MARKS, MARCUS M.

MARKS, MARCUS M. (1858–1934), U.S. clothing manufacturer, civic official, and philanthropist. Marks was born in Schenectady, N.Y., and joined his father's clothing manufacturing firm, M. Marks and Son, which he later headed (1890–1913). From 1913 to 1917 Marks served as Manhattan borough president under the reforming mayor John P. Mitchel, establishing open public markets, welfare work, and joint trial boards for civil service employees. He was active in a variety of public causes. He was president of the National Daylight Association in 1917. As president of the National Association of Clothiers, he promoted the idea of cooperation among merchants, particularly in labor relations. As a member of Theodore Roosevelt's Nobel Prize Committee on Industrial Peace, Marks mediated many labor disputes. He was a founder and leader of several peace groups, of the Educational Alliance, of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, and of the Tuberculosis Preventorium for children. An advocate of university exchange study between the U.S. and Europe, he served as chairman of the selection committee of the Institute of International Education.