United States Senate Special Committee on Air Mail and Ocean Mail Contracts
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The Air Mail scandal, also known as the Air Mail fiasco, is the name that the American
press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a famil ...
gave to the political scandal resulting from a 1934
congressional A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
investigation of the awarding of contracts to certain airlines to carry airmail and to the use of the U.S. Army Air Corps to fly the mail. In 1930, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover, Congress passed the Air Mail Act of 1930. Using its provisions, Postmaster General
Walter Folger Brown Walter Folger Brown (May 31, 1869January 26, 1961) was an American politician and lawyer who is served as the Postmaster General of the United States from March 5, 1929 to March 4, 1933 under Herbert Hoover's administration. Biography Early & p ...
held a meeting with the executives of the top airlines, later dubbed the "Spoils Conference", in which the airlines effectively divided among themselves the
air mail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...
routes. Acting on those agreements, Brown awarded contracts to the participants through a process that effectively prevented smaller carriers from bidding, resulting in a
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
investigation. The Senate investigation resulted in a citation of
Contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of Co ...
against
William P. MacCracken Jr. William Patterson MacCracken Jr. (September 17, 1888 - September 20, 1969) was the first U. S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics. His department was awarded the Collier Trophy of 1928 for its contribution to the "development of ai ...
, on February 5, 1934, the only action taken against any former Hoover administration official for the scandal. Two days later Roosevelt cancelled all existing air mail contracts with the airlines and ordered the Air Corps to deliver the mail until new contracts could be let. The Air Corps was ill-prepared to conduct a mail operation, particularly at night, and from its outset on February 19 encountered severe winter weather. The Army Air Corps Mail Operation suffered numerous crashes and the deaths of 13 airmen, causing severe public criticism of the Roosevelt Administration. Temporary contracts were put into effect on May 8 by the new postmaster general,
James A. Farley James Aloysius Farley (May 30, 1888 – June 9, 1976) was an American politician and Knight of Malta who simultaneously served as chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Postmas ...
, in a manner nearly identical to that of the "Spoils Conference" that started the scandal. Service was completely restored to the airlines by June 1, 1934. On June 12 Congress passed a new Air Mail Act cancelling the provisions of the 1930 law and enacting punitive measures against executives who were a part of the Spoils Conferences. Although a public relations nightmare for the administrations of both presidents, the scandal resulted in the restructuring of the airline industry, leading to technological improvements and a new emphasis on passenger operations, and the modernization of the Air Corps.


Roots of the scandal


Development of air mail

The first scheduled airmail service in the United States was conducted during World War I by the Air Service of the United States Army between May 15 and August 10, 1918, a daily run between Washington, D.C., and New York City with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The operation was put together in ten days by
Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
Reuben H. Fleet Reuben Hollis Fleet (March 6, 1887 – October 29, 1975) was an American aviation pioneer, industrialist and army officer. Fleet founded and led several corporations, including Consolidated Aircraft. Birth and early career Fleet was born on Mar ...
, the executive officer for flying training of the Division of Military Aeronautics, and managed by
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Benjamin B. Lipsner, a non-flyer. Starting with six converted Curtiss JN-4HM "Jennies", two of which were destroyed in crashes, and later using Curtiss R-4LMs, in 76 days of operations Air Service pilots moved 20 tons of mail without a single fatality or serious injury, achieving a 74% completion rate of flights during the summer thunderstorm season.John A. Eney
U.S. Air Mail Service - 90th Anniversary
, reprinted at Antique Airfield.com. Retrieved 2016-01-03
The first completed flight of the route was made by 2d Lt. James C. Edgerton on May 15, 1918, flying the Philadelphia to D.C. leg in s/n 38274. He brought 136 pounds of mail from New York, flown from Hazelhurst Field on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
to Philadelphia by Lt. Torrey H. Webb in s/n 38278, who also delivered eight pounds of mail to the Philadelphia postmaster. An identical relay flight in the opposite direction, carrying a ceremonial letter from the president to the postmaster of New York, was begun from D.C. by Lt. George L. Boyle in s/n 38262 after an embarrassing delay in front of the gathered audience when he was unable to start the engine. Boyle and Edgerton had been added to the operation by the Post Office Department for their political connections. Edgerton's father was purchasing agent for the Department and Boyle's prospective father-in-law, Judge Charles C. McChord, was an appointed official in the Wilson Administration who had kept delivery of parcel post as the responsibility of the post office. Both had just graduated from flying training at Ellington Field in Texas and had only 60 hours student pilot experience. They were chosen to replace two experienced instructor pilots hand-picked by Fleet to make the first day's flights. Boyle got lost in the fog shortly after takeoff and force-landed in a farm field 25 miles outside Washington, headed in the wrong direction. Edgerton delivered Boyle's load the next day on his return trip and eventually made 52 mail flights in the initial operation. He moved over to the post office operation later in 1918 as superintendent of flight operations under Lipsner. The less fortunate Boyle got a second chance on May 17, but even though he was led part of the way by another Jenny (depending on the account, flown by either Fleet or Edgerton), got lost again and wrecked his plane trying to land on a golf course. He was not given a third chance but did marry Margaret McChord on June 15, 1918 and went on to become a lawyer. (Eney and Glines)
Air mail operations by the U.S. Post Office began in August 1918 under Lipsner, who resigned from the Army on July 13 to take the post. Lipsner procured Standard JR-1B biplanes specially modified to carry the mail with twice the range of the military mailplanes, the first civil aircraft built to U.S. government specifications. For nine years, using mostly war-surplus de Havilland DH.4 biplanes, the Post Office built and flew a nationwide network. In the beginning the work was extremely dangerous; of the initial 40 pilots, three died in crashes in 1919 and nine more in 1920. It was 1922 before an entire year ensued without a fatal crash. As safety and capability grew, daytime-only operations gave way to flying at night, assisted by airway beacons and lighted emergency landing fields. Regular transcontinental air mail delivery began in 1924. In 1925, to encourage commercial aviation, the Kelly Act (also known as the
Air Mail Act of 1925 The Air Mail Act of 1925, also known as the Kelly Act, was a key piece of legislation that intended to free the airmail from total control by the Post Office Department. In short, it allowed the Postmaster General to contract private companies to c ...
) authorized the Post Office Department to contract with private airlines for feeder routes into the main transcontinental system. The first commercial air mail flight was on the route CAM (Contract Air Mail) No. 5 from Pasco, Washington, to
Elko, Nevada Elko (Shoshoni: Natakkoa, "Rocks Piled on One Another") is the largest city in and county seat of Elko County, Nevada, United States. With a 2020 population of 20,564, Elko is currently growing at a rate of 0.31% annually and its population has i ...
, on April 6, 1926. By 1927 the transition had been completed to entirely commercial transport of mail, and by 1929 45 airlines were involved in mail delivery at a cost per mile of $1.10. Most were small, under-capitalized companies flying short routes and old equipment. Subsidies for carrying mail exceeded the cost of the mail itself, and some carriers abused their contracts by flooding the system with junk mail at 100% profit or hauling heavy freight as air mail. Historian Oliver E. Allen, in his book ''The Airline Builders'', estimated that airlines would have had to charge a 150-pound passenger $450 per ticket (equal to $ in dollars) in lieu of carrying an equivalent amount of mail.


William P. MacCracken Jr.

