Albert Fall entered the New Mexico State Penitentiary in Santa Fe to begin serving his one-year sentence for bribery, becoming the first presidential Cabinet member in American history imprisoned for felony crimes committed while in office. Driven by ambulance from El Paso due to poor health, Fall …
Albert Fallinstitutional-accountabilitypolitical-corruptioncriminal-prosecutionhistoric-precedent
A second wave of banking panics erupts in June 1931 centered in Chicago, where depositor runs beset networks of banks that had invested in declining real estate assets, resulting in approximately 2,300 bank suspensions during 1931—significantly more than the 1,350 failures in 1930. The crisis …
Herbert HooverFederal ReserveAmerican bankersdepositorsfinancial-crisisbankinggreat-depressionderegulationinstitutional-failure
President Herbert Hoover signs the Tariff Act of 1930, commonly known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act after its congressional sponsors Senator Reed Smoot (R-UT) and Representative Willis C. Hawley (R-OR), raising U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. Hoover had campaigned in …
Herbert HooverReed SmootWillis C. HawleyU.S. Congressmanufacturing lobbyistscorporate-resistancetrade-policygreat-depressionlobbyingprotectionism
Albert Fall, former Secretary of the Interior under President Warren Harding, was found guilty of accepting bribes from oil executive Edward Doheny and sentenced to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Fall became the first presidential Cabinet member in American history to be convicted of a …
Albert FallEdward Dohenypolitical-corruptioninstitutional-accountabilitycriminal-prosecutionhistoric-precedent
Investment trusts reached peak popularity and systemic danger by selling at premiums higher than underlying stock values while creating complex pyramids of cross-ownership and hidden leverage. These 1929 equivalents of closed-end mutual funds bought stock on margin with funds loaned not by banks but …
Edward Bernays orchestrates his most famous propaganda campaign, hiring a group of young women to march in New York’s Easter Parade while smoking cigarettes and announcing to press photographers that they are lighting “torches of freedom” in a strike against male domination. The …
Edward BernaysAmerican Tobacco CompanyGeorge Washington Hillpropagandamedia-manipulationcorporate-influencepublic-relationshealth
The Federal Reserve Board issues a public warning that banks should not make loans for stock market speculation, expressing concern about the use of Federal Reserve credit to finance the securities boom. The announcement signals regulatory awareness that margin lending and speculative excess pose …
Federal Reserve BoardBenjamin StrongCharles MitchellAndrew MellonNational City Bankregulatory-failurefinancial-speculationbankinginstitutional-capture
Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact (officially the General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy) in Paris, eventually ratified by 62 nations. The treaty solemnly renounces war as an instrument of …
Frank KelloggAristide BriandCalvin CoolidgeU.S. Senateforeign-policyinstitutional-captureinternational-lawimperialism
A new brokerage industry enabling margin stock purchases allowed ordinary investors to buy corporate equities with only 10 percent down, borrowing the rest with stocks serving as collateral for loans. By August 1929, brokers routinely lent small investors more than two-thirds of the face value of …
Federal ReserveGoldman SachsInvestment Trustsfinancial-deregulationspeculationsystematic-corruptionwealth-concentration
The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) is founded in New York, initially as a network of 16 radio stations, just months after the Radio Act of 1927 establishes federal licensing. William Paley’s family purchases controlling interest in 1928 for $400,000, and Paley transforms …
William PaleyColumbia Phonograph CompanyArthur JudsonParamount Picturesmedia-consolidationinstitutional-capturebroadcastingcorporate-consolidation
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed by electric chair at Charlestown State Prison in Massachusetts at 12:19 AM, exactly seven years after their arrest. Despite worldwide protests, new evidence suggesting innocence, and widespread doubt about the fairness of their trial, Massachusetts …
Nicola SaccoBartolomeo VanzettiAlvin FullerA. Lawrence LowellWebster Thayercivil-libertieslabor-suppressionxenophobiajudicial-captureanarchism+1 more
The Supreme Court rules 8-1 in Buck v. Bell to uphold Virginia’s compulsory sterilization law, providing constitutional blessing for the eugenics movement’s campaign to sterilize those deemed “unfit.” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes writes for the majority that the state may …
Oliver Wendell HolmesCarrie BuckHarry LaughlinU.S. Supreme CourtEugenics Record Officeeugenicsjudicial-capturecivil-libertiessupreme-courtinstitutional-racism
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in American history, inundates 27,000 square miles across seven states and displaces approximately 700,000 people, disproportionately affecting African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. The disaster response, coordinated by …
