer of the...)
Allan Sproul was the third chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, having been its President from January 1941 until he retired in June 1956. He came to this Bank as Secretary in 1930, after serving during the twenties at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The writings collected here - letters, talks, lectures, addresses, statements, etc. - are grouped under the headings Monetary Policy and Inflation, Postwar Treasury-Federal Reserve Conflict and the Accord, Human Judgment and Central Banking, Deposit Interest Rate Ceilings, Federal Reserve Structure and Monetary Policy, Foreign Aid, and International Financial Problems. Includes photographs and a 21-page chapter by the editor entitled "Allan Sproul, 1896-1978, A Tower of Strength".
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Allan was born on March 9, 1896 in San Francisco, California, United States, the second son of Robert Sproul, a Scottish immigrant employed as a freight auditor by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and Sarah Elizabeth Moore.
After attending schools in San Francisco and Berkeley, Calif. , Sproul entered the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) in 1914. He left in 1918 and joined the Army Air Corps. He trained as a fighter pilot and was sent to England, but the war ended before he flew any combat missions. After being discharged with the rank of second lieutenant, Sproul returned to UCB. He graduated from the College of Agriculture in 1919 with a B. S. degree in agricultural economics, specializing in pomology.
Sproul worked briefly for a farm produce distributor, the California Packing Company, and then served as an agricultural adviser for two Southern California banks. A friend working at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggested that he apply there for a job, and Sproul became head of the bank's Division of Analysis and Research in 1920.
Sproul soon became assistant to the bank's chairman, John Perrin, and was appointed secretary of the bank in 1924. His job required frequent trips to Washington, to assist Perrin in monetary policy conferences with officials from other Federal Reserve banks.
Sproul joined the New York bank as assistant deputy governor and secretary to Harrison on March 1, 1930. He was also assigned to its foreign department, where he became involved in international monetary affairs. Sproul assisted Harrison at several international monetary conferences, at which he became acquainted with such foreign bankers as Montagu Norman, head of the Bank of England. Sproul became Harrison's assistant in 1934 and was promoted to vice-president in 1936.
In September 1938, Sproul became manager of the bank's Open Market Account, which conducted open market operations (sales and purchases of Treasury bills and securities) for the entire Federal Reserve System. After Harrison resigned from the bank's presidency in 1940, Sproul became the third president of the bank on January 1, 1941. He also became vice-chairman of the Open Market Committee, the policymaking group that guided the open market operations. Sproul's initial years as bank president were occupied with the demands of wartime finance.
In 1942, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board announced a fixed pattern of prices for government securities for the duration of the war. Sproul disagreed with this policy, which he believed subordinated the Federal Reserve System's monetary powers to the Department of the Treasury. Sproul also assisted the government in developing plans for the postwar international economic order. He disagreed with some of the tenets of the Employment Act of 1946, fearing its inflationary consequences. He also disagreed with the major provisions of the proposed International Monetary Fund, but strongly supported the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank). He was offered the latter's presidency in 1946 but decided to remain with the New York bank.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Sproul was involved in negotiations between the Federal Reserve System and the Treasury Department concerning appropriate government monetary policy. He participated in the 1951 accord that allowed the Federal Reserve Board to exercise a larger degree of independence in setting monetary policy than during World War II.
In February 1956, the bank's board of directors reappointed Sproul to another five-year term. He resigned from his position several months later, citing a desire to spend more time with his family. Some observers speculated that his unexpected retirement (five years before the mandatory retirement age of sixty-five) was the culmination of a long-running dispute with the Department of the Treasury over the administration's "bills only" policy, which restricted the Federal Reserve Board's debt-management powers.
Sproul also served in various nongovernmental organizations, such as the Committee for Economic Development and the Twentieth Century Fund, during the 1960's. In 1960 he was a member of a committee appointed by the president of the World Bank to examine the role of foreign aid in the economic development of India and Pakistan. He found the existing program acceptable, the main bottleneck being the lack of responsible officials and administrators.
After his wife died in 1973, Sproul cut back on his activities and gave only an occasional speech at the Wells Fargo Bank. He resigned from his directorship in 1975 but remained a special consultant.
Sproul died at his home in Kentfield, California.
(Allan Sproul was the third chief executive officer of the...)
Sproul, who termed himself a Republican "with independent leanings, " played a conservative role in the operation of the nation's central banking system.
During the later 1960's, Sproul disapproved of American involvement in Vietnam.
Sproul considered inflation one of the worst dangers facing the nation, and he deplored the tendency to focus monetary policy solely on preventing the recurrence of a depression.
He also criticized the growing influence of "monetarists" such as Milton Friedman and others at the University of Chicago, whom Sproul believed were offering an oversimplified view of monetary policy. His frequent debates on the Open Market Committee concerning these issues aggravated his ulcers, and required him to follow a diet of milk and bland foods for a week after each committee meeting.
He was very protective of the role of the Federal Reserve System, particularly that of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, in formulation of national monetary policy, and he fought against encroachments into this role by the Department of the Treasury.
He became upset by the inflation resulting from the increased military spending and apparent lack of coherent fiscal and monetary policies.
On April 2, 1921, Sproul married Marion Meredith Bogle, who had been a UCB classmate; they had three children. After leaving the presidency of the New York Federal Reserve Bank on April 30, 1956, Sproul and his wife settled in the San Francisco suburb of Kentfield, in Marin County.