Oscar S. Cox Papers | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

Collection Overview

Title: Oscar S. Cox Papers

Primary Creator: Cox, Oscar

Extent: 67.7 Cubic Feet

Arrangement: The papers are arranged into eight series. Those series are generally arranged alphabetically, and then chronologically.

Date Acquired: 08/03/1967

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The papers are divided into eight series. The first five focus on Cox's various roles as a legal and adminstrative council in the president's administration up to and during World War II (1938-1945). The contents are of an official nature, except for personal correspondence which is confined to paragraphs in otherwise official letters, and diaries. They reflect Cox's involvement in his various federal government posts, but because of his many assignments, often held concurrently, the files overlap. General Counsel, Lend-Lease Administration and Office of Emergency Management material, are located both in the files pertaining to lend-lease and the Justice Department.

Collection Historical Note

Oscar Sydney Cox was born in Portland, Maine, on December 3, 1905. He attended Masschusetts Institute of Technology, and received his Ph.B. (1927) and LL.B. (1929) from Yale University. Cox was associated with the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, and a member of both the Supreme Court and New York bars from 1929 to 1934. He was appointed the City of New York's assistant corporation counsel in charge of taxes (1934), and held this post until 1938. His federal government career began in 1938 when he was appointed Assistant to the General Counsel, U. S. Treasury Department, a post he held until 1941. Cox then served as General Counsel of both the Lend-Lease Administration and the Office of Emergency Management (1941-1943); Assistant Solicitor General of the United States (Feb., 1942-Dec., 1943); General Counsel, Foreign Economic Administration (Dec., 1943-Jan., 1945); and Deputy Administrator, Foreign Economic Administration (Jan.-Oct., 1945). Mr. Cox died in Washington, D. C. on October 4, 1966.

Administrative Information

Repository: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

Access Restrictions: This collection is available for use by the general public.

Use Restrictions: These papers contain documents restricted in accordance with Executive Order 11652; also material which might be used to embarrass, harass or injure living persons has been closed.

Acquisition Source: Mrs. Oscar Cox

Acquisition Method: Donation

Related Materials: Material relating to Oscar Cox will be found in PPF 8746 (Oscar Cox). Material related to his service in the Treasury Department will be found in PSF: Treasury and OF 21 (Treasury Department); Lend-Lease and OF 4193 (Lend-Lease Agreements); Office of Solicitor General in OF 10-F (Solicitor General); and Foreign Economic Administration in OF 5430 (Foreign Economic Administration).

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Alphabetical File],
[Series 2: Treasury Department Files, 1938-1941],
[Series 3: Justice Department Files, 1941-1943],
[Series 4: Lend Lease File],
[Series 5: United Nations File],
[Series 6: Subject File, 1944-1963],
[Series 7: Diaries and Related Materials],
[Series 8: Clippings],
[All]

Series 2: Treasury Department Files, 1938-1941

Correspondence for the period 1938-41 (Containers 38-50) arranged alphabetically by subject. This series is concerned with Treasury Department matters during Cox's tenure as Assistant to the General Counsel. Containers 51-58 are copies of Congressional bills and resolutions relating to the Treasury Department, filed chronologically.

Box 38

Bedtime Stories
British - New Procurement and Financing, 1940
Budget
Civil Service, President's Committee on Improvement
Civil Service, President's Committee on Improvement (third meeting)
Comptroller of the Currency, 1939
Comptroller of the Currency, 1940

Box 39

Comptroller of the Currency - Legal Staff
Council of National Defense and the Advisory Commission - History of
Declaratory Administrative Rulings
Economic Defense
Economic Defense - Embargo
Erie Forge Company
Federal Income Taxes

Box 40

General Council - Staff Letters
Government Contracts
Helvering v, Hallock
Income Tax Article (by William T. Plumb)
Income Tax Rulings
Inland Waterways Corporation
Inter-Office Correspondence, 1938-1940
Inter-Office Correspondence, 1941

Box 41

Lawyers - Miscellaneous Correspondence
Legal Aptitude Tests
Library of Congress
Miscellaneous
Monopoly Investigation
Monopoly Investigation - Bureau of Standards

Box 42

Monopoly Investigation - Clippings
Monopoly Investigation - Gov't. Purchasing
Monopoly Investigation - Lobbies
Monopoly Investigation - Miscellaneous Correspondence
Monopoly Study - Procedural
Monopoly Investigation - Proposals

Box 43

Monopoly Investigation - Study of Substantive Law
Monopoly Investigation - Temporary National Economic Committee
Narcotics - Personnel
Narcotics - Personnel Survey
National Defense - British Contracts
National Defense Contracts
National Defense Contracts (Clippings)

Box 44

National Defense - Clippings
National Defense - Contract Law
National Defense Council
National Defense - Financing
National Defense - Housing
National Defense - Health and Medical Committee
National Defense Legislative Index

Box 45

National Defense - Packard-Rolls Royce Merlin Engines
National Defense - Sale or Exchange of Material (1)
National Defense - Sale or Exchange of Material (2)
National Defense - Sale or Exchange of Material (3)

Box 46

National Defense - Sale or Exchange of Material (4)
National Defense - Taxation
Navy Department - Armor Plate Production
Office of Production Management
Oliphant, Herman: Speech to TNEC, 1938

Box 47

Oliphant, Herman: Speech to National Lawyers' Guild, 1938
Oliphant, Herman: Speech on International Revenue, 1939
Oliphant, Herman: Article, "Trade Associations and the Law", for Dun's Review, 1939
Oliphant, Herman: Writings
Opinions

Box 48

Pending Mail, Report of Personnel, July 1940-December 1940
Praticing Law Institute
President Liaison Committee
Priorities and Commandeering
Procurement
Review of Administrative Orders
Seamen
Secret Sessions of Congress

Box 49

Silberblatt & Lasker v. U.S.
Silberblatt & Lasker v . U.S.: Draft material used in Opinion
Silberblatt & Lasker v . U.S.: Decision and Opinion
Silver
Stabilization - Executive Order Safeguarding
Subsidy Payments Opinion
Taxation - General
Taxation - Governmental Securities and Salaries
Taxation of Interstate Commerce Transactions

Box 50

Tax Exemption
Travel
Treasury Legal Division Personnel - Statistics
Treasury History
Treasury Regulations, Scope and Effect of (Survey)
Treasury, Solicitor and General Counsel of
Title 5 of U.S.C.A. Memoranda
Undistributed Profits Tax
United States v. Hendler (Standard Oil of California)
War Profits Taxation
Waters and Harbor Control
Wenchel, John Philip: Speeches

Box 51

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department, 1939

Box 52

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department (1), 1940

Box 53

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department (2), 1940

Box 54

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department (3), 1940

Box 55

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department (4), 1940

Box 56

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department (5), 1940

Box 57

Congressional Bills and Resolutions: re Treasury Department, 1941 and 1948

Box 58

Revenue Acts, 1926-1939
Appropriations Acts, 1940-1941
Defense Aid - Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1941