| his particular bastion was often not the one that dictated policy, especially in Congress. He returned to private life more convinced than ever about the foundational creed of capitalism and the proper role of the state. “If industry is to be capable of continuous progress, it must be healthy. To be healthy, it must be profitable. To be profitable, it must live in a climate of reasonable regulations and reasonable costs. And if we are to have a reasonable climate, the voice of reasonable people must be heard in volume at least equal to the minority of radicals who doubt the value of private enterprise… If we are to look to industry to defend us in the future, I am firmly convinced that we must be prepared to defend it today.” As Lovett was explicating his views to his partners, Averell’s deputy in the Moscow embassy was doing much the same to the makers of policy in Washington. In February 1946, as Western Europe and Central Europe grappled with a winter of deprivation, George Kennan consolidated into one document his assessment of the Soviet Union. Rarely has policy been so clearly defined and articulated, and rarely has one document so shaped the future trajectory of a country and by extension the world. We will never know what U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union would have been had Kennan not penned his “long telegram.” We do know that after it was sent and circulated in official Washington, there would be |
of the opening of the New York office by the first James Brown. Yes, the firm had been around for more than twenty years by the time the New York branch was opened, but for the partners and descendants then managing Brown Brothers, the New York office held a special place. The celebration was held on December 19, 1925, at the University Club, another palace designed by the Gilded Age architects McKim, Mead & White. The club still stands at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street as a paean to its era, its burnished wood and downward lamps giving off a glow barely sufficient to read the afternoon papers but more than enough light and shadow to project an image of affluence. The Brown’s anniversary dinner was hosted by James Brown, fitting given that the party was partly in honor of his grandfather. The event was almost a cliché of what you would imagine such an event to be. If it had been filmed for a movie, critics would surely have panned the scene as unimaginative and derivative. But it was true to its time and place. The menu consisted of Clear Green Turtle Soup au Xérès, (a demi-glace then at the height of French culinary fashion), Queen and Ripe Olives, Filet of Sole, Supreme of Pheasant with Currant Jelly, Salad Florida with French Dressing and Cream Cheese, and Biscuit Tortoni with Marrons and Macaroons. The theme of the meal was “a century of service.” Speaking on behalf of the firm’s staff |
