Shortly after retiring as Governor of Iowa, Leslie M. Shaw (1848-1932) was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Theodore Roosevelt. His selection as Secretary was due to his championing the gold standard during the presidential campaign of 1896 and his support of Roosevelt in 1900. Like his predecessor, Secretary Lyman Gage, Shaw firmly believed that the Treasury should serve the money market in times of difficulty through the introduction of Treasury funds.
Taking several actions toward this end, Shaw bought back government bonds from the commercial banks that owned them, increased the number of government depository banks, and, in 1902, told the banks that they no longer needed to keep cash reserves against their holdings of public funds. The effect of these actions was to provide a more elastic currency, which would respond to the needs of the market. Government intervention in the money market reached its height with Shaw. He resigned in 1907 to become a banker in New York.
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of the Curator
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