Andrew Mellon biography
Andrew Mellon, in full Andrew William Mellon, (born March 24, 1855, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died August 26, 1937, Southampton, New York), American financier, philanthropist, and secretary of the treasury (1921–32) who reformed the tax construction of the U.S. authorities within the Nineteen Twenties. His benefactions made attainable the constructing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
After finishing his research at Western University (now the University of Pittsburgh), Mellon entered his father’s banking home in 1874 and proved so succesful that in 1882 his father transferred the financial institution’s possession to him. In the following three a long time Mellon constructed up a financial-industrial empire by supplying capital for Pittsburgh-based firms to develop in such fields as aluminum, metal, oil, coal, coke, and artificial abrasives. Mellon’s eager judgment of recent applied sciences and probably profitable corporations and entrepreneurs enabled him to assist discovered the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and the Gulf Oil Corporation. In alliance with Henry Clay Frick, he helped discovered the Union Steel Company, which later merged with United States Steel Corporation. He and Frick had been additionally the principal organizers (in 1889) of the Union Trust Company, which turned Mellon’s principal monetary instrument and bought his household’s financial institution. By the early Nineteen Twenties Mellon had change into one of many richest males within the United States.
Mellon was appointed to move the U.S. Treasury by Pres. Warren G. Harding in 1921. In discussions regarding discount of the nationwide debt, which totaled about $26 billion in 1920 because of World War I expenditures, Mellon held that continuance of the excessive wartime tax charges would discourage enterprise enlargement and therefore cut back income. He additionally advocated discount of the surtax charges on incomes. Largely by means of his efforts Congress repealed the excess-profits tax and regularly lowered the earnings tax price till in 1926 the utmost surtax was lowered from 50 to twenty %. Further reductions in tax charges had been later made; by June 30, 1928, the nationwide debt had fallen to $17,604,000,000. As chairman ex officio of the World War I international debt fee, Mellon additionally performed a distinguished half in formulating U.S. coverage regarding the funding of warfare money owed owed to the United States by international governments. Mellon’s insurance policies helped stimulate the American financial growth of the Nineteen Twenties, and he continued to move the Treasury underneath presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. His recognition declined after the Great Depression started in 1929, nevertheless, and in 1932 he resigned to function U.S. ambassador to England for a 12 months.
One of the nation’s foremost artwork collectors, Mellon gave a set valued at $25 million to the U.S. authorities in 1937. Among different work, it contained Raphael’s Alba Madonna, 23 Rembrandts, and 6 Vermeers. Mellon donated $15 million to construct the National Gallery of Art, opened in 1941, to accommodate the gathering.