July 1937

US and World Events plus Additional Resources

   
 
 
 

Governor Herbert Lehman (D-NY) opposed President Roosevelt’s Judicial Reorganization Bill. He urged Senator Robert F. Wagner to vote against the measure, which he felt would create a “greatly dangerous precedent.” July 19, 1937.

Lehman is pictured here to the left of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1930.

Herbert H. Lehman (1878-1956) was a leading liberal in New York State politics from 1928 to 1959, serving as its governor, 1933 to 1942, and U.S. Senator, 1949 to 1956. Lehman was born in New York City in 1878, the son of German-Jewish immigrant, Mayer Lehman, one of three founders of the Lehman Brothers investment banking firm. In 1899 Herbert graduated from Williams College and joined the family business becoming a partner by 1908.  After World War I, Lehman became active in Democratic politics. In 1928 he became Chairman of the Democratic Party’s Finance Committee and was elected lieutenant governor of New York on the Franklin D. Roosevelt ticket in both 1928 and 1930. After FDR became president, Lehman was elected New York’s governor. Lehman became close friends to the Roosevelts, particularly Eleanor, with whom he worked as director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration from 1943 to 1946.