USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 45
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Lehman was the son of an immigrant from Germany who had made a fortune in the cotton business in Montgomery, Alabama, before the Civil War and had then moved to New York City where he had founded the highly successful banking firm of Lehman Brothers. The future governor, the youngest of eight children, was born in New York City in 1878, edu- cated in private schools, and graduated from Williams College in 1899. Returning to New York City, he became interested in welfare work, taught three nights a week at the Henry Street Settlement, and entered the textile firm of J. Spencer Turner Company. By 1906 he was vice- president and treasurer of the concern, and two years later he was made a partner in Lehman Brothers.
Following the outbreak of World War I, Lehman became widely known for his philanthropic work. As treasurer and vice-chairman of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, he bore the major responsibility for the collection and distribution of $75,000,000 for aid to war sufferers. When
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the United States entered the war, he served for a short time as an assistant to Roosevelt in the Navy Department, but in August 1917 he was commissioned a captain in the Army and assigned to the general staff. Advancing to the rank of colonel in the quartermaster service, he had charge of obtaining, shipping, and distributing supplies for the Amer- ican Expeditionary Forces. In the immediate postwar period, he was a special assistant to the secretary of war, member of the Board of Contract Adjustment, and member of the War Department Claims Board.
By the 1920's Lehman was a proven administrator, a respected financier, and a prominent philanthropist. He was, moreover, an admirer of Al Smith, and he demonstrated his admiration with substantial campaign contributions. Smith, in turn, liked and respected Lehman, and in 1926 he made the banker the manager of his gubernatorial campaign. Two years later, when Lehman was both finance director of Smith's campaign for president and the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor of New York, he gave the astonishing amount of $500,000 to Smith's campaign fund. Cynics might conclude that Lehman's generosity was responsible for his nomination for lieutenant governor. But in reality he was selected because he was Smith's friend, had an irreproachable record in his public and business life, and would presumably appeal to the so-called Jewish vote in New York City. Elected in 1928 by a narrow margin, he was re- elected in 1930 by a plurality of 565,000.
Lehman was one of the few lieutenant governors in the history of the state to view his job as other than a sinecure. He not only moved to Albany so that he could devote all his time to his position, but he also severed all his business connections as soon as he entered politics. Because Roose- velt's frequent trips to Warm Springs and his extensive presidential cam- paign took him out of the state on numerous occasions, Lehman had fre- quently served as acting governor. Roosevelt never underestimated the lieutenant governor's contribution to his administration, and several times he referred to Lehman as "my good right arm" and the "other governor." When Roosevelt was nominated for the presidency, he was determined that Lehman should be his successor. But Tammany, which had unsuc- cessfully sought to prevent Roosevelt's nomination for president, was firmly opposed to Lehman's candidacy. Once again, Tammany managed to end up on the losing side, for Roosevelt and Smith forced John F. Curry, the Tammany boss, to back down, and Lehman was nominated. In the ensuing election he piled up an 849,000 plurality over William J. Donovan, his Republican opponent.
As governor, Lehman was one of the most unusual figures to attain high office in the United States. He was entirely lacking in what political writers like to refer to as "color," and he never played politics in the accepted meaning of that term. His public record contains no evidence
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that he ever subordinated either the general welfare or his own principles to further his own political career. He was a poor public speaker who pos- sessed neither Smith's easy, informal platform manner nor Roosevelt's natural oratorical polish. In small gatherings he did not try to be one of the boys, and it is unlikely that he ever slapped a back during all the years that he was in Albany. But if he possessed none of the attributes of the stereotype of the politician, he did possess qualities that consistently appealed to a majority of the state's voters. They voted for him, not only because he was transparently honest in his thinking as well as his acts, but also because he seemed remarkably free from partisan bias, was an excellent administrator, and knew how to be progressive without being radical. Everything about the man inspired trust. Even his opponents re- fused to accuse him of ulterior motives.
Following his election as lieutenant governor in 1928, the Review of Reviews wrote that it was "asserted, probably with good reason, that it was Lehman's popularity ( in a city that has many more than half a million Jewish voters ) that carried the State ticket for the Democrats, while they lost the Presidential ticket." As appealing as this statement has been to many subsequent political observers, it represents something less than the whole truth. Lehman was obviously popular with his coreligionists, but it was not only because they were coreligionists. Being Jewish is not enough to secure a candidate's election in New York. In 1928, Ottinger was defeated by Roosevelt in the same election in which Lehman was victorious, and in New York City's 1945 mayoralty election, Jonah J. Goldstein made a miserable showing. As significant as Lehman's strength in New York City is the fact that he generally ran far ahead of his ticket in upstate New York. Some of his supporters may have backed him because he was a Jew; many more voted for him because he was a states- man.
