Foreign policy was largely determined by Hughes, financial by Mellon, and the problem of unemployment was thrown upon Hoover.
After graduating from the university of Pittsburgh he entered the banking house of Thomas Mellon & Sons and later became a partner.
The business developed into three strong institutions, the Mellon National Bank, the Union Trust Company, and the Union Savings Bank, all of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Mellon was elected president of the first mentioned in 1902, and was vice-president of the other two.
When she was three-and-twenty, she inherited practically the whole of the immense wealth of her grandfather Thomas Coutts (approaching two millions sterling, a fabulous sum in those days), by the will of the duchess of St Albans, who, as the actress Henrietta Mellon, had been his second wife and had been left it on his death in 1821.