STIMSON, HENRY LEWIS (1867— ), American lawyer and statesman, was born in New York city on Sept. 2 I, 1867, and educated at Yale (A.B., i888) and Harvard (A.M., 1889) universities. He attended the Harvard Law school and in 1891 was admitted to the New York bar. He was subsequently a member of the firms of Root and Clark, ; Root, Howard, Winthrop and Stimson, 1897-1901, and after 1901 of Winthrop and Stimson. His abilities as a lawyer brought him into promi nence and in 1906 he was appointed U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York State. This position he relinquished in 1910 to become the unsuccessful candidate of the Republican party for governor of New York. In 1911 he was appointed secretary of War by President Taft, in which office he continued from May 1911 to March 1913. He subsequently resumed his law practice, which was interrupted during U.S. participation in the World War by his service in France as colonel of the 31st Field Artillery.
In 1927 he was sent by President Coolidge as a special com missioner to Nicaragua, where he met President Diaz and the rebel leader Moncada and was instrumental in persuading both leaders to lay down their arms on condition that the United States would supervise the 1928 election. His success on this mission, together with his study of the Philippine question in 1926, led to his appointment, in Dec. 1927, as governor-general of the Philip pine Islands, in which position he succeeded Maj.-gen. Leonard Wood, whose policies he continued to carry out with notable suc cess. Early in 1929 he was appointed secretary of State by President Hoover and in March of that year he took over the duties of his new office. He attended the London Naval Con ference, Jan.—April 1930 as head of the American delegation.