Frank H. Hitchcock

Frank H. Hitchcock

Frank Harris Hitchcock (* 5. October 1867 in Amherst , Lorain County , Ohio ; †  25. August 1935 in Tucson , Arizona ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ), who in the cabinet of US President William Howard Taft , the Office of the post office minister .

Professional career

After graduating from Harvard University in 1891, Hitchcock went to Washington , where he entered government services, initially working for the Treasury and later for the Department of Agriculture . In 1895 he finished at the Columbia University his Jura -Studies as Bachelor and Master and was admitted to the Bar Association. In 1903 he took over the post of Chief Clerk in the Ministry of Commerce and Labor .

politics

Hitchcock held his first higher political office in 1904 as deputy secretary of the Republican National Committee . From 1905 to 1908 he was Deputy Postmaster General in the Roosevelt Administration . In the run-up to the presidential election in 1908 , he led the election campaign of William Howard Taft, who after the victorious outcome brought Hitchcock into his cabinet as post office minister . In the same year he became chairman of the Republican National Committee, which he remained until 1909.

During his four-year tenure as Postmaster General , he made lasting merits primarily through his introduction of airmail ; He also launched the Postal Savings System , a postal savings bank. This was also due to his efforts to reform the postal system in the United States and to absorb losses from earlier years, which had been caused by the delivery of newspapers and magazines. Hitchcock also authorized local postmasters to work with local charities to deliver letters from children to Santa Claus . His commitment to airmail led to his entry into the US Army Air Corps , where he made it to the rank of Colonel .

Further life

With President Taft's defeat in the 1912 presidential election , Hitchcock also left the government. He led the unsuccessful election campaign of Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes against incumbent Woodrow Wilson four years later . In the two following presidential elections, he was responsible for the campaigns of Leonard Wood (1920) and Hiram Johnson (1924), both of which failed in the Republican primary.

In 1928, Frank Hitchcock acquired the Tucson Citizen newspaper , and became its editor. Between 1923 and 1933 he represented Arizona again on the Republican National Committee.

Web links

• Frank H. Hitchcock in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

• Frank H. Hitchcock in the database of Find a Grave (English)