William P. MacCracken Jr. William Patterson MacCracken Jr. (September 17, 1888 - September 20, 1969) was the first U. S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics. His department was awarded the Collier Trophy of 1928 for its contribution to the "development of ai ...
became the first federal regulator of commercial aviation when then-
Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
Herbert Hoover named him the first Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics in 1926. During World War I he had served as a flight instructor, had served on the Chicago Aeronautical Commission, and was a member of the board of governors of the National Aeronautical Association when selected by Hoover. MacCracken left the Commerce Department in 1929 and returned to his private law practice, where he continued to be involved in the growth of commercial aviation by representing many major airlines. Postmaster General
Walter Folger Brown Walter Folger Brown (May 31, 1869January 26, 1961) was an American politician and lawyer who is served as the Postmaster General of the United States from March 5, 1929 to March 4, 1933 under Herbert Hoover's administration. Biography Early & p ...
sought to improve the efficiency of the air mail carriers in furtherance of a national transportation plan. Requiring an informed intermediary, Brown asked MacCracken to preside over what was later scandalized as the ''Spoils Conferences'', to work out an agreement between the carriers and the Post office to consolidate air mail routes into transcontinental networks operated by the best-equipped and financially stable companies. This relationship left both exposed to charges of favoritism. When MacCracken refused later to testify before the Senate, he was found in
contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of Co ...
.


Air Mail Act of 1930

Hoover appointed Brown as postmaster general in 1929. In 1930, with the nation's airlines apparently headed for extinction in the face of a severe economic downturn and citing inefficient, expensive subsidized air mail delivery, Brown requested supplementary legislation to the 1925 act granting him authority to change postal policy. The Air Mail Act of 1930, passed on April 29 and known as the McNary-Watres Act after its chief sponsors, Sen. Charles L. McNary of Oregon and Rep.
Laurence H. Watres Laurence Hawley Watres (July 18, 1882 – February 6, 1964) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Early life and education Laurence H. Watres was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Louis Arthur Watres ...
of Pennsylvania, authorized the postmaster general to enter into longer-term airmail contracts with rates based on space or volume, rather than weight. The Act gave Brown strong authority (some argued almost dictatorial powers) over the nationwide air transportation system. The main provision of the Air Mail Act changed the manner in which payments were calculated. Air mail carriers would be paid for having sufficient cargo capacity on their planes, whether the planes carried mail or flew empty, a disincentive to carry mail since the carrier received a set fee for a plane of a certain size whether or not it carried mail. The purpose of the provision was to discourage the carrying of bulk junk mail to boost profits, particularly by the smaller and inefficient carriers, and to encourage the carrying of passengers. Airlines using larger planes designed to carry passengers would increase their revenues by carrying more passengers and less mail. Awards would be made to the “lowest responsible bidder” that had owned an airline operated on a daily schedule of at least 250 miles (402 kilometers) for at least six months. A second provision allowed any airmail carrier with an existing contract of at least two years standing to exchange its contract for a “route certificate” giving it the right to haul mail for 10 additional years. The third and most controversial provision gave Brown authority to "extend or consolidate" routes in effect according to his own judgment. Within days of its passage, United Aircraft and Transport Company (UATC) acquired the controlling interest of
National Air Transport National Air Transport was a large United States airline; in 1930 it was bought by Boeing. The Air Mail Act of 1934 prohibited airlines and manufacturers from being under the same corporate umbrella, so Boeing split into three smaller companies, ...
after a brisk but brief struggle between UATC and
Clement M. Keys Clement Melville Keys (April 7, 1876 – January 12, 1952) was a financier involved in the establishment of many aviation companies including Curtiss-Wright, China National Aviation Corporation, North American Aviation and TWA. He has been ca ...
of NAT. The merger, begun in February 1930 to plug the only gap in UATC's cross-country network of airlines, had been amicable until three weeks before its finalization, when Keys reversed his initial approval. Ironically Brown was angered by the negotiations, worried that the specter of a potential monopoly would endanger the imminent passage of the Air Mail Act. The merger swiftly created the first transcontinental airline. On May 19, three weeks after the passage of McNary-Watres, at the first of the "Spoils Conferences", Brown invoked his authority under the third provision to consolidate the air mail routes to only three major companies independently competing with each other, with the goal of forcing the plethora of small, inefficient carriers to merge with the larger. Further meetings between the larger carriers, presided over by McCracken, continued into June that often developed into harsh wrangling over route distribution proposals and consequent animosity towards Brown. After what was described as a " shotgun marriage" between Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express in July to achieve the second of the three companies (UATC was the first), competitive bids were solicited by the Post Office on August 2, 1930, and opened August 25. A surprise competitive bidding struggle ensued between UATC, through a quickly formed skeleton company it called "United Aviation," and the newly merged
Transcontinental and Western Air Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...
over the central transcontinental route. After initial rejection of the Postmaster General's decision, final approval of the contract award to T&WA was approved by Comptroller General of the United States
John R. McCarl John Raymond McCarl (November 27, 1879 – August 2, 1940) was an American lawyer and executive secretary of the national Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. He was the first Comptroller General of the United States, serving from 1921 ...
on January 10, 1931, on the basis that United's puppet concern was not a "responsible bidder" by the definition of McNary-Watres, in effect validating Brown's restructuring. These three carriers later evolved into United Airlines (the northern airmail route, CAMs 17 and 18),
Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...
(the mid-United States route, CAM 34) and American Airlines (the southern route, CAM 33).The August 1930 bid was jointly awarded to the Southwest Air Fast Express, or SAFE Way, owned by
Erle P. Halliburton Erle Palmer Halliburton was an American businessman specializing in oil field services. Early life Halliburton was born on September 22, 1892, near Henning, Tennessee, the son of Lou Emma (Cothran) and Edwin Graves Halliburton. When Halliburton ...
, and Robertson Aircraft Corporation, like American a subsidiary of the Avco holding company. SAFE Way was acquired by American at a premium price on August 23, 1930, two days before the bids were opened, and both lines were reorganized by American as Southern Air Fast Express.
Brown also extended the southern route to the
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...
. He awarded bonuses for carrying more passengers and purchasing multi-engined aircraft equipped with radios and navigation aids. By the end of 1932, the airline industry was the one sector of the economy experiencing steady growth and profitability, described by one historian as "Depression-proof." Passenger miles, the numbers of passengers, and new airline employees had all tripled over 1929. Airmail itself, despite its image to many Americans as a frivolous luxury for the few remaining affluent, had doubled following restructuring. Much of this if not all was the result of the postal subsidies, funded by taxpayers.Brady (2000), p. 177


