John W. Snyder

Portrait of John W. Snyder in the Treasury

John Wesley Snyder (born June 21, 1895 in Jonesboro (Arkansas) , † October 8, 1985 ) was an American businessman, politician and finance minister .

Studies, world wars and professional activities

After attending school, he completed a course of study at the engineering school at Vanderbilt University , which he dropped out after a year because the United States entered the First World War to do his military service in the United States Army . During the First World War, he first met Harry S. Truman , who had also volunteered for the army and was an artillery officer.

After World War I, he worked as a bank clerk and in the private sector before moving to Washington, DC in 1930 . In the following years worked as an employee in the Office of the Comptroller of Currency. In 1936 he joined the Reconstruction Finance Administration.

From 1940 to 1943 he was executive vice president and director of the Defense Plant Corporation. At the same time he was assistant to the director of the Reconstruction Finance Administration from 1940 to 1944. In this capacity, after the USA entered the Second World War in 1941, he and Harry S. Truman, who as a senator had been Chairman of the Senate Special Committee for the Supervision of War Production since 1941 and became Vice President of the United States in 1944, became increasingly close . In 1945 he was briefly head of the Federal Loan Administration.

Promotion to finance minister under Truman

When Truman became President of the United States after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945 , he appointed Snyder as Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion (Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion). In this office he played a leading role in changing the national economy from war production to peace industry.

Signature of Snyder on US $ banknotes

On June 25, 1946, Truman appointed him to succeed Fred M. Vinson as Treasury Secretary . His main task in the years to come was to establish a stable post-war economy. The most important points of his program were maintaining confidence in the government, reducing federal debt and encouraging public savings banks to invest in federal savings notes. Due to his close friendship with the President, he was also one of Truman's closest advisers on foreign and domestic affairs. In 1947 he received the Medal for Merit , at that time the highest civilian award in the USA.

Snyder remained in office until the end of President Truman's second term on January 20, 1953, and then retired into private life.

Between 1955 and 1973 he worked for a time as an advisor to the Ministry of Finance.

Web links and background literature

• Biography and portrait on the US Treasury Department homepage
• John W. Snyder at the University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs (English)
• "Work Done" , article in TIME magazine on June 24, 1946
• "Fool's Good" , article in TIME magazine on November 21, 1949
• Interview with John Snyder on July 24, 1968

Web links

Commons : John W. Snyder  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about John W. Snyder in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .