Chicago 1939 1st. Willett Clark. Hardcover. Sm.8vo., 115pp., printed cloth. Owner blindstamp name on title page. Good plus, backstrip faded, text clean. no DJ.
Roger Williams Straus was an American industrialist and philanthropist.
Background
Roger was born on December 14, 1891 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Oscar Solomon Straus and Sarah Lavanburg. Shortly before Roger's birth his father had begun work on a biography of the founder of Rhode Island, for whom he named his son. Some of Straus's earliest memories were of Constantinople, where his father served as American minister.
Education
Oscar Straus studied at in preparatory school at Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Later he was a graduate of Columbia Law School.
Career
He gave up the practice of law and devoted his life to public service with the financial help of his father-in-law (a merchant banker) and his two older brothers, Isidor and Nathan (who bought the firm of R. H. Macy and Co. and built it into the largest department store in the world).
From the beginning of his marriage Straus was groomed to represent the Guggenheim family at American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO), of which his father-in-law was president. During World War I, Straus was assigned to the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff and was sent on a six-month tour of duty as an assistant intelligence officer in Siberia.
On his return to ASARCO, he became a member of its executive committee and, following his father-in-law's retirement in 1919, served as assistant to the new president, Simon Guggenheim. Simon continued his older brother's strategy of managing ASARCO as a processing segment of the wider family interests.
He tried to extend the ASARCO processing expertise overseas, particularly to Russia and southern Africa, but without success, although an Australian investment at Mount Isa later proved profitable. Straus came to be critical of the Guggenheim strategy as a result of his experience as an ore buyer. Such was the strength of his conviction that he was able to challenge the Guggenheim strategy and overturn it.
As a processing specialist ASARCO was dependent on the purchase of ores from others; throughout the 1930's the critically important ore-buying function was Straus's principal responsibility. Because the smaller mining companies were not surviving and the larger ones (except Kennecott) were developing their own processing capabilities, Straus foresaw the time when ASARCO should have its own mines as an assured source of supply.
When Straus became president in 1941, he vigorously espoused mining projects. Many of his board members and executives opposed the projects on the grounds that they required too much capital and involved too much risk. Guggenheim family members, led by Edmond, objected on the ground (later justified) that such moves would hasten entry into processing by Kennecott. By overcoming such opposition Straus moved ASARCO from a processing specialist toward a diversified and integrated minerals enterprise.
Handsome and gregarious, Straus had few enemies even among opponents. He delegated technical matters to his vice-presidents and kept himself informed of the widely dispersed ASARCO facilities through extensive travel, usually with his wife. As befitted someone named after Roger Williams, Straus had a lifelong interest in furthering religious tolerance.
Three months after his retirement from ASARCO and four months after being named chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, Straus died in Liberty, New York.
On January 12, 1914, Straus married Gladys Eleanor Guggenheim, daughter of Daniel, the most prominent of the Guggenheim brothers. They had three children.