Oscar Straus (politician)

Oscar Solomon Straus (December 23, 1850 – May 3, 1926) was an American politician and diplomat. He served as United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1909, making him the first Jewish United States Cabinet Secretary.[1] Straus also served in four presidential administrations as America's representative to the Ottoman Empire and ran for Governor of New York in 1912 as the Progressive Party candidate.

Oscar Straus
3rd United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor
In office
December 17, 1906  March 5, 1909
PresidentTheodore Roosevelt
Preceded byVictor H. Metcalf
Succeeded byCharles Nagel
United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
In office
July 1, 1887  June 16, 1889
Envoy
PresidentGrover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Preceded bySamuel S. Cox
Succeeded bySolomon Hirsch
In office
October 15, 1898  December 20, 1899
Minister
PresidentWilliam McKinley
Preceded byJames Angell
Succeeded byJohn Leishman
In office
October 4, 1909  September 3, 1910
PresidentWilliam Howard Taft
Preceded byJohn Leishman
Succeeded byWilliam Rockhill
Personal details
Born
Oscar Solomon Straus

(1850-12-23)December 23, 1850
Otterberg, Bavaria, Germany
DiedMay 3, 1926(1926-05-03) (aged 75)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Other political
affiliations
Independence
Progressive
Spouse(s)Sarah Straus
EducationColumbia University (BA, LLB)

Early life and education

He was born in Otterberg, Germany. He emigrated with his parents to the United States, and settled in Talbotton, Georgia. At the close of the Civil War he moved to New York City where he graduated from Columbia College in 1871 and Columbia Law School in 1873. He practiced law until 1881, and then became a merchant, retaining his interest in literature.[2]

Diplomatic career

He first served as United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire from 1887 to 1889 and again from 1898 to 1899.

At the outbreak of the Philippine–American War in 1899,[3] Secretary of State John Hay asked Strauss to approach Sultan Abdul Hamid II to request that the Sultan write a letter to the Moro Sulu Muslims of the Sulu Sultanate telling them to submit to American suzerainty and American military rule.[4] The Sulu sultanate agreed,[5][6][7][8] with Straus writing that the "Sulu Mohammedans ... refused to join the insurrectionists and had placed themselves under the control of our army, thereby recognizing American sovereignty."[4]

President McKinley sent a personal letter of thanks to Straus and said that its accomplishment had saved the United States at least twenty thousand troops in the field."[9][10]

The Moro Rebellion then broke out in 1904 with war raging between the Americans and Moro Muslims and atrocities committed against Moro Muslim women and children such as the Moro Crater Massacre.

On January 14, 1902, he was named a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to fill the place left vacant by the death of ex-President Benjamin Harrison.[11]

Career as Secretary of Commerce and Labor and Ambassador to Ottoman Empire

In December 1906, Straus became the United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt. This position also placed him in charge of the United States Bureau of Immigration. During his tenure, Straus ordered immigration inspectors to work closely with local police and the United States Secret Service to find, arrest and deport immigrants with Anarchist political beliefs under the terms of the Anarchist Exclusion Act.[12]

Straus left the Commerce Department in 1909 when William Howard Taft became president. Taft appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1909-1910. During the Presidency of William Howard Taft, an American strategy was to become involved in business transactions rather than military confrontations, a policy known as Dollar Diplomacy. It failed with respect to the Ottoman Empire because of opposition from ambassador Straus and to Turkish vacillation under pressure from the entrenched European powers who did not wish to see American competition. American trade remained a minor factor.[13]

In 1912, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor of New York on the Progressive and Independence League tickets. In 1915, he became chairman of the public service commission of New York State.[14]

He was president of the American Jewish Historical Society.[14] He is buried at Beth El Cemetery in Ridgewood, New York.

Family

The Straus family had several influential members including Straus's grandson Roger W. Straus, Jr., who started the publishing company of Farrar, Straus and Giroux; his brother, Isidor Straus, who perished aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912, served as a representative from New York City's 15th District, and was co-owner of the department store R. H. Macy & Co. along with another brother, Nathan; and nephew Jesse Isidor Straus, confidant of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ambassador to France from 1933 to 1936.

In 1882, Strauss married Sarah Lavanburg.[15] They had three children: Mildred Straus Schafer (born 1883), Aline Straus Hockstader (born 1889), and Roger Williams Straus (born 1891).[16][17]

Legacy

Washington, D.C., commemorates the achievements of this famous Jewish-German-American statesman in the Oscar Straus Memorial.

Works

  • The Origin of the Republican Form of Government in the United States (1886)
  • Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty (1894)
  • The Development of Religious Liberty in the United States (1896)
  • Reform in the Consular Service (1897)
  • United States Doctrine of Citizenship (1901)
  • Our Diplomacy with Reference to our Foreign Service (1902)
  • The American Spirit (1913)
  • Under Four Administrations, his memoirs (1922)

See also

References

  1. "Oscar S. Straus (1906–1909): Secretary of Commerce and Labor" Archived 2011-05-23 at the Wayback Machine, Miller Center, University of Virginia
  2. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Straus, Oscar Solomon" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  3. Idris Bal (2004). Turkish Foreign Policy in Post Cold War Era. Universal-Publishers. pp. 405–. ISBN 978-1-58112-423-1.
  4. Kemal H. Karpat (2001). The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State. Oxford University Press. pp. 235–. ISBN 978-0-19-513618-0.
  5. J. Robert Moskin (19 November 2013). American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service. St. Martin's Press. pp. 204–. ISBN 978-1-250-03745-9.
  6. Idris Bal (2004). Turkish Foreign Policy in Post Cold War Era. Universal-Publishers. pp. 406–. ISBN 978-1-58112-423-1.
  7. Akyol, Mustafa (December 26, 2006). "Mustafa Akyol: Remembering Abdul Hamid II, a pro-American caliph". Weekly Standard via History News Network.
  8. ERASMUS (July 26, 2016). "Why European Islam's current problems might reflect a 100-year-old mistake". The Economist.
  9. George Hubbard Blakeslee; Granville Stanley Hall; Harry Elmer Barnes (1915). The Journal of International Relations. Clark University. pp. 358–.
  10. The Journal of Race Development. Clark University. 1915. pp. 358–.
  11. Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Straus, Oscar Solomon" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  12. "To Drive Anarchists Out of the Country," New York Times, March 4, 1908, pp. 1-2.
  13. Naomi W. Cohen, "Ambassador Straus in Turkey, 1909-1910: A Note on Dollar Diplomacy." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 45.4 (1959) online
  14. Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Straus, Oscar Solomon" . Encyclopedia Americana.
  15. "Oscar S. Straus, Statesman and Philanthropist, Dies". Jewish Telegraph Agency. May 4, 1926. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  16. "Sarah Lavanburg Straus 1861 – 1945". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  17. "Morse, Mildred Hockstader Tiny". New York Times. July 9, 2005. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
Party political offices
Preceded by
None
Progressive Nominee for Governor of New York
1912
Succeeded by
Frederick M. Davenport
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Samuel S. Cox
United States Envoy to the Ottoman Empire
1887–1889
Succeeded by
Solomon Hirsch
Preceded by
James Angell
United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire
1898–1899
Succeeded by
John Leishman
Preceded by
John Leishman
United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
1909–1910
Succeeded by
William Rockhill
Political offices
Preceded by
Victor H. Metcalf
United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor
1906–1909
Succeeded by
Charles Nagel
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.