John Wesley Snyder (June 21, 1895October 8, 1985) was an American businessman and senior federal government official. Thanks to a close personal friendship with President Harry S Truman, Snyder became Secretary of the Treasury in the Truman administration. He is the first native-born Arkansan to hold a US Cabinet post. Historian Alonzo Hamby emphasizes Snyder's conservatism, stating that he was openly skeptical of

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 ...

ism, broad-gauged social programs, and intellectuals who believed the economy could be run from Washington.

Early life

Snyder was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on June 21, 1895, to Jeremiah "Jerre" Hartwell Snyder and his wife Ellen (Hatcher),the third of six children. His father owned a small patent medicine manufacturing and distribution business in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Snyder obtained his early education through high school in Jonesboro, Arkansas and later attended Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering from 1914 to 1915. Because of finances, he quit and returned to Arkansas, moving to Forrest City, Arkansas where he boarded with his sister, Sula Snyder Warren, and taught at a small country school. Snyder volunteered for the army in 1915 and trained at

Fort Logan H. Roots Fort Logan H. Roots, commonly known as Fort Roots, is a former U.S. Army post in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was named in honor of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Logan Holt Roots, U.S. Volunteers, who served with distinction in the Western Th ...

in North Little Rock, Arkansas, in the artillery. He served with distinction as an officer in the Thirty-second Artillery. He saw action during World War I in five different sectors of the Western Front and was decorated for his service by both the United States and France. During his service in the artillery, he became friends with other noted Americans such as boxer Gene Tunney, America’s “ace of aces” fighter pilot Eddie Rickenbacker, and future presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman (also in the artillery). Snyder was mustered out of the army in 1919 and returned to Arkansas after the war. He retained his commission as a captain and ultimately achieved the rank of colonel in the Army Reserve. On January 5, 1920, he married Carrie Evlyn Cook (1895-1956). They had one daughter, Edith Cook "Drucie" Snyder Horton (1925-1999) born in Forrest City, Arkansas. Although he planned to return to school to become an electrical engineer, at the urging of his uncle, Snyder took his first job in the banking industry as a bookkeeper in a bank in Forrest City, Arkansas. During the next ten years, he advanced rapidly in his chosen profession, working as an officer of numerous banks in Arkansas and Missouri.

Washington

Snyder moved to Washington in the early 1930s with a broad background in banking and business. He held several public and private offices including National Bank Receiver in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Loan Administrator, and Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion. In the last office he played a leading part in the transition of the American economy from a wartime to a peacetime basis. Liberals complained that he removed federal controls on the economy too quickly after the war, hurting consumers, delaying the housing program and bankrupting small businesses. His biographer says, "His handling of the steel crisis in 1946 was an even greater fiasco."

Treasury Secretary

Snyder was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1946 by his close personal friend President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

, with whom he had served in the Army Reserves. Editorials criticized the cronyism and said his narrow range of experience made him unfit for the job. His task as Secretary was to establish a stable postwar economy. The main points of his program were maintaining confidence in the credit of the government, reducing the federal debt, keeping the interest rate low, and encouraging public thrift through investment in U.S. Savings Bonds. A deeply conservative businessman, he had faith that the free economy would work itself out. He reduced the national debt while balancing the budget. He was reluctant to spend large sums on the Marshall Plan of aid to Europe. Snyder had little diplomatic experience, and in his negotiations with British leadership regarding Britain's need for dollars, he angered his counterparts. Paul Nitze, an American negotiator, recalled a meeting in Washington in September 1949: :at one point Secretary Snyder made some very -- well, remarks which I thought were wholly undiplomatic and rude and showed his lack of concern for the UK problem (the general sense of them was why didn't the UK get a hold of itself, and why didn't its people do some work for change and why don't you cure those productivity problems in the United Kingdom, and why don't you get off your butt). At another meeting his British counterpart,

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

Hugh Gaitskell Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, h ...

, concluded that Snyder was, "a pretty small minded, small town semi-isolationist." Luckily for the British, Snyder was outmaneuvered by Secretary of State

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman 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 ...

, who was much more sympathetic.Kenneth O. Morgan, ''Labour in power, 1945-1951'' (1985) p 479 Snyder funded the Korean War by increasing taxes. He feuded constantly with the Federal Reserve system, until it became more independent in 1951. He retired from government in 1953 at the end of Truman's second term. Snyder died in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, on October 8, 1985, at the age of 90, and was buried in Washington National Cathedral.

Notes

Primary sources

at the

Truman Library The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and resting place of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945–1953), his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, and is located on U.S. Highwa ...

* Snyder, John F. "The Treasury and Economic Policy" in Francis Howard Heller, ed. ''Economics and the Truman administration'' (Univ Press of Kansas, 1981). pp 24–27

External links

A selection of Snyder's papers
related to the

1951 Accord This article is about the history of the United States Federal Reserve System from its creation to the present. Central banking prior to the Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System is the third central banking system in United States hist ...