William L. Clayton
Encyclopedia
William Lockhart "Will" Clayton (February 7, 1880 – February 8, 1966) was an American
business leader and government official.
, Clayton grew up in Jackson, Tennessee
. Leaving school at age 13, he became an expert stenographer, which earned him a job as private secretary to Jerome Hall, a Saint Louis
cotton
merchant. In 1896, Clayton went to work for the American Cotton Company in New York City
, becoming an assistant general manager in 1904. He left the company later that year to join with two other partners (including his brother-in-law Monroe Dunaway Anderson
) in starting Anderson, Clayton and Company, a cotton marketing firm based in Oklahoma City
. In 1916, the firm moved its headquarters to Houston, Texas
, where it grew to be the world's largest cotton-trading enterprise.
as a member of the Cotton Distribution Committee of the War Industries Board
. Although he was a Democrat
, he opposed the New Deal
agricultural
policies of Democratic President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the New Deal's free trade
policies led him to support Roosevelt in the 1936 election.
In 1940, Clayton returned to government service in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
, then moved to the Export-Import Bank
, where he worked to procure strategic materials for the United States and to deny them to Nazi Germany
. After a series of administrative shuffles, Clayton found himself working under Vice-President Henry A. Wallace
. Disagreements between them led Clayton to resign in January 1944, only to return to government service a month later as Surplus War Property Administrator under James F. Byrnes
in the Office of War Mobilization
.John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds.), Dictionary of American Biography, Supp. No. 8, 1966–1970, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1988) pp. 88–90.
At the end of 1944, Clayton was named the first Assistant Secretary of State
for Economic Affairs, a post that allowed him to promote the free trade policies that he believed in. He was a member of the Interim Committee
appointed to advise Secretary of War
Henry L. Stimson
and President Harry S. Truman
on problems expected to arise from the development of the atomic bomb and he was an economic advisor to Truman at the Potsdam Conference
.
and had a major role in shaping the Marshall Plan
in 1947. In 1948, he returned to his private business in Houston, but remained active in efforts to promote free trade and economic cooperation between the United States and its allies during the Cold War
. Clayton was also an early advocate of improved relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China
,
In 1963, when Clayton was in his eighties, President John F. Kennedy
asked him to work on the national export expansion program and the limited nuclear test ban treaty
. The William L. Clayton Professorship of International Economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
, a part of the Johns Hopkins University
(of which Clayton was a trustee from 1949 until his death), is named for him.
Clayton died in Houston, Texas
, and is buried there in Glenwood Cemetery
. Clayton was married to Susan Vaughan Clayton.
in Independence, Missouri
. Other significant papers are housed at Rice University
and the Hoover Institution
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
business leader and government official.
Early life and career
Born near Tupelo, MississippiTupelo, Mississippi
Tupelo is the largest city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. It is the seventh largest city in the state of Mississippi, smaller than Meridian, and larger than Greenville. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 34,211...
, Clayton grew up in Jackson, Tennessee
Jackson, Tennessee
Jackson is a city in Madison County, Tennessee, United States. The total population was 65,211 at the 2010 census. Jackson is the primary city of the Jackson, Tennessee metropolitan area, which is included in the Jackson-Humboldt, Tennessee Combined Statistical Area...
. Leaving school at age 13, he became an expert stenographer, which earned him a job as private secretary to Jerome Hall, a Saint Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
merchant. In 1896, Clayton went to work for the American Cotton Company in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, becoming an assistant general manager in 1904. He left the company later that year to join with two other partners (including his brother-in-law Monroe Dunaway Anderson
Monroe Dunaway Anderson
Monroe Dunaway Anderson was a banker and cotton trader from Jackson, Tennessee. With his brother-in-law, William L. Clayton, Anderson built Anderson, Clayton & Co into the world's biggest cotton company. In the event of one of their deaths, the partnership would lose a large amount of money to...
) in starting Anderson, Clayton and Company, a cotton marketing firm based in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
. In 1916, the firm moved its headquarters to Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, where it grew to be the world's largest cotton-trading enterprise.
