Baruch, Bernard Mannes

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BARUCH, BERNARD MANNES

Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) used his extraordinary talent as a stock market speculator to amass a sizable fortune at an early age. A generous contributor to the Democratic Party, he achieved influence and renown as an informal, and formal, consultant and adviser to the White House.

Born in Camden, South Carolina, in 1879, Baruch was the son of a doctor in the Confederate Army, and a descendant of one of the few Jewish families in South Carolina. The family moved to New York City when Baruch was eleven. He attended public schools and, in 1889, graduated from the College of the City of New York.

Baruch's interests in business and finance were evident early. He began his Wall Street career in the 1890s, as a runner for the firm A.A. Houseman & Co., which later merged into what became Merrill Lynch. He ventured out entirely on his own in his late twenties, and by the age of 30 he was on his way the becoming a very wealthy man. Baruch made his money as a speculator, often by selling short. Shrewdly and boldly playing the markets in copper, railroads, and sugar, sometimes with the help of insider tips, Baruch accumulated a $15 million fortune by the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918).

As his fortune increased, Baruch became more cautious and, in some instances, tended to sell early. During the stock market crash of 1929, his financial assets fell from more than $22 million to about $16 million, but his maxim, "run quickly" enabled him to escape Wall Street's free fall relatively unscathed. He continued to invest in the stock market throughout his life. Though he continued to build on his substantial wealth, he never became, as many believed from Baruch's very effective self-promotion, one of the richest men in America.

Baruch's wealth did not blind him to the world outside the stock market. He played an active role in the great events of his time. For most of his long life, he dedicated much of his time and efforts to public service. Still in his early thirties in 1912, Baruch became an informal adviser to President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). In 1916 Wilson appointed him to the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense, and then made him chairman of the War Industries Board in 1917. In 1919, following the end of World War I, Baruch was appointed to the Supreme Economic Council at the Versailles Peace Conference, a meeting of world leaders to set the terms of the German surrender, and he advised Wilson on terms of the peace.

In the 1930s, with the Democrats back in the White House, Baruch maintained a long, but not close, relationship with President Franklin Roosevelt (1933–1945). When World War II (1939–1945) broke out, Roosevelt called on the expertise Baruch developed through his running of the War Industries Board during World War I to advise the government on wartime economic mobilization. Among his other contributions to the war effort, Baruch was instrumental in a successful effort to overcome bottlenecks between the United States and several South American countries, obtaining rubber imports vital to the war effort.

In 1946, after World War II ended, Baruch was asked by President Harry Truman to head the American delegation to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, a group representing the major world powers, established to find international control mechanisms for the use and proliferation of nuclear energy. His proposal to control atomic energy, known as the Baruch Plan, required that any agreement on atomic weapons must contain veto-proof sanctions on offenders and include provisions for inspection of all atomic facilities. The then-Soviet Union could not accept these conditions, and Baruch's plan was rejected by a United Nations vote on New Year's Eve 1946.

Baruch's 40-year career as a close adviser to U.S. presidents gave him a reputation as "the parkbench sage," and he was one the most respected men of his time. When he died at age 94 in 1965, he had come to represent to many Americans the personification of the term "elder statesman."

See also: Council of National Defense, Speculation, Wall Street, War Industries Board, World War I, World War II