Manning, Bishop William T. (1866 – 1949)
Price: $45.00
Description:UK-born American Episcopal Bishop of New York (1921-46). Professor of Systematic Divinity at the School of Theology of the University of the South; and Rector of Trinity Church, NY.
TLS – Typewritten Letter signed, one page, 1938, as Bishop of New York. Addressed to General Hugh S. Johnson. Reads: I have your letter of December 16th and I hope your efforts will meet with great success. The demands upon my time and strength however are such that I feel I must not serve as a member of the Committee. As the years pile up I am finding myself obligated to give up much committee work instead of taking on new obligations.
At one time, General Johnson was a member of the Brain Trust of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932 – 34). He wrote numerous speeches for FDR and helped to plan the New Deal. Appointed head of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) in 1933, he was highly energetic in the campaign to reorganize American business to reduce competition and raise wages and prices. Johnson even made the cover of Time Magazine, so celebrated was he. Unfortunately, Johnson also had a dark side. A few years after the NRA was established, a Supreme Court ruling terminated the program and Johnson left the FDR administration. In the view of some historians, Johnson was seen as being domineering, abusive, outspoken and unable to work cooperatively with his peers. This may have been one reason that Bishop Manning “distanced” himself from involvement in yet another campaign.
Manning led a major $10 million campaign for additional construction on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and directed a program to train and employ men from the neighborhood as skilled artisans during the Great Depression and later.