Lewis Williams Douglas
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Lewis Williams Douglas (July 2, 1894 – March 7, 1974) was an American politician, diplomat, businessman and academic.
[edit] Biography
Born in Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona, the son of James Douglas, Jr., he graduated from Amherst College in 1916 and was a student attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on August 15, 1917 during World War I. Promoted to First Lieutenant, he served as an assistant, G-3 staff in the 91st Infantry Division until he was dischaged on February 18, 1919.
After the war, he worked at his father's United Verde Extension mine at Jerome, Arizona, then became an instructor of history at Amherst College. In 1923, he was elected to the Arizona State house of representatives and served until 1925. He was elected as a Democrat in 1927 to the Seventieth United States Congress. He was re-elected to the Seventy-second United States Congress and Seventy-third United States Congress. He resigned on March 4, 1933 before the Seventy-third United States Congress.
On March 7, 1933, he was appointed Director of the Budget by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, Douglas became convinced that the New Deal had been infiltrated by communists. Douglas told his brother-in-law John J. McCloy that "He (Roosevelt) is surrounded with the young Harvard Law School group, all of whom are communists." Douglas also believed that the New Deal was part of a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the capitalist system. He talked about the "Hebraic influence" and claimed that "most of the bad things which it (the administration) has done can be traced to it. As a race they seem to lack the quality of facing an issue squarely." As a result of his beliefs and denouncing deficit spending, Douglas resigned from the government on August 31, 1934.
An internationalist in 1940, he supported Wendell Willkie.
From 1934 to 1937, he was a Vice-President of the American Cyanamid Company. From January 1938 to December 1939, he was the tenth principal and vice chancellor of McGill University. He returned to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.
From 1942 to 1944 he served as the effective head of a major wartime agency, the War Shipping Administration. From 1947 to 1951, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In 1953, he was appointed by the President to head the Government Study of Foreign Economic Problems and he was a member of the President’s Task Force on American Indians from 1966 to 1967.
From 1944 to 1965, he was a director of General Motors Corporation. From 1949 to 1966, he was the chairman and director, Southern Arizona Bank & Trust Company.
He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He spent his retirement years operating a large ranch at Sonoita, Arizona. He died in Tucson, Arizona on March 7, 1974 and was later cremated.
He had a daughter, Sharman Douglas.
[edit] References
- Browder, Robert Paul and Thomas G. Smith. Independent: A Biography of Lewis W. Douglas. (1986).
- Young, Herbert V., Ghosts of Cleopatra Hill: Men and Legends of Old Jerome, 1964, Jerome [AZ] Historical Society
- Lewis Williams Douglas at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-02-10
- British Educational Website
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Carl Hayden |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's At-large congressional district 1927 – 1932 |
Succeeded by Isabella Greenway |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Clawson Roop |
Director of the Office of Management and Budget 1933–1934 |
Succeeded by Daniel W. Bell |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by W. Averell Harriman |
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1947–1950 |
Succeeded by Walter S. Gifford |
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