Edwin Meredith

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Edwin Thomas Meredith (born December 23, 1876 in Avoca , Pottawattamie County , Iowa , †  June 17, 1928 ) was an American businessman and politician who belonged to the cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson as Secretary of Agriculture .

Edwin Meredith graduated from Highland Park College in Des Moines . He later worked in the newspaper industry and in 1894 took the post of General Manager at the Farmer's Tribune . This weekly, devoted to the interests of farmers, was run by his grandfather; it was also an organ of the Populist Party . In 1896 he took over the management of the publication himself, which he held until 1902; In that year he founded his own company with the Meredith Corporation and published a new newspaper called Successful Farming , which in 1908 had a number of 100,000 readers. Later he also acted as president of the association of publishers of agricultural newspapers.

After initially being a member of the Populist Party, he became politically active with the Democrats after its demise . In 1914 he applied for a seat in the US Senate , but was just as unsuccessful as in 1916 when he was elected Governor of Iowa. From 1915 he was a member of the US Chamber of Commerce.

In 1918 he was appointed to an advisory committee to the Treasury Department by President Wilson . When Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston moved within the cabinet to the Treasury Department on February 2, 1920, Meredith succeeded him. In the same year he applied for the nomination as a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, but had just as little a chance as if he tried again four years later.

Meredith returned to the publishing business after his time in the cabinet, which ended on March 4, 1921. He bought the Dairy Farmer newspaper and re-issued Fruit, Garden, and Home that later became Better Homes and Gardens , one of the most successful consumer magazines in the United States for many years. Edwin Meredith died in 1928.

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