{{Short description|American politician and economist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Abram Piatt Andrew Jr. | image = Abram Piatt Andrew, 1920.jpg | caption = Abram Piatt Andrew circa 1920 | state = [[Massachusetts]] | district = {{ushr|MA|6|6th}} | term_start = September 27, 1921 | term_end = June 3, 1936 | preceded = [[Willfred W. Lufkin]] | succeeded = [[George J. Bates]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|1873|02|12}} | birth_place = [[La Porte, Indiana]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1936|6|3|1873|2|12}} | death_place = [[Gloucester, Massachusetts]] | resting_place = ashes scattered over Red Roof, Eastern Point, Gloucester, MA | party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | spouse = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = [[Lawrenceville School]], [[Princeton College]] | occupation = | profession = | signature = Signature of Abram Piatt Andrew Jr.png | allegiance = {{flagicon|USA|1918}} [[United States]] | branch = {{flagicon|USA|army}} [[United States Army]] | service_years = September 1917–1918 | rank = [[File:US-O5 insignia.svg|20px]] [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lieutenant colonel]] | commands = | unit = | battles = [[World War I]] | mawards = [[Legion of Honor]]<br/>[[File:U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal ribbon.svg|20px]] [[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Distinguished Service Medal]] }} '''Abram Piatt Andrew Jr.''' (February 12, 1873 – June 3, 1936) was an American economist and politician who served as [[Assistant Secretary of the Treasury]], the founder and director of the [[AFS Intercultural Programs|American Ambulance Field Service]] during [[World War I]], and a [[List of United States representatives from Massachusetts|member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts]].
==Early life and education== He was born in [[La Porte, Indiana]], on February 12, 1873.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=A. P. Andrew Dies. Massachusetts Republican Was Stricken With Influenza at the Capital |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B06E1DF113FEE3BBC4B53DFB066838D629EDE |agency=[[Associated Press]] |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 3, 1936 |access-date=May 1, 2015 }}</ref> He attended the public schools and the [[Lawrenceville, New Jersey|Lawrenceville School]]. He graduated from [[Princeton College]] in 1893, studied at the [[Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences]] from 1893 to 1898, graduating with a master's degree in 1895 and a doctorate in 1900.<ref name=cyclo>{{cite book|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|date=1910|publisher=James T. White & Company|location=New York|pages=430–1 |edition=Supplement 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nm9GAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA430|access-date=May 1, 2015}}</ref> He later pursued postgraduate studies in the Universities of [[University of Halle|Halle]], [[University of Berlin|Berlin]], and [[University of Paris|Paris]].<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=Who Was Who in American History – the Military|date=1975|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|location=Chicago|isbn=0837932017|page=12}}</ref>
==Early career in economics== He moved to [[Gloucester, Massachusetts]], and was an instructor and assistant professor of economics at [[Harvard University]] from 1900 to 1909.<ref name="auto"/>
In January 1907, Andrew published a paper that anticipated the economic panic that hit in the fall of that year. On the strength of this paper as well as on his strong economics education, Andrew was selected to serve on the [[National Monetary Commission]] tasked with reforming the American banking system. Andrew took a leave from Harvard and spent two years studying the central banks of [[Germany]], [[Great Britain|Britain]] and [[France]]. He served as [[Director of the United States Mint|Director of the U.S. Mint]] in 1909 and 1910, and as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during 1910–1912.<ref name=cyclo/> He attended the historic meeting at [[Jekyll Island Club|Jekyll Island]] in 1910 with commission chairman [[Nelson W. Aldrich]], [[Henry Pomeroy Davison|Henry P. Davison]], [[Benjamin Strong Jr.|Benjamin Strong]], [[Paul Warburg]], and [[Frank A. Vanderlip]].<ref>{{cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |first=Richard T. |last=McCulley |title=The Origins of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913: Banks and Politics during the Progressive Era, 1897-1913 |publisher=University of Texas |year=1980 |page=366}}</ref> The commission's report recommended the creation of a [[Federal Reserve System]].<ref>{{cite web |access-date=May 1, 2015 |url=http://www.jekyllclub.com/2010/12/part-three-abram-piatt-andrew/ |title=The Federal Reserve And The Men Who Created It. Part Three: Abram Piatt Andrew |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513174037/http://www.jekyllclub.com/2010/12/part-three-abram-piatt-andrew/ |archive-date=May 13, 2015 }}</ref>
The Republicans lost the White House in 1912, putting Andrew out of a job. He worked informally after the election with Democratic Senator [[Robert Latham Owen]] to draft Owen's version of a Federal Reserve Bill, which in the event came closest of several competing drafts to the Act eventually passed and signed into law in December 1913.<ref>Lowenstein, Roger. ''America's Bank'' (New York, Penguin, 2015), p. 202.</ref>
