Features

This Day in Business History

<< March >>

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

March 1

1914		Henry Colijn (Dutch Secretary of War) is named director of British Petroleum.
1937		Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) chief John L. Lewis and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor sign a landmark contract in which U.S. Steel officially recognized the CIO as sole negotiator for the company's unionized workers. The contract also included the adoption of overtime pay and the 40-hour work week, as well as a pay hike that raised wages by nearly 40 cents an hour. This was a stunning about-face for a company that had previously done its best to crush its workers' union-based efforts.

March 2

1824		The Supreme Court hands down another ruling in Gibbons v. Ogdens, which pitted Federalists against states' rights advocates. The case stemmed from the New York state government's decision in the late 1780s to hand Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston a monopoly on steamboat navigation in state territory. Fulton and Livingston later sold their steamboat concern to Aaron Ogden, who soon discovered that, despite the state sanctioned monopoly, he had competition, in the person of fellow steamboat impresario Thomas Gibbons, for New York's waters. Ogden promptly filed suit against Gibbons; in 1820, the New York Court of Chancery affirmed Ogden's monopoly. However, Gibbons, who held that his Federal trade license granted him rights to operate in New York's waters, refused to be defeated and took his case to the Supreme Court. The Court ultimately ruled in favor of Gibbons, a decision which effectively protected the Federal government's power as the sole regulator of interstate trade.
1949		America's soft-coal workers, led by United Mine Workers chief John L. Lewis, protest the appointment of Dr. James Boyd as head of the Federal Bureau of Mines. The two-week walkout was another in the flood of strikes that cropped up in the wake of World War II. Striking had become something of an annual ritual for Lewis and the miners: including the walkout in '49, they had struck every year since the close of the war. And, though some of these strikes roused recourse from the mine owners and government, the workers were able to make some gains, including pension plans and a health fund.

March 3

1873		William Green, the coal miner turned union leader who ruled over the American Federation of Labor for nearly 30 years, is born in Coshocton, Ohio. Green began working in the coal mines at the age of 16. He started his steady rise to power in the labor movement in 1900 as the subdistrict president of the United Mine Workers (UMWA). In 1913, he became the UMWA's national secretary-treasurer. At the same time, Green also began what proved to be a lifetime involvement with the AFL: he was tabbed for the organization's executive council in 1913 and was elected president of the AFL in 1924. By the time Green ascended to the presidency, the AFL was seemingly in a state of decline; not only was it increasingly impotent in the fight against ever-powerful business leaders, but a number of workers also chafed against the AFL's insistence on organizing around "strict" craft lines. These issues hardly abated during Green's tenure and, in 1935, UMWA chief John L. Lewis, frustrated with the drift of the AFL, formed the Committee for Industrial Organizations (CIO). Though the CIO initially existed within the folds of the AFL, Green and Lewis were hardly comfortable bedfellows: neither man was prone to share power and Green attempted to exercise tight control over the CIO. The situation rapidly deteriorated, leading to a series of nasty conflicts and Green's high-profile expulsion of the CIO from the AFL in 1936. Green held the spot atop the AFL until passing away in 1952.
1873		Members of Congress pass "The Salary Grab Act," a bill that boosted legislator's salaries by a staggering 50 percent. And, in case the raise didn't sufficiently stuff their coffers, the bill also paved the way for the pay increase to be effective retroactively for the past two years. Lest they look too selfish, Congress also doubled the salaries of the President, as well as the Supreme Court Justices. But, the bill stirred a storm of protest, as the public screamed for the raise to be repealed. Congress eventually acceded to the public's demands and killed the "Salary Grab Act."
1884		The Supreme Court grants Congress the power to authorize greenbacks, regardless of whether or not the nation was engulfed in a war. In the short term, the ruling was a victory for the greenback movement, whose ranks and political influence had swelled during the late 1870s and early 1880s. However, the Court's ruling couldn't stave off the eventual implosion of the movement; though proponents of populist currency kept up their fight against the gold standard, many abandoned their allegiance to greenbacks and instead tabbed silver as their preferred alternative to gold.

March 4

1811		The first Bank of the United States is forced to liquidate its assets and shutter its doors after suffering the slings of local bankers and state-centric politicians. Founded in 1791, the creation of the bank had been one of the first acts of the newly formed U.S. Congress. But, the bank was an almost instant source of controversy: though backed by Federal funds, the bank was essentially a private company, complete with investors, which engendered a loud and powerful chorus of critics. Some feared that the bank would become an all too potent central institution, a la the Bank of England, while merchants hoping to open their own state-based financial institutions carped over the competition from the bank's network of branch offices. The call for dissolution grew louder when it was revealed that the bank's coffers leaned heavily on foreign investments, most notably from British interests. So, even though the bank was profitable and paid out relatively handsome dividends to investors, the critics won out and forced its demise.
1909		Harry Helmsley is born. At one point he owned 27 hotels, 50,000 apartments, and the Empire State Building. Owning real estate proved to be quite lucrative for Helmsley, whose net worth was estimated at $1.7 billion by Forbes magazine in 1996. These achievements belied Helmsley's rather humble origins: the son of a dry goods salesman, Helmsley opted to skip college to enter the real estate business. However, whatever Helmsley's achievements in the business world, it's likely that he will always be remembered as the husband of the notorious Leona Helmsley. Dubbed the "Queen of Mean," for her domineering rule over the duo's hotel chain, Leona bore the brunt of the scorn and punishment for her and Harry's well-publicized trial for tax evasion in the late 1980s. Leona was slapped with a stiff fine and served 18 months in prison for her tax crimes, while Harry, who had since decayed into senility, was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. He died on January 4, 1997.

