George Howard Earle Jr. (July 6, 1856 – February 19, 1928) was an American lawyer and businessman from Philadelphia who worked as a receiver and rescued multiple businesses from financial hardship. He was a political reformer and a member of the Committee of One Hundred in Philadelphia which worked to end bossism politics in the city.
Earle was born in Philadelphia to George H. Earle Sr. and Mrs. Frances ("Fanny") Van Leer Earle. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family, grandson of abolitionist and philanthropist Thomas Earle and great-great-grandson of American Revolutionary War Officer Samuel Van Leer
He graduated from Harvard University (1879) and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on December 15, 1862. He worked as a lawyer in the firm of Earle & White in Philadelphia.
He was known for his abilities as a "business doctor" and rescued many organizations from financial ruin after being appointed as receiver and reorganizer. He was appointed as president and director to nearly two dozen Philadelphia companies and corporations including The Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company, the Finance Company of Philadelphia, the Trademen's Bank, the Market Street National, the Reading Railroad, the Chestnut Street National Bank, the Chestnut Street Trust Company and the Real Estate Trust Company.
Along with his father, Earle was a member of the Committee of One Hundred (Philadelphia)—"a non-partisan effort in aid of good government" dedicated to ending bossism politics in Philadelphia in the late 1800s. This committee of reformers consisted initially of Independent Republicans who sought to reform the management of the Republican party; however, it would eventually lose influence and effectiveness. Some of the reasons for the ineffectiveness was the division between reformers over the question of partisanship, poor organization, dislike of political activism, an autocratic manner and being geographically isolated from the city. Earle later remarked that it had been "essentially aristocratic in temperament." Despite the committee's failure to bring about a lasting, broad-scale influence in the city, Earle would continue to speak up for good government practices, and for the protection of political liberty for all Americans.
On October 3, 1896, at a Republican meeting in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Earle urged his "fellow citizens" to vote for McKinley over Bryan, stating:
...a false prophet has come among you... who, in a country where all are in the highest class—that of the American citizens—tries to divide us into many, and then set those classes against each other; who tries to set State against State, section against section, and so nullify the great work for which Abraham Lincoln gave his life; who tries to lead us into paths of dishonor and asks us to disgrace the country for which we would give our lives...
It would not be the last time Earle would warn about the threat of populism. In a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Pennypacker on May 16, 1906, Earle wrote of his concern that then President Theodore Roosevelt might be yielding to the latest "craze" of "Bryanism"—i.e., yielding to populism instead of standing on principle with regard to public policy—serving to discredit the Republican party:
...some one has to speak in favor of the right when so speaking is unpopular. The more unpopular, the greater the necessity... The Republican party has done much for this country. It has often created and preserved prosperity by fighting crazes. For the first time in its history, it is yielding to one. If it would only say "we have made this prosperity, it is our child, and shall have our protection," and stand to its guns, it will beat Bryanism to death as it always has. But with its leader caring more for popularity than principle, courageous, as he is uninformed, I, myself, am convinced that it will have to go out of power in order that it may return chastened and more trusted than ever... I worked hard for Roosevelt's re-election, had great admiration for him, and still have, but I very much fear him... It is surprising at this time to find how many "old things" are true when the greater part of the world is engaged in discrediting and despising them.
After the Panic of 1907, Earle would speak out against a central bank—despite the "present evils," stating, "I can suggest no remedy, but would prefer present evils to those resulting from the creation of too centralized a power; and the answer, to my mind, is obvious. The true remedy must be found, not in placing our dependence upon the discretion of any one, but of every one,—that is, again, upon liberty, rather than upon power and restraint."
In an article of February 1910, Earle is depicted as a "doctor to ailing corporations", the interviewer asserting that there is "strong ground for belief that he has an idea of doctoring the country's ills in the same manner as he would a sick corporation"—
There are little lakes at Broadacres, which he has made by damming a brook, and groups of bathers can be seen there almost any day in the summer.
"The place is wide open," he said in explanation. "I have always had a profound sympathy for the man who from the day of his birth has had no foot of land that he could call his own. The least I can do is to give every one free use of mine."
When told that Mr. Rockefeller, on his estate at Pocantico Hills, had gone in for high iron fences everywhere, he shook his head gravely and said:
"That is the sort of thing we shall have to do away with some day."
It was an astonishing sentiment, coming from the president of so many corporations. It is talk of this kind that makes Earle a puzzle to many men. With millions of dollars profitably invested, with an estate that is little short of ducal, lying almost within one of the greatest and richest cities of the country; with a penchant for golf, cricket, and motoring, a mania for collecting old coins and old masters—an aristocrat, if there be any such thing in America—he is still not only an every-day man, but at times he utters sentiments that fall nothing short of socialism.
In his conversation he makes frequent reference to liberty, but if you listen you will discover that it is the liberty of Patrick Henry and Franklin, and not of Gorky or Karl Marx. He declares his belief in the doctrine of Malthus, and says that before long we shall have to reconstruct our ideas of tillage, care for our soil, and stop our extravagance, and that a lot of people will have to go to work.
Never before having sought political office for himself, Mr. Earle was eventually sought after and subsequently backed by U. S. Senator Boies Penrose to be the Republican candidate in the election for mayor of Philadelphia in 1911. In the Republican primary election held on 30 September 1911, Earle defeated William S. Vare by 23,000 votes; but Earle would lose the general election in November of that year by 4,000 votes to the Keystone-Democrat fusion candidate, Rudolph Blankenburg—an independent Republican and also former member of Philadelphia's Committee of One Hundred.