Congressional investigation

The air mail scandal began when an officer of the New York Philadelphia and Washington Airway Corporation, known as the
Ludington Airline Ludington Airline (also, Ludington Lines or Ludington Line) was an airline of northeastern United States in the 1930s. It was unique as it was the first airline that carried passengers only and was not supported by government revenue from airmail ...
, was having a drink with friend and Hearst newspaper reporter
Fulton Lewis Jr. Fulton Lewis Jr. (April 30, 1903 in Washington D.C. – August 20, Lists his death date as 21 August, but other references show the death date to be 20 August. 1966 in Washington D. C.) was a conservative American radio broadcaster from the 1930 ...
Ludington Airline, established and owned by brothers Townsend and Nicholas Ludington, began offering an hourly daytime passenger shuttle on September 1, 1930, just two weeks after Eastern Air Transport (EAT) began its first passenger operations between New York City and
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
. Using seven Stinson SM-6000B tri-motors, Ludington Airline became the first U. S. airline in history to make a profit carrying nothing but passengers. However it began operating in the red when the novelty of cheap air travel wore off as the Great Depression deepened and competition with arch-rival EAT intensified. The Ludington officer mentioned to Lewis that in 1931 the carrier could not get a proposed "express service" air mail contract to extend CAM 25 (Miami to Washington via Atlanta) to Newark, New Jersey, not even by submitting a low bid of 25 cents a mile. Ludington's general manager, former Air Service aviator Eugene L. Vidal, eager to curtail Ludington's growing losses with a lucrative mail subsidy, had offered the extremely low bid to Brown in order to demonstrate Ludington's commitment to the route extension plan "at or below cost."The concept for the shuttle was Vidal's. He and veteran airmail pilot Paul Collins had left the financially strapped Transcontinental Air Transport in 1930 and persuaded the Ludington brothers to financially back Vidal's idea on an experimental basis.
Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...
also left T.A.T. at the same time, investing in the company, and Vidal appointed her as a vice-president. After Ludington failed to secure the mail contract, he resigned to take an appointment in the Aeronautics Branch within the Department of Commerce, becoming its director in September 1933 on Earhart's recommendation to FDR, a position he held when the scandal broke. In the summer of 1934 the Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce. Earhart and Vidal were close friends from her hire at T.A.T. in 1929 until her disappearance in 1937, and were the object of frequent speculation that they were lovers. (Winters, p. 146)
Lewis did not think much about the conversation until he later read the Post Office Department's announcement that had awarded Ludington's arch-rival the CAM 25 air mail route contract at 89 cents a mile as measured against Ludington's extremely low bid. By February 1933 Ludington was virtually bankrupt and sold out to EAT for a "bottom basement price of $260,000." Lewis sensed there was a story to be written. He brought the story to the attention of William Randolph Hearst and, although Hearst would not print it, was given approval to investigate the story full-time.Brown testified to the Black Committee that the CAM 25 decision was based on Eastern's scheduling the entire route to Miami, Florida, while Ludington planned to use only the New York-Washington leg. Lewis' investigation began to develop into an air mail contract scandal. Lewis was having difficulty impressing his findings on government officials until he approached Alabama Senator
Hugo Black Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A ...
. Black was the chairman of a special committee established to investigate ocean mail contracts awarded by the federal government to the merchant marine.
Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
investigators seized records from all the mail carriers on September 28, 1933,Investigator Andrew G. Patterson, a former Alabama sheriff, was delegated to assist the special committee and led the seizures. He was a staunch progressive Democrat and an anti-monopolist who viewed air mail as frivolous and subsidies a waste of taxpayer money, and could see no correlation between it and transporting passengers. (Van der Linden, p. 177) and brought about public awareness of what became known as "the Black Committee".The committee was officially "The Special Committee to Investigate Air-Mail and Ocean-Mail Contracts, United States Senate, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session". The special Senate committee investigated alleged improprieties and gaming of the rate structure, such as carriers padlocking individual pieces of mail to increase weight. Despite showing that Brown's administration of the air mail had increased the efficiency of the service and lowered its costs from $1.10 to $0.54 per mile, and the obvious partisan politics involved in investigating what appeared to be a Republican scandal involving Herbert Hoover by a Democratic-controlled committee, the hearings raised serious questions regarding its legality and ethics. Black announced that he had found evidence of "fraud and collusion" between the Hoover Administration and the airlines and held public hearings in January 1934, although these allegations were later found to be without basis.Pelletier (2010), p. 47 Near the end of the hearings on the last day of January, MacCracken was subpoenaed to testify ''
duces tecum A ''subpoena duces tecum'' (pronounced in English ), or subpoena for production of evidence, is a court summons ordering the recipient to appear before the court and produce documents or other tangible evidence for use at a hearing or trial. In ...
'' "instanter" and appeared, but refused to produce files, citing attorney-client privilege unless the clients waived the privilege (which all did within a week of his appearance). However, the next day MacCracken's law partner gave
Northwest Airways Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines- ...
vice president Lewis H. Brittin permission to go into MacCracken's files to remove a memo that Brittin claimed was personal and unrelated to the investigation. Brittin later tore up the memo and discarded it. Black charged MacCracken with
Contempt of Congress Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically, the bribery of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative was considered contempt of Congress. In modern times, contempt of Co ...
on February 5 and ordered him arrested.Decision, ''Jurney v. MacCracken''
Justia.com. Retrieved 2016-02-09
During a five-day trial the Senate deemed him a lobbyist not protected by lawyer-client privilege and voted to convict him.Black and MacCracken were close personal friends. In addition to charging MacCracken with contempt, Black also named Brittin along with two officials of Western Air Express, president Harris M. Hanshue and his secretary Gilbert L. Givvin, who had also removed files. MacCracken and Brittin were convicted for "destroying evidence" (the memo in question contained no evidence of fraud or criminal collusion but was personally embarrassing to Brittin) and sentenced to ten days in jail. The WAE officers were acquitted because they returned their files intact to MacCracken. Brittin served his ten days without appeal but MacCracken filed a writ of habeas corpus against his arrest which led to the historic case
Jurney v. MacCracken ''Jurney v. MacCracken'', 294 U.S. 125 (1935), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Congress has an implicit power to find one in contempt of Congress.. During a Senate investigation of airlines and of the United Sta ...
(Chesley E. Jurney was the Senate sergeant-at-arms, and also a friend of MacCracken's) in which the U.S. Supreme Court denied the writ. MacCracken served ten days in jail and was the last citizen arrested for "inherent" contempt of Congress over an 80-year period. (Zuckerman, "The Court of Congressional Contempt", Introduction)
Disregarding as Black did the fact that all but two of the existing contracts (the controversial transcontinental mail routes CAM 33 and CAM 34) had been awarded to the low bidder by Postmaster General
Harry S. New Harry Stewart New (December 31, 1858 – May 9, 1937) was a U.S. politician, journalist, and Spanish–American War veteran. He served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, a United States senator from Indiana, and United States P ...
during the
Coolidge Administration Calvin Coolidge's tenure as the 30th president of the United States began on August 2, 1923, when Coolidge became president upon Warren G. Harding's death, and ended on March 4, 1929. A Republican from Massachusetts, Coolidge had been vice presi ...
, on February 7, 1934, Roosevelt's postmaster general,
James A. Farley James Aloysius Farley (May 30, 1888 – June 9, 1976) was an American politician and Knight of Malta who simultaneously served as chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Postmas ...
, announced that he and President Roosevelt were committed to protecting the public interest and that as a result of the investigation, President Roosevelt had ordered the cancellation of all domestic air mail contracts. However, not stated to the public was that the decision had overridden Farley's recommendation that it be delayed until June 1, by which time new bids could have been received and processed for continued civilian mail transport.


Use of the Army Air Corps


Executive Order 6591

Without consulting either Army Chief of Staff
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
or Chief of the Air Corps Major General Benjamin Foulois, Secretary of War
George H. Dern George Henry Dern (1872–1936) was an American politician, mining man, and businessman. He co-invented the Holt–Dern ore roasting process and was United States Secretary of War from 1933 to his death in 1936. He also served as the sixth Gov ...
at a cabinet meeting on the morning of February 9, 1934, assured President Roosevelt that the Air Corps could deliver the mail. That same morning, shortly after conclusion of the cabinet meeting, second assistant postmaster general Harllee Branch called Foulois to his office. A conference between members of the Air Corps, the Post Office, and the
Aeronautics Branch The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
of the Commerce Department ensued in which Foulois, asked if the Air Corps could deliver the mail in winter, casually assured Branch that the Air Corps could be ready in a week or ten days. At 4 o'clock that afternoon President Roosevelt suspended the airmail contracts effective at midnight February 19. He issued Executive Order 6591 ordering the War Department to place at the disposal of the Postmaster General "such air airplanes, landing fields, pilots and other employees and equipment of the Army of the United States needed or required for the transportation of mail during the present emergency, by air over routes and schedules prescribed by the Postmaster General."Congress enacted legislation on March 27, 1934 (48 Stat. 508) effective for one year and authorizing the Postmaster General to fund the operation from his appropriations, providing benefits to Army personnel killed or injured during the operation, and including Reserve officers called up for the operation as active duty members retroactive to February 10, 1934.


