A

ICKES, HAROLD

Harold LeClaire Ickes (March 15, 1874–February 3, 1952) was a political activist, social reformer, author, and New Deal administrator who actively sought to help minorities, preserve America's natural resources, use the federal government to promote the general welfare, and loyally promoted and supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and what he stood for in his New Deal.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Born on a farm in Frankstown Township near Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Harold Ickes was the son of Jesse Boone Williams and Matilda McCune Ickes. Raised by his aunt and uncle after his mother's death when he was sixteen years old, Ickes graduated from Englewood high school at the top of his class. From there, he went to the University of Chicago, where he received his undergraduate degree in 1897. During his college days, Ickes made money teaching English to immigrants.

Ickes started his career as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, where in 1900 he covered the Democratic and Republican conventions for the Chicago Record. Never totally satisfied with this life, he returned to the University of Chicago in 1904, and in 1907 he received his law degree. Even before completing his legal studies, Ickes's political inclinations began to take shape. He started working in political campaigns, and managed John Harlan's 1903 mayoralty race. Working with Donald Richberg as a partner in their Chicago law firm, Ickes became more and more involved in progressive politics. By 1911, Ickes was well-known in Chicago circles as a reformer. This reputation contributed to his marriage to a college classmate and the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer of gas fixtures, Anna Wilmarth Thompson. Anna herself was politically active, eventually serving several terms in the Illinois General Assembly. She and Ickes had a son who would be raised by his father after Anna died in a car accident in 1935. Ickes later would remarry and have two more children.

Ickes continued his political career by serving as the Cook County campaign manager for Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912. In 1916, Ickes supported Charles Evans Hughes for the presidency. During World War I, Ickes went abroad and served in the YMCA. In 1920, he attended the Republican national convention as a delegate who worked against the nomination of Warren G. Harding.

During the 1920s Ickes took on a number of legal cases (some gratis) involving civil liberties, anti-utility campaigns, and municipal reform. He also worked at Hull House, a Chicago settlement house run by Jane Addams, helping immigrants obtain citizenship. A reformer by nature, Ickes was appalled by the policies of Chicago mayor "Big" Bill Thompson, and consistently spoke out against him. He had a similar dislike for Samuel Insull, the municipal utilities emperor of the 1920s.

NEW DEAL ADMINISTRATOR

As the 1932 presidential election approached, Ickes became more interested in the reform programs of New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Heading a Western Independent Republican committee for Roosevelt, Ickes worked to secure his victory against Herbert Hoover. Having been a tireless reformer and a strong advocate for minorities, Ickes thought that the president-elect might reward him with a position in his administration, perhaps commissioner of Indian affairs.

Ickes openly campaigned for the secretaryship of the Department of the Interior after Roosevelt invited him to attend a conference in February 1933 to discuss general economic problems. Given Ickes's background, his commitment to conservation, and his deep-seated feelings for Native Americans and other minorities, his decision to seek the Interior position made sense. Roosevelt agreed and Ickes was appointed secretary of the Interior. Ickes would serve in this capacity throughout the entire Roosevelt presidency and into the administration of Harry Truman.

In terms of personality, Ickes was a difficult individual. Describing himself as a curmudgeon, he was moody, short-tempered, stubborn, and always concerned that people were trying to take things from him. But Ickes was also an emotionally driven man who wanted very much to help others and who believed that the federal government should do its part in promoting the welfare of Americans. Personally honest, Ickes took his Interior department responsibilities seriously. He spent taxpayers' monies wisely for projects benefiting the general welfare. Nicknamed Honest Harold, Irascible Harold, and Harold the Curmudgeon, Ickes went to work in 1933 determined to make a difference. He took charge of a department that had more than thirty thousand employees and controlled the National Park Service, America's public lands and abundant natural resources, and all territories, including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Alaska. In addition, the secretary of the Interior was responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Geological Survey. With all of this already on his plate, Ickes took on more.

Working with Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and other New Dealers, Ickes helped set up the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which was designed to put young men to work under the jurisdiction of the War Department. Ickes's most important appointment came when Roosevelt placed him in charge of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, the PWA expended over $5 billion on sewage systems, bridges, highways, dams, and other major projects. In projects involving electrical power and dams, the PWA completed the Boulder Dam and built the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams. Under Ickes's direction, the PWA also helped local governments develop their own utility systems, despite the protests of private utility companies. Ickes's PWA even delved into low-cost housing projects. All of the PWA's work was completed slowly and methodically, but it was also completed with a minimum of administrative costs and no corruption. "Honest Harold" proved himself a good agency administrator who got things done.

