UNPRECEDENTED POWER: Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good

UNPRECEDENTED POWER:
Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good

Steven fenberg

“A must-read for those wanting to learn how a great nation—and a great man—can respond to difficult challenges.”

James A. Baker III

61^st US Secretary of State

“Steven Fenberg has given us a wonderful biography of a man who played a critical role in the most tumultuous years of the American Century, bringing Jones back to vivid life.”

Jon Meacham

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian

UNPRECEDENTED POWER:
Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good

Steven fenberg

“A must-read for those wanting to learn how a great nation—and a great man—can respond to difficult challenges.”

James A. Baker III

61^st U.S. Secretary of State

“Steven Fenberg has given us a wonderful biography of a man who played a critical role in the most tumultuous years of the American Century, bringing Jones back to vivid life.”

Jon Meacham

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian

Next to the President, no man in the Government and probably in the United States wields greater powers.

Saturday Evening Post, November 30, 1940

Reviews

“If ever a man personified the word titan, it was Jesse H. Jones. His influence was felt around the nation and the world when he was a chief architect of the plans that restored the US economy during the Great Depression and militarized industry in time to win World War II. Steven Fenberg’s biography, Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good, is a compelling story of a Houstonian who wielded power in ways that helped build his city and his country into powerhouses. It is a must-read for those wanting to learn how a great nation—and a great man—can respond to difficult challenges.”

“Jesse Jones is one of those vital figures who has inexplicably slipped into the historical shadows. Now Steven Fenberg has given us a wonderful biography of a man who played a critical role in the most tumultuous years of the American Century, bringing Jones back to vivid life.”

“Unprecedented Power is the story of a Tennessee kid turned Texas businessman, who, with some help, shapes the largest city in the South, helps the United States survive the Great Depression, and, while he’s at it, mobilizes the nation to win World War II… Inlaid in Jesse Jones’s biography is the suggestion that government can—if it chooses—ignite the economy without falling headlong into socialism… An economic turnaround story like Fenberg’s reads almost like a fairytale. Only it isn’t.”
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“In this meticulously researched, briskly written biography, Steven Fenberg… not only recovers the forgotten history of this key player but also intervenes forcefully in contemporary historical and political debates about the New Deal and the nature of American politics… Recovering the history of a largely forgotten New Deal figure, Fenberg’s biography reminds readers just how much New Dealers accomplished and how they accomplished it.”

“Given his unprecedented power—which provides the apt title of Steven Fenberg’s meaty new biography—it is no wonder than in 1941 TIME magazine dubbed Jones the second most powerful man in Washington (after President Franklin D. Roosevelt). Roosevelt himself teasingly called him ‘Jesus H. Jones.’…Fenberg’s comprehensive biography should revive interest in this remarkable capitalist and public servant.”
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“Prior to the publication of Unprecedented Power, journalists and acquaintances of the powerful Texan had written the only biographies of Jones. For those who want to know how Jones viewed the world in which he operated, this is the book for them.”
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“Roosevelt chose Jones to head the RFC, which rapidly morphed into a leading institution of the New Deal, with chief responsibility for getting the economy back on track. By 1934, Jones faced problems similar to issues today… [Unprecedented Power is] a somewhat forgotten page of U.S. history that holds enormous relevance today.”
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“Fenberg expands on the PBS special he produced a decade ago and offers insight into a man whose economic and political acumen would come in very handy today.”

“If you don’t know about Jesse H. Jones and the heavy hands he played in Houston and Washington in the last century, you should read this book.”

“Fenberg may be the ultimate authority on Jones.”
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Awards

2017 Houston Chronicle
Houston Reading Challenge Selection

2015 Julia Ideson
Honorable Mention Award

2013 San Antonio Conservation Society Citation

2012 East Texas Historical Association
Ottis Lock Award

2011 Texas Institute of Letters Carr P. Collins Award for Best Non-Fiction Book

2017 Houston Chronicle
Houston Reading Challenge Selection

2012 East Texas Historical Association
Ottis Lock Award

2011 Texas Institute of Letters Carr P. Collins Award for Best Non-Fiction Book

2013 San Antonio Conservation Society Citation

2015 Julia Ideson
Honorable Mention Award

In all the U.S. today there is only one man whose power is greater: Franklin Roosevelt.

