Word: morgenthau
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...eyes light up behind his pince-nez when he shakes a stranger's hand. But his shyness is so painful that he can never relax. Only a few men like Franklin Roosevelt have known the human warmth that lies behind Morgenthau's deaconish mien. Most others have decided, after a time, that he is suspicious, autocratic, a real cold fish...
...Treasury, Morgenthau got off to a bad start: he ordered guards to shine their shoes and stand at attention to "show respect for official superiors," clamped a strict censorship on Treasury underlings, relations with the press. His relations with Treasury higher-ups have been equally unfortunate: there are enough former Under Secretaries of the Treasury to start a lodge...
Trouble on the Hill. Morgenthau's most ignominious tussles have taken place on Capitol Hill. Like any gentleman farmer turned Treasury Secretary, he shuddered to face Congressional committees alone, hesitated to express positive opinions. With him, on his visits to Capitol Hill, went a half-dozen Treasury experts, not always enough to keep him out of hot water...
...public officials have been beaten down harder or oftener by Congress. Last year Morgenthau presented a dozen major tax recommendations; not one was adopted. In the final bill, written by Senate and House Committees with as little regard for Treasury feelings as was humanly decent, Congress inserted a clause which authorized it to short-circuit the Secretary in seeking advice and statistics from Treasury experts. Faithful Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley pleaded with his colleagues not "to slap the Secretary of the Treasury in the face," but the clause was adopted by a Senate vote...
...many observers, this seemed a vote of no confidence. In the interest of wartime unity, it might have been prudent for Franklin Roosevelt to fire his old friend. But the President does not work that way. And Henry Morgenthau, whose greatest attributes are loyalty and the personal courage of an unflinchingly honest man, would never resign without word from the White House...