March 5

1923		Montana and Nevada adopt legislation that paved the path for state funded pensions for elderly citizens. Under the guise of the new pension law, Montana and Nevada handed "qualifying" people over the age of 70 as much as $25.
1933		The day after being sworn into office, Franklin Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday," which, for four days forced the closure of America's banks and halted all financial transactions. The "holiday" not only helped stem the frantic run on banks, but gave Roosevelt time to push the Emergency Banking Act through the legislative chain. Passed by Congress on March 9, the act handed the president a far-reaching grip over bank dealings and "foreign transactions." The legislation also paved the path for solvent banks to resume business as early as March 10. Three days later nearly 1,000 banks were up and running again.

March 6

1819		The Supreme Court decides McCulloch v. Maryland, a case that centered around the question of whether or not Maryland held the power to tax all the local branches of the Bank of the United States, most notably the one located in Baltimore. Invoking the controversial principle of "federal sovereignty," the Court ruled that states could not levy taxes against U.S. government institutions. The decision held implications that wandered into sticky political territory; the Court effectively denied state legislators' attempts to exercise control over the Federal government. Moreover, while articulating the ruling, Chief Justice John Marshall affirmed Congress' right to establish a corporation such as the Bank of the United States. Though the Constitution made no specific mention of Congress creating a bank, Marshall, citing the "Hamiltonian doctrines" of "loose construction" and "implied powers," nonetheless ceded the House this power.
1886		The Knights of Labor picket to protest the practices of the Southwestern Railroad system, and the company's chief, high-flying Wall Street financier Jay Gould. Some 9,000 workers walked off the job, halting service on 5,000 miles of track. The workers' strike ultimately saddled Southwestern Rail with $3 million in losses, and impeded the trans-coastal trade network. The workers, who forfeited $900,000 in wages, eventually began to suffer from hunger, but their battle against Gould and Southwestern Railroad stretched for two months before they finally returned to work in May.
1899		Aspirin is patented by German researchers Felix Hoffman and Hermann Dreser.

March 7

1889		Lawyer turned Republican legislator William Windom takes over as the 33rd Secretary of the Treasury. Windom's primary task was taming the mountain of public debt that had piled up in the wake of the Civil War. Flying in the face of the drive to refund the debt through government issued bonds, Windom called on the nation's banks to ease the situation by swapping their high-interest bonds for issues that were pegged at a far lower rate. Bank leaders initially resisted the plan, prompting Windom to resort to a bit of arm twisting to win their compliance. Once executed, Windom's bond swap proved effective: though the maneuver came in at a cost of roughly $10,000 to the government, the savings generated by the interest rate charge stretched past the $10 million mark. Windom's run in the Treasury was soon cut short by the assassination of President James Garfield; after eight rather eventful months in office, Windom retired his post on November 13, 1881. However, later in the decade, Windom returned for another term as the Secretary of the Treasury, this time under the charge of President Benjamin Harrison.
1997		Federal Judge Robert Sweet sentences notorious Wall Street swindler Steven Hoffenberg to a 20-year prison term. In the ruling, Sweet ordered the former chief of Towers Financial Corps to pay out $462 million in restitution, as well as a $1 million in fines. Hoffenberg had been accused of pawning off vast sums of "worthless" Tower-backed bonds to unsuspecting investors. All told, Hoffenberg had conned investors out of a whopping $500 million, money which he used to fund his extravagant habits. Though this wasn't Hoffenberg's first brush with the law, he confessed to a series of charges, including obstruction of justice and tax evasion, it was certainly his biggest.

March 8

1796		The Supreme Court delivers its decision in Hylton v. United States, ruling that the carriage tax was an indirect tax. As such, the carriage tax was deemed constitutional, marking the first time in U.S. history that Court had weighed in on the constitutionality of legislation that had been passed by Congress.
1985		A report released by the Internal Revenue Service provides evidence that the number of millionaires in America had doubled since 1980, as 407,700 Americans reported earnings that stretched past the seven-figure mark. But the wealth was not necessarily distributed evenly; to a large degree, the rich prospered, while the poor suffered. From 1977 to 1990 the incomes of the wealthiest fifth of the population swelled by one third; the wealthiest 1 percent fared even better, as their incomes doubled. During the same period, the combined income of the bottom 60 percent of Americans declined, while people living below the poverty line experienced the highest drop-off in income.

