Robert Bacon

Bacon, Robert, 1860–1919, American banker and government official, b. Jamaica Plain, Mass. He embarked upon a career in business and in 1894 accepted a partnership with J. P. Morgan and Company. He participated in the formation (1901) of the U.S. Steel Corp. and the Northern Securities Company. Bacon later served (1905–9) as Assistant Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt, and was briefly (1909) Secretary of State. He was (1909–12) also ambassador to France. An outspoken proponent of U.S. entry into World War I, he served (1917–19) in the U.S. army. He wrote For Better Relations with Our Latin American Neighbors (1915).

See biography by J. B. Scott (1923).

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