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'{{Infobox US Cabinet official | name = nigger fucker | image = Ickes.gif | order = 32nd | title = [[United States Secretary of the Interior]] | term_start = March 4, 1933 | term_end = February 15, 1946 | president = [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]<br/>[[Harry S. Truman]] | deputy = [[Oscar L. Chapman]] {{small|(Acting)}} | predecessor = [[Ray Lyman Wilbur]] | successor = [[Julius Albert Krug|Julius A. Krug]] | birth_name = Harold LeClair Ickes | birth_date = March 15, 1874 | birth_place = near [[Altoona, Pennsylvania|Altoona]], [[Pennsylvania]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1969 | death_place = [[Washington D.C.]], U.S. | party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]<br />[[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]]<br />[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/751/000055586/ Harold Ickes<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> | spouse = Anna Wilmarth Thompson (1911 - 1935, dec.)<br/>Jane Dahlman (m. 1938) | children = Raymond Ickes<br />[[Harold M. Ickes]] (b. 1939)<br />Elizabeth Jane Ickes | education = [[University of Chicago]] | religion = [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]]<ref name=graveyard>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/IL/german.html|title=German ancestry Politicians in Illinois|website=[[The Political Graveyard]]|accessdate=14 May 2015}}</ref> }} '''Harold LeClair Ickes''' was a real bitch boi ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|k|ə|s}} {{respell|IK|əss}}; March 15, 1874 – February 3, 1952) was an American administrator and politician. He served as [[United States Secretary of the Interior]] for 69 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest-serving Cabinet member in U.S. history next to [[James Wilson (U.S. politician)|James Wilson]]. He and Labor Secretary [[Frances Perkins]] were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet who remained in office for his entire presidency. Ickes was responsible for implementing much of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s "[[New Deal]]". He was in charge of the major relief program, the [[Public Works Administration|Public Works Administration (PWA)]], and in charge of The federal government's environmental efforts. In his day, he was considered a prominent liberal spokesmen, a skillful orator and a noted supporter of many [[African-American]] causes, although he was at times politically expedient where state-level segregation was concerned. Before his national-level political career, where he did remove segregation in areas of his direct control, he had been the president of the Chicago [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]]. [[Robert C. Weaver]], who in 1966 became the first African-American person to hold a cabinet position in the U.S., was in the "Black Kitchen Cabinet," Ickes' group of advisers on race relations. He was the father of [[Harold M. Ickes]], [[White House Deputy Chief of Staff]] for President [[Bill Clinton]]. ==Early years== Of [[Scottish American|Scottish]] and [[German American|German]] ancestry,<ref name=graveyard /> Ickes was born in [[Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania|Hollidaysburg]], [[Pennsylvania]]. He moved to [[Chicago]] at the age of 16 upon his mother's death and attended [[Englewood Technical Prep Academy|Englewood High School]] there. He was the class president while at Englewood. After graduating, he worked his way through the [[University of Chicago]], finishing with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in 1897. At Chicago, Ickes was a charter member re-establishing the Illinois Beta Chapter of [[Phi Delta Theta]].<ref>"Death Takes Phis Patterson, Ickes," The Scroll of Phi Delta Theta, March 1952, page 261.</ref> He first worked as a newspaper reporter for ''The Chicago Record'' and later for the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''. He obtained a law degree from the [[University of Chicago Law School]] in 1907 but rarely practiced. Instead, he became active in reform politics. ==Politics== [[File:Ickes Nomination.JPG|thumb|left|alt= |Ickes's Secretary of the Interior Nomination]] Initially a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] in [[Chicago]], Ickes was never part of the establishment. He was unsatisfied with Republican policies and joined [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Bull Moose]] movement in 1912. After returning to the Republican fold, he campaigned for [[Progressivism|progressive]] Republicans [[Charles Evans Hughes]] (1916) and [[Hiram Johnson]] (1920 and 1924). He fought lengthy and legendary battles first with Chicago figures [[Samuel Insull]], the utilities magnate, [[William Hale Thompson]], the mayor, and [[Robert R. McCormick]], the owner of ''The Chicago Tribune''. Later he had an ongoing battle with [[Thomas