William Clinton Mullendore (May 18, 1892 – December 1, 1983) was an American conservative businessman who opposed the New Deal.
From 1922 to 1923, he was Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the Hoover Administration, after which he established a general law practice in Los Angeles, which he ran from 1923 to 1928.
[2] He spoke at the Rotary Club in 1931 and at the American Bankers Association in 1932 against the National Recovery Administration.
Leonard Read, assistant manager of the Western Division of the United States Chamber of Commerce, organized a meeting with Mullendore to convince him to support the NRA, but after an hour-long conversation, Read was persuaded to Mullendore's side.
[2] In 1950, the Buchanan Committee, a subcommittee of the House of Representatives investigating lobbying, subpoenaed the FEE, as well as some of its funders, of which Mullendore was one; Mullendore refused to submit to a "harassing and burdensome inquiry" that he claimed Congress had no right to make, and faced no reprisal for his refusal.