March 9

1925		G. William Miller, the CEO turned public servant who served as the 65th secretary of the treasury, is born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Miller did a stint in the military before practicing corporate law in New York City. Miller's run up the ladder of the private sector continued when he was tabbed to be the vice president of Textron, Inc., in 1957. In 1960, Miller was named president of Textron and later in the decade became the company's CEO. However, in 1974, Miller crossed over into the public sector and joined the Federal Reserve Board. Though he had risen to the top of the fed in 1978, Miller was not done job-hopping: in 1979, he accepted President Jimmy Carter's nomination to become treasury secretary. Miller held the post until early 1981, when Republican challenger Ronald Reagan swept Carter from office.
1933		Freshly inaugurated President Franklin Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress. The legislation came but four days after the president declared a "banking holiday" that temporarily shut down the nation's beleaguered financial institutions. Although a legally dubious legal move, the "holiday" helped halt the recent run on banks that had either bankrupted or badly depleted numerous banks' holdings. The Banking Act was the next step in Roosevelt's quick-hit revitalization plan; it gave the federal government considerable control over the nation's banks, all in the name of returning the institutions to solvency. After little more than a half-hour of debate, the House passed the bill and paved the path for the relatively healthy banks to reopen their doors. On March 12 the President lifted the holiday and a handful of banking institutions were cautiously allowed to reenter the fray. Roosevelt's gambits eased the public's urge to seize back their deposits and bought the government time to enact legislation, most notably the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, that helped stabilize the nation's banks.

March 10

1902		Attorney General Philander Knox files an anti-trust suit against J.P. Morgan's Northern Securities Company. The ensuing court case revolved around whether or not Northern Securities, a New Jersey-based holding concern for Morgan's sizable western railroad business, violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In early 1904, the Supreme Court ruled against Northern Securities, handing President Theodore Roosevelt and Knox a high-profile victory in their war on trusts. Thanks to the Northern Securities case, as well as his role in the stunning breakup of the Standard Oil combine in 1907, the president's reputation as a "trustbuster" grew particularly prodigious. However, Roosevelt's critics are quick to point out that he was less focused on taming the magnitude of business than on simply asserting the federal government's right to regulate corporate America. Moreover, some derided the president's "crusade" as an elaborate and popular bit of political theater that did little to curb the rise of over-sized business combines.
1997		Nationwide Insurance agrees to pay out a handsome settlement and close the books on a discrimination case that the U.S. Justice Department had marshaled against the company. The government's suit charged Nationwide with "redlining," the practice of refusing to hand out policies based on the location of a person's home. Under the terms of the settlement, Nationwide consented to funnel $13 million into various inner-city areas. However, even in the wake of the settlement, Nationwide's President Richard Crabtree refused to concede his company's guilt. "Certainly we do not believe we committed any illegal acts nor did our employees or agents," Crabtree insisted. "We have not been able to discover [anything] through extensive investigation internally." Despite the size of the settlement, which officials deemed the heftiest total meted out under the auspices of the Federal Fair Housing Act, advocates for equal housing opportunities remained skeptical. Shanna Smith of the National Fair Housing Alliance predicted that the government's failure to take "punitive" measures would ultimately mean that Nationwide would return to redlining in the future.

March 11

1938		Congress passes the Revenue Act. The bill, which called for a series of corporate tax cuts, proved to be controversial; President Franklin Roosevelt for one was an ardent foe of the Revenue Act of 1938 and refused to lend his signature to the legislation. Undeterred, proponents of the bill and its package of tax breaks succeeded in overriding Roosevelt's veto and pushing the Revenue Act into law books later that spring.
1941		Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act into law, paving the way for an initial aid package worth roughly $7 billion to Great Britain. Although the U.S. soon chucked its neutral stance and entered the war, the Lend-Lease program kept pumping until 1946. All told, the U.S. funneled $50.6 billion worth of Lend-Lease aid to the Allies during the war, the majority of which went to Britain and the U.S.S.R.

March 12

1901		Industrialist turned philanthropist Andrew Carnegie earmarks $5.2 million for the construction of 65 branch libraries in New York City, as part of the Scottish-born steel and rail magnate's drive to dot "the English-speaking world" with libraries. Between 1900 and his death in 1919, Carnegie used his riches to establish over 2500 libraries. However, Carnegie's conversion to philanthropy belied the hard-charging tactics he used to amass what was the single-greatest fortune of the Gilded Age. Indeed, Carnegie often rode roughshod over the workers at his steel plants, demanding long hours in wretched conditions in the name of maximum production and mighty profits. Later, perhaps to amend for his earlier sins, Carnegie adopted the more humane notion that wealth should be distributed, rather than accumulated. He put this philosophy into play shortly after selling his steel works to J.P. Morgan for $500 million. Although he was already fabulously wealthy, the deal made Carnegie the world's richest man, prompting his retirement and subsequent shift into the world of charitable donations.
1985		Former President Richard Nixon announces his plan to forgo his fleet of secret service bodyguards in favor of private protection. According to Nixon, relinquishing Secret Service protection would potentially save the nation some $3 million a year. Nixon, who had failed to tame inflation and rising prices during his presidency, explained that he was trying "to do his part to help cut the federal deficit" that had swelled to epic proportions in the early 1980s.
1987		The Dow Jones Industrial Average welcomes Coca-Cola and the Boeing Company to its rather exclusive ranks, and drops Inco Ltd. and Owens-Illinois Glass in favor of the two higher-profile concerns.

