John Jakob Raskob,
KCSG
KCSG (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Cedar City, Utah, United States, airing programming from the classic television network MeTV. Owned and operated by network parent Weigel Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on West 16 ...
(March 19, 1879 – October 15, 1950) was a financial executive and businessman for
DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
and
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, and the builder of the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
. He was chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
from 1928 to 1932 and a key supporter of
Alfred E. Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.
The son of an Irish-American mother and a Civ ...
's candidacy for
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
.
After
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
became President, Raskob became a prominent opponent of the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
through his support of a number of anti-Roosevelt organizations such as the
American Liberty League
The American Liberty League was an American political organization formed in 1934. Its membership consisted primarily of wealthy business elites and prominent political figures, who were for the most part conservatives opposed to the New Deal of Pr ...
. Raskob was also a leader in the
Association Against the Prohibition Amendment
The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was established in 1918 and became a leading organization working for the repeal of prohibition in the United States. It was the first group created to fight Prohibition, also known as the 18th Ame ...
and a
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
for the
Knights of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
.
Early life
Raskob was born to John and Anna Frances (née Moran) Raskob, in
Lockport, New York
Lockport is both a city and the Lockport (town), New York, town that surrounds it in Niagara County, New York, Niagara County, New York (state), New York. The city is the Niagara county seat, with a population of 21,165 according to 2010 census ...
, where his father ran a successful cigar-production business.
His parents were of German and Irish descent, respectively. The Raskob family originated in the
Eifel
The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...
region in Germany. Raskob's grandfather was an emigrant from the village of
Großlittgen
Großlittgen (in Eifel dialect: ''Gruhssleehtchen'') is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geogr ...
in the Eifel. During his studies at both parochial and public schools, Raskob delivered newspapers, worked in seasonal agriculture, participated in local theater and was involved in the Catholic community.
He entered a local business school after his high school graduation but dropped out to support his family through secretarial work following his father's death in 1898.
Career
DuPont and General Motors
Raskob was hired in 1901 by
Pierre S. du Pont
Pierre Samuel du Pont (; January 15, 1870 – April 4, 1954) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family.
He was president of DuPont from 1915 to 1919, and served on its board of director ...
as a personal secretary. In 1911, he became assistant treasurer of
DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
, in 1914 treasurer, and in 1918 president for finance of both DuPont and
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
. Raskob had been an early investor in General Motors and had engineered DuPont's ownership of 43% of GM, purchased from the financially troubled
William C. Durant
William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each s ...
.
While with GM, he led the creation of GMAC (now
Ally Financial
Ally Financial is a bank holding company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online banking via a direct bank, corporate lending, vehicle insurance, mortgage ...
), the company that allowed GM dealers to offer installment credit directly to customers. He also promoted the use of standard financial statistics to measure the performance of different operations within a diversified company, primarily through his associate
Donaldson Brown
Frank Donaldson Brown (February 1, 1885 – October 2, 1965) was a financial executive and corporate director with both DuPont and General Motors Corporation. He is the originator of DuPont analysis, a widely used technique in finance.
He gr ...
.
Raskob held the head financial job at both GM and DuPont until 1928, when he resigned from GM in a dispute with chairman
Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. ( ; May 23, 1875February 17, 1966) was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Sloan, first as a senior executive and lat ...
.
"Everybody Ought to be Rich"
Raskob was very
bullish
Market sentiment, also known as investor attention, is the general prevailing attitude of investors as to anticipated Market trends, price development in a market. This attitude is the accumulation of a variety of fundamental analysis, fundamenta ...
in the stock market in the 1920s and gave an interview to
Samuel Crowther for ''
Ladies Home Journal
''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...
'' in which he suggested every American could become wealthy by investing $15 per month in common stocks (at a time when the average American's weekly salary was between $17 to $22). The article (entitled "Everybody Ought to be Rich") arrived at newsstands just two months before the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
.
Political activity
Raskob had supported Democratic presidential candidate
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.
The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...
in the 1928 election, and Smith invited Raskob to become chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
. Sloan, a supporter of
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, insisted Raskob resign either from GM or the DNC. Raskob left GM after the board supported Sloan, sold his GM stock, and used the proceeds to build the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
.
Raskob made Smith president of the Empire State Co., operators of the building, based on a promise to do business together the night Smith lost the presidential election. Raskob served as chairman of the DNC through 1932. He continued to promote Smith's candidacy as Chairman of the DNC, and to advocate for the adoption of an anti-
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
policy. Both of these positions were opposed by different factions within the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
.
