Harold LeClair Ickes (March 15, 1874–February 3, 1952) was a U.S. administrator and political figure. He served as Secretary of the Interior for thirteen years, from 1933 to 1946, and was known as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's point man for the New Deal. March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in Leap years). ... 1874 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... Look up Administrator on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Administrator may refer to— Administrators of the Government in various Commonwealth Realms and territories. ... A politician is an individual involved in politics, sometimes this may include political scientists. ... The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior, concerned with such matters as national parks and The Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... The New Deal is the name given to the series of legislative initiatives passed by Franklin Roosevelt with the goal of stabilizing and stimulating the United States economy in the Great Depression. ...

Harold L. Ickes served as the Secretary of the Interior for 13 years.

http://www. ... http://www. ... The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior, concerned with such matters as national parks and The Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. ...

Early years

Ickes was born on a farm outside of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He moved to Chicago at the age of 16 and attended Englewood High School there. After graduating, he worked his way through the University of Chicago, finishing with an B.A. in 1897. Hollidaysburg is a borough located in Blair County, Pennsylvania. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... The University of Chicago is a private co-educational university located in Chicago, Illinois. ... 1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

He first worked as a newspaper reporter for The Chicago Record and later for The Chicago Tribune. He obtained a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1907, but rarely practiced. Instead, he became active in reform politics. Front page of the Tribune incorrectly reporting that Dewey won the 1948 presidential election The Chicago Tribune, formerly self-styled as the Worlds Greatest Newspaper, remains the leading newspaper of the Midwest of the United States. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Politics

Initially a Republican in Chicago, Ickes was never part of the establishment. He was unsatisfied with Republican policies and joined Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose movement in 1912. After returning to the Republican fold, he campaigned for progressive Republicans Charles Evans Hughes (1916) and Hiram Johnson (1920 and 1924). The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th (1901–09) President of the United States. ... The United States Progressive Party refers to three distinct political parties in 20th-century United States politics. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... Portrait of Charles Evans Hughes Charles Evans Hughes (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was a Governor of New York, a United States Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the United States. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Hiram Warren Johnson (September 2, 1866–August 6, 1945) was a leading American Progressive politician from California; he served as Governor from 1911 to 1917, and as a United States Senator from 1917 to 1945. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

He fought lengthy and legendary battles first with Chicago figures Samuel Insull, the utilities magnate, William Hale Thompson, the mayor, and Robert R. McCormick, the owner of The Chicago Tribune. Later he had an ongoing battle with Thomas Dewey, the presidential candidate. Cover of Time Magazine (November 29, 1926) Samuel Insull (1859 – July 16, 1938) was a investor who was primarily known in Chicago, Illinois for purchasing utilities and railroads. ... William Hale Thompson campaigns for Mayor in 1917. ... Robert R. McCormick (July 30, 1880 - April 1, 1955) was a Chicago newspaper baron and owner of the Chicago Tribune. ... Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was the Governor of New York (1943-1955) and the Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency in two elections (1944 and 1948), losing both times. ...

Although locally active in Chicago politics, he was unknown nationally until 1933. After Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, he began putting together his cabinet. His advisers thought the Democrat president needed a progressive Republican to attract middle of the road voters. He sought out Hiram Johnson, a Republican Senator at the time who had supported Roosevelt in the campaign, but Johnson was uninterested. Johnson did, however, recommend an old ally, Ickes. 1932 (MCMXXXII) is a leap year starting on a Friday. ...

Ickes was a strong supporter of both civil rights and civil liberties. He had been the president of the Chicago NAACP, and supported African American contralto Marian Anderson when the Daughters of the American Revolution prohibited her from performing in their Constitution Hall. He also was a outspoken critic of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... Civil liberties are protections from the power of governments. ... National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... In music, an alto is a singer with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a soprano. ... Marian Anderson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 - April 8, 1993) was an African-American contralto, best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The concert, which featured a stirring rendition of God... The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a sororal association dedicated to historic preservation, education, and patriotic endeavor. ... Jerome Relocation Camp The Japanese American internment refers to the exclusion and subsequent removal of approximately 112,000 to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, officially described as persons of Japanese ancestry, 62% of whom were United States citizens, from the west coast of the United States during World War... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ...

Secretary of the Interior

Ickes served simultaneously in several major roles for President Roosevelt. Although he was the Secretary of the Interior, he was better known to the public for other roles in which he served simultaneously. He was the director of the Public Works Administration. Here he directed billions of dollars of projects designed to lure private investment and provide employment at the depth of the Great Depression. He fought incessantly to keep the projects out of politics, instead directing them to places producing the best results. His precise management of the PWA budget and his opposition to corruption earned him the name "Honest Harold". The Public Works Administration of 1933 was a New Deal agency that made contracts with private firms for construction of public works. ... The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or depression) that ran from 1929 to approximately 1939. ...