March 13

1946		The 175,00 United Auto Workers on strike against General Motors since November 1945 agree to head back to work. Although GM caved in and handed out a wage hike, the coming months hardly made the strike seem like a victory: business leaders in various industries proved successful in their drive for price increases, which opened the floodgates of inflation and in turn wiped out the workers' wage gains.
1998		Retail stalwart Sears Roebuck & Co. belatedly recalls a line of shotguns first advertised in a Sears' catalogs from the 1950s as the "J.C. Higgins Bolt Action 12-Gauge Model 10 Shotguns" because of faulty assembly of the bolt latch; in cases where the latch was not installed properly, it would spring off the gun and smack the user in the face. Although Sears didn't receive any reports of injuries stemming from the guns, they nonetheless offered a $160 "finders' fee" to anyone who returned a defective bolt latch.

March 14

1812		Legislators heed President James Madison's plea to provide for means for bolstering the nation's defenses, and approve the issue of the very first war bond, worth some $11 million. Over the next three years of the war, Congress would authorize six more war bonds, and also hike tariffs on imports, all in the name of another battle against Great Britain.
1816		The House of Representatives heed President James Madison's call for a bank-based remedy to the nation's fiscal woes and vote to establish the Second Bank of the United States. The legislation soon made its way through the Senate and by the dawn of 1817, the Second Bank, complete with a 20-year charter and $35 million in federal funding, was up and running in Philadelphia. However, this moment of glory was short lived: the Bank floundered under the lead of its first chief, William Jones. An inept fiscal manager, Jones's policies exacerbated the wounds that the United States' economy had suffered in the wake of the War of 1812. Thanks in no small part to Jones's bungling, the nation was plunged into a year-long financial panic during 1819. Although the Bank later flourished under the charge of Nelson Biddle, it didn't survive past the term of its initial charter: states' rights activists, led by President Andrew Jackson, mounted a hotly contested, though ultimately successful, drive to abolish the Bank and its network of branch offices.

March 15

1938		The United States Secret Service unveils the "Know Your Money" campaign. Designed to raise awareness about the characteristics of legal tender, the campaign also called attention to a problem that had plagued the nation since the 19th century--counterfeiting. Back in 1863, the government had hoped to put a halt to counterfeiting by establishing a national currency, but the move backfired, as scores of faked bills flooded the market. The government went back to the drawing board and established the Secret Service in 1865.
1985		Ohio Governor Richard Celeste temporarily halts business at all of Ohio's ailing savings and loan banks. After being shut down for a bare three days, the S&Ls were allowed to reopen on March 21, albeit with a $750 cap on withdrawals designed to prevent an all-out assault on deposits. However, Ohio's actions couldn't stave off what became one of the largest fiscal crises of the 1980s: plagued by slow-downs in key sectors of the economy, thrifts across the country fell prey to bankruptcy. However, the so-called Savings and Loan Scandal was not simply marked by the mass failure of high-profile financial institutions; it was also steeped in corruption, as scores of S&L chiefs had abused their positions in the name of racking up gaudy fortunes. Following the tidal wave of thrifts closures, a number of the S&L chiefs were sent to jail for fraud and embezzlement.

March 16

1873		Antislavery advocate George Boutwell Sewall ends his four-year stint as the U.S. secretary of the treasury. A self-trained lawyer, Sewall rose through the ranks of the Massachusetts legislature during the 1840s to become the state's governor in 1851. Though he won the governor's seat through the support of Free Soilers and left-leaning Democrats, Sewall soon grew disenchanted with the Democratic party's stance on slavery. He converted to the Republicans and eventually became a member of the party's more radical wing. Indeed, Sewall was a harsh and outspoken critic of Andrew Johnson's presidency: along with lobbing frequent attacks, Sewall led the charge to have Johnson impeached. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant tabbed Sewall as the nation's 28th secretary of the treasury. Following his run in the Treasury, Sewall served as a U.S. senator and presidential advisor before returning to the private sector as a lawyer.
1915		The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), devised in 1914, begins its operations. Officially charged with curbing corporate actions that blocked competition and the free flow of international trade, the FTC also served to strengthen the ties between business and government. Not only did the agency aid exporters by keeping tabs on tariffs, it also threw its weight behind legislation that would sanction monopolies and trusts in the field of foreign trade. As some historians have noted, the FTC fulfilled Wilson's vision of a global fiscal order led by the United States and facilitated by "open" trade channels. Along with its far-reaching economic impact, the FTC also marked the further consolidation of power in the executive branch of the government, a trend that had been initiated earlier in the century by Theodore Roosevelt.

