Paul McNutt

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Paul McNutt (1941)

Paul Vories McNutt (born July 19, 1891 in Franklin , Indiana , †  March 24, 1955 in New York City , New York ) was an American politician and between 1933 and 1937 the 34th governor of the state of Indiana.

Early years and political advancement

After elementary school, McNutt attended Indiana University until 1913 . He then studied law at Harvard University . After graduating and admitted to the bar, he practiced law with his father for a short time before accepting a professorship in law at Indiana University. During the First World War McNutt made it to the position of lieutenant colonel in the US Army , but without being used in the European theater of war. After his military service, he resumed his professorship at Indiana University. On August 1, 1925, he was appointed Dean of the Law Faculty of that university. He held this position for eight years.

In 1927, in addition to his university activities, he became president of the American Legion Veterans Association , first for Indiana and then nationwide from 1928 to 1929. In 1930 he was a delegate to the Indiana Democratic Party Conference . In 1932 he was elected as the new governor: He prevailed with 55 percent of the vote against the Republican Raymond S. Springer . McNutt benefited from a nationwide trend in favor of the Democrats. The climax of this trend was the election victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the presidential election in November 1932.

Indiana Governor

McNutt began his four-year term on January 9, 1933. At the beginning of his reign, the state was still suffering severely from the consequences of the global economic crisis , which had shaken the western world since 1929. In the four years of his tenure, the crisis was overcome with the help of federal policy under President Roosevelt and his New Deal . But Governor McNutt also made his own efforts to help tackle the problems. So a new tax law was created. Aid programs for the people affected by the crisis have been initiated and new laws have been passed to control financial institutions and insurance companies. When the federal government passed its social security laws in 1936, Indiana adapted its legislation. Administrative reform reduced the number of state organizations from 169 to eight; this process was reversed in 1941. Even before the official withdrawal of the prohibition law at the federal level, McNutt legalized the serving of alcohol in Indiana.

Despite his success, the governor was criticized by his opponents for his sometimes authoritarian leadership style. For example, the postponement of the local elections in 1933 was controversial. All terms of office at local level were extended by one year without elections. Since most of the officials concerned belonged to his Democratic Party, he was accused of being a partisan. Due to a constitutional clause, he was not allowed to run for re-election directly in 1936. For this reason he resigned from office in January 1937.

Another résumé

In 1936 McNutt supported Roosevelt's second presidential candidacy. This appointed him in 1937 as the successor to Frank Murphy as High Commissioner in the Philippines . He held this office until 1939. Between 1939 and 1945, McNutt was head of the Federal Security Agency ; this federal agency was later incorporated into the Department of Health, Education and Welfare under President Dwight D. Eisenhower . Between 1942 and 1945 McNutt was also head of the War Manpower Commission , which worked out a division of the required labor between industry and agriculture on the one hand and the military on the other. Between 1946 and 1947, McNutt was the United States' ambassador to the now independent Philippines. Then he withdrew from politics. He died in 1955 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery , Virginia . Paul McNutt was married to Kathleen Timolat, with whom he had a child.

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