Preparation and plans

In 1933 the airlines carried several million pounds of mail on 26 routes covering almost of airways. Transported mostly by night, the mail was carried in modern passenger planes equipped with modern flight instruments and radios, using ground-based beam transmitters as navigation aids. The airlines had a well-established system of maintenance facilities along their routes. Initial plans were made for coverage of 18 mail routes totalling nearly ; and 62 flights daily, 38 by night. On February 14, five days before the Air Corps was to begin, General Foulois appeared before the House of Representatives Post Office Committee outlining the steps taken by the Air Corps in preparation. In his testimony he assured the committee that the Air Corps had selected its most experienced pilots and that it had the requisite experience at flying at night and in bad weather. In actuality, of the 262 pilots eventually used, 140 were Reserve junior officers with less than two years flying experience. Most were
second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
s and only one held a rank higher than first lieutenant.Major Charles B. Oldfield, a regional commander in the Western Zone. The Air Corps had made a decision not to draw from its training schools, where most of its experienced pilots were assigned. Only 48 of those selected had logged at least 25 hours of flight time in bad weather, only 31 had 50 hours or more of night flying, and only 2 had 50 hours of
instrument time In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument Fly ...
. The Air Corps during the Great Depression, hampered by pay cuts and a reduction of flight time, operated almost entirely in daylight and good weather. Duty hours were limited and relaxed, usually with four hours or less of flight operations a day, and none on weekends. Experience levels were also limited by obsolete aircraft, most of them single-engine and open cockpit planes. Because of a high turnover-rate policy in the War Department, most pilots were Reserve officers who were unfamiliar with the civilian airmail routes. Regarding equipment, the Air Corps had in its inventory 274
Directional gyro The heading indicator (HI), also known as a directional gyro (DG) or direction indicator (DI), is a flight instrument used in an aircraft to inform the aviator, pilot of the aircraft's aircraft heading, heading. Use The primary means of estab ...
s and 460 Artificial horizons, but very few of these were mounted in aircraft. It possessed 172 radio transceivers, almost all with a range of or less. Foulois eventually ordered the available equipment to be installed in the 122 aircraft assigned to the task, but the instruments were not readily available and Air Corps mechanics unfamiliar with the equipment sometimes installed them incorrectly or without regard for standardization of cockpit layout. The project, termed AACMO (Army Air Corps Mail Operation), was placed under the supervision of Brigadier General Oscar Westover, assistant chief of the Air Corps. He created three geographic zones and appointed
Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
Henry H. Arnold Henry Harley Arnold (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and later, General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), ...
to command the Western Zone, Lieutenant Colonel
Horace M. Hickam Horace Meek Hickam (August 14, 1885 – November 5, 1934) was a pioneer airpower advocate and an officer in the United States Army Air Corps. Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, is named in his honor. Background The son of a lawyer, Hickam was born ...
the Central Zone, and Major
Byron Q. Jones Byron Quinby Jones (April 9, 1888 – March 30, 1959) was a pioneer aviator and an officer in the United States Army. Jones began and ended his career as a cavalry officer, but for a quarter century between 1914 and 1939, he was an aviator in the ...
Jones had joined the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps in 1914 but was becoming disenchanted with the Air Corps. In 1939 he would transfer back to the Cavalry. the Eastern Zone. Personnel and planes were immediately deployed, but problems began immediately with a lack of proper facilities (and in some instances, no facilities at all) for maintenance of aircraft and quartering of enlisted men, and a failure of tools to arrive where needed.Nalty (1997), p. 122. Sixty Air Corps pilots took oaths as postal employees in preparation for the service and began training. On February 16, three pilots on familiarization flights were killed in crashes attributed to bad weather.2nd Lts Jean D. Grenier and Edwin D. White crashed their A-12 into Weber Canyon, Utah, and 1st Lt. James Y. Eastham crashed short of the runway at Jerome, Idaho, in a Douglas Y1B-7 bomber. This presaged some of the worst and most persistent late winter weather in history. Further attention was drawn to the startup when the airlines delivered a "parting shot" in the form of a publicity stunt to remind the public of its efficiency in mail service. World War I legend Eddie Rickenbacker, a vice president of
North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F ...
(Eastern Air Transport's parent holding company) and
Jack Frye William John "Jack" Frye (March 18, 1904 - February 3, 1959) was an aviation pioneer in the airline industry. Frye founded Standard Air Lines which eventually took him into a merger with Trans World Airlines (TWA) where he became president. Frye ...
of Transcontinental and Western Air, both of which had lost their mail contracts, flew T&WA's prototype
Douglas DC-1 The Douglas DC-1 was the first model of the famous American DC (Douglas Commercial) commercial transport aircraft series. Although only one example of the DC-1 was produced, the design was the basis for the DC-2 and DC-3, the latter of which bei ...
airliner "City of Los Angeles," which was still in flight test, across the country on the last evening before the Air Corps operation began. Carrying a partial load of mail and a passenger list of airlines officials and news reporters, they flew from Douglas Aviation's plant at
Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
, to Newark, New Jersey. Bypassing several regular stops to stay ahead of a blizzard, the stunt established a new cross-country time record of just over 13 hours, breaking the old record by more than five hours. The DC-1 arrived on the morning of February 19 only two hours before the Air Corps was forced by the winter weather to cancel the startup of AACMO.Werrell, Kenneth P
"'Fiasco' revisited: the Air Corps & the 1934 air mail episode"
''Air Power History'', March 22, 2010. Reproduced by The Free Library, thefreelibary.com. Retrieved 2016-01-03.


AACMO


Blizzard conditions

On February 19, the blizzard disrupted the initial day's operations east of the Rocky Mountains, where the scheduled first flight of the operation from Newark was cancelled. AACMO's actual first effort left from
Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
, carrying 39 pounds of mail to St. Louis. Kenneth Werrell noted of the first flight out of Cleveland: "The pilot on the first air mail flight needed three tries and three aircraft to get aloft. Ten minutes later, he returned with a failed gyro compass and cockpit lights, and obtained a flashlight to read the instruments." Snow, rain, fog, and turbulent winds hampered flying operations for the remainder of the month over much of the United States. The route from Cleveland to Newark over the Allegheny Mountains was dubbed "Hell's Stretch" by airmail pilots. In the Western Zone, Arnold established his headquarters in Salt Lake City. In the winter of 1932–1933, he and many of his pilots had gained winter flying experience flying food-drop missions to aid
Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...
settlements throughout the American Southwest isolated by blizzards. As a result of this experience and direct supervision, Arnold's zone was the only one in which a pilot was not killed. The Western Zone's first flights were made using 18 Boeing P-12 fighters, but these could carry a maximum of only 50 pounds of mail each, and even that amount made them tail-heavy. After one week they were replaced by Douglas O-38 variants including the Douglas O-35 and its bomber version, the B-7, and Douglas O-25C observation biplanes borrowed from the National Guard. In both the Western and Eastern zones, these became the aircraft of choice, modified to carry 160 pounds of mail in their rear cockpits, and in their nose (bombardier/navigator) compartments where those existed. Better-suited planes such as the new Martin YB-10 bomber and Curtiss A-12 Shrike ground attack aircraft were in insufficient numbers to be of practical use. Two YB-10s crashlanded when pilots forgot to lower its retractable landing gear, and there were only enough A-12s for a partial squadron in the Central Zone.Major Oldfield was one of the two pilots, at Cheyenne on April 23. Despite the accident, the next year he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned command of the 2nd Bomb Group. On February 22 a young pilot departing Chicago in an O-39 flew into a snow storm over
Deshler, Ohio Deshler is a village in Henry County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,799 at the 2010 census. History Deshler was platted in 1873, and named for John G. Deshler, the original owner of the town site. A post office has been in operatio ...
, and became lost after his navigational radio failed. Fifty miles off course, he bailed out but his parachute caught on the tail section of his airplane and he was killed. That same day in
Denison, Texas Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, Grayson County, Texas, United States. It is south of the Texas–Oklahoma border. The population was 22,682 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Denison is part of the Texoma region and is one ...
, another pilot attempting a forced landing was killed when his P-26A flipped over on soft turf. The next day, a Douglas C-29 Dolphin took off from Floyd Bennett Field, New York on a flight to Langley Field to ferry a mail aircraft and ditched when both engines failed a mile off of
Rockaway Beach Rockaway Beach may refer to: * "Rockaway Beach" (song), by the Ramones * Rockaway Beach, California * Rockaway Beach, Missouri * Rockaway Beach, Oregon * Rockaway Beach, Wisconsin * Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City ** Rockaway Beach and Boa ...
. Waiting for a rescue attempt in heavy seas, the passenger on the amphibian drowned.2nd Lt. Durwood O. Lowry died in Ohio, 2nd Lt. Fred I. Patrick in Texas, and 2nd Lt. George P. McDermott in New York. President Roosevelt, publicly embarrassed, ordered a meeting with Foulois that resulted in a reduction of routes and schedules (which were already only 60% of that flown by the airlines), and strict flight safety rules. Among the new rules were restrictions on night flying: forbidding pilots with less than two years' experience from being scheduled except under clear conditions, prohibiting takeoffs in inclement weather, and requiring fully functional instruments and radio to continue on in poor conditions. Control officers on the ground were made responsible for enforcement of the restrictions in their areas.


