William L. Clayton
| William L. Clayton | |
|---|---|
William L. Clayton arrives for Potsdam Conference, 1945
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| Born |
William Lockhart Clayton February 7, 1880 Tupelo, Mississippi |
| Died | February 8, 1966 (aged 86) Houston, Texas |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Cotton trader, public servant |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Vaughan Clayton |
 http://webapps.jhu.edu/namedprofessorships/images/Med43.jpg William L. Clayton and Susan Vaughan Clayton. Source: Johns Hopkins University. |
William Lockhart "Will" Clayton (February 7, 1880 – February 8, 1966) was an American business leader and government official.
Born near Tupelo, Mississippi, Clayton grew up in Jackson, Tennessee. Leaving school at age 13, he became an expert stenographer, which earned him a job as private secretary to Jerome Hall, a Saint Louis cotton merchant. In 1896, Clayton went to work for the American Cotton Company in New York City, becoming an assistant general manager in 1904. He left the company later that year to join with two other partners (including his brother-in-law Monroe Dunaway Anderson) in starting Anderson, Clayton and Company, a cotton marketing firm based in Oklahoma City. In 1916, the firm moved its headquarters to Houston, Texas, where it grew to be the world's largest cotton-trading enterprise.
Clayton entered government service in World War I as a member of the Cotton Distribution Committee of the War Industries Board. Although he was a Democrat, he opposed the New Deal agricultural policies of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the New Deal's free trade policies led him to support Roosevelt in the 1936 election.
In 1940, Clayton returned to government service in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, then moved to the Export-Import Bank, where he worked to procure strategic materials for the United States and to deny them to Nazi Germany. After a series of administrative shuffles, Clayton found himself working under Vice-President Henry A. Wallace. Disagreements between them led Clayton to resign in January 1944, only to return to government service a month later as Surplus War Property Administrator under James F. Byrnes in the Office of War Mobilization.
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