Everything about Harry Hopkins totally explained
» This article is about the politician, for the British tank named for him, see Light Tank Mk VIII
Harry Lloyd Hopkins (
August 17 1890 –
January 29 1946) was one of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's closest advisers. He was one of the architects of the
New Deal, especially the relief programs of the
Works Progress Administration (WPA), which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country. In
World War II he was Roosevelt's chief diplomatic advisor and troubleshooter and was a key policy maker in the $50 billion
Lend Lease program that sent aid to the allies.
Early Life
Harry Hopkins was born at 512 Tenth Street in
Sioux City, Iowa, the fourth child of four sons and one daughter of David Aldona and Anna (
née Pickett) Hopkins. His father, born in
Bangor, Maine, ran a harness shop, after an erratic career as a salesman, prospector, storekeeper and bowling-alley operator; but his real passion was bowling, and he eventually returned to it as a business. Anna Hopkins, born in
Hamilton, Ontario, had moved at an early age to
Vermillion, South Dakota, where she married David. She was deeply religious and active in the affairs of the
Methodist church. Shortly after Harry was born, the family moved successively to
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and
Kearney and
Hastings, Nebraska. They spent two years in
Chicago, and finally settled in
Grinnell, Iowa.
Hopkins attended
Grinnell College and soon after his graduation in 1912 took a job with Christodora House, a social settlement in
New York City's Lower East Side ghetto. In the spring of 1913 he accepted a position with the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP) as "friendly visitor" and superintendent of the Employment Bureau. In October 1913, Harry Hopkins married Ethel Gross and the couple eventually had three sons: David (1914-1980), Robert (1921-2007) and Stephen (1925-1944), and a daughter, Barbara. In 1927, Hopkins fell in love with Barbara Duncan, a secretary from
Michigan. After divorcing his first wife, he married Duncan in 1929. A daughter, Diana, was born in 1932. His second wife died of cancer in October 1937 and on July 30, 1942, he married Mrs. Louise Macy (d. 1963).
Social work
In 1915, New York City Mayor
John Purroy Mitchel appointed Hopkins executive secretary of the Bureau of Child Welfare which administered pensions to mothers with dependent children.
Hopkins opposed America's entrance into
World War I, and in protest registered as a socialist. Hopkins moved his family to
New Orleans where he worked for the
American Red Cross as director of Civilian Relief, Gulf Division. Eventually, the Gulf Division of the Red Cross merged with the Southwestern Division and Hopkins, headquartered now in
Atlanta, was appointed general manager in 1921. Hopkins helped draft a charter for the American Association of Social Workers (AASW) and was elected its president in 1923.
In 1922, Hopkins returned to New York City where he became general director of the New York Tuberculosis Association. During his tenure, the agency grew enormously and absorbed the
New York Heart Association.
In 1931, New York Governor
Franklin D. Roosevelt named R. H. Macy department store president Jesse Straus as president of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA). Straus named Hopkins, then unknown to Roosevelt, as TERA's executive director. His efficient administration of the initial $20 million outlay to the agency gained Roosevelt's attention, and in 1932, he promoted Hopkins to the presidency of the agency. Hopkins and
Eleanor Roosevelt began a long friendship, which strengthened his role in relief programs.
New Deal
In March 1933, Roosevelt summoned Hopkins to Washington as federal relief administrator. Convinced that paid work was psychologically more valuable than cash handouts (the "dole"), Hopkins sought to continue and expand the Hoover administrations' work-relief programs, especially
FERA. He supervised the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the
Civil Works Administration (CWA), and the
Works Progress Administration (WPA). Over 90% of the people employed by the Hopkins programs were unemployed or on relief. He feuded with
Harold Ickes, who ran a rival program the
PWA which also created jobs but didn't require applicants be unemployed or on relief.
FERA, the largest program from 1933-35, was a continuation of Hoover's relief program and involved giving money to localities to operate work relief. CWA was similar, but focused on short-term projects (like maintenance work) that left little visible impact. The WPA was dramatically new because it operated on its own. It selected projects with the cooperation of local and state government but operated them with its own staff and budget. Hopkins started programs for youth (
National Youth Administration) and for artists and writers (
Federal One Programs). He and Eleanor Roosevelt worked together to publicize and defend New Deal relief programs. He was concerned with rural areas but more and more focused on
Cities in the great depression. Critics charged that his WPA, with 2 million men employed, who voted 90% Democratic, was the first national political machine. Others said the business owners had preceded the Hopkins effort by decades. Hopkins' plans for becoming president were shattered in 1940 by the
Hatch Act which made it illegal to use the WPA for political purposes.
World War II
During the war years, Hopkins acted as FDR's unofficial emissary to British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin. Visiting Britain in spring 1941, he'd a major voice in making policy for the vast $50 billion Lend-Lease program, especially regarding supplies, first for Britain and then (upon the German invasion) the USSR too. He went to Moscow in July 1941 to make personal contact with Stalin. Hopkins recommended, and the president accepted, the inclusion of the Soviets in Lend-Lease. He then accompanied Churchill to the
Atlantic Conference. Hopkins promoted an aggressive war against Germany and successfully urged Roosevelt to use the Navy to protect convoys before the US entered the war in December 1941. Roosevelt brought him along as advisor to his meetings with Churchill at
Cairo,
Tehran and
Casablanca in 1942-43. He was a firm supporter of China, which received Lend Lease aid for its military and air force. Hopkins wielded more diplomatic power than the entire State Department. Hopkins helped identify and sponsor numerous potential leaders, including
Dwight D. Eisenhower. He continued to live in the White House and saw the president more often than any other advisor. Although Hopkins' health – always poor – was steadily declining, Roosevelt sent him on additional trips to Europe in 1945; he attended the
Yalta Conference in February 1945. He tried to resign after Roosevelt died but President
Harry S. Truman, recognizing the value of his services, sent him on one more mission to
Moscow.
The saddest war-related event for Hopkins was the death of his son, PFC Stephen P. Hopkins, a U. S. Marine, who was killed in action in the
Marshall Islands in 1944.
Death and remembrance
Hopkins, a chain-smoker, died in New York City in January 1946, succumbing to a long and debilitating battle with
stomach cancer that for years had left him an emaciated wreckage of a man, his surprising energy at moments of crisis was often followed by long periods of desperate debilitation. His remains were cremated.
There is a house on the
Grinnell College campus named after him.
Further Information
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