Papers: Assistant Secretary of State, 1938-44, and Ambassador to Brazil, 1945-46

144 Pages·2011·11.92 MB·English

Papers of
ADOLF A. SERLE, 1912-1974
Accession Numbers: Ms. 74-11, Ms. 74-14, Ms. 75-9, Ms. 83-11 ,
The papers were presented to the Library by Mrs. Adolf A. Serle in 1973,
1974, and 1982. Mrs. Berle's copyright interest in these papers has been do
nated to the' United States Government. However, Mrs. Serle and Travis S.
Jacobs published an edited version of Adolf A. Berle's diary under the title
Navigating the Rapids 1918-1971: From the Papers of Adolf A. Serle. Copy
right to that part of the diary published in Navigating the Rapids, which
amounts to approximately 20 percent of the total diary file, has been retained
by the publisher Harcourt Srace Jovanovich, Inc. Researchers who wish to re
produce or quote from copyrighted portions of the diary must. obtain permission
from the publisher.
Quantity: 98 linear feet (196,000 pages)
Restrictions: These papers contain documents restricted in accordance with
Executive Order 12356, and material that might be used to embarrass, harass,
or injure living persons has been closed.
Related Material: Transcript of the interview with Adolf A. Serle conducted
by the Columbia Oral History Project. Permission to cite or quote must be
obtained from Mrs. Adolf A. Serle.
Electrostptic copies of correspondence between Fletcher
Warren and A. A. Serle from the Warren Papers in East Texas State Univer
sity Library at Commerce, Texas 75428.
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ADOLF A. BERLE. 1895 - 1971
Biographical Sketch
Adolf A. Berle was born on January 29, 1895, in Boston, Massachusetts,
the second of four children of Dr. Adolf Augustus and Mary Augusta
(Wright) Berle. He graduated from Harvard College in 1913, after major
ing in history, and received his M.A. degree the following year. In
1916 at age twenty-one he became the youngest man to receive an LL.B.
degree from the Harvard Law School and began practicing with Louis D.
Brandeis's firm. When the United States entered World War I, he enlisted
in the Army. After receiving officer training at Plattsburg, New York,
he was commissioned a second lieutenant and served at the Army War College
in Washington, D.C. as an intelligence officer. In 1918 the Army sent him
to Santo Domingo to settle land titles for U.S. sugar companies in order
to increase sugar production for the war effort. He drafted a land law
that is still operative in the Dominican Republic. After the armistice he
remained in the Army and served with the American Commission to Negotiate
the Peace at Paris as an adviser on Russian, Polish, and Baltic affairs .
He protested the Versailles settlement in May, 1919, and requested to be
relieved from his duties with the Commission. His request was granted the
following month.
After his discharge in July, 1919, Berle moved to New York where he resumed
law practice with the firm of Rounds, Hatch, Dillingham, & Debevoise. He
became a volunteer worker with the Henry Street Settlement and, at the re
quest of the American Indian Defense Association, helped to secure the land
titles of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and assisted in drafting the
Pueblo Indian Land Law of 1924. He became a member of the firm of Lippitt
& Berle in 1924, and in 1929, he organized with his brother Rudolf the firm
of Berle and Berle. Meanwhile he had started teaching, first as a lecturer
at the Harvard Business School from 1924 to 1927, and then as associate
professor and professor of corporation law at Columbia University from 1927
to 1963. He was on leave of absence during World War II and became profes
sor emeritus in 1963. He served as special counsel to a committee of the
Ohio State Bar Association in revising the Ohio Corporation Law in 1926-
27, and in the same capacity to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission in
revising the Wisconsin Securities law in 1931-32.
Berle's association with Franklin D. Roosevelt began as a member of the
Brain Trust, a group headed by Raymond Moley which advised Governor Roose
velt during his campaign for the Presidency in 1932. Although he declined
a full-time position in the Roosevelt administration, he helped to write a
section of the Bankruptcy Act, assisted the Reconstruction Finance Corpora
tion in railroad and was special counsel to the R.F.C.
reorgani~ations,
from 1933 to 1938. He also participated in the Treasury Conference during
the "Bank Holiday" in March, 1933, and advised the government on stock ex
change legislation in 1933 and 1934. He went to Cuba in August, 1933, at
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the request of the State Department as financi al adviser to the American
Embassy in Havana. In 1934, he was elected a member of the Advisory Com
mittee of the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange.
