Thomas Alan Goldsborough

Thomas Alan Goldsborough (September 16, 1877 – June 16, 1951) was a U.S. politician and federal judge.

Early life

Born in Greensboro, Caroline County, Maryland, Goldsborough attended the public schools and the local academy at Greensboro. He received a B.A. from Washington College of Chestertown, Maryland, in 1899. In 1901, he graduated with an LL.B. from the law department of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, was admitted to the bar the same year, and commenced practice in Denton, Maryland. He served as prosecuting attorney for Caroline County, Maryland, from 1904 to 1908, returning to private practice from 1908 to 1921.

Political offices

Goldsborough was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-seventh Congress, beginning his Congressional service on March 4, 1921. He was reelected to the nine succeeding Congresses. He also served as regent of the Smithsonian Institution from 1932-1939. On January 20, 1939, Goldsborough was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a new seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, created by 52 Stat. 584. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 16, 1939, and received his commission on February 23, 1939. He thereafter resigned his seat in Congress on April 5, 1939 to assume his judicial office. Goldsborough served in that capacity until his death, in 1951, in Washington, D.C.. He is interred in Denton Cemetery of Denton, Maryland.

Robert Goldsborough

Thomas was great-great-great-grandson of Robert Goldsborough and great-grandson of Charles Goldsborough. Goldsboro, Maryland, is named after the family.

Pushing on a string

Some sources credit him with introducing the phrase pushing on a string—a metaphor for the difficulty experienced by the Federal Reserve in trying to end an economic contraction—in a 1935 hearing.^[1][2]

References

• United States Congress. "Thomas Alan Goldsborough (id: G000265)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Thomas Alan Goldsborough at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

1. Sandilans, Roger G. (2001), "The New Deal and 'domesticated' Keynesianism in America, in John Kenneth Galbraith and Michael Keaney (2001). Economist with a Public Purpose: Essays in Honour of John Kenneth Galbraith. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-21292-8., p. 231
2. John Harold Wood (2006). A History of Central Banking in Great Britain and the United States. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85013-4., p. 231; it cites U. S. Congress House Banking Currency Committee, Hearings, Hearings, Banking Act of 1935, March 18, 1935, p. 377.