Chase, Roosevelt Adviser Who Coined Term ‘New Deal,’ Dies

Stuart Chase, an economist and member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “brain trust” who coined the term “New Deal,” died Saturday at his home, the family said Sunday. He was 97.

Chase had written 33 books, including his most famous work, “A New Deal,” published in 1932, the year Roosevelt was elected to his first of four terms as President.

Sonia Hodson Enoch, Chase’s daughter by his first wife, Margaret Hatfield, said Sunday that he was a liberal Democrat throughout his life who died “a champion of the consumer.”

‘A Liberal All His Life’

“He was a Democrat and he was a liberal all his life, even in his 80s,” Enoch said. “He wasn’t as radical as when he was younger, but he was always working for something better. He would not stick with the old simply because of tradition.”

Chase, who was one of the last surviving Roosevelt advisers, was an outspoken advocate of government planning and intervention in the economy. His main thesis was the inevitability of a planned economy.

“I think he always felt the New Deal was the way to a better government,” Enoch said. “I don’t think he was really surprised that the idea would never really fade away. It was a pretty potent idea.”

After the 1932 election, Roosevelt contacted Chase because the President was interested in his economic views, Enoch said.

Began Writing in 1918

Chase began his writing in 1918 by submitting articles to the Nation and the New Republic. During his career, he wrote several of his books with his second wife, Marian Tyler Chase, beginning with “The Tragedy of Waste,” published in 1925.

During the 1960s, Chase was a strong advocate of the “Great Society” programs of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1961, he was part of a group of American intellectual leaders who went to the Soviet Union to seek better understanding between the world’s two major nuclear rivals.

Chase was born on March 8, 1888, in Somersworth, N.H. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1910.

He served on the town of Redding’s Planning Commission from 1956 until his death.