Causes of the Present Depression and Possible Remedies
(The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research...)
The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER) started in 2004 as a data preservation and accessibility project of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER's mission is to safeguard and provide easy access to the nation's economic history-particularly the history of the Federal Reserve System-through digitization of documents related to the U.S. financial system.
FRASER preserves and provides access to economic and banking data and policy documents. To this end, various types of documents have been digitized, including: publications of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, publications of District Federal Reserve Banks, states and speeches of Federal Reserve policymakers, archival materials of Federal Reserve policymakers, government data publications, statistical releases, books and Congressional hearings.
Winthrop W. Aldrich was an American lawyer, financier, and diplomat. He served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Background
Winthrop Williams Aldrich was born on November 2, 1885 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He was the tenth of eleven children born to Abby Pierce Chapman Greene and Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich. Winthrop William Aldrich came from one of the bluest of blue bloodlines: his lineage included one of the original Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower; Roger Williams, religious dissident and founder of the Rhode Island colony; and General Nathaniel Greene, hero of the American Revolutionary War and a man whom many historians rank second only to George Washington for contributing to America's ultimate victory. His own father, after making his personal fortune in investments, served as a U. S. congressman from 1879 to 1881 and as a U. S. senator from 1881 to 1911. A conservative pillar of the Republican party, the senior Aldrich defended protective tariffs and the gold standard, opposed efforts to regulate American big business, and played a key role in weakening the reach of both the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act and the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act.
Education
Aldrich attended the Hope Street High School in Providence, a private preparatory school; Harvard University, from which he graduated with a B. A. degree in 1907; and Harvard Law School, where he graduated tenth in his class in 1910.
He was awarded numerous honorary degrees, including degress from Colgate, Northeastern, Brown, Lafayette, Columbia, and Georgetown.
Career
Aldrich joined the New York City law firm of Byrne, Cutcheon, and Taylor after graduation, and after successfully passing the New York State bar examination in 1912, he became a junior partner at his firm. In 1919, Aldrich left Byrne, Cutcheon, and Taylor to join the firm of Murray, Prentice, and Howland. For the next ten years he devoted most of his time and energy to handling legal business for the Equitable Trust Company, a finance institution in which his brother-in-law, John D. Rockefeller Jr. , held a major interest.
In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Aldrich--since boyhood a lover of the sea and an avid and skilled sailor--enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve. During the war he held a number of active assignments, including serving as a commander of patrol boats and a navigation officer on the cruiser New Orleans.
In 1929, Aldrich demonstrated his mastery of legal matters, negotiating skills, and financial affairs when he oversaw the merger of the Equitable Trust Company with Seaboard National. Later that same year, after the death of Chellis A. Austin, president of the combined organization, Aldrich was asked to take over as acting president. Although reluctant to switch from law to finance, Aldrich accepted this new responsibility. After overseeing another merger, this time with the Chase Bank of New York, in 1930, he became the official president of the expanded institution. In 1934 he became chairman of the board of directors, and thereafter was head of the Chase National Bank, the Chase Bank, and the Chase Safe Deposit Company (now the Chase Manhattan Bank) until 1953.
After the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Aldrich assumed the presidencies of two related charitable organizations, the American Society for British Medical and Civilian Aid and the American Society for French Medical and Civilian Aid, and in June 1940 became president of the two combined societies, renamed the Allied Relief Fund. In its separate and combined identities, the charity raised funds to buy ambulances and supplies for hospitals. From 1940 to 1943 Aldrich also held the post of president of the British War Relief Society, America's largest charity effort for its British allies, and when all American efforts--excepting the Red Cross--to raise charitable funds for America's allies were combined into the National War Fund in January 1943, Aldrich became the head of this organization.
A wealthy man in his own right, connected to many other wealthy people by birth and marriage, and at the center of the highest levels of American finance, Aldrich--as his charitable activities indicate--was in a position to raise large sums of money for issues and people he supported. He worked actively to raise funds for the campaign of Eisenhower in 1952, reportedly raising some $2, 500, 000 in New York. Thus it came as no surprise when after Eisenhower's election, Aldrich was offered a diplomatic plum, the ambassadorship to the Court of St. James, which he accepted. The British, well aware of Aldrich's charitable work for Great Britain during World War II, welcomed his appointment. He served as a popular ambassador until the Suez crisis of 1957, after which he resigned his post.
Aldrich died on February 25, 1974 in New York City.
Achievements
Aldrich received many honors during his life. He was decorated by the governments of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands for his charitable efforts on behalf of these countries during and after World War II. Pope Pius XII made him a Knight Commander of the Order of Pius IX. The United States government gave him its Medal of Merit.
Aldrich won the Astor Cup in 1923 in his schooner Flying Cloud. He helped to finance and build the Enterprise, the America's Cup defender that he himself navigated to victory against Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock V in 1930.
(The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research...)
Politics
Aldrich was a leading member of the overlapping social, financial, and Republican party establishments, and angered many of his peers in March 1933, when he publicly demonstrated a willingness to support at least some of Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts to reform the American banking system. He declared in the Literary Digest, a popular conservative periodical, that "the spirit of speculation should be eradicated from the management of commercial banks. " He suggested that banks should take no part in the selling of private financial instruments, and should limit themselves to underwriting federal, state, and municipal securities. Moreover, he expressed support for Roosevelt's proposed Federal Reserve System, under which the federal government would both regulate and insure private banks. Certainly, Aldrich's public support of parts of Roosevelt's reform plan contributed to its ultimate success.
After World War II, Aldrich supported American efforts for European reconstruction, including the Marshall Plan.
He was also a staunch supporter of Great Britain, and helped secure their first loan after World War II.
Membership
He was a member of the exclusive and prestigious Pilgrims Society.
Interests
A sailing enthusiast, Aldrich served as a commodore at the New York Yacht Club, which regulates America's Cup competition. He also liked to play golf and was an amateur watercolorist and musician.
Connections
On December 7, 1916, Aldrich married Harriet Crocker Alexander; the couple eventually had six children.
