Lot 133

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Description:

Mellon Andrew 1855 - 1937

Andrew Mellon signed TLS as Treasurer, during the roaring 20s.

Typed letter signed, 8" x 10.5", on stationary stock with The Secretary of The Treasury letterhead. Dated "January 26, 1928", and signed by him as "A.W. Mellon'. Light toning else near fine with center fold.

A lovely TLS from the roaring twenties by the then Secretary of the Treasury, AW Mellon. Mellon was one of the major figures in the industrial and financial development of the Trans-Allegheny region. Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Warren G. Harding in 1921, and he continued to serve under Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

Andrew W. Mellon belonged to a remarkable American generation which witnessed the creation and accumulation of individual fortunes in unprecedented abundance by such notables as Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie, Morgan, and Frick. But among these figures, Mellon was unique in that he excelled in four fields of endeavor: as a businessman and banker; as a politician and statesman; as an art collector; and as a philanthropist. At an early age, Andrew joined his father Thomas, and his brother Richard, in the management of the family bank, T. Mellon and Sons, which soon became the prime financial agent in the transformation of western Pennsylvania into one of the richest industrial regions in the United States during the forty years before the First World War. Andrew Mellon was an extraordinary judge of entrepreneurial talent, and among the many companies he helped to found and fund were ALCOA, Carborundum, Koppers, and Gulf Oil. He rarely interested himself in the details of such businesses, but he acquired extensive holdings, which meant that by 1914 he was one of the richest men in the United States.

Mellon's economic philosophy was one of debt reduction, tax reduction, and a balanced budget. His tax reform scheme, known as the Mellon Plan, reduced taxes for business. His theory was that big business would prosper in proportion to the lightening of its tax load and its profit would be transferred to the rest of the Nation. During much of his tenure, general prosperity and times of peace enabled Mellon to implement his measures. Mellon cut taxes, enforced Prohibition, and presided over a period of such unprecedented financial prosperity that he was hailed as the greatest Treasury Secretary since Alexander Hamilton. But owing to the Great Crash of 1929, combined with growing criticisms of his close business ties, Mellon lost the confidence of President Hoover, and early in 1932 he resigned from the Treasury.

His lovely TLS is shown in part below:

"Dear Sir,

I have your letter of January 15, 1928, and am interested in seeing the enclosed copy of the sketch of my life which you have submitted as your term report in the Wall Street Division of New York University ...

A.W. Mellon".

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