Suspension of the operation

On March 8 and 9, 1934, four more pilots died in crashes,Lts. Frank L. Howard and Arthur R. Kerwin, Jr. in the crash of an O-38E at Salt Lake City, Lt. Otto Weineke in an O-39 at Burton, Ohio, and Pvt. Ernest B. Sell, a flight engineer on a Keystone B-6 in a cyprus swamp near
Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...
. Sell's death occurred during a crash-landing while he was using a hand pump to transfer fuel from a full tank to an empty one during a fuel line malfunction. (Tate, p. 132)
totaling ten fatalities in less than one million miles of flying the mail. (Ironically, the crash of an American Airlines airliner on March 9, also killing four, went virtually unnoticed in the press.) Rickenbacker was quoted as calling the program "legalized murder", which became a catchphrase for criticism of the Roosevelt administration's handling of the crisis. Aviation icon and former air mail pilot
Charles A. Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
stated in a telegram to Secretary of War Dern that using the Air Corps to carry mail was "unwarranted and contrary to American principles." Even though both had close ties to the airline industry, their criticisms seriously stung the Roosevelt Administration.Lindbergh was a salaried consultant and stockholder to both TWA and Pan American Airways. His telegram to Dern was made public by ''Newsweek Magazine''. Sources: Tate 1998, p. 133 ("legalized murder"), p. 144 (Lindbergh), p. 155 (''Newsweek''). On March 10, President Roosevelt called Foulois and Army Chief of Staff General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
to the White House, asking them to fly only in completely safe conditions. Foulois replied that to ensure complete safety the Air Corps would have to end the flights, and Roosevelt suspended airmail service on March 11, 1934. Foulois wrote in his autobiography that he and MacArthur incurred "the worst tongue-lashing I ever received in all my military service". Norman E. Borden, in ''Air Mail Emergency of 1934'', wrote: "To lessen the attacks on Roosevelt and Farley, Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress and Post Office officials placed the blame for all that had gone wrong on the shoulders of Foulois." Other supporters of the president outside of the government muted criticism of the administration by focusing on and excoriating Lindbergh, who had also made headlines by publicly protesting the cancellation of the contracts two days after they were announced, "as if his telegram had caused the deaths." Despite an 11th fatality from a training crash in Wyoming on March 17,2nd Lt. Harold G. Richardson died when his O-38E spun in at low altitude. A recent co-pilot with United Airlines, Richardson was a Reservist called to active duty after being laid-off because of the mail contracts cancellations. the Army resumed the program again on March 19, 1934, in better weather, using only nine routes,These routes were Chicago-New York, Chicago-San Francisco, Chicago-Dallas, Salt Lake City-San Diego, Salt Lake City-Seattle, Cheyenne-Denver, New York-Boston, New York-Atlanta, and Atlanta-Jacksonville. limited schedules, and hurried improvements in instrument flying.The prevailing attitude among Air Corps senior leadership was that reliance on instruments made for weak pilots, leading to a neglect of training and lack of experience. That attitude had begun to change with the introduction of training to create instrument instructors, but the second such class was only halfway through its 6-week course when AACMO began. The week's suspension availed the Air Corps an opportunity to install instruments and familiarize pilots with their use. Both were hastily accomplished, however, with nonstandard and often questionable results. (Werrell) The O-38E, which had been involved in two fatal accidents at Cheyenne, Wyoming, was withdrawn completely from the operation despite its enclosed cockpit because of its propensity to go into an unrecoverable spin in the mountainous terrain.The O-38E was not designed to carry extra equipment or loads, and so used its small baggage compartment and rear cockpit to transport mail. The aircraft was difficult to hold level at higher altitude, causing it to whipstall (an unintentional
tailslide The tailslide is an aerobatic maneuver that starts from level flight with a 1/4 loop up into a straight vertical climb (at full power) until the aircraft loses momentum. When the aircraft's speed reaches zero and it stops climbing, the pilot mainta ...
), and the improperly distributed weight quickly brought about a spin that needed a minimum of 2000 feet to recover.
In early April the Air Corps removed all pilots with less than two years' experience from the operation. The Air Corps began drawing down AACMO on May 8, 1934, when temporary contracts with private carriers were put into effect.The temporary contracts were awarded on April 20 by Postmaster General Farley, under the Air Mail Act of 1930, at a meeting with invited carriers only that critics found not unlike the "spoils conference" that began the controversy. (Van der Linden, p. 284; Duffy, pp. 39-40) On AACMO's last night of coast-to-coast service on May 7–8, YB-10s were used on four of the six legs from Oakland, California, to Newark to match Rickenbacker and Frye's DC-1 stunt, flying a greater number of miles and making three extra stops in just an hour's more time.The airlines took the final B-10 flights as a challenge. The next day, on resumption of TWA mail operations, Jack Frye bettered both the B-10's time and his own of February 19, flying from Los Angeles to Newark in only eleven and a half hours.(Duffy, p. 41) Only two additional Army pilots were killed flying the mail after the resumption of operations, on March 30 and April 5.The March 30 fatality occurred 140 miles west of Chicago when 2nd Lt. Thurman A. Wood encountered a thunderstorm, reversed course in an attempt to evade it, and flew into the ground near DeWitt, Iowa. The last air mail fatality happened in "Hell's Stretch" when 2nd Lt. John Leland McAlister, a Reservist trying to fight his way through bad weather to land at Altoona, Pennsylvania, flew his open-cockpit P-6E into Healy's Mountain near
Duncansville Duncansville is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Altoona, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Duncansville is one of the communities that comprises the Altoona Urban Area. The population was 1,258 at the 2020 ...
. (Werrell)
By May 17 all but one mail route, CAM 9 (Chicago to
Fargo, North Dakota Fargo ( /ˈfɑɹɡoʊ/) is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 125,990, making it the most populous city in the state and the 219th-most populous city in ...
This route had been last operated by Northwest Airways, Lewis H. Brittin's company. When the three-month temporary contract was awarded, it again went to Northwest, now doing business as Northwest Airlines.), had been restored to civil carriers. AACMO relinquished this last route on June 1, 1934.