March 17

1862		In hopes of stopping the flood of counterfeit cash that was engulfing the nation, the U.S. Treasury sanctions two issues of greenbacks. Despite the official approval, greenbacks, the paper money minted to support the Union during the Civil War, continued to be a source of controversy during the latter half of the 19th century. The bills, which weren't tied to any form of metallic backing, irked conservatives and proponents of the gold standard. Still, that didn't stop the government from releasing $450 million in greenbacks during the war; nor did it prevent farmers and other pro-greenback forces from forming a political movement that briefly wielded a small measure of power during the 1870s. Indeed, though the House of Representatives attempted to stem the flow of greenbacks with the passage of the Resumption Act in 1875, the greenback movement, which had since joined forces with the Labor party was able to make some legislative inroads. The newly formed Greenback-Labor party seized some seats in the House during the 1880 election, but the paper money movement quickly lost steam, as most of its members switched their allegiance to the drive for the free coinage of silver.
1997		The Ford Motor plant in Lorain, Ohio, announces layoffs that threatened to impact 2,500 employees. The layoffs were part of Ford's decision to stop work on the Thunderbird and Cougar cars that had been produced in Lorain. Ford officials cited shifting tastes and a contracting market for mid-specialty coupes as the motivating factors in the move. Though both the Cougar and Thunderbird were top selling mid-specialty items, the field as a whole had suffered in recent years. According to Ford, mid-specialty sales had plummeted by 30 percent since the beginning of the 1990s.

March 18

1850		One of America's stalwart companies, American Express, is founded. The brainchild of Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, American Express was a union of three express transport concerns: Livingston, Fargo & Company, Wells & Co., and Butterfield & Wasson. The newly formed, and initially unincorporated, transportation company was a fast hit with the public; by the close of the Civil War, American Express had set up 900 offices in 10 states. Success, however, bred competition, and the upstart Merchants Union Express Company, founded in 1866, gave American Express a good run of it for a few years. After two years of furious competition, the companies decided that it would be more profitable to merge than to fight; in late 1868, the American Express and Merchants Union joined together as American Merchants Union Express Company. Fargo took the reins of the new concern, which, in 1873, adopted its more familiar moniker as the American Express Company. American Express has since mutated into a giant in the fields of finance and travel, with offices spread across the globe.
1985		After a few months of negotiations, Capital Cities Communications sealed a deal to acquire media stalwart American Broadcasting Cos. (ABC) on this day in 1985. Capital Cities handed over $3.5 billion in cash and warrants, marking what was then one of the biggest mergers in U.S. corporate history. On paper, the acquisition was a tremendous boon for Capital Cities who, despite having but a fraction of ABC's revenues, was able to translate healthy profit margins and an efficient management system into a major stake in the broadcast industry. The deal also made sense for ABC, which had recently become ripe fodder for a hostile takeover. However, selling out to Capital Cities was something of a bittersweet moment for 79-year-old company chief Leonard Goldenson. When Goldman took control of ABC in the early 1950s, the network was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy; not only did he save ABC from the scrap heap, but Goldman also kept the company humming along for roughly three decades. Wall Street, however, held back its tears and stamped its seal of approval on the deal: ABC's stock surged $31.375 to close at $105.875.

March 19

1831		Robbers cleaned the City Bank of New York's coffers to the tune of $245,000 in the first such robbery reported in America's young history.
1985		IBM pulls the plug on its floundering home computer, the PCjr. First introduced in November of 1983, the PCjr had been created to fuel IBM's efforts to rule the consumer computer market. In its initial press packet for the PCjr, IBM touted the computer as a "compact, low-cost" machine for "personal productivity applications, learning and entertainment." However, the hype and putatively puny price couldn't induce people to buy the machine: after 16 months on the market, consumers had snapped up but 240,000 units. The failure of the PCjr did not bode well for IBM: during the ensuing years, the company struggled to make the transition from its traditional realm of business computing to the burgeoning home user market.

March 20

1920		James Ward Packard, founder of the Ohio Automobile Company and the Packard Motor Car Company, dies in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 64. A native of Warren, Ohio, James Packard and his brother, William, started their industrial careers manufacturing electric lamps. They entered the automobile business after James Packard purchased a Winton Motor Carriage, which he was so dissatisfied with that he decided to build his own. Using the shops of a Packard Electric Company subsidiary, J.W. Packard completed his first automobile in 1899. To keep their automotive and electrical interests separate, the Packard brothers, along with fellow engineer George Weiss, started the Ohio Automobile Company in September 1900. That year the Packards boosted their company's profile by selling two cars to William D. Rockefeller. In 1901, an Ohio Automobile Company employee was arrested for speeding through the streets of Warren at 40mph. The nationally publicized speeding arrest also raised the company's profile. A shrewd promoter, Packard developed one of the car industry's first widely recognized slogans. Responding to a customer's inquiry about the performance of his car, Packard said, "Ask the man who owns one." Packard's deft promotion left the company with more customers than cars. A Detroit financier named Henry Joy volunteered his services to raise capital in order to raise the company's production capabilities. In 1902, the reorganized Ohio Automobile Company was incorporated as the Packard Motor Car Company. Packard cars would be the first to carry a steering wheel in the place of a tiller and the first to utilize the H-gear-shift configuration.
1933		President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Economy Act into law. Another strike against the Depression, the Economy Act slashed the salaries of federal employees in the name of preserving the nation's fiscal resources. It also forced veterans to forgo part of their war benefits in the name of the economy. Along with these austerity measures, the Economy Act also forced the federal government to shuffle various agencies in hopes of maximizing their cost efficiency.

