William Hartman Woodin (May 27,1868 – May 3,1934) was a U.S. industrialist. He served as the Secretary of Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.
Woodin was born in Berwick,Pennsylvania. [1] He was closely involved in Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company. His father,Clemuel Ricketts "Clement" Woodin,preceded him in the presidency of the company and his grandfather,also named William Hartman Woodin,was an early partner in the company. He was a member of the Union League Club of New York. Woodin graduated from the Columbia College School of Mines in 1890. [2] [3] [4]
Jackson &Woodin grew under this combined leadership to become the largest railroad car builder in the eastern United States,and was one of the 13 companies that merged in 1899 to form American Car and Foundry Company (ACF).
Woodin married Annie Jessup,on October 9,1889. [1] They had three daughters and one son:Mary,Annie Jessup,William Hartman Jr.,and Elizabeth Foster Woodin. They lived in New York City.
Woodin stayed on with ACF for a while after the merger. [5] [ page needed ] [6] [7]
Woodin worked up through ACF management to become president in 1916. [1] [8] He was a director of several other companies including:chairman of the board of American Locomotive Company,chairman of the board of Railway Steel Spring Company,a director of Remington Arms Company,a director of Montreal Locomotive Works,and a director of American Ship and Commerce Company. [1] He was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1927 through 1932. [9] [10]
As Will Woodin,he collaborated with children's author Johnny Gruelle,composing music for the 1930 book Raggedy Ann's Sunny Songs and was the namesake of Gruelle's character Little Wooden Willie. In 1933,Woodin composed a march in honor of Roosevelt. [11]
Woodin was a Republican businessman [1] and was a major contributor to Roosevelt's campaign in 1932. Woodin served as the Treasury Secretary from March 4,1933,until he resigned effective December 31,1933. Because of his poor health,for some weeks in 1933 Treasury Under-Secretary Dean Acheson served as the Acting Secretary of the Treasury. Woodin was involved in major decisions that the new Roosevelt administration made to combat the Great Depression.
On March 4,1933,when Roosevelt first took the oath of office,banks were closing their doors all over the United States as waves of panic led depositors to demand immediate payment of their money. Woodin was the point man in the administration's declaration of a "Bank Holiday" which closed every bank in the U.S. until bank examiners could determine which were sound enough to re-open. With "seals of approval" from the examiners,depositors regained confidence,and the vast majority left their money in bank deposits. This preceded the creation of deposit insurance and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.
Woodin also presided over the Roosevelt Administration's withdrawal from the international monetary conference in London and the decision to take the United States off the international gold standard there. While he was the Secretary of the Treasury,the Administration also began the decision-making process that eventually led to the administration's decision to buy all the gold in private hands in the United States (other than that used by dentists and jewelers) and then to raise the dollar price of gold,devaluing the dollar against gold.[ clarification needed ]
Treasury Under Secretary Dean Acheson opposed FDR on the latter two decisions and was forced to resign in November 1933. Woodin was an avid coin collector and when gold was withdrawn from private hands,he made certain that an exception was put in place for "rare or unusual" coins.
From 1930 until 1934 he was a trustee of Lafayette College. [12] [ page needed ]
He died in New York City,New York,and was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery,near his birthplace of Berwick,Pennsylvania.
Woodin is the great-grandfather of mathematician W. Hugh Woodin.[ citation needed ]
Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State,he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from 1945 to 1947 during early years of the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan,as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was in private law practice from July 1947 to December 1948. After 1949 Acheson came under political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China.
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George von Lengerke Meyer was a Massachusetts businessman and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives,as United States ambassador to Italy and Russia,as United States Postmaster General from 1907 to 1909 during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and United States Secretary of the Navy from 1909 to 1913 during the administration of President William Howard Taft.
Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5,1933,by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding of gold coin,gold bullion,and gold certificates within the continental United States." The executive order was made under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917,as amended by the Emergency Banking Act in March 1933.
ACF Industries,originally the American Car and Foundry Company,is an American manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches under the brand names of (first) ACF and (later) ACF-Brill. Today,the company is known as ACF Industries LLC and is based in St. Charles,Missouri. It is owned by investor Carl Icahn.
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Jackson &Woodin Manufacturing Company,also called Jackson &Woodin Car Works,was an American railroad freight car manufacturing company of the late 19th century headquartered in Berwick,Pennsylvania. In 1899,Jackson and Woodin was merged with twelve other freight car manufacturing companies to form American Car &Foundry Company. Jackson and Woodin's management were proponents of the temperance movement in America,and went as far as buying all the saloons and hotels in Berwick,leading to Berwick becoming a dry town by 1881. By the time of the 1899 merger that created American Car and Foundry Company (ACF),Jackson &Woodin was the largest freight car manufacturer in the eastern United States. The Jackson &Woodin shops became ACF's Berwick Plant,a plant that was heavily used by ACF.
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