Results

In all, 66 major accidents, ten of them with fatalities,By comparison and also conducted in bad weather, the much larger and longer Berlin Airlift resulted in 70 major accidents, 11 of them fatal. (Werrell, note 95) resulted in 13 crew deaths,In addition to the 12 deaths commonly listed, Dr. Kenneth P. Werrell documents a 13th on April 5th, which was reported by the Associated Press on April 6 as the "thirteenth mail flyer to die." That is further substantiated by a claim made by the pilot's parents for the "death gratuity" of $500 awarded to families of Reserve officers killed flying the mail, which was awarded by Congress on May 15, 1935. creating an intense public furor. Only five of the 13 deaths actually occurred on flights carrying mail,Those of Lowry, Howard and Kerwin, Weineke, and Wood. but directly and indirectly the air mail operation caused accidental crash deaths in the Air Corps to rise by 15% to 54 in 1934, compared to 46 in 1933 and 47 in 1935.The rate of deaths per 100,000 hours of flight also rose from 11 to 14, an increase of 28%. Werrell also notes that 1934 was a particularly bad year for aviation safety in general, as civil aviation also had more deaths and a higher fatality rate in comparison to 1933 and 1935. In 78 days of operations and over 13,000 hours of logged flight time, completing 65.8 percent of their scheduled flights, the Army Air Corps moved 777,389 pounds of mail over . Aircraft employed in carrying the mail were the Curtiss B-2 Condor, Keystone B-4, Keystone B-6, Douglas Y1B-7 and YB-10 bombers; the Boeing P-12 and P-6E fighters; the Curtiss A-12 Shrike; Bellanca C-27C transport; and the Thomas-Morse O-19,
Douglas O-25 The Douglas O-2 was a 1920s American observation aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Development The important family of Douglas observation aircraft sprang from two XO-2 prototypes, the first of which was powered by the 420 hp ...
C, O-39, and two models of Douglas O-38 observation aircraft. Among the 262 Army pilots flying the mail were
Ira C. Eaker General (Honorary) Ira Clarence Eaker (April 13, 1896 – August 6, 1987) was a general of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Eaker, as second-in-command of the prospective Eighth Air Force, was sent to England to form and ...
,
Frank A. Armstrong Frank Alton Armstrong Jr. (May 24, 1902 – August 20, 1969) was a lieutenant general of the United States Air Force. As a brigadier general in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, he was the inspiration for the main character in ...
,
Elwood R. Quesada Elwood Richard Quesada, CB, CBE (April 13, 1904 – February 9, 1993), nicknamed "Pete", was a United States Air Force Lt. General, FAA administrator, and, later, a club owner in Major League Baseball. Early years Elwood Richard Quesada was bor ...
,
Robert L. Scott Robert L. Scott (April 19, 1928 – July 26, 2018) was an American scholar influential in the study of rhetorical theory, criticism of public address, debate, and communication research and practice. He was professor emeritus in the Communicatio ...
,
Robert F. Travis Brigadier General Robert Falligant Travis (26 December 1904 – 5 August 1950) was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. A 1928 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Travis saw action as ...
,
Harold H. George Harold Huston George (14 September 1892 – 29 April 1942) was a general officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He began his military career before World War I when he enlisted as a private in the 3rd New York Infantry ...
, Beirne Lay Jr., Curtis E. LeMay, and John Waldron Egan, all of whom would play important roles in air operations during the Second World War.


Consequences and effects


Effects on the airline industry

The government had little choice but to return service to the commercial airlines, but did so with several new conditions. The Air Mail Act of June 12, 1934, drafted at the height of the crisis by Black (and known as the "Black-
McKellar McKellar is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Archibald McKellar (1816–1894), Canadian politician * Archie McKellar (1912–1940), Royal Air Force fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain * Colin McKellar (1903–1970), Aus ...
bill"), restored competitive bidding, closely regulated airmail labor operations,This was inclusion of the language of "Decision 83" of the National Labor Board, whose constitutionality (and thus the legal standing of the decision) was under attack in the Supreme Court. Called "the cornerstone of the modern system of airline pilot compensation" (Hopkins, p. 58), Decision 83 limited maximum hours and set a minimum wage for pilots while making unionization of airline pilots a reality. Its inclusion was a reward by FDR to the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) for the union's very public support (and only support in the aviation industry) during the struggle. ALPA's history makes clear this was a calculated political move to win its objectives by a union leadership that agreed in principle with Brown on the basic issues, not FDR. (Hopkins, p. 68) dissolved the holding companies that brought together airlines and aircraft manufacturers, and prevented companies that held the old contracts from obtaining new ones. The new rules were put into effect in March before formal passage of the bill with the announcement that temporary contracts for up to a year would be awarded by Farley. The industry's response, with the tacit consent of the government, was simply to reorganize and change names; for example, Northwest Airways became Northwest Airlines and Eastern Air Transport became Eastern Air Lines. The
vertically integrated In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply ...
United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) appeared to be its particular target and broke up on September 26, 1934, into three companies: United Air Lines Transportation Company, United Aircraft Manufacturing Company,UAMC was a consortium of manufacturers including
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military aviat ...
, Vought,
Sikorsky Sikorsky or Sikorski may refer to: * Sikorsky (comics), a Marvel Comics character * Sikorsky (crater), a lunar crater * Sikorsky Aircraft, an American aircraft manufacturer People with the surname * Brian Sikorski (born 1974), Major League Basebal ...
, and Hamilton Standard, and is now United Technologies.
and
Boeing Aircraft Company The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
. Ironically, of the major carriers present at the "Spoils Conference", all received new contracts for their old routes with the exception of United, "the one airline completely innocent of any possible charge of collusion."Van der Linden (2002), p. 284Post Office Solicitor and Fort Worth attorney Karl Crowley held that United's presence at the conference was sufficient evidence of guilt and denied it a hearing to present its case. (Van der Linden, p. 285). United's routes were awarded instead to regional independents Braniff AirwaysThe Braniff brothers had been among the earliest and most vocal of the independents complaining of "mistreatment" by Brown and his policies. (Hopkins, p. 68) and
Bowen Air Lines Bowen Air Lines was an airline that operated from until . Founded in Fort Worth, Texas, by Temple Bowen, it flew passengers and express packages to select destinations between Chicago, Illinois, and Brownsville, Texas. Starting initially with ...
,Temple Bowen organized Texas Air Transport in 1927 at Austin, Texas, to operate the CAM 21 Dallas to Galveston and CAM 22 Dallas to Brownsville mail routes, and then sold it after a year to Alva Pearl "A.P." Barrett. He formed
Bowen Air Lines Bowen Air Lines was an airline that operated from until . Founded in Fort Worth, Texas, by Temple Bowen, it flew passengers and express packages to select destinations between Chicago, Illinois, and Brownsville, Texas. Starting initially with ...
