Stevens was born on July 31, 1899, in
Fanwood, New Jersey to
John Peters Stevens and Edna Ten Broeck. He attended
Phillips Academy and graduated in 1917. After serving as a
second lieutenant in the
field artillery in
World War I he attended and graduated from
Yale University. He became president of J.P. Stevens and Company in 1929. He served as chairman of
The Business Council, then known as the Business Advisory Council for the
United States Department of Commerce in 1951 and 1952. On January 29, 1953, Stevens was nominated to be Secretary of the Army by President
Dwight Eisenhower and appeared for a hearing before the
Senate Committee on Armed Services that same day. After confirmation, he came into conflict with Senator
Joseph McCarthy over a series of issues that ultimately led to the
Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. In the fall of 1953, McCarthy began an investigation into the
United States Army Signal Corps laboratory at
Fort Monmouth. McCarthy's aggressive questioning of army personnel was damaging to morale, but failed to reveal any sign of the "dangerous spies" that McCarthy alleged to exist. Next McCarthy investigated the case of
Irving Peress, an Army dentist who had refused to answer questions in a loyalty-review questionnaire. As various officers, scientists and other army staff were subjected to McCarthy's often abusive questioning, Stevens was criticized for capitulating to many of McCarthy's demands and not supporting his men. Concurrent with these events, McCarthy's chief counsel,
Roy Cohn, had been pressuring the army, including Stevens, to give preferential treatment to his friend
G. David Schine, who had recently been drafted. The Army-McCarthy hearings were held to investigate the Army's charge that McCarthy and Cohn were making improper demands on behalf of Schine, and McCarthy's counter charge that the Army was holding Schine "hostage" in an attempt to halt McCarthy's investigations into the Army. During the hearings, McCarthy questioned Stevens for several days. Although Stevens is generally considered to have handled the hearings poorly, it was McCarthy who fared worst in the month-long investigation. The exposure before a television audience of McCarthy's methods and manners during the hearings are credited with playing a major role in his ultimate downfall. Stevens wanted to resign after the incident but Vice-President
Richard Nixon convinced him not to. ==J. P. Stevens & Company==