Moley, Raymond Charles

Related Category: Political Science: Biographies

(mō´lē), 1886–1975, American political economist, b. Berea, Ohio, grad. Baldwin-Wallace College, 1906, Ph.D. Columbia, 1918. He taught at Western Reserve Univ. (1916–19) and at Columbia after 1923, becoming professor of public law (1928) and an expert on the treatment of criminals. He was an economic adviser to Gov. Alfred E. Smith and became a central figure in the Brain Trust, a group of advisers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After Roosevelt was elected President, Moley served (1933) as Assistant Secretary of State and delegate to the World Economic Conference at London, resigning because he felt that Roosevelt did not support him. As editor of Today (1933–37) and later associate editor of Newsweek, he energetically criticized Roosevelt's administration. He wrote much on government, the treatment of criminals, and politics. His writings include After Seven Years (1939), which deals with the Roosevelt administration, 27 Masters of Politics (1949), The Republican Opportunity (1962), and The First New Deal, with E. A. Rosen (1966).