E. Dewey]], the presidential candidate. Although locally active in Chicago politics, he was unknown nationally until 1933. As part of this involvement, Ickes was involved in Chicago's social and political affairs; among his many activities include his work for the [[City Club of Chicago]]. After Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, he began putting together his cabinet. His advisers thought the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] president needed a progressive Republican to attract middle-of-the-road voters. He sought out [[Hiram Johnson]], a Republican Senator at the time who had supported Roosevelt in the campaign, but Johnson was uninterested. Johnson, however, recommended an old ally, Ickes. ==Secretary of the Interior== [[File:Ickestalk.jpg|Secretary Ickes addresses the crowd gathered at the dedication of Hoover Dam (then Boulder Dam)|thumb|right]] Ickes served simultaneously in several major roles for Roosevelt. Although he was the Secretary of the Interior, he was better known to the public for his simultaneous work as the director of the [[Public Works Administration]], where he directed billions of dollars of projects designed to lure private investment and provide employment during the depths of the [[Great Depression]]. His management of the PWA budget and his opposition to corruption earned him the name "Honest Harold." He regularly presented projects to Roosevelt for the President's personal approval. Ickes' support of PWA power plants put increased financial pressure on private power companies during the [[Great Depression]], which had both positive and negative effects. He tried to enforce the [[Raker Act]] against the city of [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]], an act of Congress that specified that because the dam at [[Hetch Hetchy Valley]] in [[Yosemite National Park]] was on public land, no private profit could be derived from the development. The city continues selling the power to [[Pacific Gas and Electric Company|PG&E]], which is then resold at a profit. He was instrumental in establishing the [[Kings Canyon National Park]], commissioning [[Ansel Adams]] as a 'photographic muralist' in a visionary public relations project that Ickes had himself conceived to document and communicate, on a visceral level, the outstanding beauty of the parks for the capitol public to see, and indirectly but effectively persuading the Congress to support the bill to President Roosevelt in 1940.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep5/5/</ref> After the [[Hindenburg disaster|''Hindenburg'' disaster]], the German [[Zeppelin]] Company director, Dr. [[Hugo Eckener]] sought to obtain inert [[helium]] to replace the flammable [[hydrogen]] gas for use in their future airships. Ickes opposed the sale although practically every other member of the Cabinet supported it along with the President himself. Ickes would not back down, fearing military use of the dirigibles. The Zeppelin company could not obtain the helium from other sources, and Eckener refused to risk passenger safety by the continued use of hydrogen. Hence, Ickes effectively ended Zeppelin passenger air service himself. The [[Saudi Aramco]] oil corporation, through Secretary of the Interior Ickes, got Roosevelt to agree to [[Lend-Lease]] aid to Saudi Arabia, which would involve the US government in protecting American interests there and create a shield for ARAMCO. Between June and October 1941, during a projected oil shortage, Ickes issued orders to close gasoline stations in the Eastern United States between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.<ref>''Current Biography 1941'', 426</ref> Ickes was a powerful orator and the only man in the Roosevelt Administration who could rebut [[John L. Lewis]] of the United Mine Workers, who often delivered radio addresses critical of the Roosevelt administration. ===Segregation and civil rights=== Ickes was a strong supporter of both [[civil rights]] and [[civil liberties]]. He had been the president of the Chicago [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]], and supported [[African American]] [[contralto]] [[Marian Anderson]] when the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] prohibited her from performing in [[DAR Constitution Hall]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Arsenault|title=The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WTNtQrpspgC&pg=PA158|year=2010|page=158}}</ref> In 1933, Ickes ended segregation in the cafeteria and rest rooms of his department, including the national parks around the country. He encouraged private contractors working for the PWA to hire both skilled and unskilled blacks. [[Robert C. Weaver]], who in 1966 became the first black person to hold a cabinet position, was one of his advisers on race relations, a group known as the "Black Kitchen Cabinet."