TIME magazine, January 13, 1941

Articles & Presentations

He has allocated and loaned more money to various institutions and enterprises than any other man in the history of the world.

Vice-President John Nance Garner, October 31, 1936

Unprecedented Power Quotes

“Jesse Jones … is more powerful than the Chief of Staff, the Secretaries of War and Navy—in fact everyone in Washington save the President of the United States.”

“He has allocated and loaned more money to various institutions and enterprises than any other man in the history of the world.”

“To define Jones’s responsibilities would be to list virtually every organization within the national government. Essentially ... it is his job to finance the industrial plant expansion for waging war.”

“I was convinced that conditions were rapidly approaching such a precarious state that only the federal government through unusual methods could deal with them effectively.”

“Mr. Jones already probably has more power than any other man in the government, with the single exception of the president. He has unlimited power to lend money to anyone, to any industry in the United States, or refuse to lend … It is an extraordinary precedent, which is justified only by the character of the man and which I hope may not be repeated.”

“Jesse Jones controlled an unlicensed flow of money where you could borrow and spend … for all the war purposes … It was an authority, a power I suppose in practical terms, second only to the president … He was the conduit, the great canal, between the financial world and the war needs."

“It is easy to understand why almost everyone in Washington, Republican or Democrat, New Deal or anti-New Deal, readily states that the RFC is a splendid demonstration that government in business can be competent.”

“Five to seven billion dollars judiciously lent in 1931 and ’32 would have prevented … the complete breakdown in business, agriculture and industry.”

“There is no line of business that we have not aided, and probably every man, woman, and child in the United States has benefited from RFC operations.”

“The Act of June 25, 1940—which gave us the dictionary—authorized us to purchase plants, lease plants, build plants, whatever we wished, and in any way we might find feasible … It empowered the RFC to manufacture arms, to train aviators, to do almost anything else that would strengthen the nation’s armed might.”

“The vastness of our post-war problem may seem more real to me because, through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and other agencies under my supervision, much of the governmental expansion of industrial facilities has been done.”

“Our biggest investment in manufacturing facilities for a single industry is that of aviation. We have built and own 521 plants for [the] production of aircraft, aircraft engines, parts, and accessories, at a total cost of $2.7 billion [$43 billion in 2021]. This is ten times the value of privately owned investments in this industry.”

“While all the bickering … was raging, Mr. Jones was quietly sawing wood. His synthetic [rubber] program was taking shape … It was not a job that could be done overnight … This is not just another in the long list of important contributions which Jesse Jones made … It may mean the difference between winning and losing the war.”

“Jones’ handling of the RFC’s bewilderingly varied operations … was certainly the outstanding administrative performance of the Roosevelt period and one of the most skilled in our history. He held the grandiose balance of power politics between Roosevelt and Congress …. Jones was the leash on the Presidential collar.”

“It is certainly not to the best interest of our country that control of the wealth, industry, and credit be concentrated in a few hands. This is so fundamental as not to be open to argument … If we ever have serious social disturbance, it will be due to this. The distance between the palace and the hovel is too great—the mountain too high to climb.”

“The two-party system, with one group always in opposition to the other and seeking to take over control of the government from it, [is] the best safeguard of honest and able government … Under our system there must be sacrifices for the greater good. Those who refuse to make the sacrifices simply help [to] drag us away from party government, from the orderly expression of the popular will, to the utterly chaotic conditions which would prevail.”

“In my opinion, the key to the situation confronting us today is intelligent, cordial, friendly, determined cooperation between government and business—government and all the people. It cannot be sectional; it cannot be class [driven]; it cannot be political. It cannot be achieved if we let ourselves believe that our government is our enemy.”

To define Jones’s responsibilities would be to list virtually every organization within the national government. Essentially … it is his job to finance the industrial plant expansion for waging war.

LIFE magazine, October 5, 1942

Jesse Jones

Next to President Franklin Roosevelt Jesse Jones was the most powerful person in the nation throughout the Great Depression and World War II. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) under his leadership saved the nation’s banking system and economy and militarized industry in time to win World War II.

