Name William MacCracken, | ||
Died 1969, Washington, D.C., United States | ||
William Patterson MacCracken, Jr. (September 17, 1888 - September 1969) Was the first U. S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics and is remembered for his role in the Air Mail scandal.
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Biography
William was born in Chicago, September 17, 1888. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Avery before she married William P. MacCracken. Young William studied law at the University of Chicago and earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1911. His practice in Chicago was interrupted by his service as a flight instructor in the Air Service during World War I. He married Sally Lucille Lewis on September 14, 1918.
MacCracken entered public service as assistant Attorney General of Illinois in 1923, and the following year assistant State's Attorney for Cook County. MacCracken became the first federal regulator of commercial aviation when then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover named him the first Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics in 1926. He was a member of the board of governors of the National Aeronautical Association when selected by Hoover.
In 1929 he helped to draft key safety standards and regulations that became part of the 1930 Air Mail Act. MacCracken then returned to his private law practice, where he continued to be involved in the growth of commercial aviation by representing many major airlines. For that reason Postmaster General Walter F. Brown asked him to preside over what was later scandalized as the Spoils Conference, 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 Congress, he was declared a lobbyist and found in contempt of Congress for allowing clients to rip up subpoenaed documents.
MacCracken filed a petition of habeas corpus in federal courts to overturn his arrest, but after litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had acted constitutionally, and denied the petition in the case Jurney v. MacCracken.