Paul Moody Atkins papers

Correspondence, memoranda, reports, printed material, writings, clippings, diaries, photographs, and miscellanea relating to Paul Moody Atkins, a financial management consultant, international economic and banking expert, author, educator, and special liquidator of securities for the U. S. Comptroller of the Currency (1932-1937).

Atkins' professional work in Peru (1931), French West Africa (1940-1941), Iran (1943-1945), Greece (1947-1948), and Japan (1948) are documented through correspondence, memoranda, reports, and other materials. His role in financial commissions and as a private consultant are further detailed in correspondence with Mrs. Atkins and family members. Financial data from Atkins' service as special liquidator details the security transactions and operations of this office from 1932-1937. Other professional materials document Atkins' participation on the American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919), the National Management Council (1950-1951), as an educator and lecturer at Rutgers University (1956-1962), and as a private lecturer (1960-1977).

Family papers include the World War I diary of Henri Bergier, Atkins' father-in-law, who was a judge in occupied Cabrai, France during the First World War.

The Atkins Papers (17 linear ft.) are arranged in two series.

SERIES I, PROFESSIONAL FILES, 1919-1976, contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, printed material, photographs, clippings, and miscellanea detailing Atkins' work for private industry, on government commissions, and in academic posts as a private consultant, banking adviser, educator, and author. Many aspects of his work in the United States, Peru, French West Africa, Iran, Greece, and Japan relating to national and international finance, business, and politics are documented.

Atkins' work within the United States included his appointment as special liquidator of securities for the U. S. Comptroller (1932-1937). Financial data and files document the security transactions and office operations which Atkins supervised. By his own account, Atkins oversaw the disposition of more than one-quarter of a billion dollars in frozen securities from insolvent national banks. Clippings, correspondence, office files, and articles also detail the actions and operations of the special liquidator's office (boxes 7-11).

Atkins' foreign assignments and positions were several. He travelled to Peru in 1931 as public credits expert on the Kemmerer Financial Mission. Published reports in both Spanish and English, printed material, and miscellanea detail that body's efforts to stabilize the Peruvian banking system (boxes 5-6). He later served as foreign representative for Balfour, Guthrie, and Company, Ltd., in French West Africa (1941). Correspondence, clippings, maps, postcards, photographs, and miscellanea document Atkins' property negotiations with the French government and his covert observations of German military activity for the United States government. Atkins' travels through Portugal, Maderia, the Cape Verde Islands, and Portuguese Guinea are also detailed (boxes 15-16).

Atkins' work in Iran as economic adviser to the Ministry of Iran and as a member of the Millspaugh Mission (1943-1945) is documented in correspondence, memoranda, reports, clippings, scrapbooks, and miscellanea (boxes 17-18). Attempts to direct the tobacco and opium monopolies and and a later project to reorganize government-owned factories are documented, as is the long-running disagreement between Atkins and Arthur C. Millspaugh, head of the U. S. commission sent to help control the rising inflation rate in the Iranian economy. Atkins outlined his economic and political observations in letters and reports to U. S. government officials, and in personal correspondence to his wife which the State Department requested remain strictly confidential. Additional material includes a copy of a 1941 journal written by William McE. Miller, an American Presbyterian missionary in Iran.

Atkins served as acting director of the Public Finance Division, the Commerce and Supply division, and the Industry Division of the American Mission for Aid to Greece (1947-1948). Reports, correspondence, clippings, and printed material document attempts to rehabilitate and financially redevelop Greece in the aftermath of World War II (boxes 19-20). As a banking adviser to General Douglas MacArthur's staff in Japan (1948), Atkins also contributed to revitalization efforts there. He accumulated financial data, reports, clippings, correspondence, and miscellanea on Japanese banks, including the Bank of Kobe, the Sumitomo Bank, and the Tokai Bank (box 21).

Student manuals, course materials, and a series of radio lectures detail Atkins' academic career at Rutgers University (1956-1977). Although a teaching specialist in business administration, Atkins lectured his radio audiences on a multitude of national and international topics, including the Vietnamese conflict, the Middle East and the Watergate scandal.

Atkins held several other positions during his long and diverse career. He served as secretary for the subcommittee on Czechoslovakian Affairs for the American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919), and as a delegate to the International Management Conference (1924). Atkins also held the positions of treasurer with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (1937-1938), vice president and director of Grant and Atkins, Incorporated (1939-1940), and project manager for the National Management Council (1950-1951). Correspondence, reports, printed material, and miscellanea document these aspects of Atkins' career.

Writings(boxes 26-33) contains published and unpublished articles, books, and essays relating to all facets of Atkins' career. Published articles include a series of works on industrial management and is complimented by one of Atkins' books,Textbook of Industrial Cost Accounting(1924). Unpublished works include several essays on Atkins' foreign experiences, in addition to the more common financial and business writings. An unpublished manuscript, "A History of the United States for People of Other Countries," which Atkins wrote with his wife (and translated into French and Spanish versions) is also arranged in this series.

SERIES II, FAMILY AND PERSONAL PAPERS, 1749-1976, contains correspondence, diaries, photographs, printed material, memorabilia, and miscellanea relating to members of the Atkins family, including Paul Moody Atkins and Henri Bergier.

Family Paperscontains a diary compiled by Henri Bergier, father-in-law to Paul Moody Atkins. Bergier was a judge in Cabrai, France during the German occupation of 1914-1918. His diary, written as letters to family members, is a daily account of life in Cabrai from August 26, 1914 to October 10, 1918. The diary and a typescript prepared by Atkins and his wife are in French (boxes 34-35). Both items are available on microfilm, (HM 168).

Genealogical material on the Atkins family, including an 1847 biography of the Moody family and a 1749 sermon delivered at the ordination of Abraham Williams (1727-1784) are arranged in this series. Family memorabilia such as birth and marriage certificates and photographs of several family members are also organized here (boxes 36-38).

Personal paperscontains correspondence, student papers, and travel logs of Paul Moody Atkins unrelated to his professional career. These materials include letters and copies of material Atkins received from the F. B. I. and the C. I. A. following his requests for agency files on his activities (box 34), a copy of his Ph. D. dissertation from the Université de Paris (box 42), and miscellanea.