Supreme Court Chief Justice William Howard Taft. The Library of Congress.

United States 1925

Synopsis

The U.S. Supreme Court heard two separate Coronado cases, each of which issued from a violent Arkansas coal strike in 1914. In 1922 the Court ruled that the actions of the strikers did not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act because the plaintiff-company did not show that the strikers intended to impede interstate commerce. The plaintiffs then refiled their petition on the strength of new evidence, and in 1925 the Court reversed its earlier decision and ruled that the strike did in fact violate antitrust law. The Coronado doctrine was a major setback to organized labor, for it called into question the legality of any strike that interrupted production of goods that entered interstate commerce.

Timeline

• 1910: Neon lighting is introduced.
• 1915: A German submarine sinks the Lusitania, killing 1,195, including 128 U.S. citizens...