March 21

1950

Preston Tucker files suit against his former prosecutors. Tucker, made famous by the 1988 film Tucker starring Jeff Bridges in the title role, was one of the car industry's most spectacular post-war failures. Having built a reputation as an engineer during WWII, when he served as general manager of his company Ypsilanti Machine & Tool Company, Tucker looked to capitalize on the high demand that the post-war conditions offered. No new car model had been released since 1942, so the end of the war would bring four years worth of car buyers back to the market. Tucker intended to meet the new demand with a revolutionary automobile design. His 1945 plans called for an automobile that would be equipped with a rear-mounted engine as powerful as an aircraft engine, an hydraulic torque converter that would eliminate the necessity of a transmission, two revolving headlights at either side of the car's fender along with one stationary "cyclops" headlight in the middle, and a steering wheel placed in the center of the car and flanked by two passenger seats. In the end, only 51 Tuckers were produced and none of them were equipped with the features Tucker had initially advertised. Still, loyal fans of Tucker claim that Tucker was the victim of industrial sabotage carried out by the Big Three. Tucker was indicted by the SEC before he could begin to mass-produce his automobiles. He was eventually acquitted of all charges. Emboldened by his acquittal Tucker filed suit against his prosecutors. Historians who argue against the conspiracy theory maintain that post-war manufacturing conditions left small manufacturers little room for success. They suggest that, if anything, Tucker's acquittal was merciful. Tucker failed to meet the requirements for capital and production capability that his project demanded. After raising almost $15 million from stockholders, Tucker defaulted on federal deadlines for the production of car prototypes. When he finally did produce the cars, none of them were equipped with the technological breakthroughs he promised. Still, the Tucker was a remarkable car for its price tag. Whether as an innovator silenced by the complacent authorities or a charlatan better fit to build visions than cars, Preston Tucker made an personal impact in a post-war industry dominated by faceless goliaths.

March 22

1765		Hoping to scrounge up funds to maintain a military presence in the colonies, the British government passes the notorious Stamp Act, which levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, including everything from broadsides and insurance policies to playing cards and dice. Though the Stamp Act was a common fundraising vehicle in England, it stirred a storm of protest in the colonies. The colonists' anger was partially grounded in fears that the Stamp Act would open the gates to a flood of taxes. They also felt that, as English citizens, their consent, as meted out through representative assemblies, was mandatory for the passage of tax legislation. In response, the colonists rioted, staged demonstrations, and refused to comply with the tax. Under pressure from British business interests, Parliament eventually repealed the legislation. However, the fracas over the Stamp Act had helped plant seeds for a far larger movement against the British government--the struggle for independence.
1903		The commission examining operations at U.S. mines wraps up their probe and offers a detailed set of suggestions for improving conditions for workers. The commission called for a ten-cent wage hike, shorter hours, and recommended that the mine owners recognize the bargaining power of the union. Along with these provisions, the commission also made a push for establishing an "open shop," which ostensibly would grant workers the freedom to join, or stay separate from, a union. Though the open shop helped the UMW's fight against the mine owners, it proved in the long run to be a detriment to the labor movement, as management frequently invoked the principle of the open shop to prevent unions from taking hold at their factories.

March 23

1836		In hopes of keeping pace with the furious march of technology, the U.S. Mint unveils its first steam-powered press. The new-fangled contraption helped crank out coins more efficiently.
1983		Congressional Democrats pass a budget which promised to put a crimp on the White House's spending plans for the coming fiscal year. Where Republican President Ronald Reagan's budget would have increased the already bloated budget deficit to $189 billion, the Democrats' proposal called for the debt to grow to only $174.45 billion. The Democrats piled up the savings by curbing Reagan's hefty defense spending, including $9.9 billion that had been earmarked for the Pentagon. In turn, the House-sanctioned budget also aimed to shovel money back into domestic initiatives that the President had hoped to wean from Federal spending. The passage of the budget stirred up the inevitable round of partisan squabbling. Republicans took aim at Democratic policies, most notably the drive to increase revenues, which imperiled a planned tax rate cut. But, Democratic leaders remained firm in the face of harsh criticism.

March 24

1720		In Paris, banking houses close due to financial crisis.
1890		The Supreme Court hands down what some deemed a "surprise" decision in Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota. The case revolved around the question of whether or not a state held the right to impose fees that would cap a company's "reasonable profits." Based on the decision that such a cap violated a "person's" rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court ruled in favor of the midwestern railroad. The conflation of a company with a person, a position spearheaded by Arthur Conkling, was only part of the flap that surrounded the case. People howled that the Court had effectively installed itself as the lone judge of what constituted a "reasonable profit." In essence, the Supreme Court had overstepped its bounds and thus imperiled the "delicate balance" between the judiciary, executive, and legislative branches of the government.
1900		Andrew Carnegie incorporates his Carnegie Steel Company. Much to the chagrin of trust-conscious legislators, the New Jersey-based behemoth towered above the rest of America's steel industry. Initially worth $160 million, Carnegie Steel earned $40 million in profits during its first year as a corporation. Though $25 million of that money went straight into Carnegie's pockets, the Scottish-born industrialist soon put his company on the selling block. In 1901, J.P. Morgan's freshly formed U.S. Steel Corporation, which again flew in the face of anti-trust laws, anted up $250 million for Carnegie Steel, making Carnegie the wealthiest man of the gilded age and prompting his retirement from the corporate sector. While Carnegie headed back to his native Scotland to pursue philanthropic endeavors, the giant U.S. Steel Corporation dominated the steel field and burst into the record books as the first, but hardly last, American company to be worth over one billion dollars.

