Leo Crowley
Encyclopedia
Leo Thomas Crowley was a member of the cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...

 of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 as the head of the Foreign Economic Administration
Foreign Economic Administration
In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration was formed to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad. As described by the biographer of the FEA's chief, Leo Crowley, the agency was designed and run by "The Nation's #1 Pinch-hitter".S. L...

. Previously he had served as Alien Property Custodian
Alien Property Custodian
An Alien Property Custodian was an office within the Government of the United States during World War I and again during World War II, serving as a Custodian of Enemy Property to property that belonged to US enemies.-World War I:...

 and as chief of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation created by the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. , the FDIC insures deposits at...

. He also served President Harry Truman but due to philosophical differences, such as the advisability of conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

, declined to continue in Washington.

Leo Crowley was born to Thomas and Katie Crowley in Milton, Wisconsin
Milton, Wisconsin
Milton is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,090 at the 2000 census .-History:The city was formed as a result of the 1967 merger of the villages of Milton and Milton Junction...

. His father worked for the Milwaukee Road. Young Leo delivered groceries and saved his tip
Tip
A tip is an extra payment made to certain service sector workers in addition to the advertised price of the transaction. Such payments and their size are a matter of social custom. Tipping varies among cultures and by service industry...

s 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, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

.

Crowley began his entry into the political arena by supporting Albert G. Schmedeman
Albert G. Schmedeman
Albert George Schmedeman was an American politician who served as the 28th Governor of Wisconsin. To date he is the only mayor of Madison to be elected Governor of Wisconsin.-Biography:...

 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.”(p. 7)

Crowley served as a delegate for Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...

 at the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...

. He thus came in contact with Jouett Shouse and John J. Raskob
John J. Raskob
John Jakob Raskob, KCSG 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 to 1932 and a key supporter of Alfred E. Smith's candidacy for President of the United...

, operatives for Al Smith. Progressivism
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

 was strong in Wisconsin, as expressed by Senator John J. Blaine
John J. Blaine
John James Blaine was the 24th Governor of Wisconsin and a United States Senator. He served as Mayor of Boscobel, on the Grant County Board of Supervisors, Wisconsin Attorney General, and in the Wisconsin State Senate...

 and the newspaper Capital Times
Capital Times
The Capital Times is a newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by The Capital Times Company. The newspaper is primarily distributed in a 19-county region in south-central Wisconsin. The Capital Times formerly published paper editions Mondays through Saturdays, with a weekday circulation of...

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
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation created by the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. , the FDIC insures deposits at...

 (FDIC), one of the most popular elements of the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

. 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 run
Bank run
A bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...

s.

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
Foreign Economic Administration
In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration was formed to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad. As described by the biographer of the FEA's chief, Leo Crowley, the agency was designed and run by "The Nation's #1 Pinch-hitter".S. L...

 in September 1943, with responsibility for Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...

 and Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 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
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. Though disguised, his banking misdeeds threatened to undo his place in political diplomacy, for instance years later when Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal...

 or Arthur Vandenberg were checking his credentials. His unusually close relations with the President and James F. Byrnes
James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes was an American statesman from the state of South Carolina. During his career, Byrnes served as a member of the House of Representatives , as a Senator , as Justice of the Supreme Court , as Secretary of State , and as the 104th Governor of South Carolina...

, as well as adroit personal moves, preserved him in office. He had received the Order of Saint Gregory the Great from Pope Pius XI in 1929. He was an early target of I. F. Stone
I. F. Stone
Isidor Feinstein Stone was an iconoclastic American investigative journalist. He is best remembered for his self-published newsletter, I. F...

, whose investigations were republished by the Capital Times in Madison.

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
United States Commission on Civil Rights
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is historically a bipartisan, independent commission of the U.S. federal government charged with the responsibility for investigating, reporting on, and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues that face the nation.-Commissioners:The Commission is...

 in his second term, and he was known to have dined with Lyndon Johnson. He died in 1972.

Very negatively for Crowley in 1955, Harry Truman 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:
…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.
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