As Chamberlain of the City of New York from 1934 to 1937, Berle worked to
improve the City's finances and to acquire and unify under public ownership
and control the rapid transit railroads. the office was abolished
V~en
in 1937, on his recommendation, he became temporary chairman of the Plan
ing Commission of the City of New York, a member of the City Housing Au
thority, and chairman of a committee to study New York's substitute
teacher system.
From 1938 to 1944, Berle was an Assistant Secretary of State. He took
particular interest in Latin American affairs serving as a U. S. dele-
gate to inter-American conferences in Lima (1938), and Havana (1940). (He
had been a U. S. delegate at Bueno Aires in 1936-37, and later attended the
conference at Mexico City in .1945.) His duties at the Department of State
included postwar planning, negotiating with Allied governments in exile,
coordinating,U.S. and foreign intelligence activities, evaluating trends in
international finance, drafting government statements on international
questions, and writing speeches for the President and administration offi
cials. He was president of the International Conference on Civil Aviation
in Chicago in 1944, and chairman of the United States melegation. He
served as United States ambassador to Brazil in 1945-46.
After the war Berle returned to law practice and teaching in New York. He
was chairman of the Liberal Party of New York State from 1947 to 1955, and
assisted such foundations as The Fund for the Republic, the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Committee on Human
Ecology during the 1950's and 1960's. He also maintained an interest in
Central and South American affairs and in 1956 assisted in the settle~ent
of a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. When John F. Kennedy was
running for the presidency in 1960, he asked Berle to be chairman of a
t ask force to study Latin American problems . On January 25, 1961, he was
made Consultant to the Secretary of State and on January 31, President
Kennedy set up the Interdepartmental Task Force on Latin America to coor
dinate "all policies and programs of concern to the Americas" with Berle
as chairman. He reported to the President and Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
He resigned from the State Department in July, 1961, after submitting to
the President the final report of the Task Force.
In addition to his teaching at Columbia, Berle was a lecturer at the United
States Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, 1954-65, Chairman
of the Board of the Ecole De l 'Europe Libre (Strasbourg, France), 1948-59,
and trustee of the University of the Andes Foundation. He was a Trustee
(1934-51) and Chairman of the Board of the Twentieth century Fund (1951-71),
as well as a Trustee of the Free Europe Committee (1948-63), Director,
Treasurer, and Chairman of the Board of the American Molasses Company
(1946-71), Director of the Savings Bank Trust Company, (1932-38), and
counsel thereafter, and Director of Nationwide Corporation, (1956-71).
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Mr . Berle's books include the immensely influential study The Modern
Corporation and Private Property (1932) written in collaboration with
Gardiner Means, Liquid Claims and National Wealth (1934) with Victoria
Pederson, The Natural Selection of Political Forces (1950), The 20th
Century Capitalist Revolution (1954), Power Without Property (1959),
Latin America; Diplomacy and Reality (1962), The American Economic
Republic (1963), and Power (196). He wrote numerous articles and book
reviews in law journals, Survey Graphic, The Reporter, New York Times,
Vital Speeches, Harper's Magazine, and other publications.
Adolf A. Berle died on February 17, 1971, in his home at 142 East Nine
teenth Street, in New York.
In 1973, Beatrice Bishop Berle, whom Adolf A. Berle married in December,
1927, and Travis Beal Jacobs produced an edited version of a diary kept
by Mr. Berle from 1937 to 1971. It was published by Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovich under the title Navigating the Rapids 1918-1971. Since no
formal diary was found for the years 1918-1936, the record was constructed
from Berle's correspondence and writings; his handwritten diary entries
for 1918-19, covering his service with the American Commission to Negoti
ate the Peace, and for 1923-24, describing his work with the Pueblo Indians;
excerpts from his wife's diary; and passages from his Columbia University
oral history transcript.
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DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
CONTAINER SERIES
1 - 3 Early Career. 1912-1924. 3 Containers.