Jesse Jones was born in 1874 on his father’s prosperous Tennessee tobacco farm and moved to Houston in 1898 to manage his late uncle M. T. Jones’s estate. Houston’s leaders simultaneously built their businesses and the city’s organizations and infrastructure to enhance life and spur growth in the town of 40,000. They knew they would prosper only if their community thrived.

President Dwight Eisenhower, Mary Gibbs Jones, Mamie Eisenhower and Jesse Jones. Photo courtesy of Rice University’s Woodson Research Center.

Senator Edwin C. Johnson, Jesse Jones, and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson — (left to right) Senator Edwin C. Johnson of Colorado, Jesse Jones, and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Courtesy Houston Chronicle.

(left to right) Jesse Jones, Admiral Cary T. Grayson, Joseph Tumulty, and President Woodrow Wilson marching down Fifth Avenue during the immense American Red Cross fundraising parade on May 18, 1918. Courtesy Campbell Photo Service.

Jesse Jones and President Herbert Hoover — Jesse Jones (front row, second from left) and President Herbert Hoover (center), 1932. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Jesse Jones, President Franklin Roosevelt and Senator Cordell Hull — Jesse Jones, President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and then Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee. In a rare instance, Roosevelt's leg braces are visible in the picture. Courtesy of CORBIS.

Prestigious politicians celebrate Jesse Jones's sixty-third birthday. Photo courtesy of Rice University’s Woodson Research Center. — (left to right) Mariette Garner, Vice President John Nance Garner, the Joneses, and Edith Wilson celebrate Jesse Jones's sixty-third birthday. Photo courtesy of Rice University’s Woodson Research Center.

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker shakes hands with Orville Wright — Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Eastern Airlines president and a celebrated World War I pilot, shakes hands with Orville Wright at the 1943 dinner arranged by Jesse Jones to honor the fortieth anniversary of the first Wright Brothers' flight, and to announce the return of the Kitty Hawk from England. Courtesy AP/Wide World.

Susan Vaughn Clayton and Mary Gibbs Jones sell war bonds from a desk in the RFC building. Photo courtesy of Rice University’s Woodson Research Center. — Susan Vaughn Clayton and Mary Gibbs Jones sell war bonds to their husbands, Jesse Jones and Will Clayton (left), who helped initiate and implement the Marshall Plan. Photo courtesy of Rice University’s Woodson Research Center.

Jesse Jones embraced their combination of capitalism and public service. Within four years of his arrival, Jones started his own lumber business, invested in local banks and developed streets in today’s Midtown where he built and sold small homes on unique long term credit plans. By 1908, he was building Houston’s first skyscrapers, each ten floors tall. As the first chairman of the Houston Harbor Board, he raised funds and orchestrated the construction of piers and warehouses that would welcome ships from around the world to the new Port of Houston when it opened in 1914.

In addition, he organized through the American Red Cross battlefield medical aid in Europe and at home during World War I and became finance chair of the Democratic National Committee before President Herbert Hoover appointed him to the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. President Roosevelt supercharged the RFC and made Jones its chair. After thirteen years of public service Jones and his wife Mary Gibbs Jones returned home from Washington, D.C. where they focused on philanthropy through Houston Endowment, the foundation they established in 1937 to improve life for the people of greater Houston.

Jesse Jones’s leadership of the RFC and his approach to capitalism and public service are models for today.

Don’t ask me what I have done on matters of business … The only person I am going to see within the next 36 hours is Jesse Jones.

President Franklin Roosevelt, July 16, 1933

UNPRECEDENTED POWER:
Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good

UNPRECEDENTED POWER:
Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good

Reviews

Awards

Articles & Presentations

In a televised broadcast at the Texas Book Festival, Steven Fenberg talks about Unprecedented Power.

Houston Chronicle reporter Maggie Galehouse describes the importance of Jesse Jones to Houston and the nation.

Steven Fenberg describes in an editorial about Unprecedented Power the value of good government.

Steven Fenberg discusses Unprecedented Power from conservative and liberal perspectives on Houston Public Media’s Red, White and Blue TV program.

Writer Cecily Sailer interviews Steven Fenberg about the importance of Jesse Jones, his influence on Houston’s development and his contributions to the nation.

Timothy Massad, who oversaw the Great Recession’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), introduces Steven Fenberg before his speech to the US Department of the Treasury.

Unprecedented Power Quotes

Jesse Jones