Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Werden on the DOJ Antitrust Division

Harold M. Stephens (LC)
Gregory J. Werden, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, has posted Establishment of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  We have to say that we’ve long been puzzled by the dating of the Antitrust Division to 1933, because we knew from sources much like those Mr. Werden consulted, including in the papers of Harold M. Stephens, FDR's first AAG for the Antitrust Division.
Official sources state that the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice was created by Attorney General Homer S. Cummings in 1933, but no corroboration is provided. This note carefully examines the events of 1933 as well prior history, and it discovers that the Antitrust Division actually was established by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in 1919.
H/t: John Q. Barrett