Although Lehman's "Little New Deal" for New York was in many respects similar to Roosevelt's domestic program for the nation, it was the president, and not the governor, who was accused by conservatives of being a radical and an impractical theorist. In part, Lehman's im- munity to such charges can be attributed to his background, for it was difficult for the voters to imagine that a member of one of the most prominent banking houses in the nation was anything but a hardheaded businessman. In part, it was due to his modesty, for he never "personal- ized" his program. More important, however, than either of these con- siderations was the fact that Lehman proved himself a more efficient administrator than Roosevelt. While the federal government was piling up a larger debt each year, Lehman was converting an inherited deficit into a surplus. Nor was the Little New Deal ever disrupted by dissension
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and sudden changes in policy that on occasion characterized its parent in Washington. Throughout the difficult years of the Depression New York's government was relatively free from intramural bickering, confusion over the location of responsibility and power, and laxity in administra- tion.
Only once in his public career was Lehman rejected by the voters of New York. In 1946, although running well ahead of his ticket, he was defeated for the United States Senate in what proved to be an irresistible Republican trend. For the rest he was invincible. In 1934, when he defeated Robert Moses for governor, his 808,000 plurality was only slightly below that of 1932. In 1936, he ran well ahead of Ogden Mills, with a plurality of 520,000. Two years later, campaigning for the first time for the new four-year term, he defeated Thomas E. Dewey by a plurality of 64,000. His relatively close victory in 1938 can be attributed in part to the fact that for the first time since 1932 the Democratic tide in the nation had passed its high point, and in part to Dewey's widespread appeal-particularly upstate-as a gang-busting prosecuting attorney. But even in 1938 the Lehman name had not lost its magic, for he polled a larger vote in New York City than any other preceding candidate.
During the Depression years Lehman, Roosevelt, and La Guardia main- tained an informal alliance that was beneficial to all concerned. The three men shared a devotion to New Deal principles, and they enjoyed near- monopolies on their respective offices. Lehman's governorship extended from 1933 to 1942, Roosevelt's presidency was terminated by his death in 1945, and La Guardia was mayor of New York City from 1934 until 1945. Although La Guardia was elected mayor three times with at least nom- inal Republican support, he had little connection with the party. A po- litical maverick, he often co-operated with both Lehman and Roosevelt, and his views on social and economic questions were almost identical with theirs. A man of undoubted honesty and one of the most unpre- dictable figures in American public life, he helped to make New York City a bulwark of the Democratic administrations in Albany and Wash- ington. The only ostensible political tie between the three men was the American Labor party. A New York offshoot of Labor's Non-Partisan League, the new party in 1936 backed both Lehman and Roosevelt and in 1937 provided La Guardia with his actual margin of victory. Drawing most of its support from organized labor in New York City, the party's leadership was divided among union leaders and intellectuals, and in its early years most of its members were former Democrats.1
1 By 1938 Communists had gained control of the Manhattan branch of the party, and within a short time the entire party was split into Communist and anti-Communist wings. In 1944 the latter group withdrew to form the Liberal party.
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During the opening months of Lehman's first term as governor, the eco- nomic crisis became acute. Unemployment figures reached new highs, old and respected firms went into receivership, farmers destroyed their crops rather than sell them at a loss, and a succession of bank failures was dragging down the nation's financial system into ruin. On March 4, 1933, Lehman issued a proclamation closing all the banks in the state through March 6. On March 4 Roosevelt had been inaugurated as president, and he declared a national' banking holiday on March 6. Under the plan adopted by the federal government, the more stable banks were quickly reopened, and within a relatively short time the nation's financial system was again operating on a more or less normal basis. The bank crisis was merely the first of many instances in which the federal government under the New Deal came to the aid of the states. In the ensuing years New Yorkers would increasingly look to Washington rather than to Albany for the help that they needed to survive the Depression.
New York's unemployed workers, like those of other states, were the direct beneficiaries of federal grants to states for either relief or jobs on public works. In New York, as in other states, federal funds for relief were distributed by the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration un- til 1935, when the federal government substituted work relief for direct relief. Jobs for the unemployed were provided by the Civil Works Ad- ministration (from 1933 to 1935), Works Progress Administration, and Public Works Administration. There were many other forms of federal assistance for New Yorkers. The Civilian Conservation Corps enabled young men from the city to work on roadbuilding and forestry programs; the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (later, Federal Surplus Commodi- ties Corporation ) distributed food to the unemployed; the National Youth Administration gave part-time employment to many needy students; camps were established to house unemployed transients; and farmers were substantially aided by a succession of New Deal agriculture acts. These measures not only aided the unemployed, but they also greatly added to the state's physical assets. In 1936, in the course of a review of the joint endeavors of the state and federal governments in New York, Leh- man said:
Federal grants, supplemented by State and Local appropriations, have made possible the enlargement of our great hospitals; they have made possible the construction of new bridges such as the one at Catskill, two at Buffalo, the Triboro Bridge in New York, and in many other parts of the State; they have made possible the development of health and recreational facilities such as the great spa at Saratoga; they have made possible the construction of hun- dreds of school buildings in this State; they have made possible a program for the conservation of our soil, the prevention of soil erosion and the develop- ment of reforestation. In every one of these activities Federal and State co-
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operation of some kind was necessary. In every one of these instances we could not, at least, for many years, have undertaken the work save through the co-operation of Federal and State governments and through the financial assistance received from the former.
