biography
| name: |
Mellon, Andrew (William)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1855–1937)
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| biography:
| Financier, public official, and philanthropist, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Taking over his father's banking house (1882), he built a business empire by shrewdly anticipating growth industries. He helped found the Union Trust Co of Pittsburgh (1898), the Gulf Oil Corp (1895), the Pittsburgh Coal Co (1899), the Aluminum Company of America, and the company that built the Panama Canal locks. A conservative Republican, as secretary of the treasury under presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover (1921–32), he stressed policies aimed at reducing the national debt. He drew fire by cutting income-tax rates substantially as part of a tax-revision programme to aid business and the wealthy. He forged agreements with European governments for repayment of their World War 1 debts, and served as ambassador to Britain (1932–3). He established the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research (1913) and he endowed the National Gallery of Art (1937). |
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