E. Merl Young

E. Merl Young was a former Reconstruction Finance Corporation examiner who became a conspicuous figure in allegations of influence-peddling during the Harry S. Truman administration. In 1951, attention focused on his White House access and on a $9,540 pastel mink coat for his wife, paid for by an attorney representing a firm that had received an RFC loan. The episode made Young a symbol of the appearance of corruption, while the account does not establish that he personally arranged the loan or received its proceeds.

Background and White House Connections

Young had formerly worked as an examiner for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the government agency that provided low-interest loans to businesses. He remained connected to Washington through his friendship with Donald Dawson, Truman’s administrative assistant in charge of personnel. The book describes Young as a fast-talking Washington expeditor who traded on his former RFC association and his friendship with Dawson.

Young also benefited from a misleading resemblance to the President. Although he was no relation to Harry S. Truman, he had for years allowed people to think that he was connected to Truman through the President’s grandparents, Solomon Young and Harriet Louisa Young. Young looked enough like Truman to be mistaken for his son, giving the supposed family connection an especially plausible appearance.

His wife, Loretta, worked at the White House as a stenographer and assistant to Rose Conway, Truman’s secretary. Her position gave Young a White House pass. He would come by after work to pick her up, making his presence at the executive residence a recurring, visible part of the scandal’s setting.

The RFC Investigation and the Mink Coat

In February 1951, a Senate subcommittee chaired by William Fulbright issued a preliminary report titled Study of Reconstruction Finance Corporation: Favoritism and Influence. The report implied misconduct in RFC operations and named Democratic Party chairman William Boyle, Dawson, and Young among those implicated. Newspaper reports said that Boyle and Dawson had been unusually active on behalf of loan applicants, and that Dawson had exerted considerable influence over RFC directors.

Young attracted particular attention because of the coat given to his wife. The $9,540 pastel mink coat had been paid for by the attorney of a firm that received an RFC loan. The connection transformed a costly personal gift into a vivid emblem of the alleged influence network. The reporting placed Young alongside Boyle and Dawson in the story of an influence ring thought to reach from the White House into the loan agency; it did not, however, specify that Young had secured the loan or that he himself had been paid by the firm’s attorney.

The episode also carried older political associations. Boyle, Dawson, and Young were all from Missouri, as were other figures whose earlier controversies had troubled the administration. Their shared background revived accusations of government by cronies and recalled Truman’s past connections to the Pendergast political machine. Young’s resemblance to the President and his claimed family association further sharpened the personal and political force of the allegations.

Access, Appearance, and Fallout

Young’s White House pass meant that the scandal was not confined to reports about loans and gifts: staff could see him arrive in person. One evening, Roger Tubby saw Young come in after work wearing flashy sports clothes and speaking cheerfully with Officer Ken Burke at the door. Tubby later recalled feeling an impulse to slam into him. The scene captured the gulf between Young’s casual ease at the entrance and the growing suspicion attached to his visits.

Truman resisted reprimanding Dawson and Boyle, telling staff that the matter was political and directed at him. He could not see that either man had done anything seriously out of line and was reluctant to regard people as evil or beyond redemption. Joe Short warned him that the controversy would not simply blow over. In the account’s emphasis, the problem was not only whether misconduct could be proved, but also the visible presence of someone like Young at the White House and the administration’s failure to respond adequately to that appearance.

In July, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Boyle had received $8,000 for arranging a $500,000 RFC loan for the American Lithofold Corporation, a St. Louis printing firm, with part of the fee paid after Boyle became Democratic Party chairman. The report widened the corruption controversy surrounding the administration. Young’s defining place in that story remained the conjunction of his former agency role, his personal access to the White House, and the coat financed by an attorney for an RFC borrower: a set of circumstances that made him a public symbol of influence-peddling, whether or not the reporting demonstrated a specific act by him.