This series contains correspondence, diary entries,
drafts of writings, memoranda, printed materials, and
records of Mr. Berle's college and military activities,
his services in Santo Domingo and on the staff of the
American Commission to Negotiate the Peace, his efforts
on behalf of the Henry Street Settlement, and his legis
lative work for the Pueblo Indians. The material is
filed alphabetically by subject or surname of corres
pondent. Bulk of material is from 1917-1924.
4 - 13 General Correspondence. 1928-1940. 10 Containers. (103)
The general correspondence is from Mr. Berle's law
office in New York City and is essentially personal in
nature. However, it also contains exchanges with promi
nent individuals and organizations about important issues.
Correspondents include George W. Anderson, James C.
Bonbright, W. Russell Bowie, Charles C. Burlingham,
Cassius M. Clay, M. W. Clement, Frederic R. Coudert,
William O. Douglas, Louis Faulkner, Foreign Policy As
sociation, Jerome Frank, Henry Street Settlement, James
M. Landis, David Lilienthal, George O. May, Gardiner
Means, Gilbert Montague, Peter Nehemkis, New York Stock
Exchange, Victoria Pederson, Austen Riggs, William Z.
Ripley, James Harvey Rogers, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Charles Taussig, Twentieth Centill'.y Fund, Lillian Wald,
Sumner Welles, and Carl M. Wheat. The correspondence
was originally in chronological order but was rearranged
alphabetically by surnames of individuals and names of
institutions and organizations. There is a small file of
letters from unidentified people and a container of re
ceipts at the end of the series. Most letters bear the
numbers 103, 103A or 103B.
14 Wisconsin Public Service Commission. 1931-1933.
1 Container. (482)
Correspondence, drafts of legislation, printed ma
terials, ana reports relating to the revision of the
Wisconsin securities or "Blue Sky" law. Mr. Berle served
as special counsel to the Wisconsin Public Service Com
mission for this purpose.
15 - 18 President Roosevelt's 1932 Campaign. 1932-1933.
4 Containers. (524)
Correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings,
printed materials, speech drafts, and writings related
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DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
CONTAINER SERIES
15 - 18 President Roosevelt's 1932 Campaign. 1932-1933.
Continued to Mr. Berle's activities as a member of Franklin D.
Roosevelt's "Brain Trust" during the 1932 presidential
campaign and the early months of the first Roosevelt
administration. The material has been divided into
three sub-series: general correspondence, subjects,
and speeches and writings, Correspondents include
Louis Faulkner, Felix Frankfurter, Raymond Moley,
W.Averill Harriman, Gilbert H. Montague, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, and J . H. Williams. Documents are numbered
524A - Correspondence, 524B - Various Material, 524D -
Anti-Trust, 524E - Railroads, 524F - Regulation of
Security Issues, 524G - Regulation of Branch Banking,
524H - Brain Trust. The Speech and Writings file was
created by removing materials from file 524B and sev
eral other files .
19 Reconstruction Finance Corporation. 1933-1937.
1 Container.
This series contains general correspondence for
1933, arranged alphabetically, addressed to Mr. Berle
at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation by public of
ficials and private citizens on a variety of subjects,
and business correspondence, arranged chronologically,
dealing with R.F.C. matters particularly railroads .
The business correspondence is file 103C. Correspond
ents include John W. Barriger III, Cassius M. Clay,
Leslie Craven, Hugh S. Johnson, and Jesse Jones. There
is additional R.F.C. material in the State Department
Subject File.
20 - 21 Blue Sky Laws . 1933-1939. 2 Containers. (542)
Articles, correspondence, drafts, memoranda, news
clippings, notes, pamphlet s, and speeches detailing
Mr. Berle's work on the Securities Act of 1933, and his
research into federal securities legislation which was
financed by the Commonwealth Foundation. A draft report
based on his research entitled "Administrative Control
of Security Issues" is contained at the end of the series .
Correspondents include Felix Frankfurter, John Dickinson,
George O. May, George Welwood Murray, Guido Pantaleoni,
Sam Rayburn, Daniel C. Roper, and Barry C. Smith. Not
all the documents listed in the folder entitled "List of
Materials in File 542" came to the Library with
Mr. Berle's papers .
