Newton Diehl Baker (1871-1937) was an American lawyer, mayor of Cleveland, and secretary of war from 1916 to 1921. He made his most indelible mark as a municipal reformer in Cleveland.

Newton D. Baker was born in Martinsburg, W.Va., of a family with deep southern roots. In 1892, after graduating from Johns Hopkins University, he took a law degree at Washington and Lee University. A disciple of Edmund Burke, he also admired Thomas Jefferson.

After practicing law briefly in Martinsburg, Baker went first to Washington, D.C., where he served as secretary to Postmaster General William L. Wilson, and then to Cleveland to resume practice. There his astuteness and speaking ability soon won the attention of Thomas L. Johnson, who began an extraordinarily constructive career as a reform mayor in 1901. The youngest man in Johnson's administration, Baker was also one of the most influential. As city solicitor from 1902 through 1912, he...