Davis, Chester Charles

(1887-1975)

   Born in Iowa, Chester Davis graduated from Grinnell College in 1911. After working as a journalist, he became editor of The Montana Farmer in 1917. In 1921, he became the state commissioner of agriculture and labor for Montana, and in 1925 he was appointed director of grain marketing for the Illinois Agricultural Association. Davis was an outspoken supporter of the McNary-Haugen Plan to maintain farm prices by government purchase of surpluses for export, and in 1928 he helped persuade the Democratic Party convention to adopt the proposal. In 1933, George N. Peek appointed Davis as director of the division of production within the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). When Peek resigned later that year, Davis succeeded him as head of the AAA. Internal differences within the AAA, particularly over the issue of protection for tenant farmers, eventually led Davis to resign in 1936. He joined the board of governors of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until 1941 when he became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Davis was an associate director of the Ford Foundation in the early 1950s.