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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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George M. Humphrey
(1953 - 1957)
Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Dwight
D. Eisenhower in 1953, George M. Humphrey (1890-1970) advocated a free market
economy. He believed that the less the government did, the more the American
people would prosper, and he recommended a reduced
federal budget and a cut in taxes to spur individual initiative.
Humphrey adopted a policy of offering government
securities at the higher market rate of interest, rather than at the fixed
Federal Reserve rate, to attract investment by the general public and
to reduce the proportion of such securities held by Federal Reserve banks.
He enlivened cabinet meetings with polemics on the need for checking federal
deficits, delivered as ardently as Secretary of State John Foster Dulles's
exhortations on checking Communist expansion. In response to Eisenhower's
1953 budget, he quipped, "There are a lot of places in this budget that
can be cut." He warned that the "terrific" tax burden must be eased or
"I will predict that you will have a depression that will curl your hair."
He placed the national debt on a longer term basis in order to ward off
further inflation. Humphrey resigned from office in 1957.
About the Artist
Born and trained as an artist in England, Thomas
Edgar Stephens came to this country in 1929 and became a United States
citizen. Between 1946 and 1960 he painted twenty-four portraits of Dwight
D. Eisenhower, for various institutions and individuals, and later induced
the former president to take up painting as a hobby. Stephens also painted
the entire Eisenhower cabinet. His portrait of George M. Humphrey was
painted from life in 1957.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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