In 1932, when
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
(who was by then on rather bad terms with Al Smith) won the party's nomination and the election, Raskob (a Smith ally) resigned as DNC chairman. Raskob (like Al Smith) viewed many of Roosevelt's
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
policies as radical and unhelpful to economic recovery.
Toward the end of Roosevelt's first term as president, Raskob began actively working against Roosevelt. Testimony given to the
United States Senate Lobby Investigation Committee The Senate Lobby Investigation Committee was a special committee that once operated within the United States Senate during the 1930s and 1940s to investigate lobbyists. The committee was chaired by Hugo Black, and upon his appointment to the United ...
revealed Raskob was an active fundraiser for
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
governor
Eugene Talmadge
Eugene Talmadge (September 23, 1884 – December 21, 1946) was an attorney and American politician who served three terms as the 67th governor of Georgia, from 1933 to 1937, and then again from 1941 to 1943. Elected to a fourth term in November ...
, considered a possible anti-Roosevelt candidate for the Democratic nomination in the
1936 United States presidential election
The 1936 United States presidential election was the 38th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1936. In the midst of the Great Depression, incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Gover ...
. Raskob later became involved with the
American Liberty League
The American Liberty League was an American political organization formed in 1934. Its membership consisted primarily of wealthy business elites and prominent political figures, who were for the most part conservatives opposed to the New Deal of Pr ...
, an anti-
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
organization active around the time of the 1936 election.
Empire State Building
During the Great Depression, Raskob's business interests were focused on the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
, which was in competition with the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
to become the world's tallest building at the time. According to one story, Raskob had taken a jumbo pencil, stood it on end and asked architect
William F. Lamb
William Frederick Lamb (November 21, 1883 – September 8, 1952), was an American architect, chiefly known as one of the principal designers of the Empire State Building.
Biography
Lamb joined the New York architecture firm Carrère & Has ...
, "Bill, how high can you make it so that it won't fall down?"
During the early years of the Depression, the Empire State Building had so few tenants it was mocked as the "Empty State Building". Raskob was also invested in precious metal mining in
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
and
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
, ranching, the aeronautical industry and pesticides. Raskob remained with DuPont until his retirement from the company in 1946.
Philanthropy
Raskob's religious convictions motivated him to be substantially involved in charitable giving over the course of his life. He provided the initial funding for the Catholic Foundation for the
Diocese of Wilmington
The Diocese of Wilmington ( la, Dioecesis Wilmingtoniensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the eastern United States and comprises the entire state of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland (i.e ...
, and established several other foundations, including one which funds grants for projects and programs associated with the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, and another which provides no-interest educational loans. In 1921, he was appointed a
Knight of St. Gregory by
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
, recognizing him for his contributions. He also served as a
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
in the
Knights of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
.
Personal life
Raskob married Helena Springer Green in 1906, and they had 13 children.
One son, William, predeceased him in an automobile crash at the age of 20, and the Bill Raskob Foundation was started in memory of him. Raskob is known in the
Claymont
Claymont is a census-designated place (CDP) in New Castle County, Delaware. The estimated 2017 population of the 19703 ZIP code, which Claymont encompasses, was 15,292.
History
The community now known as Claymont started on the banks of Naamans C ...
and
Wilmington areas for building the "Patio" at what is now
Archmere Academy
Archmere Academy is a private Roman Catholic college preparatory school located in Claymont, Delaware, United States. 514 students were enrolled for the 202021 academic year. The academy is co-educational and is run independently within the Roman ...
between 1916 and 1918. Originally his residence, it features a marble fountain which has each of his 13 children sculpted around the side.
Raskob is buried at Cathedral Cemetery in
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...
.
Raskob's former home at
Pioneer Point on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that ...
was bought by the Soviet government in 1972, and the 19-room mansion, once known as "Hartefeld Hall", was used as a retreat or
dacha
A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...
by Russian diplomats until
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
ordered it and another Russian property on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
seized by the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
under authority of the Foreign Missions Act in response to alleged
Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...
.
On May 31, 2017, ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' reported that President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
and his administration had decided to return Pioneer Point to the Russians,
however, as of May, 2018, it had still not been returned.
References
External links
John J. Raskob papersat
Hagley Museum and Library
The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Pont ...
John J. Raskob: Digital Exhibitat
Hagley Museum and Library
The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Pont ...
DuPont Heritage:John J. Raskob
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raskob, John J.
American businesspeople
American people of German descent
American people of Irish descent
Democratic National Committee chairs
New York (state) Democrats
DuPont people
General Motors former executives
Knights of Malta
People from Lockport, New York
1879 births
1950 deaths
Prohibition in the United States
Old Right (United States)
Activists from New York (state)
Catholics from New York (state)
Catholics from Delaware