Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Chester H. McCall Papers, 1932-1937, Accession #11049, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library on June 26, 1992, by Ross D. Netherton of Falls Church, Virginia.

Biographical/Historical Information

Chester H. McCall was best known as an Assistant Secretary of Commerce under Daniel C. Roper in the first administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. On September 1, 1933, he was appointed Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce and placed in charge of public relations and publications for the Commerce Department. This reflected his early career of journalism in Hawaii and on the West Coast. In 1927 he moved east to work for Chase Manhattan Bank and then for the American Bankers' Association. From there he moved to the National Association of Credit Men, where he worked on the national staff and edited and published their journal Credit and Financial Management . In his work at the Commerce Department he once again combined his writing skills with his financial and business acumen.

In 1934, McCall founded the National Institute for Public Affairs. His work at Commerce expanded to include supervision of trade development, business expansion, marketing, distribution, and transport of American goods. After a few months "on the job," McCall was designated a Special Assistant of the Secretary and began directing housing matters for the department. He was considered an expert on textile exports and was named Secretary to the Cabinet Textile Committee. Because of his enthusiastic interest in education and career training, McCall was also appointed to the Executive Committee of the National Youth Administration.

In May 1936, McCall left the Commerce Department to re-enter the business world. He became the Executive Vice-President of the U.S. Advertising Corporation. Very little is known of McCall's private or, indeed, his later life, save that he was married and had at least two children. McCall appears from his writings to have been thoughtful and deliberative. He and Secretary Roper attempted to collaborate on a book dealing with current economic trends, and he is known to have published Tested Collection Letters , a compendium of types of letters used in business in the collection process. His magnum opus, however, was to have been a great work on democracy, tracing the philosophy from its earliest roots to the dangers it faced in the rise of totalitarianism in the 1930s. Research and drafts of parts of several chapters make up much of the collection.

Scope and Content Information

The collection contains 440 items, 1932-1937, pertaining to Chester H. McCall's work for the National Association of Credit Men, the Commerce Department, and his proposed books and articles, including many newspaper articles. Some of McCall's personal letters (Box 1, Commerce Department: Personal) and notes for several chapters reflect his thinking on citizenship in a democracy, the dangers democracies have always faced, his views on the high calling of public service, and his personal goals for service. The collection as a whole incidentally shows the tremendous intellectual ferment of the 1930s as the grim economic picture raised fundamental questions about society and the human condition.