Raymond Moley

Raymond Moley
Born	September 27, 1886 Berea, Ohio
Died	February 18, 1975 (age 88) Phoenix, Arizona
Occupation	Presidential adviser, professor of law, author
Nationality	American

Raymond Charles Moley (September 27, 1886 in Berea, Ohio – February 18, 1975 in Phoenix, Arizona) was a leading New Dealer who became its bitter opponent before the end of the Great Depression.

The son of Felix James and Agnes Fairchild Moley,^[1] he was educated at Baldwin-Wallace College and Oberlin College and received his PhD from Columbia University in 1918. He taught in several schools in Ohio until 1914. In 1916 he was appointed instructor and assistant professor of politics at Western Reserve University and from 1919 was director of the Cleveland Foundation. In 1918–19 he was also director of Americanization work under the Ohio State Council of Defense. He joined the Barnard College faculty in 1923, then became a professor of law at Columbia University from 1928–1954, where he was a specialist on the criminal justice system.

Moley supported then-New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt, and it was Moley who recruited fellow Columbia professors to form the original "Brain Trust" to advise Roosevelt during his presidential campaign of 1932. Despite ridicule from editorial and political cartoonists, the "Brain Trust" went to Washington and became powerful figures in Roosevelt's New Deal, with Moley writing important speeches for the president. For example, he wrote the majority of Roosevelt's first inaugural address, although he is not credited with penning the famous line, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He was responsible for FDR's use of the term "the Forgotten Man" in earlier speeches.^[2] He claimed credit for inventing the term "New Deal,"^[3] though its precise provenance remains open to debate. Moley also wrote various pamphlets and articles on the teaching of government. Praising the new president's first moves in March 1933, he concluded that capitalism "was saved in eight days."^{[citation needed]}

In mid-1933 Moley began his break with Roosevelt, and although he continued to write speeches for the president until 1936, he became increasingly critical of his policies, eventually becoming a conservative Republican. He wrote a column for Newsweek magazine from 1937 to 1968, and became an early contributor to the free market publication, The Freeman, and, later, the nation's leading conservative periodical National Review.^[4] In these roles, he became one of the best known critics of the New Deal and liberalism in general. Moley's After Seven Years (New York: 1939) was one of the first in-depth attacks on the New Deal, and remains one of the most powerful.

Moley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon on April 22, 1970.

Publications

He wrote several books including:

• Lessons in Democracy (1919)
• Commercial Recreation (1919)
• Facts for Future Citizens (1922)
• After Seven Years (1939; online e-book)
• How to Keep Our Liberty (1952; online e-book)

References

1. ^ Moley, Raymond. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 1997 Jul 21. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
2. ^ Shlaes, Amity, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, Harper Collins, 2007.
3. ^ Three phonotapes of interviews of Raymond Moley, 1970, relating to Franklin D. Roosevelt and The First New Deal and Moley's diary; Raymond Moley papers; Audio-Visual file; Hoover Institution Archives.
4. ^ Chamberlain, John, A Life With the Printed Word, Regnery, 1982, p.138; Agnew, Jean-Christophe, and Rosenzweig, Roy, A Companion to Post-1945 America, Blackwell, 2002, p.309.

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.

Persondata
Name	Moley, Raymond
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 27, 1886
Place of birth	Berea, Ohio
Date of death	February 18, 1975
Place of death	Phoenix, Arizona