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DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
CONTAINER SERIES
22 Stock Market Investigation. 1933-1934. 1 Container.
(577)
Correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings,
notes, and proposals documenting Mr. Berle's work on
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. He served on a
committee to study proposed stock exchange legislation
appointed by Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper in
the fall of 1933. Correspondents include Frank Altschul,
R. E. Desvernine, John Dickinson, Paul P. Gourrich and
James M. Landis.
23 - 24 New York Stock Exchange. 1934-1938. 2 Containers.
(621 and 667)
Mr. Berle was elected a member of the Advisory
Committee to the Board of Governors of the New York
Stock Exchange in 1934 and was active on its Committee
on Stock List. File 621 contains general correspond
ence and file 667 has projects worked on by the Commit
tee on Stock List.
25 - 26 Personal Correspondence. 1936-1938. 2 Containers,
This correspondence was addressed to Mr. Berle
at the Office of Chamberlain of the City of New York,
at Columbia University, and at his home, 142 East
19th Street, New York, New York, and relates to per
sonal affairs, business of the Chamberlain's office,
and teaching at Columbia. Prominent correspondents
include William O. Douglas, Alvin Johnson, Fiorello
LaGuardia, Thomas W. Lamont, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Samuel Seabury, Lillian Wald, and Sumner Welles . The
material is arranged alphabetically by subject or sur
name of correspondent.
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27 - 53 State Department Correspondence. 1938-1945.
27 Containers
This series contains correspondence from Mr. Berle' s
State Department files in Washington, D.C., arranged
alphabetica11y by surname of correspondent.
The first four folders in this series are from
his New York office file 685 State Department, 1938-
40. They contain lists of letters forwarded to his
Washington office (many of which were not with the
papers received at the Library); ""letters relating to
State Department matters; correspondence between
Mr. Berle and his sister, Lina W. Berle, about New York
business; and material about refugees. Another folder
DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
CONTAINER SERIES
27 - 53 State Department Correspondence. 1938-1945.
Continued from file 685 entitled "Monopoly Memorandum" was
placed irith materials on the Temporary National Eco
nomic Committee in the State Department Subject File.
As Assistant Secretary of State, he was charged
with coordination of financial questions with those
of policy; general supervision over the Financial
Division, the Passport Division, the Division of Inter
national Conferences (except fiscal), the Division of
International Communications (aviation only), the Divi
sion of Foreign Activity Correlation, the Translating
Bureau, and other matters connected with foreign
nationalities in the United States. He was also in
volved with general supervision of affairs relating to
Canada and Greenland and with coordinating wartime in
telligence matters.
54 - 73 State Department Subject File. 1938-1945.
20 Containers.
This series includes correspondence, drafts, memo
randa, notes, printed materials, reports, and speeches
relating to Mr. Berle's diplomatic and political acti
viti es while in the State Department and to the various
departmental boards and committees on which he served .
It contains copies of his memoranda to President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull,
and Under Secretaries of State Edward J. Stettinius and
Sumner Welles . There are also files on Inter-American
conferences (1936-40) and the International Civil Avi
ation Conference of 1944. The files are arranged in al
phabetical order.
Boards and Committees on which Mr. Berle served in
cluded: the St. Lawrence Advisory Committee of the St.
Lawrence - Great Lakes Waterway Project; the Joint Eco
nomic Conference, Canada"and the United States; the
Board of Trustees and Executive Committee, Export-Import
Bank; the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory
Committee; the Department of State Policy Committee; the
Department of State Committee on Post-War Programs; the
Interdepartmental Committee on Use of Lend-Lease Funds
to carry out Hyde Park Agreement; the Board of Economic
Operations of the Department of State; and the Special
Interdepartmental Committee on Maritime Labor.
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DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
CONTAINER SERIES
74 - 77 Ambassador to Brazil. Correspondence, 1945-1946.
4 Containers.
Correspondence and memoranda relating to Mr. Berle's
diplomatic business while ambassador to Brazil,
January 18, 1945-February 27, 1946. The material is ar
ranged alphabetically by subject and surname of correspondent.
78 - 80 Daily Appointment Diaries. 1926, 1934-1944.