<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen Grant Meyer|title=As Long as They Don't Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCrouSLl3pYC&pg=PA54|year=2001|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|pages=54–55}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Gary A. Donaldson|title=Truman Defeats Dewey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bqseBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|year=2015|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|pages=92–93}}</ref> White attitudes toward blacks evolved little in the 1930s, and Ickes did not try to speed up the change, arguing that first there needed to be emergency relief and the upgrading of black skills.<ref>{{cite book|author=Raymond Arsenault|title=The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WTNtQrpspgC&pg=PA67|year=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury USA|page=67}}</ref> In 1937, when Senator [[Josiah Bailey]] Democrat of North Carolina accused him of trying to break down segregation laws, Ickes wrote him that he worked towards and foresaw equality but did not waste his energy on state-level segregation: :I think it is up to the states to work out their social problems if possible, and while I have always been interested in seeing that the Negro has a square deal, I have never dissipated my strength against the particular stone wall of segregation. I believe that wall will crumble when the Negro has brought himself to a high educational and economic status…. Moreover, while there are no segregation laws in the North, there is segregation in fact and we might as well recognize this.<ref>Harold Ickes, ''The secret diary of Harold L. Ickes Vol. 2: The inside struggle, 1936-1939'' (1954) p 115. see for more {{cite book|author=David L. Chappell|title=A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jomttdSV5YC&pg=PA9|year=2009|pages=9–11}}</ref> He complained in his diary about the [[Japanese American internment]] in 1942.<ref>Watkins, p 792</ref> ===World-level colonial independence=== As an official delegate to the founding [[United Nations]] conference in [[San Francisco]], Ickes advocated for stronger language promoting self-rule and eventual independence for the world's colonies.<ref>Brenda Gayle Plummer, ''Rising Wind: Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Policy'', 146</ref> ===Jewish refugees in Alaska=== {{Main|Slattery Report}} In a [[news conference]] on the eve of [[Thanksgiving]] 1938, Ickes proposed offering [[Alaska]] as a "haven for [[Jewish refugees]] from Germany and other areas in Europe where the Jews are subjected to oppressive restrictions." The proposal was designed to bypass normal [[Immigration Act of 1924|immigration quota]]s, because Alaska was not a state. Ickes had toured Alaska that summer, meeting with local officials to discuss how to attract greater development, both for economic reasons and to bolster security in an area so close to Japan and Russia and to develop a plan to attract international professionals, including European Jews. In his press conference, he pointed out that 200 families had been relocated from the [[Dust Bowl]] to Alaska's [[Matanuska-Susitna Valley]]. The Department of the Interior prepared a report detailing the advantages of the plan, which was introduced as a bill by [[Utah]]'s Senator [[William H. King]] and [[California]]'s Democratic Representative [[Franck R. Havenner]]. The plan met with little support from American Jews, however, with the exception of the [[Ameinu|Labor Zionists of America]]; most Jews agreed with [[Rabbi]] [[Stephen Samuel Wise]] of the [[American Jewish Congress]] that the plan, if implemented, would deliver "a wrong and hurtful impression... that Jews are taking over some part of the country for settlement." The final blow was dealt when Roosevelt suggested a limit of only 10,000 immigrants a year for five years, with a maximum of 10 percent Jews. He later reduced even that number and never publicly mentioned the plan.<ref name=oldveteran>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802762,00.html Books: Old Veteran] Time, April 26, 1943</ref><ref>[http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/A_Thanksgiving_plan_to_save_Europes_Jews/ "A Thanksgiving plan to save Europe’s Jews", Raphael Medoff, ''The Jewish Standard'', November 16, 2007]</ref> ===Pauley dispute=== Although he stayed on in President [[Harry S. Truman]]'s cabinet after Roosevelt died in April 1945, he resigned from office within a year. In February 1946, Truman nominated [[Edwin W. Pauley]] to be Secretary of the Navy. Pauley was the former Democratic Party national treasurer. He once suggested to Ickes that $300,000 in campaign funds could be raised if Ickes would drop his fight for title to oil-rich offshore lands. Ickes testified to this during Pauley's Senate confirmation hearing. This led to a confrontation with Truman, who had suggested that Ickes's memory might have been mistaken. Ickes wrote a 2,000-word resignation letter, reading in part: "I don't care to stay in an Administration where I am expected to commit [[perjury]] for the sake of the party.... I do not have a reputation for dealing recklessly with the truth." Truman accepted the resignation and gave Ickes three days to leave. Soon afterward, Pauley declined the nomination.