Herbert HooverLeRoy PercyRed CrossNational Guardracismlabor-exploitationdisaster-capitalisminstitutional-racismfederal-policy
The Supreme Court rules that the Journeymen Stone Cutters Association of North America violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by declaring stone from Bedford Cut Stone Company and 23 other Indiana limestone producers “unfair” and prohibiting its 5,000 members from working on buildings using …
George SutherlandU.S. Supreme CourtJourneymen Stone Cutters AssociationBedford Cut Stone Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureanti-unionantitrust
President Calvin Coolidge signs the McFadden Act, one of the most contested pieces of banking legislation in U.S. history, which recharters the twelve Federal Reserve District Banks into perpetuity but prohibits interstate branch banking for national banks. Named after Representative Louis Thomas …
Louis Thomas McFaddenCalvin CoolidgeU.S. CongressFederal Reservefinancial-deregulationbankingregulatory-capture
President Calvin Coolidge signs the Radio Act of 1927 (Public Law 632, 69th Congress), establishing the foundational principle that radio spectrum frequencies are publicly owned natural resources held in trust by the federal government for the American people. The legislation creates the Federal …
Calvin CoolidgeClarence DillWallace H. White Jr.Federal Radio CommissionU.S. Congressmedia-regulationpublic-airwavesfccbroadcastingpublic-interest-standard+1 more
Major American corporations deployed company-sponsored unions, benefits programs, and internal grievance systems as sophisticated anti-union strategies during the peak of 1920s welfare capitalism. Rather than negotiating with outside union representatives, companies like Goodyear Tire and U.S. Steel …
Goodyear TireU.S. SteelNational Association of ManufacturersSamuel Gomperslabor-suppressioncorporate-captureanti-unioninstitutional-capture
Radio Corporation of America created the National Broadcasting Company through acquisition and merger of the WEAF and WJZ station chains, establishing the first major commercial radio broadcasting network in the United States. RCA owned 50 percent of NBC, with General Electric holding 30 percent and …
David SarnoffRadio Corporation of AmericaGeneral ElectricWestinghouseAT&Tmedia-consolidationmonopoly-powerinstitutional-capturecorporate-capture
Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, completing the crossing in 14 hours and 31 minutes - beating the existing men’s record by nearly two hours. The 20-year-old New Yorker receives a ticker-tape parade attended by two million people, demonstrating public …
President Calvin Coolidge signs the Revenue Act of 1926, the crowning achievement of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s multi-year campaign to restructure federal taxation in favor of the wealthy. The act slashes the top marginal income tax rate from 46 percent to 25 percent on incomes over …
Andrew MellonCalvin CoolidgeU.S. CongressRepublican Partytax-policywealth-concentrationinstitutional-capturemellon-plan
D.C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan and the most powerful Klan leader in America, is convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Madge Oberholtzer, a state education official. Oberholtzer died from infection after Stephenson abducted, raped, and brutally bit her during a …
D.C. StephensonMadge OberholtzerIndiana Ku Klux KlanEd Jacksonwhite-supremacypolitical-corruptioninstitutional-capturescandal
Between 25,000 and 40,000 Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a massive demonstration of the organization’s political power at its peak. Marchers wear white robes but not masks, proudly displaying their faces in an assertion of mainstream respectability. …
Ku Klux KlanHiram EvansD.C. KlanState Governmentsracisminstitutional-capturewhite-supremacypolitical-corruption
The Supreme Court rules 7-2 in Gitlow v. New York to uphold Benjamin Gitlow’s conviction under New York’s Criminal Anarchy Act for publishing “The Left Wing Manifesto,” a socialist pamphlet advocating revolutionary mass action. Justice Edward Sanford’s majority opinion …
Edward SanfordBenjamin GitlowU.S. Supreme CourtOliver Wendell Holmescivil-libertiesfirst-amendmentred-scaresupreme-courtlabor-suppression
The Supreme Court unanimously reverses its 1922 Coronado decision, ruling that the United Mine Workers local union violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by conspiring to restrain interstate commerce in coal. After the Court’s first ruling favored the union by finding insufficient evidence of …
William Howard TaftU.S. Supreme CourtUnited Mine Workers of AmericaCoronado Coal Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureanti-unionantitrust
After nine weeks of testimony in federal court in Chicago, a jury convicts Charles Forbes, the first director of the Veterans Bureau, of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, along with construction company president E.H. Mortimer. The conviction stems from a $5,000 bribe Forbes accepted from …
Charles ForbesWarren G. HardingE.H. MortimerJ.W. Thompsonpolitical-corruptionveterans-affairsharding-scandals