as a "high speed" carrier in 1930. T.A.T. became Southern Air Transport and merged with the Aviation Corporation (Avco), the holding company for American Airways. (Van der Linden pp. 75-76)
which managed its routes so badly it soon sold out to Braniff. The biggest winner of the scandal was American, owned by Roosevelt
campaign contributor Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political act ...
"E. L." Cord, who before he acquired American was owner of a small independent carrier and had not attended the spoils conference.Cord was a notorious stock manipulator and brilliant financier who epitomized the vertical integration targeted by Black and McKellar. Owning both Stinson Aircraft Company and
Lycoming Engines Lycoming Engines is a major American manufacturer of aircraft engines. With a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lycoming produces a line of horizontally opposed, air-cooled, four, six and eight-cylinder engines including the only FAA-certi ...
, he maneuvered himself into control of Avco in 1932 in a manner similar to UATC's takeover of NAT. Cord had just engineered a merger of his Chicago-based Century Airlines with the Ludington Line that would have made the Philadelphia commuter line (the model for Century's operations) financially sound again and given it the airmail contracts it coveted, but undermined the deal by selling Century to American Airways for stock in Avco, which he parlayed into control of that company and thus American too. This forced Ludington to sell out to EAT and set the stage for the senate investigation from which Cord profited as owner of American when Avco was forced to divest it by the new bidding rules. Ironically, William MacCracken was Ludington's corporate lawyer during these dealings and attempted to secure an express mail contract for Ludington anyway but Congress refused to appropriate the necessary funds. Cord had a reputation as a ruthless employer and created so strong an enmity with his former pilots at Century (many of whom went on to fly for American and used the ALPA to contest corporate abuses) that three years later he sold all his aviation holdings to enter real estate. Despite corporate and labor practices that earned other airline executives punitive measures, Cord retained the support of the Roosevelt Administration. (Van der Linden, pp. 229-235)
American was United's competitor in Dallas, trying to obtain its Chicago-to-Dallas CAM 3 route, and not only retained its contracts but gained a parallel Chicago-to-New York route, a second route from Chicago-to-Dallas with different intermediate stops, and had its southern transcontinental route shortened to reduce its operating costs.Cord, Crowley, A.P. Barrett, Temple Bowen and the Braniff brothers were all Texas Democrats. When Roosevelt's nomination appeared deadlocked at the 1932 Democratic Convention, the Texans supported a shift of delegates from
Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician and lawyer from History of Texas, Texas who ...
to Roosevelt to ensure his nomination. (Van der Linden, p. 237)
The most punitive measure was to ban all former airline executives alleged to have colluded from further contracts or working for airlines that obtained one. United Airlines' president, Philip G. Johnson, chose to leave the United States and helped to form Trans-Canada Airlines. At the age of 52 William Boeing took early retirement as UATC's chairman of the board on September 18 rather than ever deal again with the federal government. Colonel Paul Henderson was compelled to leave his position as National Air Transport's general manager because he had attended the "spoils conferences," this despite offering damaging testimony against Brown to the Black Committee. The effect of the entire scandal was to guarantee that mail-carrying contracts remained unprofitable, and pushed the entire industry towards carrying passengers, which had been Brown's original goal as incentive for developing new technologies, increasing safety, and growth of the American aircraft manufacturing industry. Throughout the Black Committee process and a smaller, parallel investigation by the Justice Department directed by special prosecutor Carl. L. Ristine, the allegations of corruption by Lewis and Black were never investigated. The original air mail contracts were instead voided on the basis that they were illegally bid, without revealing what evidence was gathered on which that judgment was made and disregarding that most were obtained by the lowest bidder with the rest through statutory provisions of the Air Mail Act of 1930. The Air Mail Act of 1934 repealed those provisions but, with one exception, the carriers charged with illegally securing contracts under them were permitted to reacquire them despite provisions in the new act forbidding it.Duffy (2010), p. 41 With bidding for contracts more competitive and air mail revenue less attractive than before, the airlines placed a new emphasis on passenger transportation and development of modern airliners. Several sued the government for revenues missed while the Air Corps flew the mail. The Black-McKellar bill sought to marginalize the suits by prohibiting the government from doing business with any carrier that filed them, but after severe criticism the provision was dropped from the bill. On February 4, 1935, almost a year after the contracts were cancelled, the
District of Columbia Court of Appeals The District of Columbia Court of Appeals is the highest court of the District of Columbia, in the United States. Established in 1970, it is equivalent to a state supreme court, except that its authority is derived from the United States Congr ...
ruled that the cancellations "amounted to a
breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
" and a taking of property without
due process Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
. The suits went forward, with the last claim settled in 1942. On July 14, 1941, Commissioner Richard H. Akers of the
United States Court of Claims The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims (), and abolished in 1982. Then, its jurisdiction was assumed by the n ...
found that there had not been any fraud or collusion in the awarding of contracts pursuant to the Air Mail Act of 1930.Duffy (2010), p. 42 Roosevelt also appointed Clark Howell, newspaper editor of the '' Atlanta Constitution,'' to chair a five-person committee to investigate all aspects of U.S. civil aviation, resulting in the creation of the
Federal Aviation Commission The Federal Aviation Commission was set up in 1935 by order of the Air Mail Act of 1934 to make a survey of aeronautical conditions in the United States. The commission recommended an increase of the army, navy, and air forces to a total of 4,000 pl ...
. In severe economic distress, the airlines organized themselves in 1936 into the Air Transport Association of America. Two years later Black-McKellar went the way of McNary-Watres with the passage of the
Civil Aeronautics Act The Air Commerce Act of 1926 created an Aeronautic Branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Its functions included testing and licensing of pilots, certification of aircraft and investigation of accidents. In 1934, the Aeronautics Branc ...
, restructuring the airline industry to stress the features championed by Brown in 1930: "government-corporate linkages, limited competition, and restricted entry to the industry." The Air Line Pilots Association, a union that had publicly supported Roosevelt during the cancellation of the air mail contracts, offered a verdict on the scandal in its history of the union: "The small operators denounced the bidding session of 1930 as a 'spoils conference.' Actually, it was no such thing ... Admittedly, there was an element of ruthlessness in the way (Brown) proceeded, but it was not illegal. Brown succeeded in creating the genesis of a regulated, integrated airline system—a system that FDR would eventually copy. The union of airline pilots was in complete agreement with the policies of Hoover and Brown."