March 25

1911		During the afternoon, a pile of rags in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company shop bursts into flames; the fire quickly, and tragically, engulfs the factory. Effectively trapped inside the flaming building, many of the workers either expired from asphyxiation or leapt from windows, a fatal, ten-story fall. The blaze, which lasted less than an hour, claimed 146 lives, marking one of the worst fire-related industrial disasters in America's history. The Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy shed a harsh light on the hazardous conditions that factory owners had allowed to exist in the name of industrial capitalism. It also galvanized various portions of the public, as reformers, workers, and survivors of the fire banded together to push for factory reform. The state government heeded this call and passed a set of laws aimed at safeguarding workers' health and safety. Along with this landmark legislation, workers also won a modicum of justice: the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist were eventually found guilty on charges of manslaughter.
1998		Roughly one year after he began sending threatening letters to Bill Gates, Adam Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. Though he didn't attend the trial, Gates released a statement in which he expressed his gratitude to the various "law enforcement officials" for helping to end what had been a "very difficult incident." Allegedly looking to either secure funds for an alcohol-free night club, or to gather "material" for a pulse-pounding novel, Pletcher sent letters vowing to kill Gates and his "good friend," Steve Ballmer, unless the computer king handed over $5 million. To back up his demands, Pletcher, 22, falsely identified himself as a 34-year-old Army vet and hit man; he also claimed to have racked up a flawless "kill rate." Fortunately for Gates, the world's richest individual, authorities tracked down Pletcher and sent him to trial.

March 26

1989		Boris Yeltsin is elected to the Soviet Parliament, defeating Communist Party candidate Yevgeny Brakov, manager of the Zavod Imieni Likhacheva, manufacturers of the ZIL car. In spite of Brakov's close brush with history, he was destined to remain a car maker.
1998		Andy Grove announces he is stepping down as the CEO of computer chip giant Intel Corp. During his eleven-year run as CEO, Grove's tough-minded business tactics propelled Intel to the front of the crowded computer chip field. As a number of Wall Street analysts noted in the wake of the announcement, Grove made the crucial call not to share Intel's "intellectual rights" with "other suppliers." Still, the departure of one of the company's leaders, as well as one of its founding fathers, didn't dampen Wall Street's enthusiasm for Intel's stock. Though some analysts forecast a rocky transition for the company, investors' spirits were buoyed by the strong track record of Grove's successor, Intel President and Chief Operating Officer, Craig Barrett. In fact, Barrett's ascent to the top spot was considered something of a fait accompli: Intel reportedly spent the past few years been grooming him to replace Grove. Nor did it hurt that Grove, Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1997, planned to stay on as the company's chairman.

March 27

1836

Sir Frederick Henry Royce, the British industrialist whose fleet of high-end, high-priced cars stand as an enduring symbol of wealth, is born. Royce entered the working world at the tender age of 15, first serving as an apprentice engineer for the Great Northern Railway company. Royce enjoyed a successful career as an engineer and in the mid-1880s, he set up his own shop, which eventually became Royce Ltd. Royce initially focused his company on the production of motors, electric cranes, and generators. However, by 1904, he had unveiled the nascent version of what would become his signature product, the luxury automobile. Royce's first batch of cars caught the eye of C.S. Rolls, a British "motor dealer." Rolls snapped up Royce's initial line and, two short years later, the duo merged their companies as Rolls-Royce Ltd.

