Leo Thomas Crowley (August 15, 1889 – April 15, 1972) was a senior administrator for President
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 ...
as the head of the
Foreign Economic Administration. Previously he had served as
Alien Property Custodian and as chief of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cr ...
. Late in the 1930s, senior Washington officials discovered that Crowley had embezzled from his banks in Wisconsin in the 1920s and early 1930s. They covered it up. Biographer Stuart Weiss says, Crowley's is:
:the darker story of the businessman as speculator and embezzler, whose fraud was covered up in Wisconsin and Washington....
n part it isthe morally complex and compelling story of Crowley as a bureaucrat and politician in Washington, administering multiple major agencies, often simultaneously;...but also deeply involved in conflicts of interest a later generation would find unacceptable and even incomprehensible.
Early life
Leo Crowley was born to Thomas and Katie Crowley in
Milton, Wisconsin
Milton is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,716 at the 2020 census.
History
The city was formed as a result of the 1967 merger of the villages of Milton and Milton Junction. In November of that year, ballot ...
, immigrants of Irish Catholic origin. He went to the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
. His father worked for the
Milwaukee Road. Young Leo delivered groceries and saved his
tips from customers. In 1905, with $1000 he bought a part of the General Paper Company, some of the products of which he had been bringing to customers. He worked hard to grow the company, and his share in it, until he owned it outright in 1919. That year he took over the T. S. Morris company with financing from Milo Hagen and W.D. Curtis. Selling stock in this company relieved its debt, and he bought a wholesale grocery for his brothers to run, and land in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
.
Political life
Crowley began his entry into the political arena by supporting
Albert G. Schmedeman for governor of Wisconsin. The biographer Weiss says "He managed Schmedeman as a parent might his children, and as he managed his family and most of the nurses at
Saint Mary's Hospital."
Crowley served as a delegate for
Al Smith at the
Democratic National Convention. He thus came in contact with
Jouett Shouse and
John J. Raskob
John Jakob Raskob, KCSG (March 19, 1879 – October 15, 1950) was a financial executive and businessman for DuPont and General Motors, and the builder of the Empire State Building. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1928 t ...
, operatives for Al Smith.
Progressivism
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, tec ...
was strong in Wisconsin, as expressed by Senator
John J. Blaine and the newspaper ''
Capital Times
''The Capital Times'' (or ''Cap Times'') is a digital-first newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by The Capital Times Company. The company also owns 50 percent of Capital Newspapers, which now does business as Madison Media Partners. The o ...
'' edited by
William T. Evjue. Crowley was effective in bringing about a progressive-democratic alliance for the election of Franklin Roosevelt.
It was the
Glass–Steagall Act that created the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cr ...
(FDIC), one of the most popular elements of the
New Deal. The biographer Weiss tells of the incredible tale of how the nearly-bankrupt Crowley became the figurehead for banking security in a time of common
bank runs.
Crowley's special capacity for smoothing troubled waters drew him closer to FDR. A wartime cabinet-level conflict involving foreign economic operations in Europe and North Africa threatened cabinet solidarity. So Crowley became head of the
Foreign Economic Administration in September 1943, with responsibility for
Lend-Lease and
Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.
Edward Reilly Stettinius Jr. (October 22, 1900 – October 31, 1949) was an American businessman who served as United States Secretary of State under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from 1944 to 1945, and as U.S. Ambassado ...
, was promoted to Undersecretary of State. Crowley was now a cabinet member in the Roosevelt administration.
The skeleton in Crowley's closet was his misappropriation of funds in 1931, early in the
Great Depression. Though disguised, his banking misdeeds threatened to undo his place in political diplomacy, for instance years later when
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. or
Arthur Vandenberg
Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg Sr. (March 22, 1884April 18, 1951) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Michigan from 1928 to 1951. A member of the Republican Party, he participated in the creation of the United Natio ...
were checking his credentials. His unusually close relations with the President and
James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes ( ; May 2, 1882 – April 9, 1972) was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, ...
, as well as adroit personal moves, preserved him in office. He had received the
Order of Saint Gregory the Great
The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope.
The order is one of ...
from 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 f ...
in 1929. Crowley was an early target of
I. F. Stone, whose investigations were republished by the ''Capital Times'' in Madison.
Later life
Back in the business world, Crowley was named chairman of the
Milwaukee Road in December 1945 and made it turn a profit until the mid-1960s. He continued contact with the White House: President
Dwight Eisenhower appointed Crowley to the
United States Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR) is a bipartisan, independent commission of the United States federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 during the Eisenhower administration, that is charged with the responsibility fo ...
in his second term, and he was known to have dined with
Lyndon Johnson.
Leo Crowley died on April 15, 1972 in a hospital in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
.
Very negatively for Crowley in 1955,
Harry 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 ...
wrote about how Crowley had caused a
problem with the Russians when Germany was defeated. The episode was recounted by daughter Margaret Truman in 1973. She adds:
[Margaret Truman (1973) ''Harry S. Truman'', page 255, Wm. Morrow & Company]
:...the real lesson was one that he hesitated to state in his memoirs – the extreme hostility which certain men in government, such as Mr. Crowley, felt toward Russia. It did not make my father's task any easier, to find the middle path between these men and the
Henry Wallace types, who could not believe the Russians were capable of any wrongdoing.
References
Further reading
*
Laurence C. Eklund (1969) ''Advisor to Presidents'', ''
The Milwaukee Journal'', August 17–27 (ten articles).
*
Leo the Lion, ''Time Magazine'' (23 March 1942) (Personal sketch of Crowley).
*
''Time Magazine'' (26 April 1943) (Crowley and synthetic mica).
* Jeffreys, John W. (1998)
"One of FDR's Forgotten Men"Humanities and Social Sciences Net-Online.
External links
* Truman Presidential Library
Photograph in Truman Cabinet (7th from Left).
*
Collection of letters and works by Leo Crowleyfrom
FRASER Fraser may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands
Australia
* Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen
* Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowley, Leo
1889 births
1972 deaths
People from Milton, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Wisconsin Democrats
Businesspeople from Wisconsin
American bankers
Chairs of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Knights of St. Gregory the Great
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration cabinet members
20th-century American politicians
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration personnel
Truman administration personnel