George von Lengerke Meyer was an American businessman and politician.
Background
George von Lengerke Meyer was born on June 24, 1858, on Beacon Hill of a good Bostonian family. Both his father and paternal grandfather had borne the name of George Augustus Meyer and both had been merchants in overseas trade. The elder, a native of Germany, had emigrated to New York in early manhood; the younger had moved to Boston and there married Grace Helen Parker. George von Lengerke Meyer was the eldest of his parents' three children.
Education
Meyer prepared privately for college and was graduated from Harvard with the class of 1879.
Career
Within two decades after his graduation, Meyer stood near the center of the closely related inner group which dominated the banking and commercial activity of Boston, and at the same time he participated heartily in the social activity of Boston and Essex County. In 1890 the Meyers acquired "Rock Maple Farm" at Hamilton, which remained their dearest residence and was developed through a lifetime of attention into a show place of the region. Although possessed of all that one of his group might consider sufficient for a full and contented life, Meyer was as much disturbed by the ambition and will "to make something out of life" as was his later chieftain, Theodore Roosevelt. Entering politics, he was elected as a Republican to the Boston Common Council, serving 1889-90, and in 1891 was chosen alderman. From 1892 to 1896 he was in the legislature, holding the speakership of the House during the last three years. Always a regular Republican and a conservative, he felt that government should be administered as efficiently as a paying business. He was probably especially useful to his party in his contacts with the business leaders who formed so important an element in Republican success. In 1899 he was made national committeeman from Massachusetts. His diplomatic career began with his appointment in December 1900 by President McKinley as ambassador to Italy. At Rome the King and the American Ambassador became warm friends, and the effective Meyer raised his embassy to a high standard of influence and popularity. He also formed valuable contacts in important circles throughout Europe.
Especially with Emperor William II of Germany he made an acquaintance surprisingly intimate in nature. All the while he corresponded regularly with Henry Cabot Lodge and somewhat less frequently with President Roosevelt, assuming gradually the role of an important listening post in Europe for these two formulators of American foreign policy. During the Russo-Japanese War, when President Roosevelt was essaying the part of peacemaker, "I wish in St. Petersburg, " he wrote, "a man who, while able to do all the social work, can do, in addition, the really vital and important things". Meyer was the man he selected and in March 1905 his Russian mission began. Cutting through the red tape of Russian bureaucracy without causing offense, he reached the Czar himself and effectively presented Roosevelt's proposals. It is said Meyer's skill at bridge did not prove a liability to his diplomacy. Meanwhile Lodge as well as others were urging his appointment to the cabinet and Meyer himself was anxious for a cabinet post. On March 5, 1907, he took office as postmaster-general under Roosevelt. Here again he gave evidence of efficient administrative ability. The department was conducted smoothly, postal savings banks were established, the parcel-post system was extended, a special-delivery system was started, and a two-cent postage convention was arranged between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. Retained in the cabinet by Taft, who appointed him secretary of the navy, he held that office until 1913. He instituted naval aids to the Secretary to keep him more responsibly informed; he improved the gunnery and the direction of the active fleet; navy yards were administered to meet the needs of the fleet rather than as mere work-providers for local constituencies; engineering problems were better solved by his greater reliance upon naval engineers. Navy men speak of his tenure as one greatly increasing the efficiency of the department. Meyer remained loyal to Taft in the political crisis of 1912, but his personal attachment to Roosevelt continued and after the World War began he was soon campaigning under Roosevelt's lead for preparedness and then for American participation. In 1916 he championed Roosevelt for the Republican nomination for the presidency. He died March 9, 1918, in his sixtieth year.