Public Utility Holding Company Act

The Public Utility Holding Company Act was a major legislative test during Harry S. Truman’s early Senate career: as a member of the Interstate Commerce Committee, he worked intensively on the measure, designed to strike at public-power cartels. The fight introduced him to high-powered lobbying and prominent utility executives, while putting his stated commitment to hearing all sides alongside the practical demands of Senate work.

Background and Purpose

Truman entered national public life during the New Deal’s “Second Hundred Days,” voting for measures including the Wagner Labor Relations Act, the Works Progress Administration, Social Security, and rural electrification. His work on the Public Utility Holding Company Act went beyond those largely unspoken votes. On the Interstate Commerce Committee, he helped develop legislation directed against public utility holding companies and the cartels they were understood to sustain.

The contest brought him into contact with lobbying on a scale he had not encountered as a county judge in Missouri. The utilities’ lobby established its headquarters in a suite at the Mayflower Hotel, where it coordinated its campaign around the Senate proceedings.

Hearings and Lobbying

The committee heard prominent opponents of the proposed measure, including Wendell Willkie, president of Commonwealth & Southern, and former Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis. Truman said he would accept a lobbyist’s dinners but decide for himself, and maintained that anyone should be allowed to speak if the aim was to gather all the facts. His approach was to hear the advocates without treating access as a promise of support.

The pressure extended beyond the hearing room. Constituents who owned utility stocks sent thirty thousand letters and telegrams, part of what Truman called a “propaganda barrage.” He later claimed that he burned the correspondence; his secretary, Mildred Dryden, remembered no such fire. The utilities’ lobby also sent representatives to Kansas City to approach Tom Pendergast, who apparently sided with them. Truman said that effort failed to change the outcome.

Senate Passage and Truman’s Position

In June, the bill passed the Senate by a wide margin. Truman was paired in favor: detained on what the account identifies as important business, he had arranged to cast his vote for the measure if the result appeared close. That business was driving Bess Truman and Margaret Truman back to Independence for the summer; after five months in Washington, they had had enough.

The episode shows Truman combining openness to testimony with a clear position on the legislation. He did not refuse contact with lobbyists or powerful witnesses, but described listening as a way to obtain facts, not as a substitute for judgment. His committee work on the bill marked an early encounter with national-scale lobbying and demonstrated how he could engage with its pressure while remaining aligned with the measure’s passage.