March 28

1834		The Senate votes to censure President Andrew Jackson for abusing his authority and meddling with the Second Bank of the United States' finances. In particular, the resolution, introduced by Jackson's archenemy Henry Clay, took the President to task for removing funds from the bank in the fall of 1833. An ardent supporter of states' rights, Jackson, along with help from Treasury Secretary Robert Taney, who was also censured by the Senate, transferred chunks of the money from the national bank to state institutions. Though Jackson claimed that the transfer was a response to the bank's putatively partisan position during the 1832 elections, he was seemingly making a bald-faced play to kill the bank. Following the censure, the pugnacious president marshaled his forces and attempted to overturn the Senate's ruling. Though his initial efforts were rebuffed, Jackson eventually won the day. Thanks in large part to Senator Thomas Hart Benton, the censure was stripped from the Senate records in early 1837. More importantly, Jackson successfully blocked the bank from renewing its charter. Defeated bank leader Nelson Biddle instead opted to obtain a state banking license from Pennsylvania.
1941		Construction of Ford's Willow Run Plant on a vast piece of land in Ypsilanti, Michigan begins. Due both to his admiration of the German people and his philosophical alignment as a pacifist, Henry Ford was reluctant to convert all of his production facilities to war manufacturing. Compounding his anxiety was the fact that one of his former employees, William Knudsen, who had defected to General Motors (GM), headed the bureau in Washington in charge of administrating Detroit's war effort. But with the U.S. declaration of war in 1941, Ford had no choice but to participate. He contributed with his usual sense of competitive ambition. Before the war, Ford had boasted nonchalantly that Ford could produce 1,000 airplanes per day provided there was no interference from stockholders or labor unions. So when Ford was asked by Knudsen to build subassemblies for Consolidated Aircraft, it was no surprise that Ford Lieutenant Charles Sorensen pushed for a deal that would allow Ford to construct the entire B-24 Liberator bomber. The contract included $200 million toward the construction of a new production facility. In exchange, Sorensen promised Ford would manufacture 500 planes per month, a quote nearly 10 times what Consolidated Aircraft was then capable of producing. Over the course of the next few years, Willow Run would be a source of problems for the Ford Motor Company. Squabbling within Ford over control of the company, government interference, the loss of much of the company's labor force to the draft, and other problems deterred Ford's war effort. By the end of 1942, Willow Run had only produced 56 B-24 bombers, and the plant had been saddled with the nickname "Willit Run?" The government considered taking over the operations at Willow Run. Just when it seemed that Sorensen's project would fail, Willow Run began rolling out B-24's at a remarkable rate. The plant produced 190 bombers in June of 1943, 365 in December. By the middle of 1944, Willow Run churned out a plane every 63 minutes. Willow Run was the largest factory of its day. Its workers built planes around the clock, rotating three eight-hour shifts. They were provided with housing and entertainment. Willow Run had a 24-hour movie theater. By the end of the war, Willow Run had produced more than 8,500 bombers, and it had become a symbol of the American economy's successful response to war.
1965		An earnings estimate is released saying GM hauled in $1.735 billion during the previous year, making what was then the largest profit reported by an American company.

March 29

1996

The New York Mercantile Exchange throws the switch on a new commodities market for power supplies. The virgin power contract, set to be delivered that summer at the California-Oregon border, hit the board shortly after the opening bell. The power market enjoyed a lively first day of action as more than 1,000 contracts changed hands. Still, some traders remained cautious about Wall Street's newest trading pit. As one electricity trader noted, the electricity market had the potential to be extremely "volatile." But, for financial experts like Stephen Fleishman, a utility analyst with Dean Witter, the wild fluctuations were precisely what made the power market so appealing. According to Fleishman, the volatility would help establish a "transparent, competitive price" for power and thus nourish the power industry's move to a newly deregulated playing field.

March 30

1824		Congressional stalwart Henry Clay takes to the House floor to extol the virtues of the proposed Tariff of 1824. During his speech, which stretched over two days, the lawyer-turned-legislator argued that the Tariff's blend of protectionist measures and domestic trade initiatives, including proposed improvements to America's transit routes, would wean the nation from its heavy diet of foreign goods. Though Clay branded this mixture the essence of the "American system," a host of high-profile figures, including Daniel Webster, vociferously begged to differ. Indeed, Webster hit the House floor in early April to deliver his own two-day take on the tariff. Trumpeting the cause of free trade, Webster argued against the tariff, but ultimately failed to persuade the House. On May 22, Congress passed the Tariff of 1824, which effectively raised various rates and also imposed duties on linen, silk, and other goods.
1867		The United States government put the finishing touches on the deal to purchase Alaska. The acquisition, brokered in absolute secrecy by Secretary of State William Seward, saw the U.S. pay Alaska's owner, Russia $7.2 million, or roughly two cents per acre of land. Though Alaska was the first bit of property ever relinquished by Russia, some American officials sneered at the seemingly barren new state. In certain circles, the deal was derisively known as "Seward's Folly." However, Alaska promised a few bright benefits for the U.S. Along with freeing another piece of the continent from the grip of monarchy, America's newest state was flush with furs and fish. Rather than establishing a formal government in the territory, President Andrew Johnson reasoned that Alaska's economic activities placed it under the charge of the Treasury Department, which regulated the fur and fish trades. In effect, Johnson's decision created a government monopoly and planted the seeds for conflict in Alaska's not too distant future.

March 31

1840		Martin Van Buren declares that federal employees would only put in ten-hour days. Though later legislation would bump the Federal workday down to a more reasonable eight hours, Van Buren's apologists point to the ten-hour mandate as proof that he did in fact care for "average" Americans.
1998		Financial giant Salomon Smith Barney fires two executives who had allegedly used the firm's computer system to "transmit" smut. In the wake of the flap, Salomon managing director John Donnelly fired off a company-wide memo that laid down the law on using the company's "facilities" to spread "offensive images or text." According to the memo, "(A)nyone engaging in such activity should assume that he or she will be terminated." Though news of the case quickly spread to the media, Salomon Smith Barney, a member of the Travelers Group family, refused to divulge the names of the offending employees.