Big Jesse Jones, self-made First Citizen of Texas, went to Washington in February 1932 to be a Democratic director of Herbert Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corp. Under pinchpenny Chairman Atlee Pomerene, RFC dwindled in power and prestige until by March 1933 it had hit bottom. Two months later Jesse Jones took over as chairman and RFC's great days began. He conducted himself and his huge money-lending business so well, with such level-headed liberalism, that it became easily the public's favorite New Deal agency, and he perhaps Washington's favorite administrator. Just how popular he...
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