EDWIN DENBY - PRINTED CARD SIGNED IN INK - HFSID 26477

EDWIN DENBY
Signed as Secretary of the Navy on this 5¼x3¼ card, in black ink
Printed Card Signed Ink: "Edwin Denby" as Secretary of the Navy, 5¼x3¼ printed card. Edwin Denby (1870-1929) represented Michigan in the US Congress (1905-1911), chairing the Committee on Naval Affairs. Defeated for re-election, he returned to the practice of law in Detroit and headed the city's Chamber of Commerce. When the US entered World War I, Denby - although in his late forties - enlisted as a private in the Marine Corps, retiring as a Major two years later. In 1921, President Harding appointed Denby Secretary of the Navy. His first major act, using marines to guard mail trains and trucks after a series of mail robberies, was applauded. Then he got into trouble. At the behest of Interior Secretary Albert Fall, Denby transferred naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elks Hill, California to the Interior Department. Fall then leased the reserves to private oil companies, using secret, noncompetitive contracts, and receiving interest free personal loans in return. Congress investigated, the Supreme Court eventually found the transactions illegal, and Fall went to prison, the first Cabinet member ever to do so. Denby, carried over in the Cabinet of Calvin Coolidge, was obliged to resign along with Fall in 1924. It should be noted that Denby, while under the cloud of the Teapot Dome scandal, personally did nothing illegal and did not profit from the affair. Slightly soiled. Mounting adhesive paper remnant on verso shows through faintly. Otherwise, fine condition.