==Founder of American Field Service== [[File:Grenville Keogh, Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, Piatt Andrew, 1916.png|thumb|left|Grenville Keogh, [[Anne Harriman Vanderbilt]], [[Anne Morgan (philanthropist)|Anne Morgan]], Piatt Andrew, 1916 (Grenville Keogh was an ambulance driver for the American Ambulance Field Service)]]
Despite American neutrality, Andrew went to France when war broke out in the summer of 1914. He wrote to his parents about his compulsion to respond to "the possibility of having even an infinitesimal part in one of the greatest events in all history--...and above all the chance of doing the little all that one can for France."<ref>{{cite book|last=Hansen|first=Arlen|title=Gentlemen Volunteers|orig-year=1996|year=2011|publisher=Arcade Publishing|pages=39–40}}</ref>
Andrew drove an ambulance in the Dunkirk sector for a few weeks, but his supervisor at the [[American Hospital of Paris|American Military Hospital]] recognized his exceptional energy and organizing ability. [[Robert Bacon]] created a new position for him to fill: Inspector General of the American Ambulance Field Service.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hansen|first=Arlen|title=Gentlemen Volunteers|orig-year=1996|year=2011|publisher=Arcade Publishing|page=42}}</ref> In his official capacity, Andrew toured the ambulance sections of Northern France and learned that the American volunteers were bored with so called "jitney work," transporting wounded soldiers from railheads to hospitals, far back from the front lines. French army policy prohibited foreign nationals from traveling into battle zones.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hansen|first=Arlen|title=Gentlemen Volunteers|orig-year=1996|year=2011|publisher=Arcade Publishing|page=14}}</ref>
In March 1915, Andrew met with Captain Aime Doumenc, head of the French Army Automobile Service and pleaded his case for the American volunteers. They desired above all, he said, "To pick up the wounded from the front lines..., to look danger squarely in the face; in a word, to mingle with the soldiers of France and to share their fate!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Hansen|first=Arlen|title=Gentlemen Volunteers|orig-year=1996|year=2011|publisher=Arcade Publishing|page=44}}</ref> Doumenc agreed to a trial. The success of Andrew's Section Z was immediate and overwhelming. By April 15, 1915, the French created American Ambulance Field Service operating under French Army command.
[[File:Abram Piatt Andrew, American Ambulance Field Service.jpg|thumb|Lieutenant Colonel A. Piatt Andrew Jr.]] Andrew headed the organization, soon shortened to [[American Field Service]], throughout the war, though his role changed significantly when its ambulance sections were taken over by the United States Army in late summer 1917. Andrew established a domestic organization based in Boston to recruit young American drivers and to raise funds from wealthy donors. The stateside office was headed by [[Henry Davis Sleeper]] and assisted by [[John Hays Hammond Jr]] and former ambulance driver, Leslie Buswell. The French office was located at number 21 rue Raynouard, Paris.
At the time of militarization, the American Field Service had formed thirty-four ambulance sections manned by 1,200 American volunteers. (A total of 2,100 volunteers had volunteered over the course of two years.) In addition the AFS had created fourteen camion sections with 800 additional American volunteers trucking supplies and soldiers up the [[Voie Sacree]] from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun and other routes to the Front.<ref>History of the American Field Service in France, as told by its members, vol. 3, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920, pages 429-434; and Hansen, page 54</ref>
The AFS motto was "Tous et tout pour France," everyone and everything for France. At an AFS reunion a few years after the war, Andrew said, "The opportunity of living in France, as we Americans lived during the first years of the war...meant glimpses of human nature shorn of self, exalted by love of country, singing and jesting in the midst of hardships, smiling at pain, unmindful even of death."<ref>History of the American Field Service, volume 1, page 15</ref>
==Congressman== Andrew was elected as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to the [[Sixty-seventh United States Congress]] to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of [[Willfred W. Lufkin]]; he was reelected to the [[Sixty-eighth United States Congress|Sixty-eighth]] and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from September 27, 1921, until his death.<ref name="auto"/>
He was a delegate to the [[Republican National Conventions]] in 1924 and 1928. In 1924, he proposed a bonus for [[World War I]] veterans.<ref name=bill>{{cite news |title=New Bonus Plan Urged By Andrews. Bill Offered in House Would Eliminate Officers and Vocational Training |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/02/21/archives/new-bonus-plan-urged-by-andrews-bill-offered-in-house-would.html |quote=An alternative to the pending bonus bill was presented today by Representative A. Piatt Andrew of Massachusetts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and an officer in the World War. In recent months Colonel Andrew and Secretary Mellon have exchanged sharp letters over the cost of adjusted compensation. ...|newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 21, 1924 |access-date=August 1, 2014}}</ref>
He was a member of the [[board of trustees]] of [[Princeton University]] from 1932 to 1936.<ref name="auto"/>