3 Container.s.
The file contains Mr. Berle's appointment diaries,
and appointment schedules kept by him on cardboard
sheets for 1934 and 1936-39. The appointment diaries
also list daily telephone calls. Appointments and phone
calls are arranged alphabetically by subject or surname
of correspondent on 3" X 5" slips of paper for the years
1939, 1940, 1941, and 1942. The indices in the front of
the appointment diaries were apparently make from these
slips.
81 - 88 Personal Correspondence. 1946-1971. 8 Containers.
This correspondence is divided into three time
periods: 1946-58, 1961, and 1963-71. The 1946-58 and
1963-71 letters are from Mr. Berle's law office at
70 Pine Street in New York. They were originally ar
ranged chronologically but were put in alphabetical or
der by surname of correspondent. Principal corres
pondents include Raymond P. Alexander, Willard Barber,
Romulo Betancourt, John Burns, Luis Manuel DeBayle,
James Farley, Jose Figueres, Abe Fortas, Robert Hooker,
C. D. Jackson, Louis Johnson, Jesse Jones, David
Lilienthal, Frederick Lyon, Georges-Henri Martin,
Maurice Nabuco, John Pelenyi, John Plakias, Nelson
Rockefeller, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., M. P. L.
Steenberghe, Ramon Villeda-Morales, Fletcher Warren,
Sumner Welles, William Wieland, and Robert Woodward.
The 1961 file has correspondence directed to Mr. Berle
at the Department of State.
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89 - 98 Subject Files. 1946-1971. 10 Containers .
Correspondence, drafts, memoranda, minutes of meet
ings, printed materials, reports, and speeches relating
to political affairs and international relations arranged
alphabetically. The series was created from miscellane
ous topical files and files grouped by Mr. Berle under
the heading "Public Subjects." This and the following
series, Committees 1946-71, document his work as
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DESCRIPTION OF SERIES
CONTAINER SERIES
89 - 98 Subject Files . 1946-1971.
Continued consultant to both government and private organizations
on economic, financial, foreign affairs, and political
questions during the post-war years. Topics covered
are atomic power, the Far East, foreign aid, immigra
tion, Latin America, the Marshall plan, national and
New York politics, NATO, Point IV, un-American activi
t ies, and the United Nations. Correspondents include
Robert Alexander, Povel Bang-Jensen, W. Tapley Bennett,
Jr., Spruille Braden, Ben Davidson, Luis Manuel De
Bayle, Henrik de Kauffmann, Jerome Frank, Richard Good
win, Lincoln Gordon, Harold B. Hoskins, Cordell Hull,
Herschel Johnson, Louis Johnson, Henry Kissinger,
Camille Lherisson, Ted Moscoso, Harold Moskovit, Richard
M. Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, Dean Rusk, Carleton S.
Smith, Ted Sorenson, Fletcher Warren, Sumner Welles,
Arthur P. Whitaker , Alexander Wiley, and Miguel Ydigoras
Fuentes .
99 - 110 Committees . 1946-1971. 12 Containers
Correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, notes,
printed materials, and reports relating to committees of
organizations to which Mr. Berle belonged or in whi ch he
was asked to participate. The files are arranged alpha
betically by name of committee or organization. Topics
covered include anti-trust and banking legislation (Com
mittee on Banking and Currency, House JUdiciary Committee);
civil liberties (American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom
Academy Bill); education (Harvard: Committee to Visit the
Department of History, University of the Andes); inter
national relations (Council on Foreign Relations); Latin
America (Inter-American Association for Freedom and De
mocracy, Inter-American Committee, Brazilian Cultural
Society); post-war Europe (American Committee on Europe,
American Council on Germany, Inc., Committee on Inter
national Law, Independent League for European Cooperation);
and refugee~ (International Relief and Rescue Committee) .
111 - 114 Commission on Money and Credit. 1957-1962. 4 Containers .
Articles, correspondence, memoranda, pamphlets, and
reports arranged in chronological order. The Commission
was created by the Committee for Economic Development in
1957 to investigate the monetary and credit system of the
United States. Mr. Berle was a member of the Commission
from 1958 to 1960 when it completed its work.