The Florida land boom reaches its speculative peak in 1925, with real estate transactions totaling an estimated $7 billion (equivalent to over $120 billion today) in a single year. Developers like Carl Fisher (Miami Beach), George Merrick (Coral Gables), and Addison Mizner (Boca Raton) orchestrate …
Carl FisherGeorge MerrickAddison MiznerFlorida Legislaturefinancial-speculationregulatory-failuresecurities-fraudreal-estatepredatory-finance
President Calvin Coolidge signs the Revenue Act of 1924, the second installment of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s systematic campaign to slash taxes on the wealthy. The act reduces the maximum income tax rate from 58 percent to 46 percent on incomes over $500,000 (raised from the previous …
Andrew MellonCalvin CoolidgeU.S. CongressRepublican Partytax-policywealth-concentrationinstitutional-capturemellon-plan
President Calvin Coolidge signs the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), establishing the first permanent comprehensive restrictions on immigration in American history through a national origins quota system explicitly designed to preserve white racial dominance. The law reduces annual …
Calvin CoolidgeAlbert JohnsonDavid ReedMadison GrantHarry Laughlin+1 moreimmigration-policyracismeugenicsxenophobiainstitutional-capture+1 more
President Calvin Coolidge dismissed Attorney General Harry Daugherty after he refused to open Justice Department files to a congressional committee investigating charges of wrongdoing by Harding associates. Daugherty faced bitter public opposition when appointed attorney general and nearly faced …
Harry DaughertyCalvin CoolidgeWarren G. Hardingexecutive-corruptioninstitutional-captureaccountability-crisisobstruction
The National Industrial Conference Board (NICB), founded in 1916, reaches peak influence during the 1920s as the research and propaganda arm of corporate America’s campaign against labor organizing. Working alongside the National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the …
National Industrial Conference BoardNational Association of ManufacturersU.S. Chamber of CommerceAmerican Plan Associationpropagandalabor-suppressioncorporate-influenceinstitutional-capturepublic-relations
The Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys began formal public hearings on the Teapot Dome oil leases, led by Montana Democratic Senator Thomas Walsh. Republican leadership had assigned this junior minority member to chair the inquiry, expecting it to be futile. Walsh, a former prosecutor, …
Thomas WalshAlbert Fallcongressional-oversightpolitical-corruptioninstitutional-accountability
The Ku Klux Klan under Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson completes its takeover of Indiana state government, controlling the Governor’s office, the state legislature, and numerous local governments. Stephenson, a charismatic organizer who built the Indiana Klan from a few thousand members to an …
Jesse W. Smith, Attorney General Harry Daugherty’s aide and key Ohio Gang operator within the Justice Department, died by suicide as scrutiny of Harding administration corruption intensified. Smith managed sensitive communications and facilitated illicit schemes including the sale of illegal …
Jesse SmithHarry DaughertyWarren G. Hardingexecutive-corruptioninstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionjustice-department
The Supreme Court rules 5-3 in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital that a 1918 federal law establishing a minimum wage board for women and minors in the District of Columbia violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of “liberty of contract.” Justice George Sutherland, writing for …
George SutherlandU.S. Supreme CourtChildren's HospitalWillie Lyonsjudicial-capturelabor-suppressionsupreme-courtlochner-era
Veterans Bureau Director Charles Forbes resigned from Paris after President Harding confronted him at the White House, allegedly grabbing him by the throat and shouting “You double-crossing bastard!” Forbes had embezzled money, accepted bribes, and sold nearly 7 million dollars of …
Charles ForbesWarren G. HardingCharles F. Cramerexecutive-corruptioninstitutional-capturefraudsystematic-corruption
Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud and veteran propagandist for the Committee on Public Information during World War I, publishes “Crystallizing Public Opinion,” the first book to codify techniques for manipulating mass psychology in service of corporate and political interests. …
Edward BernaysAmerican Tobacco CompanySigmund Freudpropagandamedia-manipulationcorporate-influenceinstitutional-capturepublic-relations
The Scripps-McRae League is renamed Scripps-Howard Newspapers in early November 1922, recognizing company executive Roy W. Howard as co-director and consolidating control of the nation’s second-largest newspaper chain after William Randolph Hearst’s empire. Founder E.W. Scripps …
E.W. ScrippsRoy W. HowardRobert ScrippsScripps-Howard Newspapersmedia-consolidationnewspaper-chainsscrippsmonopoly
Attorney General Harry Daugherty secured a sweeping federal injunction that prohibited virtually any action by railway shop craft workers in furtherance of the largest railway strike in U.S. history. The 1922 strike involved hundreds of thousands of workers fighting wage reductions ordered by the …
Harry DaughertyWarren G. HardingRailroad Labor Boardlabor-suppressionjudicial-captureexecutive-corruptionanti-union
