"Secretary of War" Harry H. Woodring Signed Redacted TLS Dated 1938 COA For Sale

Harry Hines Woodring(May 31, 1887– September 9, 1967) was an American politician. A Democrat, he was the 25thGovernor of Kansasand wasSecretary of Warin PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt's administration from 1936 to 1940. He was also theUnited States Assistant Secretary of Warfrom 1933 to 1936. Harry Hines Woodring was born in 1887inElk City, Kansas, the son of farmer andUnion Armysoldier Hines Woodring. He was educated in city and county schools and at sixteen began work as ajanitorin the First National Bank ofNeodesha, Kansas. He attended Lebanon Business University inLebanon, Indianafor one year,which gained him employment as a bookkeeper and assistant cashier of the First National Bank in Elk City. Woodring soon became assistant cashier at the First National Bank of Neodesha. Woodring moved up quickly to become vice president and owner of the bank until he enlisted as a private in theUS Army. He was later commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Tank Corps in World War I. He was elected department commander of theAmerican Legionin Kansas then in 1928 he sold his banking business to enter politics. Woodring won theKansas gubernatorial election of 1930in a controversial three-way race with Republican Frank Haucke and write-in candidate and goat-gland transplantation specialist,John Brinkley. Brinkley won the most votes, but the state only counted ballots withJ. R. Brinkleywritten in, disqualifying tens of thousands of ballots with variants likeJohn Brinkleywritten in.Woodring himself admitted he would have lost, had all Brinkley's votes been counted.Woodring served asgovernorofKansasfrom 1931 to 1933. As the only Democrat elected to a statehouse office, his efforts to cut expenditures were largely blocked by Republicans, so he cut his own salary and the Highway Department, the one place where Democrats had control.Woodring ran for re-election in1932, but lost to RepublicanAlf Landonin a three-way race, again featuring John Brinkley.On July 25, 1933, Woodring married Helen Coolidge, with whom had three children. Coolidge was the daughter of United States SenatorMarcus A. Coolidge.Woodring served asAssistant Secretary of Warfrom 1933 to 1936, with supervision over procurement matters. He was promoted and served asSecretary of WarunderPresidentFranklin Rooseveltfrom 1936 to 1940. He projected the recommendations of his predecessor for increasing the strength of theRegular Army,National Guard, and the Reserve Corps. During his tenure he directed a revision of mobilization plans to bring personnel and procurement into balance and stressed the need to perfect the initial (peacetime) protective force. A strictnon-interventionist, Woodring came under pressure from other cabinet members to resign in the first year ofWorld War II. Secretary of the InteriorHarold Ickesmet with Roosevelt at least twice to call for Woodring's firing, but FDR was at first unwilling to do so, instead appointing outspoken interventionistLouis A. Johnsonas Woodring's assistant secretary of war. Woodring and Johnson were immediately at odds, and quickly reached the point where they refused to speak to each other.On June 20, 1940, Roosevelt ended the struggle by finally firing Woodring, replacing him with long-time Republican politicianHenry Stimson.Woodring remained isolationist, opposing theSelective Training and Service Act of 1940.Woodring ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Kansas in 1946, and for theDemocratic Partynomination for that post in 1956.