Сет Лоу: Политик, реформатор и президент Колумбийского университета.

American politician (1850–1916)

Seth Low (January 18, 1850 – September 17, 1916) was an American educator and political figure who served as the mayor of Brooklyn from 1881 to 1885, the president of Columbia University from 1890 to 1901, a diplomatic representative of the United States, and the mayor of New York City from 1902 to 1903. He was a leading municipal reformer fighting for efficiency during the Progressive Era.

Low was the son of Abiel Abbot Low and Ellen Almira Dow. Low's father was a leading trader in China, and his father's sister, Harriet Low, was one of the first young American women to live in China. The Low family was old Puritan New England stock, descended from Thomas Low of Essex County, Massachusetts. Seth the elder was also involved with charity and support work for the poor; on his deathbed, he admonished his three year old grandson and namesake: "Be kind to the poor." In the mid 1870s, Seth Low began to lay the groundwork for his political career by supporting "welfare reform" and the elimination of food and coal disbursements for the poor which caused "starving people" to gather at "warehouses where food was stored" to beg for help. During this period, the reform movement, of which Low was a stalwart, denounced emergency assistance of potatoes and flour for the poor. The reduction in welfare assistance for the poor led many to seek shelter in "police station basements" and in city hospitals, and led many poor parents to bring "their children to asylums" and many men to beg on the streets for "charity or work." On December 9, 1880, he married Anne Wroe Scollay Curtis of Boston, daughter of Justice Benjamin R. Curtis of the United States Supreme Court. They had no biological children, but adopted two nieces and a nephew. Low raised the tax rate from $2.33 of $100 assessed valuation in 1881 to $2.59 in 1883.

Low's first campaign for mayor of consolidated New York in 1897 was unsuccessful, partially because of a division among anti Tammany Hall candidates and parties. However, four years later, he managed to attain office. During his 1901 campaign, he had the support of humorist Mark Twain. He and Twain made a joint appearance that drew a crowd of more than 2,000. In 1902, Low resigned as president of the university to become the second mayor of the newly consolidated City of New York. He stands out as the first mayor of Greater New York to be elected on a fusion ticket, with the support of both the Citizens Union and Republican parties. Some of his notable achievements include the introduction of a civil service system — based upon merit — for hiring municipal employees, reducing widespread graft within the police department, improving the system of education within the city, and lowering taxes. Despite these seemingly impressive achievements he only served for two years and was defeated in 1903 by Democrat George B. McClellan Jr.

He was chairman of the Tuskegee University (formerly Tuskegee Institute), a historically black college directed under Booker T. Washington, from 1907 until 1916. From 1907, he was also president of the business labor alliance the National Civic Federation. Even though he believed in collective bargaining rights, which had customarily been denied to labor unions by those in authority, he did not favor strikes, but rather embraced arbitration as a suitable labor management negotiation tactic. He was a founder and the first president of the Bureau of Charities of Brooklyn, and was elected vice president of the New York Academy of Sciences and president of the Archaeological Institute of America. He is buried in Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

The Brooklyn Fire Department operated a fireboat named Seth Low from 1885 to 1917. In the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn there is also a playground named after Low. In Seth Low Pierrepont State Park Reserve, named after Low's nephew, there is a street named after Low called Seth Low Mountain Road. Intermediate School 96 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn is known as Seth Low Intermediate School 96. In the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, there is a NYCHA public housing development named Seth Low Houses. It consists of four 17 and 18 story buildings. There was a Seth Low Junior College at Columbia University between 1928 and 1936.