Businessman, Social Reformer. Early in his career he acquired wealth as a businessman in Cuba and returned to the United States and entered the public sector. For the rest of his life, he operated at the highest levels of international diplomacy and finance. Among other assignments, he served as President Woodrow Wilson's Assistant Secretary of Treasury (1919 to 1920)and later as Undersecretary of State(1920 to 1921). He was a member of the Finance committee of the large American delegation that went with President Wilson to Paris for the Versailles Peace Conference. President Herbert Hoover sent him as a delegate to a General Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1931 where his work earned him the distinction of a "TIME" magazine cover in 1932. In 1934 he was described as "President Roosevelt's grey and graceful 'Disarmament Ambassador'". A confidant of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was appointed by him to the Chairmanship of the American Red Cross in 1938, and Davis, who had been a member of the Red Cross Central Committee since 1920, was also elected Chairman of the Board of Governors of the League of Red Cross Societies. Though a quiet spoken, Southern gentleman, he nonetheless directed the American Red Cross with a firm hand in the critical period of buildup to World War II and through the first three years of United States involvement in the war. Under his leadership the Red Cross established relief programs for civilian war victims and prisoners of war, oversaw the dramatic expansion of the Red Cross volunteer base and the variety of services offered during wartime, and introduced the new and vitally important Red Cross blood services which saved thousands of lives during the war. Davis was a long time member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Upon his passing Cordell Hull said, "Few persons have had the privilege of rendering to their country and to other countries such a full measure of useful service."