From the inception of T.E.R.A. in 1932 until the agency was ended in 1937, $1,155,314,101 was spent by federal, state, and local governments for emergency relief in New York. Of this amount, 44 per cent was sup- plied by the federal government, 36 per cent by localities, and the re- mainder by the state. Most of the money was used for either home relief or work relief. Throughout its existence, T.E.R.A. provided home relief for a monthly average of 265,000 families and unattached individuals; and in February 1935, when the relief load was at its highest, 17 per cent of the state's population was receiving public assistance. Until April 1935, when the W.P.A. took over work relief, an average of approximately 149,- 000 persons in New York were employed on public works projects, while at one point the C.W.A. had almost 350,000 New Yorkers on its payroll. In addition, from April 1933 to June 1937, 115,000 young men from the state were enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps. During the same period, T.E.R.A., acting as the agent for the federal government, dis- tributed 331,000,000 pounds of food and 3,000,000 articles of clothing to the needy. Ten transient camps in New York provided more than 200,000 individuals with food, shelter, and medical care.
Despite the scope of the federal-state relief programs in New York, many who needed help did not receive it. Unemployment always outran the funds allotted to combat it. Moreover, the prominent role played by localities in the distribution of relief resulted in a distressing lack of uniformity in standards and procedures. Finally, the entire program was conceived and applied in such haste that it was impossible to avoid waste and inefficiency, and the shortage of personnel trained in relief adminis- tration was a constant problem. But when all this has been said, the fact remains that the job was done. And it was done in New York with a rare degree of humaneness and the almost total absence of partisanship.
The numerous changes in state and federal relief policies made im- perative the reorganization of the administration of New York's welfare agencies. Accordingly, Lehman in 1934 appointed a commission headed by Allen Wardwell to "make a detached and impartial study and evalua- tion of the administration of unemployment relief." The commission's re- port formed the basis for legislation in 1936 for co-ordinating and cen- tralizing the various parts of the state's relief administration. Under the new law, the Board of Social Welfare, which had succeeded the State Board of Charities in 1929, was authorized to adopt rules and regulations concerning relief that had the force of law and to appoint a commissioner of welfare to serve as executive officer of the Department of Social Wel-
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fare. After July 1, 1937, all the functions and responsibilities of T.E.R.A. were assumed by the department, and the local emergency-relief bureaus created under the Wicks Act were terminated.
The 1936 act also regularized home relief and ensured its continuance. The state was to pay 40 per cent of expenditures for home relief for any individuals who had lived in the state for the two years preceding the date of his or her application for assistance. A year later the residence require- ment was further liberalized, and the state agreed to pay localities the total cost of home relief given to any person with a legal settlement 2 in any town or city within the state. The same law extended state respon- sibility to needy Indians on state reservations and provided that 40 per cent of the salaries of the employees of city and county public welfare departments should be furnished by the state. Finally, in 1940, the legis- lature adopted the Social Welfare Law, which codified and removed in- consistencies and ambiguities from existing statutes concerned with state, local, and private welfare work.
The welfare program adopted during Lehman's administration as gov- ernor reflected a basic change in the public's attitude toward the govern- ment's responsibility to the people of New York. Poverty, which had once been a mark of opprobrium, was now considered a misfortune for which the individual was not responsible. Public relief, which many people had earlier referred to as a "dole," was now generally accepted as a more equitable and efficacious method than private charity for relieving human misery. What had once been considered "socialistic" and "un-American" were now accepted as commonplaces, and among the constitutional amendments approved by the voters in 1938 was a provision stating that "the aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state and by such of its subdivisions, and in such manner and by such means, as the legislature may from time to time determine." The nature and extent of these public concerns were indicated in the following provision:
Subject to the limitations on indebtedness and taxation, nothing in this con- stitution contained shall prevent the legislature from providing for the aid, care and support of the needy directly or through subdivisions of the state; or for the protection by insurance or otherwise, against the hazards of unem- ployment, sickness and old age; or for the education and support of the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the physically handicapped and juvenile delinquents . . . ; or for health and welfare services for all children, either directly or through subdivisions of the state, including school districts; or for the aid, care and support of neglected and dependent children and of the needy sick, through agencies and institutions authorized by the state board of social wel-
2 Legal settlement was defined as one year's continuous residence in a town or city without having received public relief.
