Frank T. Hines
| Frank Hines | |
|---|---|
| File:Hines Library of Congress 11405u.tif | |
| United States Ambassador to Panama | |
| In office November 1, 1945 – February 20, 1948 |
|
| President | Harry Truman |
| Preceded by | Avra Warren |
| Succeeded by | Monnett Davis |
| Administrator of Veterans Affairs | |
| In office July 21, 1930 – August 15, 1945 |
|
| President | Herbert Hoover Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Omar Bradley |
| Director of the Veterans Bureau | |
| In office March 2, 1923 – July 21, 1930 |
|
| President | Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover |
| Preceded by | Charles Forbes |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 11, 1879 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Alma mater | Utah State University, Logan |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/branch |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1898–1920 |
| Rank |  Brigadier General |
| Battles/wars | Spanish-American War World War I |
Frank Thomas Hines (1879–1960) was a United States military officer and head of the U.S. Veterans Bureau (later Veteran's Administration) from 1923 to 1945. Hines took over as head of the Veterans Bureau after a series of scandals discredited the agency. He was considered a "man of stern honesty." In response to the scandals the field service was "centralized to establish strict controls and accountability." [1]
Hines was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, on April 11, 1879. He joined the Utah Light Artillery in 1898 and served in the United States military during the Spanish–American War, becoming a second lieutenant. He was a captain by World War I, was promoted three times in 1918, and as a brigadier general served as chief of the Embarkation Service with responsibility for transporting more than 2 million soldiers to Europe in 18 months and shipping them home in 8 months.[2][3]
He retired from the army in 1920 and became president of the Baltic Steamship Company.
Hines served as the administrator of the Veterans Bureau from his appointment by President Harding in 1923 to 1930, then as the first administrator of its successor, the Veteran's Administration, from 1930 to 1945, when President Truman replaced him with Gen. Omar Bradley.[4]
He opposed the payment of the Veterans Bonus to World War I veterans. On April 26, 1932, during the hearings on Payment of Adjusted-Compensation Certificates before the House Committee on Ways and Means he testified: that the trust fund had already been nearly exhausted by the previous year’s act increasing the loan restriction on adjusted compensation accounts to 50%; that full payment now would cost the Government $1,600,000,000; and that in any case the accounts represented the only assets many veterans possessed, leaving nothing to families if the veteran should die. “We should make every possible effort to see that they get employment. There is no question about that. But whether we would be doing the veterans a real service by cashing in these certificates, even if we were in a position to do it, would seem to me very doubtful.”[5]
He then served as United States Ambassador to Panama and negotiated an agreement for the United States to lease bases there, where troops had been stationed during the war. The Panama Assembly rejected the agreement by a unanimous vote. Hines resigned in 1947, effective March 1, 1948, to become an executive with Acacia Life Insurance Company.[6]
Hines was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[7]
Until shortly before his death he served as a director of Acacia Life. Hines died of pneumonia on April 3, 1960, in Mount Alto Veterans Hospital in Washington, D.C.[2] He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
References
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- ↑ Kammerer, Gladys. 1948. "The Veterans Administration in Transition" Public Administration Review. Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 103-109.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 New York Times: "Brig Gen. Hines, Ex-V.A. Head Dies," April 5, 1960, accessed March 12, 2012
- ↑ New York Times: "Brig Gen. Hines, Ex-V.A. Head Dies," June 1, 1919, accessed March 12, 2012
- ↑ New York Times: Frank T. Hines, "Transporting the American Army", June 8, 1945, accessed March 12, 2012
- ↑ Hearings on Payment of Adjusted-Compensation Certificates before the House Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Seventy-Second Congress, First Session p. 553 HathiTrust Digital Library
- ↑ New York Times: "Envoy to Panama Quits; Truman Voices Regret", February 12, 1948, accessed March 12, 2012
- ↑ Robert C. Freeman, "Latter-day Saints in the World Wars", Out of Obscurity: The LDS Church in the Twentieth Century (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 111
Further reading
- Brian Waddell, The War against the New Deal: World War II and American Democracy (Dekalb, 2001)
- Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War (NY: 1995)
External links
- Find A Grave entry for Hines
- Army Distinguished Service Medal citation for Hines
- History of the Veterans Administration
- The service of coast artillery by Frank Thomas Hines, Franklin Wilmer Ward
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Director of the Veterans Bureau 1923–1930 |
Position abolished |
| New office | Administrator of Veterans Affairs 1930–1945 |
Succeeded by Omar Bradley |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Panama 1945–1948 |
Succeeded by Monnett Davis |
- Pages with broken file links
- 1879 births
- 1960 deaths
- Ambassadors of the United States to Panama
- American Latter Day Saints
- American military personnel of the Spanish–American War
- American military personnel of World War I
- People from Salt Lake City, Utah
- United States Department of Veterans Affairs officials
