Bernard Baruch
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Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870–June 20, 1965) was an American financier, stock market speculator, statesman, and presidential adviser. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters.
Contents
Beginnings
Bernard Baruch was born in Camden, South Carolina to Simon and Belle Baruch. He was the second of four sons. His father Simon was a Jewish immigrant who went to America in 1855 became a surgeon on the staff of Confederate general Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. In 1881 the family moved to New York City, and Bernard Baruch graduated from the City College of New York eight years later. He eventually became a broker and then a partner in the firm of A. Housman and Company. With his earnings and commissions he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. There he amassed a fortune before the age of thirty via speculation. In 1903 he had his own brokerage firm and had gained the reputation of "The Lone Wolf on Wall Street" because of his refusal to join any other financial house. By 1910, he had become one of Wall Street's financial leaders.Presidential advisor
During World War I he advised President Woodrow Wilson on national defense, during which time he became the chairman of the War Industries Board. At the war's conclusion he was seen with President Wilson at the Versailles Peace Conference. He supported numerous Democratic Congressmen with $1000 annual campaign donations, and became a popular figure on Capitol Hill. He never ran for elective office.Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" Baruch was a member of the "Brain Trust" and helped form the NRA.
During World War II he was a consultant on economic issues and proposed a number of measures including:
- A pay-as-you-go tax plan
- Rent ceilings
- Stockpiling of rubber and tin
- A synthetic rubber program to replace natural rubber, the sources of which were under enemy Axis Powers control
In 1946 he was appointed the United States representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) by President Harry S. Truman. On Friday, June 14 1946, Baruch presented his Baruch Plan to the UNAEC, which proposed international control of then-new atomic energy.
Park bench statesman
Baruch was a high profile public figure, and did his best thinking in Washington D.C's Lafayette Park and in New York City's Central Park. It was not uncommon to see him discussing government affairs with other people while sitting on a park bench; this became his trademark. It was said that his office was a park bench near the White House.In 1960, on his ninetieth birthday, a commemorative park bench in Lafayette Park across from the White House was dedicated to him. One would think after half a century of work, he would stop to rest, but Baruch was not satisfied with staying put. He continued to advise on international affairs until his death on Sunday, June 20, 1965, in New York City, at the age of ninety-four.
Trivia
- His Winter residence was his 17,500 acre (70 km²) Hobcaw Barony on the coast of South Carolina, which was turned into a wildlife refuge after his death. At Hobcaw House he was host to such world leaders as Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt, who visited for a month in 1944. Other guests included World War I General "Blackjack" Pershing and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson.
- :Latitude (33.35) Longitude (-79.18)
- He made a $50,000 contribution to Woodrow Wilson's 1912 presidential campaign.
- Upon election to his first post by Woodrow Wilson, he divested his considerable financial holdings and sold his New York Stock Exchange seat to serve in government unencumbered.
- Baruch endured days of grilling testimony from Alger Hiss, Counsel for the Senate Munitions Committee (the Nye Committee), answering innuendo about personal finances and wartime profitteering.
- Bernard Baruch was the first to coin the term "Cold War" in reference to the conflict between United States and the Soviet Union while giving a speech on April 16, 1947. By September 1947 it was picked up by journalist Walter Lippmann and became standard. See Origins of the Cold War on more information about the origin of the term.
- Baruch owned a tungsten (Wolfram) mining community named Atolia in California's Mojave Desert. During the years 1906 to 1926, Baruch spent one month a year at Atolia. The once thriving community of 4,000 individuals became a ghost town when, after World War I, tungsten was no longer considered a strategic material, and lower-cost sources were developed.
- Secretary of Defense James Forrestal had this diary entry about a lunch meeting with Baruch on February 3 1949: "He took the line of advising me not to be active in this particular matter and that I was already identified, to a degree that was not in my own interests, with opposition to the United Nations policy on Palestine. He said he himself did not approve of the Zionists' actions, but in the next breath said that the Democratic Party could only lose by trying to get our government’s policy reversed, and said that it was a most inequitable thing to let the British arm the Arabs and for us not to furnish similar equipment to the Jews." [[Citing sources citation needed]] In March, Forrestal was replaced as Defense Secretary, and in May he died from a fall from a window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital.
- Baruch College, in Manhattan, New York has a statue of Bernard Baruch sitting on a bench inside of its entrance center. This statue is often mistaken to be a real person.
- He was on the cover of TIME magazine a total of three times in his life.
- His grave is at Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, Queens, New York City, USA
- :Latitude (40.7522) Longitude (-73.7994)
Bibliography
Primary Sources
- Bernard M. Baruch Baruch: My Own Story (1957) two volumes. ISBN 156849095X
- Bernard M. Baruch; The Making of the Reparation and Economic Sections of the Treaty 1920.
- Bernard M. Baruch; American Industry in War: A Report of the War Industries Board (March 1921) ed by Richard H. Hippelheuser; 1941.
Scholarly secondary sources
- Margaret L. Coit Mr. Baruch (2000) ISBN 1587980215
- Carter Field Bernard Baruch, Park Bench Statesman (1944)
- James L. Grant Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (1997)ISBN 0471170755
- Jordan A. Schwartz The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 1917–1965 (1981) ISBN 0807813966
- William Lindsay White Bernard Baruch: Portrait of a Citizen (1971) ISBN 0837133483
Personalities of Wall Street
See List of personalities associated with Wall Street.External links
- [Bernard Baruch Portrait]
- [Bernard Baruch - Jewish Virtual Library]
- [Bernard Baruch Bench Of Inspiration]
- [Hobcaw Barony Wildlife Refuge]
- [Baruch College of the City University of New York]
- [Investment Banking Club - Bernard Baruch College]
- [Annotated bibliography for Bernard Baruch from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]
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