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fare or other state department having the power of inspection thereof, by payments made on a per capita basis directly or through subdivisions of the state.
Although the Depression forced Lehman to devote much of his time and energy to emergency measures granting temporary aid to this or that economic group, he also sponsored a long-range reform program that was designed to assist the needy in good times as well bad. One of the most important features of this program was an unemployment insur- ance bill which became law in 1935 after being repeatedly recommended to the legislature by both Roosevelt and Lehman. With the passage of the Federal Social Security Act later in the same year, the state plan was integrated with that of the national government in an arrangement by which employers contributing to the New York fund were credited with such contributions up to 90 per cent of the federal unemployment com- pensation payroll tax. The enactment of the Social Security Act also made it possible for New York to participate in a federally sponsored program for the care of dependents.
Lehman had been urging reforms in the old-age security act of 1930, and in 1936 the legislature liberalized the provisions to conform to those of the national Social Security Act. In the following year the legislature adopted an omnibus bill that made the state eligible for federal grants to assist New York's programs for public health, aid to blind and dependent children, and child health and welfare services.
Lehman's record as a friend of labor surpassed that of any governor in the state's history. When he entered office in 1933, he outlined his labor program to the legislature; five years later all his major proposals were on the statute books. Patiently restating his views to successive legisla- tures, he achieved his objectives by convincing rather than browbeating his opponents. Because so many labor bills were passed during his ad- ministration, he usually enumerated rather than discussed his accom- plishments in this field. Thus, after considering at some length the re- cently enacted unemployment insurance and social security laws in a campaign speech at Syracuse in 1938, he concluded his address with the following list of bills adopted by the legislature during the first six years of his governorship:
Minimum wages for women and minors;
Broadening of the Workmen's Compensation Law to cover occupational diseases; A law protecting workingmen in labor disputes by insuring to them a right to trial by jury in case of alleged violation of an injunction;
A law governing contracts and terms under which labor injunctions may be issued by our courts;
The outlawing of the "yellow-dog" contract;
The outlawing of the vicious "kick-back";
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The statutory declaration of policy that the labor of human beings is not a commodity or an article of commerce;
A law shortening the maximum hours of work per week of women in factories, mercantile establishments and hotels;
A law raising the age at which children may leave school to enter industry from fourteen to sixteen years;
Adoption of the eight-hour day and six-day week for institutional employees of the State;
Adoption of the three-platoon system of firemen in the city of New York;
A bill providing tenure to school teachers in rural areas and reducing the probationary period for such teachers;
A law prohibiting duress, intimidation or coercion of an employee through the medium of the payroll envelope;
A career law granting mandatory annual increments and salaries for each employee of the State within established grades;
The creation of a State Labor Relations Board and a State Mediation Board; A law subjecting detective agencies supplying strike breakers and strike break- ing service to the strictest regulation.
Throughout his administration Lehman was a constant supporter of the public school system. Despite the drain of relief expenses on the state's financial resources, he consistently allocated more state money for school aid than had been granted in the years before he entered office. He also pushed the central school program inaugurated by Smith, and he looked forward to the day when it would be "possible for every boy and girl in the State to have ready access to a modern school in which training is offered from the kindergarten through the senior high school." In review- ing his ten years of the governorship in the fall of 1942, he thought that his administration's important contributions to the state's school system were
the amendment to the education law requiring all children to attend school until sixteen years of age, the extending of teacher tenure to the village schools, increased State aid for transportation, raising of the professional re- quirements for district superintendents of schools, the licensing or registration of nursery schools and private trade schools, State aid for kindergartens, a minimum salary of $1,000 for rural teachers, changing the normal schools to teachers colleges, and amendments to many of the professional laws.
Lehman also had marked success in securing the adoption of his public utility program. Although he, like Roosevelt and Smith, was unable to carry out his plans for public power development on the St. Lawrence River, his proposals for the regulation of utilities were all approved by the legislature. Municipalities were authorized to establish, own, and operate gas and electric plants, and villages were granted permission to extend their lighting systems into adjacent regions. Both consumers
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and taxpayers were aided in a number of other ways. The Public Service Commission was given the right to establish temporary rates before the courts had decided on the matter; the utilities rather than the taxpayers were required to pay the cost of the Public Service Commission's investi- gations; utilities were compelled to transfer to the state all consumer de- posits which remained unclaimed for fifteen years; and utilities had to pay consumers' interest on deposits every two years rather than on the withdrawal of deposits, as in the past. The state's regulatory powers were expanded by laws giving the commission power to remove all un- justified charges of utilities from operating expenses, requiring utilities to advertise for bids and to give the work to the highest bidder, and ex- tending the commission's authority over holding companies and concerns affiliated with them. Some indication of the over-all effect of this program is indicated by the fact that during Lehman's first six years in office re- ductions in annual utility rates totaled more than $46,000,000.
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