The Supreme Court rules in United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co. that unincorporated labor unions can be sued in federal court as legal entities, establishing a precedent that exposes unions to potentially devastating civil liability. The case arises from Arkansas’s Sebastian County Union …
William Howard TaftU.S. Supreme CourtUnited Mine Workers of AmericaCoronado Coal Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureanti-unionantitrust
The Supreme Court rules 8-1 in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (the Child Labor Tax Case) that the Revenue Act of 1919, which imposed a 10 percent excise tax on profits of companies employing children under age 14, violates the Tenth Amendment. Chief Justice William Howard Taft declares the tax …
William Howard TaftU.S. Supreme CourtU.S. CongressDrexel Furniture Companyjudicial-capturelabor-suppressioncorporate-powersupreme-courtchild-labor
Wyoming Democratic Senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution calling for investigation of the secret Teapot Dome oil lease deal after a Wyoming oil operator complained about Sinclair receiving the contract through a secret arrangement. Two days after the Wall Street Journal exposed the deal, …
John KendrickRobert La Follettecongressional-oversightinvestigative-journalismpolitical-corruption
Interior Secretary Albert Fall secretly granted Harry Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from the Teapot Dome naval petroleum reserve in Wyoming for 20 years, without competitive bidding. Fall locked the contract in his desk and instructed staff to tell no …
Albert FallHarry Sinclairpolitical-corruptionresource-extractionsystematic-corruptionregulatory-capture
The holding company structure proliferates across American industry during the 1920s, enabling unprecedented corporate consolidation while evading antitrust enforcement and state regulation. Delaware’s permissive incorporation laws, offering minimal oversight and maximum management discretion, …
Samuel InsullJ.P. MorganVan Sweringen BrothersDelaware Corporation Commissioncorporate-consolidationregulatory-capturefinancial-manipulationantitrust-evasionholding-companies
The Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Truax v. Corrigan that an Arizona law prohibiting state courts from issuing injunctions against peaceful labor picketing violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice William Howard Taft, writing for the majority, holds that the Arizona …
William Howard TaftU.S. Supreme CourtArizona State Legislaturelabor-suppressionjudicial-captureanti-unionsupreme-court
Edward Doheny, oil magnate and head of Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company, delivered $100,000 in cash to Interior Secretary Albert Fall as a “loan” that was never repaid (equivalent to $1.76 million in 2024). This payment preceded Doheny’s company receiving lucrative …
Albert FallEdward Dohenypolitical-corruptionbriberyresource-extractionsystematic-corruption
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon secured passage of the first Republican tax reduction following the 1920 landslide, dropping the top marginal rate from 73 to 58 percent while introducing preferential treatment for capital gains at 12.5 percent. The act repealed the excess profits tax imposed during …
Andrew MellonWarren G. HardingRepublican Partytax-policywealth-concentrationinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruption
Pierre du Pont assumes the presidency of General Motors in December 1920 and installs Alfred P. Sloan as operating head, consolidating DuPont family control over the nation’s largest automaker after DuPont Company acquires 23% of GM stock. The arrangement creates a paradigmatic example of …
Pierre du PontAlfred P. SloanJohn J. RaskobDuPont CompanyGeneral Motorscorporate-consolidationinstitutional-captureantitrust-evasioncorporate-governance
On August 25, 1921, nearly 13,000 armed coal miners began marching from Marmet, West Virginia, toward Logan County to challenge the oppressive company town system that had kept them in wage slavery for decades, triggering the largest armed uprising in the United States since the Civil War. The …
United Mine Workers of AmericaSheriff Don ChafinBaldwin-Felts Detective AgencyPresident Warren Hardinglabor-suppressionstate-violencecorporate-violencefederal-intervention
President Warren G. Harding signed Executive Order 3474 transferring control of naval petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills and Buena Vista in California from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior under Secretary Albert Fall. This transfer removed the reserves …
Warren G. HardingAlbert FallEdwin Denbyinstitutional-captureexecutive-corruptionresource-extractionregulatory-capture
President Warren G. Harding signs the Emergency Quota Act (also called the Emergency Immigration Act or Johnson Quota Act), establishing for the first time numerical limits on immigration to the United States based on national origin. The law restricts annual immigration from any country to 3% of …
Warren G. HardingAlbert JohnsonU.S. CongressImmigration Restriction Leagueimmigration-policyxenophobiainstitutional-capturelabor-suppressionnativism