Changes in the Air Corps

At the time of the scandal, the Air Corps was in a new phase of its continuing struggle with the War Department's
General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
for a more independent role for air operations. Technological developments in aircraft design had recently brought about a superiority in all-metal multi-engine aircraft over single-engine fighters, giving weight to their arguments for becoming an autonomous military service equal to the Army and Navy. The Drum Board, chaired by Deputy Army Chief of Staff General
Hugh A. Drum Hugh Aloysius Drum (September 19, 1879 – October 3, 1951) was a career United States Army officer who served in World War I and World War II and attained the rank of Lieutenant General (United States), lieutenant general. He was notable for hi ...
, had proposed a compromise in 1933, recommending activation of the General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, a centralized organization that had been part of Army mobilization planning since 1924. Subsequently, a pair of bills were proposed in Congress to increase Air Corps autonomy by expanding its size and authorizing it several administrative functions separate from the rest of the Army, both of which the General Staff adamantly opposed.These bills were H.R. 7601 and 7872, committee hearings for which were underway during AACMO. The immediate results of the operation were disastrous for the image of the Air Corps.
Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
Henry T. Rainey Henry Thomas Rainey (August 20, 1860 – August 19, 1934) was an American politician. A member of the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Party from Illinois, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1921 and f ...
, echoing comments made by Gen. Billy Mitchell, criticized: "If we are unfortunate enough to be drawn into another war, the Air Corps wouldn’t amount to much. If it is not equal to carrying the mail, I would like to know what it would do in carrying bombs."The judgment was not unanimous among professional observers. George Hopkins, a young pilot for American Airlines at the time and an early member of the ALPA, wrote in his history of the union: "After a rocky start, the Army did a pretty good job." (Hopkins, p. 55) Despite the public humiliation, the Air Mail Fiasco resulted in a number of improvements for the Air Corps, bringing about changes that its previous publicity campaigns were unable to obtain. On April 17, 1934, well before AACMO ended,Dern began putting together the Baker Board as soon as he received the letter from Roosevelt emanating from the March 10 tongue-lashing of MacArthur and Foulois. He hoped to divert attention from the AACMO crisis, especially in Congress where the house hearings on the pending autonomy bills were in full swing, by using an investigative board as
Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...
had done in 1925 with the Morrow Board during the court-martial of Billy Mitchell. Lindbergh's telegram to Dern was a reply refusing to participate on this board. (Tate, pp. 143-144; Duffy, p. 36)
Secretary Dern convened the "War Department Special Committee on the Army Air Corps," better known as the "Baker Board." Chaired by former Secretary of War
Newton D. Baker Newton Diehl Baker Jr. (December 3, 1871 – December 25, 1937) was an American lawyer, Georgist,Noble, Ransom E. "Henry George and the Progressive Movement." The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 8, no. 3, 1949, pp. 259–269. w ...
, the board's announced mission was to examine closely the military air mail operation and the overall condition of the Air Corps. The Baker Board included all five military members of the earlier Drum Board,The Baker Board consisted of Gen. Drum; Gen. Foulois; Dr.
Karl Compton Karl Taylor Compton (September 14, 1887 – June 22, 1954) was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1930 to 1948. The early years (1887–1912) Karl Taylor Compton was born in ...
, president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr.
George W. Lewis George William Lewis (March 10, 1882 – July 12, 1948) was the Director of Aeronautical Research at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) until he retired in 1947. He taught at Swarthmore College from 1910 to 1917. Biograph ...
of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; Clarence Chamberlin;
Edgar S. Gorrell Edgar Staley Gorrell (February 3, 1891 – March 5, 1945) was an American military officer, aviation pioneer, historian, manufacturing entrepreneur, and advocate for the airline industry. He served eight years in the United States Army, most of i ...
, president of Stutz Motor Company and former Air Service officer; James Doolittle, head of
Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...
's aviation department; Brig. Gen.
Charles Kilbourne Major General Charles Evans Kilbourne Jr. (December 23, 1872 – November 12, 1963) was the first American to earn the United States' three highest military decorations. As an officer in the United States Army he received the Medal of Honor for h ...
, Army War Plans Division; Maj. Gen.
George S. Simonds George Sherwin Simonds (March 12, 1874 – November 1, 1938) was a U.S. Army officer with the rank of major general. Early life He was born in Cresco, Iowa on March 12, 1874, the son of son of William O. Simonds and Ellen Sherwin Simonds . ...
, Army War College; and Maj. Gen. John Gulick, Chief of Coast Artillery. (Maurer 1987, p. 300)
four of them senior Army ground force officers who tightly controlled the agenda and scope of the board's investigation to prevent it from becoming a platform for advocating an independent air arm. Of the 12 members, only three were Air Corps advocates.The three were Foulois, Gorrell and Doolittle. Gorrell wrote the history of Air Service operations in World War I and was the first important advocate of strategic bombing. As a result of his participation on the Baker Board he was asked the following year to head the new Air Transport Association of America, the major trade association for the airline industry. Baker and Compton were named to the board because they were ostensibly "associated with the development of aviation," but primarily to offset Lindbergh's refusal to serve, which was a black eye to both the Administration and the War Department. Not surprisingly, the Baker Board endorsed the earlier findings of the Drum Board, supporting the status quo that the Air Corps was an auxiliary force of the Army and opposing the Air Corps becoming a separate service equal to the Army and Navy. It rejected the threat of air attack as a major threat to the national defense or the need of a large air force to defend against it. It opposed any expansion of the Air Corps until the needs of the Army as a whole had been addressed.Doolittle alone opposed the findings of the report, although Foulois later stated that he wished he had joined Doolittle, who filed a minority report recommending an Air Corps with a separate budget, promotion list, and its own staff separate from the General Staff. It did however reiterate the Drum Board's recommendation for the immediate activation of the GHQ Air Force, placing under it all air combat units within the continental United States.The Drum Board had done so to enable plugging Air Corps elements into its various "color" war plans, particularly Red-Orange (a coalition of Great Britain and Japan, viewed by the Army as a "worst-case scenario"). GHQ Air Force was a feasible if "risky" means of doing so without expanding the existing Air Corps. It also had the benefit of countering a bill to increase the size of Naval Aviation that had passed the House by proposing all future increases maintain an 18 to 10 ratio in numbers of aircraft favoring the Army. This provided another, limited step toward an autonomous air force, but also kept authority divided by maintaining control of supply, doctrine, training and recruitment under the Chief of the Air Corps, and airfields in the control of corps area commanders. Within the Air Corps, instrument training was upgraded, radio communications were greatly improved into a nationwide system that included navigation aids, and budget appropriations were increased. The Air Corps acquired the first six Link Trainer flight simulators of a fleet that would ultimately number more than 10,000. The operation also demonstrated the complete obsolescence of open-cockpit aircraft in military operations, leading to increased development of modern types in the second half of the decade, most of which served successfully in World War II. Among the fallout of the scandal was the retirement under fire of Foulois as Chief of the Air Corps. He had been called to testify before the Rogers subcommittee on aviation of the House Committee of Military Affairs during the scandal. Chairman
William N. Rogers William Nathaniel Rogers (January 10, 1892 – September 25, 1945) was a U.S. Representative from New Hampshire. Born in Sanbornville, New Hampshire, Rogers attended the public schools, Brewster Free Academy in Wolfeboro, and Dartmouth Colleg ...
of New Hampshire was suspicious of Foulois for negotiating aircraft contracts instead of assigning them to the lowest bidder, and during his testimony the Chief of Air Corps had been flamboyant and careless with hyperbole. In the wake of the mail fiasco, Rogers charged him with several violations of law and ethics, including making misleading statements to Congress and mismanagement during the air mail operation. Foulois demanded that Rogers release the evidence against him (largely damning testimony from senior Army staff officers given during secret hearings) and garnered the full support of the normally hostile Secretary of War, George Dern. The matter finally went before the Army's inspector general, whose findings in June 1935 exonerated Foulois of any criminal wrongdoing, but did cite him for making misleading statements regarding the mail operation. He received a reprimand from Dern, but throughout the summer of 1935 was publicly excoriated by Rogers. With his term as Chief expiring in December 1935, he chose to retire concurrently and took terminal leave from the Air Corps, beginning in September.Rice (2004), pp. 118-129


See also

*
Airmails of the United States United States airmail was a service class of the United States Post Office Department (USPOD) and its successor United States Postal Service (USPS) delivering air mail by aircraft flown within the United States and its possessions and territor ...
* United States government role in civil aviation


Notes

;Footnotes ;Citations


References

* Borden, Norman E. Jr. (1968). ''Air Mail Emergency 1934: An Account of 78 Days in the Winter of 1934 When the Army Flew the United States Mail'', The Bond Wheelwright Company * Brady, Tim (2000). ''The American Aviation Experience: A History'', Southern Illinois University Press. * Coffey, Thomas M. (1982). ''Hap: The Story of the U.S. Air Force and the Man Who Built It''. New York: The Viking Press. * Correll, John L
"The Air Mail Fiasco", ''AIR FORCE Magazine'', March 2008, Vol. 91, No. 3
* Duffy, James P. (2010). ''Lindbergh vs. Roosevelt: The Rivalry That Divided America''. Washington, D.C.:Regnery Publishing. * * Frisbee, John L
"AACMO—Fiasco or Victory?", ''AIR FORCE Magazine'', March 1995, Vol. 78 No. 3
* Glines, Carroll F

Aerofiles.com. Retrieved 2016-01-04 * Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer. "Barnstorming the U.S. Mail", ''American Heritage'' August 1974; Volume 25, Issue 5, pp. 32–35 * Hopkins, George E. (1982). ''Flying the Line: The First Half Century of the Air Line Pilots Association''. Washington, D.C.:ALPA. * Lee, David D. "Senator Black's Investigation of the Airmail, 1933-1934", ''The Historian'' Spring 1991; Volume 53, pp. 423–442 * Maurer, Maurer (1987). ''Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939'', Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C. * Nalty, Bernard C. (1997). ''Winged Shield, Winged Sword: A History of the United States Air Force'', * Orenic, Liesl (2009). ''On the Ground: Labor Struggles in the American Airline Industry''. University of Illinois Press. * Pelletier, Alain (2010). ''Boeing: The Complete Story'', Haynes Publishing: Sparkford, Somerset, UK * Rice, Rondall Ravon (2004). ''The Politics of Air Power: From Confrontation to Cooperation in Army Aviation Civil-Military Relations'', University of Nebraska Press. * Russell, David Lee (2013). ''Eastern Air Lines: A History, 1926-1991'', McFarland & Co., Inc. * Serling, Robert J., (1976). "The Only Way To Fly". Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. . * Shiner, John F. (1983)
''Foulois and the Army Air Corps 1931-1935''
USAF Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C. * Tate, Dr. James P. (1998). ''The Army and Its Air Corps: Army Policy Towards Aviation, 1919–1941'', Air University Press, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. * Van der Linden, F. Robert (2002). ''Airlines and Air Mail: The Post Office and Birth of the Commercial Aviation Industry.'' University of Kentucky Press. * Werrell, Kenneth P
"'Fiasco' revisited: the Air Corps & the 1934 air mail episode"
''Air Power History'', March 22, 2010. Reproduced by The Free Library * Winters, Kathleen C. (2010). ''Amelia Earhart: the Turbulent Life of an American Icon''. Palgrave-MacMillan. * Zuckerman, Michael A
"The Court of Congressional Contempt"
''Journal of Law and Politics'', Winter 2009, reproduced by ''The Wall Street Journal'' Law Blog. Retrieved 2016-01-08.

* ttp://www.oocities.org/capecanaveral/hangar/9496/ History of United Airlinesbr>Archived
2009-10-24) {{DEFAULTSORT:Air Mail Scandal Political scandals in the United States 20th-century aviation 20th-century military history of the United States United States military scandals United States Postal Service Airmail Postal history of the United States Corporate scandals Aviation history of the United States