Not since Louis Brandeis was named to the Supreme Court by President Wilson has a Jew held so high an appointive office in the Federal government as Eugene Meyer Jr., who was yesterday appointed governor of the Federal Reserve Board. Few appointments made by President Hoover have met with such wide-spread approval in business and financial circles as has the naming of Mr. Meyer as head of the Federal Reserve Board.
A native of California, Mr. Meyer established his own banking business in New York in 1901. He abandoned it in 1917 to take up a government post during the World War when he was named technical adviser on metals to the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defence. During the war period he was also a director of the War Finance Corporation, a technical adviser to the War Industries Board and a member of the National Committee on War Savings.
As director of the War Finance Corporation, to which office he was appointed by President Wilson in 1919 Mr. Meyer did much to organize the resources of the farmers to insure credit to them. He made a successful fight for the continuation of the War Finance Corporation after it had been liquidated by secretary of the treasury Houston. When the Corporation was revived Mr. Meyer again headed it. He was reappointed in 1925 by President Coolidge.
When the cotton market collapsed in 1926 Mr. Meyer was appointed by President Coolidge to a commission consisting of the secretaries of agriculture, commerce and treasury. With the slogan “it is time for the South to stop giving cotton away”, Mr. Meyer made the cotton planters see the wisdom of cutting their acreage and establishing an orderly marketing organization for the surplus crop. As a result of this piece of work he was appointed chairman of the Federal Farm Loan Board in 1927.
The two years he gave to the Board as chairman he devoted to reorganizing the farm loan system and untangling the difficulties that had developed in the management of the joint stock land banks. His work has had a lasting value for the farmers. Mr. Meyer was highly praised by President Hoover and secretary of the treasury Mellon.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
