My Uncle Lou and Frances Kellor

This week my Uncle Lou died.  Louis Press was the youngest of eight siblings.  My grandfather was the oldest.  Uncle Lou was always an enjoyable man.  He played piano.  He met his wife while stationed in India during World War Two and made his money in the wig business.  And, Frances Kellor influenced his life.

In 1915 or thereabouts, my family moved from New York City to Bay Minette, Alabama.  They went with three children, including my grandfather, and left with seven, ten years later.  When the oldest child, Rachel, turned eighteen, my great grandparents realized there were few Jewish men for her to marry in Alabama.  So they sold the potato farm and tailor shop and moved to California.    My Uncle Lou was born in Pasadena.

From the beginning of her Americanization work until the end, Kellor worked with Jacob Schiff.  This wealthy Jewish banker founded the Industrial Removal Office (IRO).  The purpose of this office was to remove and resettle New York City’s Jews.  Schiff hoped to relieve decongestion and assimilate Jews with this effort.  70,000 Jewish families took his offer of financing emigration.  My family’s records are in the IRO archives. 

Kellor stole and modified Schiff’s program.  Her program was not specific to any one ethnicity.  Furthermore, her distribution program was the hub of an national employment agency program.  It told workers where there was work and made sure those advertising work had it.  While it didn’t go national, her arguments for seeing unemployment as the Federal government’s responsibility did take hold.

As there was no industrial employment there, and assimilation was not a goal she cared about, Kellor would have never sent immigrants to rural Alabama. But Jacob Schiff was a main backer of pretty much every effort she ever undertook in the name of Americanization.  And, I am sure that she returned the support. 

Whereas my grandfather always seemed influenced by the South, Uncle Lou had a more Californian demeanor.  I call Kellor our Founding Mother because she helped launch so many aspects of our modern world. The existence of Federal unemployment programs provides one example.  But, her influence went deeper as well.   My family, as well as many others, was intimately touched by Kellor’s work.   

In summary, bye Uncle Lou, I will always cherish having known you!