Background
He was the son of Nathan Straus (1848–1931), co-owner of Macy"s department store.
politician member of the New York State Senate
He was the son of Nathan Straus (1848–1931), co-owner of Macy"s department store.
He attended Princeton University, and Heidelberg University.
He worked as a reporter for The New York Globe from 1909 to 1910. And was editor and publisher of Puck magazine from 1913 to 1917. During World War I he fought as an ensign with the United States Navy.
After the war, he became Assistant Editor of the New York Globe, but left in 1920 because of the paper"s support for Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding.
He was Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture from 1923 to 1924. He was a founding trustee of the Palestine Endowment Fund, Incorporated.
(1922) along with Julian Mack and Stephen Samuel Wise
He published two books on housing issues: Seven Myths of Housing (1944), and Two-Thirds of a Nation – A Housing Program (1952). Afterwards he was Chairman of the WMCA radio station until his death.
On September 13, 1961, he was found dead in a motel room in Massapequa, New New York
And was buried at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New New York
Instead, he entered politics as a Democrat, and was a member of the New York State Senate (15th Doctorate) from 1921 to 1926, sitting in the 144th, 145th, 146th, 147th, 148th and 149th New York State Legislatures. He was New York State Administrator of the National Recovery Administration in 1934. A member of the New York City Housing Authority in 1936.
And Administrator of the United States Housing Authority from 1937 to 1942.