James Warburg - Biography

James Paul Warburg (18 August 1896 – 3 June 1969) was an American banker and financial adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt. His father was Paul Warburg.

Biography

Born in Hamburg, Warburg was educated at Middlesex School and Harvard University. He served in the Navy Flying Corps during World War I before entering a career in business. He was at the First National Bank of Boston between 1919 and 1921. Between 1921 and 1929 he was Vice President at the International Acceptance Bank. He was president at the International Manhattan Company from 1929 to 1931, then president of the International Acceptance Bank from 1931 to 1932. He was Vice Chairman of the Board at the Bank of Manhattan Company between 1932 and 1935.

While at the Bank of Manhattan, from 1932 to 1934, he became financial adviser to President Roosevelt. This included acting as financial adviser at the 1933 London World Economic Conference.

Warburg left government in 1934, having come to oppose certain policies of the New Deal. He was opposed to political 'isolationism' however, and re-entered government service in 1941 as Special Assistant to the Coordinator of Information, William Joseph Donovan. In 1942, when propaganda responsibilities were transferred to the Office of War Information, he became its Overseas Branch Deputy Director. He joined the Society for the Prevention of World War III, a lobby group working for a harsh peace for Germany.

In 1963, along with Sears heir, Philip Stern, he helped to found the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

Warburg married the composer and musician Kay Swift in 1918, but they divorced in late 1934 as a consequence of her long involvement with George Gershwin. They had three daughters between 1919 and 1924. Warburg married his 2nd wife Phyllis Baldwin in 1935. Warburg married his 3rd wife Joan Melber on Sep 6, 1948 and had son a Philip Neff Warburg. James is also the grandfather of novelist Katharine Weber. Under the pseudonym Paul James he wrote the lyrics to Swift's 1929 hit song "Can't We Be Friends?" and their 1930 musical, Fine and Dandy, which introduced the song "Fine And Dandy".

Warburg was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has gained some notoriety for the following quote: "We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest." (Feb. 17, 1950, to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations)

External links

• Biographical note at the John F. Kennedy Library
• Hell Bent for Election Warburg's Critique of FDR and the New Deal
• James Paul Warburg