<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/research/voices-of-postwar.html 1946, February 13. Resignation speech. United States National Archives and Records Administration, The Crucial Decade: Voices of the Postwar Era, 1945-1954, Select Audiovisual Records]</ref><ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30713FE385D107A93C6A81789D85F428485F9 Ickes Resigns Post, Berating Truman in Acid Farewell; Mr. Ickes says Good-by, The New York Times, February 14, 1946, Thomas J. Hamilton]</ref><ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D16FF385D107A93C6A81789D85F428485F9 Text of Secretary Ickes' Letter of Resignation to the President Ending 13 Years in Office, The New York Times, February 14, 1946]</ref> ==After government== Ickes had bought a working farm, Headwaters Farm, near [[Olney, Maryland]], in 1937. His wife Jane managed the farm and Ickes grew flowers as a hobby. President Roosevelt spent occasional weekends there before the establishment of "Shangri-La", the presidential retreat now known as [[Camp David]].<ref>http://www.hvca.net/Default.htm accessed 5-28-10</ref> After he resigned from the Cabinet in 1946, Ickes retired to his farm but remained active on the political scene, working as a syndicated columnist.<ref>http://www.nps.gov/elro/glossary/ickes-harold.htm accessed 5-28-10</ref> In December 1945, Ickes accepted the position of executive chairman of the newly founded Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions, a group that criticized Truman's lack of fidelity to FDR's principles. A thousand people attended the hotel banquet that celebrated his appointment.<ref>Robert P. Newman, ''The Cold War Romance of Lillian Hellman and John Melby'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 94-5, 97</ref> He resigned on February 13, 1946, unhappy with the organization's failure to pay him the agreed-upon salary and unwilling to support the organization of a new political party to support [[Henry A. Wallace|Henry Wallace]]'s presidential race.<ref>Newman, ''Cold War Romance'', 105</ref> ==Critiques and battles== Ickes was known for his acerbic wit and took joy in verbal battles. He often took verbal abuse too. For instance, Roosevelt selected Ickes to deliver a response following the nomination of [[Wendell Willkie]]. In response to Ickes' comments, Senator [[Styles Bridges]] called Ickes "a [[common scold]] puffed up by high office." Republican Congresswoman [[Clare Boothe Luce]] once famously remarked that Ickes had "the mind of a commissar and the soul of a meataxe." In September 1944, [[Thomas E. Dewey]], the Republican nominee for president, promised to fire Ickes if elected. Ickes penned a letter of resignation to Dewey and it was widely printed in the press. Ickes wrote, in part: {{quote|Hence, I hereby resign as Secretary of the Interior effective, if, as and when the incredible comes to pass and you become the President of the United States. However, as a candidate for that office you should have known the primary school fact that the Cabinet of an outgoing President automatically retires with its chief.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ickes Sends 'Resignation' to Dewey, Effective if the 'Incredible' Happens|accessdate=13 September 2014|work=New York Times|issue=page 16, column 2|date=29 September 1944}}</ref>}} ==Family and honors== Ickes married divorcee Anna Wilmarth Thompson in 1911. He had one son, Raymond, with Anna and a stepson, Wilmarth, from her first marriage. The couple also adopted daughter Frances and son Robert. She died in an automobile accident on August 31, 1935. At the age of 64, he married 25-year-old Jane Dahlman (1913–1972), the younger sister of Wilmarth Ickes' wife, Betty, on May 24, 1938. Children resulting from this marriage were daughter Elizabeth Jane and son [[Harold M. Ickes|Harold McEwen Ickes]], who became Deputy Chief of Staff under [[Bill Clinton]]. Ickes' sister Mary Ickes was the first wife of psychologist [[John B. Watson]]. There was a [[Chicago Housing Authority]] [[public housing]] project in the on the south side of [[Chicago]] named the [[Harold L. Ickes Homes]], Built between 1954 and 1955; the buildings have since been demolished. The Harold Ickes Playground, a 1.82-acre park located in the [[Red Hook, Brooklyn|Red Hook]] neighborhood of the [[Brooklyn]] [[borough (New York City)|borough]] of [[New York City]], [[New York]], is named in his honor.<ref>Staff (undated). [http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/harold-ickes-playground/history "Harold Ickes Playground"]. [[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]]. Retrieved May 10, 2014.