After the Hindenburg exploded, Nazi Germany sought to obtain helium to replace the flammable hydrogen in their fleet of dirigibles. Ickes opposed the sale, although practically every other member of the Cabinet supported it, along with the President himself. Ickes would not back down, fearing military use of the dirigible. Germany could not obtain the helium from other sources. Hence, Ickes virtually shut down the German dirigible program himself. Hindenburg may refer to: Paul von Hindenburg, president of Germany Carl Friedrich Hindenburg, mathematician Hindenburg in Oberschlesien the former name of the city of Zabrze the zeppelin, see Hindenburg disaster This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... General Name, Symbol, Number helium, He, 2 Chemical series noble gases Group, Period, Block 18, 1, s Appearance colorless Atomic mass 4. ... General Name, Symbol, Number hydrogen, H, 1 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 1, 1, s Appearance colorless Atomic mass 1. ...

The ARAMCO oil corporation, through Secretary of the Interior Ickes, got Roosevelt to agree to Lend Lease aid to Saudi Arabia, which would involve the U.S. government there and create a shield for the interests of ARAMCO. Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabian Oil Company) is one of the largest oil companies in the world, and the largest in terms of production (bpd). ... The Lend-Lease program was a program of the United States during World War II that allowed the United States to provide the Allied Powers with war material without becoming directly involved in the war. ...

During World War II Ickes told the Congress of American-Soviet Friendship in November 1943, "In certain respects we could do well to learn from Russia; yes, even to imitate Russia."

Although he stayed on in President Harry S. Truman's cabinet after Roosevelt died in April 1945, he resigned from office within a year. In February 1946, Truman nominated Edwin Wendell Pauley to be Secretary of the Navy. Pauley was the former Democratic Party national treasurer. He once suggested to Ickes that $300,000 in campaign funds could be raised if Ickes would drop his fight for title to oil-rich offshore lands. Ickes wrote a 2,000-word resignation letter, reading in part: "I don't care to stay in an Administration where I am expected to commit perjury for the sake of the party. . . I do not have a reputation for dealing recklessly with the truth." Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the thirty-fourth Vice President (1945) and the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–53), succeeding to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Critiques and Battles

Ickes was known for his acerbic wit and took joy in verbal battles. He often took verbal abuse too. For instance, Roosevelt selected Ickes to deliver a response following the nomination of Wendell Willkie. In response to Ickes' comments, Senator H. Styles Bridges called Ickes "a common scold puffed up by high office" and a "Hitler in short pants". Wendell L. Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was a lawyer, born in Elwood, Indiana, the only native of Indiana to be nominated as the presidential candidate for a national party, having never held any sort of high elected office. ... Henry Styles Bridges (September 9, 1898–November 26, 1961) was an American politician from New Hampshire. ... ▶(?) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor) of Germany from 1934 to his death. ...

In September 1944, Thomas Dewey, the Republican nominee for president, promised to fire Ickes if elected. Ickes penned a letter of resignation to Dewey and it was widely printed in the press. Ickes wrote, in part: 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Hence, I hereby resign as Secretary of the Interior effective, if, as and when the incredible comes to pass and you become the President of the United States. However, as a candidate for that office you should have known the primary school fact that the Cabinet of an outgoing President automatically retires with its chief.

Family

He married Anna Wilmarth Thompson in 1911. She died in an automobile accident on August 31, 1935. He married Jane Dahlman, who was 25 at the time, on May 24, 1938. He had one son, Raymond, by his first wife and two children by his second wife: Harold McEwen (who was a deputy chief of staff for President Clinton) and Elizabeth Jane. He also had a foster son, Robert Harold Ickes, born in 1913. 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining, as the final day of August. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Harold McEwen Ickes (born September 4, 1939) was deputy White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe, III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Writings

Ickes published five books: New Democracy (1934), The Autobiography of a Curmudgeon (1943), and his three-volume Secret Diary (1953-54). 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sources

• Harold L. Ickes Dead at 77; Colorful Figure in New Deal, New York Times, February 4, 1952.
• Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site

Ray Lyman Wilbur (April 13, 1875–June 26, 1949) was a medical doctor, President of Stanford University and the 31st United States Secretary of the Interior. ... The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior, concerned with such matters as national parks and The Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Julius Albert Krug (November 23, 1907–March 26, 1970) was U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Harry Truman, serving 1946 to 1949. ...

United States Secretaries of the Interior

Ewing | McKennan | Stuart | McClelland | Thompson | C. Smith | Usher | Harlan | Browning | Cox | Delano | Chandler | Schurz | Kirkwood | Teller | Lamar | Vilas | Noble | M. Smith | Francis | Bliss | Hitchcock | Garfield | Ballinger | Fisher | Lane | Payne | Fall | Work | West | Wilbur | Ickes | Krug | Chapman | McKay | Seaton | Udall | Hickel | Morton | Hathaway | Kleppe | Andrus | Watt | Clark | Hodel | Lujan | Babbitt | Norton |