Government service
Clayton entered government service in World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a member of the Cotton Distribution Committee of the War Industries Board
War Industries Board
The War Industries Board was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies. The organization encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by...
. Although he was a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, he opposed 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...
agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
policies of Democratic President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the New Deal's free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
policies led him to support Roosevelt in the 1936 election.
In 1940, Clayton returned to government service in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was an independent agency of the United States government, established and chartered by the US Congress in 1932, Act of January 22, 1932, c. 8, 47 Stat. 5, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover. It was modeled after the War Finance Corporation...
, then moved to the Export-Import Bank
Export-Import Bank of the United States
The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the official export credit agency of the United States federal government. It was established in 1934 by an executive order, and made an independent agency in the Executive branch by Congress in 1945, for the purposes of financing and insuring...
, where he worked to procure strategic materials for the United States and to deny them to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. After a series of administrative shuffles, Clayton found himself working under Vice-President Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...
. Disagreements between them led Clayton to resign in January 1944, only to return to government service a month later as Surplus War Property Administrator under 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...
in the Office of War Mobilization
Office of War Mobilization
The Office of War Mobilization was an independent agency of the United States government headed by Former Supreme Court Justice James F. Byrnes that coordinated all government agencies involved in the war effort during World War II...
.John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds.), Dictionary of American Biography, Supp. No. 8, 1966–1970, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1988) pp. 88–90.
At the end of 1944, Clayton was named the first Assistant Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
for Economic Affairs, a post that allowed him to promote the free trade policies that he believed in. He was a member of the Interim Committee
Interim Committee
The Interim Committee was a secret high-level group created in May 1945 by United States Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson at the urging of leaders of the Manhattan Project and with the approval of President Harry S. Truman to advise on matters pertaining to nuclear energy...
appointed to advise Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
Henry L. Stimson
Henry L. Stimson
Henry Lewis Stimson was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican Party politician and spokesman on foreign policy. He twice served as Secretary of War 1911–1913 under Republican William Howard Taft and 1940–1945, under Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the latter role he was a leading hawk...
and President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
on problems expected to arise from the development of the atomic bomb and he was an economic advisor to Truman at the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
.
Postwar career
Truman appointed Clayton as the first Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, a post Clayton held for 1946-47. Clayton strongly supported American economic aid to rebuild Europe after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and had a major role in shaping the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
in 1947. In 1948, he returned to his private business in Houston, but remained active in efforts to promote free trade and economic cooperation between the United States and its allies during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. Clayton was also an early advocate of improved relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
,
In 1963, when Clayton was in his eighties, President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
asked him to work on the national export expansion program and the limited nuclear test ban treaty
Partial Test Ban Treaty
The treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty , Limited Test Ban Treaty , or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons...
. The William L. Clayton Professorship of International Economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies , a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading and most prestigious graduate schools devoted to the study of international affairs, economics, diplomacy, and policy research and...
, a part of the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
(of which Clayton was a trustee from 1949 until his death), is named for him.
Clayton died in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, and is buried there in Glenwood Cemetery
Glenwood Cemetery (Houston, Texas)
The Glenwood Cemetery is located at 2525 Washington Avenue in Houston, Texas. It was the first cemetery in Houston to be professionally designed and opened in 1871. The cemetery is situated between Washington Avenue on the North side and Memorial Drive on the South side, the latter overlooking...
. Clayton was married to Susan Vaughan Clayton.
Clayton papers
Many of Clayton's papers (1926-1966) are housed at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and MuseumHarry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
The Harry S Truman Library and Museum is dedicated to preserving papers, books, and other historical materials relating to the 33rd President of the United States Harry S Truman. It is located on a small hill facing U.S...
in Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
. Other significant papers are housed at Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
and the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
.
Further reading
- Gregory A. Fossedal, Our Finest Hour: Will Clayton, the Marshall Plan, and the Triumph of Democracy, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1993, 349 pages. ISBN 0-8179-9201-4