</ref> ==Pronunciation and spelling of name== Asked how to say his name, he told ''The [[Literary Digest]]'' "I think you come as close as anybody when you suggest that it rhymes with ''sickness'' with the ''n'' omitted. The ''e'' is halfway between a short ''e'' and short ''u''": hence, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|k|ə|s}} {{respell|IK|əss}}.<ref name="pronunciation">Charles Earle Funk, ''What's the Name, Please?'', [[Funk & Wagnalls]], 1936.</ref> His son [[Harold M. Ickes]], however, pronounces the name {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|k|iː|z}} {{respell|IK|eez}}. The correct spelling of Ickes' middle name is undetermined. It is sometimes spelled Le Clair, Le Claire or LeClare.<ref name=oldveteran /> ==In fiction== *In the 1942 film ''[[Yankee Doodle Dandy]]'', [[James Cagney]] (as [[George M. Cohan]]) sings a satirical song about the Roosevelt Administration, which includes a reference to "Mr. Ickes". In that rendering, he pronounces it the way the son does: IK-eez. *In the 1977 [[Musical theatre|musical play]] ''[[Annie (musical)|Annie]]'', Roosevelt demands that Ickes sing "Tomorrow" in the Oval Office, and orders him to get louder. Ickes was largely a comic figure in the play, despite acting rude, vulgar, and arrogant. Annie helps him to sing, and he gets somewhat carried away. He ends the song on his knees, much to the dismay of the Cabinet and the President. *In [[Michael Chabon]]'s 2007 alternative history ''[[The Yiddish Policemen's Union]]'', Harold Ickes plays a key part in the backstory. ==Books== ===By Ickes=== *''New Democracy'' (1934). W. W. Norton *''Back to Work: The Story of PWA'' (1935). *with Arno B. Cammerer (coauthor), ''Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)'' (1937). U.S. Government Printing Office *''The Third Term Bugaboo. A Cheerful Anthology'' (1940) *(editor). ''Freedom of the Press Today: A Clinical Examination By 28 Specialists'' (1941). Vanguard Press *''Minerals Yearbook 1941'' (1943). U.S. Government Printing Office *''Fightin' Oil'' (1943). Alfred A. Knopf *''The Autobiography of a Curmudgeon'' (1943). Greenwood Press 1985 reprint: ISBN 0-313-24988-1 *''The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes''. Simon and Schuster **''Volume I: The First Thousand Days 1933–1936'' (1953) **''Volume II: The Inside Struggle 1936–1939'' (1954) **''Volume III: The Lowering Clouds 1939–1941'' (1954) ===About Ickes=== *Jeanne Nienaber Clarke. ''Roosevelt's Warrior: Harold L. Ickes and the New Deal'' (1996). The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-5094-0 *Linda J. Lear. ''Harold L. Ickes: The Aggressive Progressive, 1874-1933'' (1982). Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-8240-4860-1 * T. H. Watkins. ''Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874-1952'' (1990). Henry Holt & Co., ISBN 0-8050-0917-5; 1992 reprint: ISBN 0-8050-2112-4 * Graham White and John Maze. ''Harold Ickes of the New Deal: His Private Life and Public Career'' (1985). Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-37285-9 ==See also== * [[Raker Act]] ==References== <!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags--> {{Reflist|30em}} ==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{commons category}} * [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C17FF3D5E177B93C6A91789D85F468585F9 Obituary: Harold L. Ickes Dead at 77; Colorful Figure in New Deal; Self-Styled 'Curmudgeon' Was Secretary of Interior in Long, Stormy Career, ''The New York Times'', February 4, 1952] * [http://www.nps.gov/elro/glossary/ickes-harold.htm Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site] {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{U.S. Cabinet official box |before= [[Ray Lyman Wilbur]] |after= [[Julius Albert Krug|Julius "Cap" Krug]] |years= 1933–1946 |president= [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Harry S. Truman]] |department= Secretary of the Interior}} {{s-end}} {{USSecInterior}} {{FD Roosevelt cabinet}} {{Truman cabinet}} {{New Deal}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ickes, Harold L.}} [[Category:United States Secretaries of the Interior]] [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1952 deaths]] [[Category:People from Blair County, Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Politicians from Chicago, Illinois]] [[Category:University of Chicago alumni]] [[Category:Illinois Republicans]] [[Category:Illinois Progressives (1912)]] [[Category:Illinois Democrats]] [[Category:Truman Administration cabinet members]] [[Category:Franklin D. Roosevelt administration cabinet members]] [[Category:University of Chicago Law School alumni]] [[Category:People associated with the New Deal]] [[Category:People from Olney, Maryland]] [[Category:American people of German descent]] [[Category:American people of Scottish descent]] [[Category:American Presbyterians]]'