==Personal life== Andrew, a lifelong bachelor, was in a relationship with his neighbor, interior designer [[Henry Davis Sleeper]], and this relationship may have been sexual.<ref>{{cite book|title=Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and Gay History from the Puritans to Playland|year=1999|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=9780807079492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=azaIecghLVgC&pg=PA92}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Shand-Tucci|first=Douglass|title=Ralph Adams Cram: An Architect's Four Quests - Medieval, Modernist, American, Ecumenical|year=2005|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|isbn=9781558494893 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLgXOQdUrakC&pg=PA223}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Carter|first=Alice A.|title=Cecilia Beaux|year=2005|publisher=Random House |page=149}}</ref>
==Awards == He was made an officer in the [[Legion of Honor]] in 1927.<ref>{{cite news |title=A. Piatt Andrew Is Made Officer of Legion of Honor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/10/09/archives/a-piatt-andrew-is-made-officer-of-legion-of-honor.html |quote=At an official ceremony this afternoon at Les Invalides Representative A. Piatt Andrew of Massachusetts was promoted to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor ... |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 9, 1927 |access-date=August 1, 2014 }}</ref> He received the [[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Army Distinguished Service Medal]] for his World War I service.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=17195 |title=Abram Piatt Andrew |website=Hall of Valor |access-date=August 7, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109021325/http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=17195 |archive-date=November 9, 2016}}</ref> He was named an Officer in Belgium's [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Order of Leopold]].<ref name="auto"/> He was awarded the [[Croix de Guerre]] and named a Chevalier de la [[Legion of Honour]] in 1917 by the French government.<ref>{{cite book|title=Who Was Who in American History – the Military|date=1975|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|location=Chicago|isbn=0837932017}}</ref>
==Death and legacy== He died on June 3, 1936, in [[Gloucester, Massachusetts]], at his home "Red Roof" from [[influenza]], which he had been suffering from for several weeks.<ref name=obit/> The following day the [[United States House of Representatives]] adjourned at 2:55 p.m. to honor his death.<ref>{{cite news |title=Andrew Is Honored As House Adjourns. Former Representative From Massachusetts Eulogized in Chamber by Treadway |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/06/04/archives/andrew-is-honored-as-house-adjourns-former-representative-from.html |quote=The House adjourned at 2:55 o'clock this afternoon in respect to Representative A. Piatt Andrew of the Sixth Massachusetts District, who died last night after a ... |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 4, 1936 |access-date=August 1, 2014 }}</ref>
His remains were cremated and the ashes scattered from an airplane flying over his estate on Eastern Point in Gloucester.
In 1953, a bridge carrying [[Massachusetts Route 128]] over the [[Annisquam River]] to the island section of Gloucester was named the "A. Piatt Andrew Bridge" in honor of his service as a congressman.<ref>{{cite web|website= Boston Roads|url= http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/MA-128/|title= Yankee Division Highway, Historic Overview|access-date= May 1, 2015|archive-date= May 12, 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150512030706/http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/MA-128/|url-status= live}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Biography}} *[[List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1900–1949)]]
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== {{CongBio|A000240}} Retrieved on 2008-03-18 *Hansen, Arlen. Gentlemen Volunteers. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1996, 2011. *History of the American Field Service in France, as told by its members, volumes 1–3, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920.
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}}
{{s-start}} {{s-gov}} {{s-bef | before=[[Frank A. Leach]]}} {{s-ttl | title=[[Director of the United States Mint]] | years=November 1909 – June 1910}} {{s-aft | after=[[George E. Roberts]]}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=6 | before=[[Willfred W. Lufkin]] | after=[[George J. Bates]] | years=September 27, 1921 – June 3, 1936}} {{s-end}}
{{USRepMA}} {{USMintDirectors}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrew, Abram Piatt Jr.}} [[Category:1873 births]] [[Category:1936 deaths]] [[Category:American Field Service personnel of World War I]] [[Category:Deaths from influenza in the United States]] [[Category:Directors of the United States Mint]] [[Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]] [[Category:Harvard University faculty]] [[Category:Lawrenceville School alumni]] [[Category:Military personnel from Indiana]] [[Category:National Monetary Commission]] [[Category:Officers of the Legion of Honour]] [[Category:American organization founders]] [[Category:People from La Porte, Indiana]] [[Category:Politicians from Gloucester, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Princeton University alumni]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Taft administration personnel]] [[Category:United States Army officers]] [[Category:United States assistant secretaries of the treasury]] [[Category:20th-century United States representatives]]