Given Ickes's personality and Roosevelt's inclination to let subordinates step over one another, it was inevitable that conflicts would develop. Ickes clashed especially with Harry Hopkins, who headed the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration, as well as with Henry Wallace in the Department of Agriculture. Other conflicts arose, many of them stemming from Ickes's fear that people were encroaching on his turf, although in most cases, no such activity was occurring.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVIL RIGHTS AND CONSERVATION

Other accomplishments by Ickes stand out. He was committed to helping black Americans by demanding that they be given equal pay for government jobs and by permitting no discrimination in hiring. Working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Ickes tried hard to implement these policies in whatever agency he directed. In 1939 he helped Eleanor Roosevelt arrange for the black contralto Marian Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her the use of Constitution Hall.

Ickes was also committed to helping Native Americans. Living in deplorable conditions on reservations, as evidenced by the Meriam Report of the 1920s, and disinherited of their lands under the assimilationist policies of the Dawes Act of 1887, Indians were burdened by many injustices, and Ickes worked to correct them. Fully supporting the Wheeler-Howard Act, which unraveled the Dawes allotment provisions, Ickes appointed John Collier to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Collier's commitment to the Indian New Deal was so strong that he worked hard to implement all the provisions of the Wheeler-Howard Act and, in so doing, he began to lay the groundwork for later Indian self-determination policies of the 1980s and 1990s.

Finally, Ickes's commitment to conservation was genuine. During his tenure in the Department of the Interior, the Soil Conservation Service was set up, the idea of wilderness areas in the National Park System was developed, and several major national parks were established. In some respects, Ickes's commitment to conservation explained his attacks on big business and the wealthy. He railed against businessmen and wealthy individuals for only thinking about themselves, for not caring about protecting and preserving America's natural wealth, and for refusing to help those in need.

As World War II approached, Ickes turned his attention more and more to what was happening in the world. A midwestern isolationist almost by nature, Ickes underwent a transformation in the 1930s. He was one of the first New Dealers to openly condemn Nazism and fascism. His attacks were so noteworthy that even Nazi leaders came to know who Ickes was. In addition, Ickes was the first New Dealer to realize the importance of maintaining presidential leadership as world politics became increasingly tense. He strongly supported Roosevelt's bid for a third term in 1940, while he himself considered running for the mayoralty of Chicago.

AFTER THE DEPRESSION

As the United State was drawn into world conflict, Ickes was named the head of the Petroleum Administration. During the war, Ickes held sixteen separate positions within the Roosevelt administration. He was the virtual czar of the production and distribution of petroleum products in the United States. A pragmatist by nature, Ickes put aside his former ideas and hostilities towards petroleum industry executives and worked so well with industry representatives that they tried to convince Roosevelt not to transfer Ickes to any other department or agency.

With Roosevelt's death in April 1945, and the end of the war, Ickes stayed on as secretary of the Interior under President Harry Truman. Within one year, however, Ickes resigned in protest over what he considered to be a political appointment of Edwin Pauley as undersecretary of the Navy. Just as Ickes's personal views changed, his views on America's relationships with its former allies transformed. By 1945 and 1946, the one-time friend and ally of the Soviet Union began to openly distrust and criticize Joseph Stalin and his policies. Ickes strongly supported the United Nations and stood solidly behind Truman during the Korean War.

After his 1946 resignation, Ickes returned to journalism. He wrote columns for the New Republic and the New York Post, and even started publishing his memoirs in the Saturday Evening Post. Still working prodigiously, Ickes died on February 3, 1952, in Washington, D.C. His massive three-volume Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes was published shortly after his death.

Harold Ickes was probably the most accomplished secretary of the Interior in American history. He was a reformer, a man of deep convictions, and a highly capable administrator. His honesty, hard work, and drivenness were reflected in everything he did. Given his irascible personality, it is not surprising that he frequently clashed with others. But this was a small issue when one considers the magnitude of his accomplishments in the PWA, conservation, civil liberties, World War II, and other areas of American life.

See Also: CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC); INDIAN NEW DEAL; PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION (PWA).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ickes, Harold L. The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, 3 vols. 1953–1954.

Lear, Linda. Harold L. Ickes: The Aggressive Progressive, 1874–1933. 1981.

Watkins, T. H. Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold Ickes, 1974–1952. 1990.

White, Graham, and John Maze. Harold Ickes of the New Deal: His Private Life and Public Career. 1985.

MICHAEL V. NAMORATO