Tugwell, Rexford G.

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TUGWELL, REXFORD G.

Rexford Guy Tugwell (July 10, 1891–July 21, 1979) was a professional economist who joined Franklin D. Roosevelt's Brains Trust in 1932. Tugwell remained with the New Deal in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as assistant and undersecretary, and as director of the Resettlement Administration. He left the administration in 1936 to become vice president of the American Molasses Company. Thereafter, Tugwell served as chairman of the New York City Planning Commission (1938–1941) and governor of Puerto Rico (1941–1946). He returned to academe in 1947, finishing his career at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.

The son of Charles Tugwell, a successful businessman and banker, and Dessie Rexford, Tugwell was born in Sinclairville, New York, and grew up in Wilson, New York. He received his bachelor's degree in economics in 1915, his master's degree in 1916, and his Ph.D. in 1922 at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1914 Tugwell married Florence Arnold and they had two girls. Later, in the 1930s, he married Grace Falke, with whom he had two sons. Although he tried farming, Tugwell was too much of an academic to stay in that occupation. In the 1920s, he taught at Columbia University, where he quickly ascended the academic ladder as a professor of economics. In 1928 Tugwell made his first foray into politics when he advised Governor Alfred E. Smith during Smith's presidential campaign. In 1927, Tugwell made a trip to the Soviet Union as a member of a trade delegation, a trip that would haunt him throughout his academic and New Deal career. As a result of this trip, Tugwell became identified with radical ideas, socialist/communist solutions, and the political far left. Some reporters even referred to him as "Rex the Red."

During the 1920s, Tugwell wrote prolifically. Teaching a relatively light schedule, he devoted his energies to research and writing on a wide variety of topics including the growing problems in the American economy, planned obsolescence, the American agricultural system, and Herbert Hoover's failed attempts at economic recovery after the Great Depression began. Tugwell consistently argued that American business had to do more in dispersing America's abundance, that the U.S. economy needed to adopt a more rational approach to economic affairs through planning, and that American agriculture needed to address the issue of overproduction through such measures as domestic allotment. Tugwell's two most important works, which crystallize his ideas in the 1920s, were Industry's Coming of Age (1927) and The Industrial Discipline and the Governmental Arts (1933). Another Columbia professor, Raymond Moley, introduced Tugwell to Franklin Roosevelt, and, thereupon, assured Tugwell's entrance into the Brains Trust.

Designed to help educate Roosevelt for the 1932 campaign, the Brains Trust, consisting of Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and Adolf Berle, worked closely with the presidential candidate, informing him of the intricacies of economic issues, updating him on the most current solutions being offered on the Great Depression, and writing speeches for him. Although often frustrated with Roosevelt's inclination to politic, Tugwell did work with the presidential Democratic hopeful, especially in the area of agricultural relief and domestic allotment. Once Roosevelt received the Democratic nomination, Tugwell's role in the inner circle continued in a more limited fashion until Roosevelt's victory in November 1932.

During the interregnum, Tugwell worked on a number of problems, particularly the upcoming London Economic Conference. After inauguration day, Tugwell decided to stay with Roosevelt in the Department of Agriculture as assistant and later under-secretary of agriculture, helping Henry Wallacewith the day-to-day administrative details. Very much devoted to the president, Tugwell also served in a number of other capacities during his New Deal tenure: coordinating USDA reorganization, conservation, relief efforts; implementing Puerto Rican sugar quotas; and serving as general apologist for the New Deal. It was, however, Tugwell's involvement in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) that not only most interested Tugwell, but also got him into serious trouble. Not a firm supporter of AAA director George Peek, Tugwell was active in blocking Peek's marketing efforts and eventually contributed to Peek's resignation. Although Tugwell saw Peek's resignation as somewhat of a victory, it proved to be a hollow one. With the succession of Chester Davis, the AAA became more committed to domestic allotment. Davis, moreover, was not fond of anyone who disagreed with him, and he acted to dismiss Jerome Frank and other so-called liberals in the AAA Legal Division who overstepped their authority in dealing with southern landlords. The famous AAA purge was a direct affront to Tugwell, who immediately offered to resign. Roosevelt refused his resignation and put Tugwell in charge of the newly-formed Resettlement Administration (RA). Although Tugwell only served one year as director of the RA, his accomplishments were extensive as he worked to resettle farmers to better lands while implementing such visionary programs as the famous "greenbelt" towns. By 1936, however, "Tugwell, Rex" or "Rex the Red," as he was not so affectionately known to his critics, became too much of a burden for Roosevelt. At the instigation of James Farley, Roosevelt accepted Tugwell's resignation.

Receiving a cold shoulder from Columbia and other academic institutions, Tugwell entered the business world as a vice-president for the American Molasses Company, owned and operated by his friend Charles Taussig. Shortly thereafter, Tugwell left the company and accepted the chairmanship of the New York City Planning Commission under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. By the 1939 to 1940 period, Tugwell had become so committed to the concept of planning in the American economy that he believed a "fourth power" or branch of the American government needed to be created to implement planning. Although Tugwell actually did a fine job in New York, he ran head-on into New York's Robert Moses, who eventually was able to limit Tugwell's effectiveness. Harold Ickes, the secretary of the Department of the Interior in Roosevelt's cabinet and a friend of Tugwell, intervened and offered Tugwell the opportunity to study Puerto Rican land holdings in 1940. Tugwell's study was so impressive that Ickes recommended to the president that Tugwell be appointed governor of the island. Roosevelt agreed and Tugwell served as governor from 1941 to 1946. Working closely with Luis Munoz Marin and the Populares Party, Tugwell helped sustain a political makeover in the island republic.

After 1946, Tugwell was much more in demand in academics. Initially moving from university to university, he eventually settled at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara. From then until his death in 1979, Tugwell wrote a remarkable number of books, articles, book reviews, and seminar papers. He focused his attention on four specific themes: the atomic bomb, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a new American constitution, and planning. Writing almost compulsively throughout his life, Tugwell longed for a future when another Franklin D. Roosevelt would appear and the United States would achieve its potential to alleviate poverty and suffering and become the land of abundance that Tugwell always envisioned. In the end, despite all the attacks made on him, Rexford G. Tugwell remained an individual who deeply believed in America's potential.